Just one of the things I love about my work is the wide variety of things I get to do! One thing that I have been involved in over my years at St Saviour’s is school assemblies. Although I still get nervous standing in a hall full of school children (especially with the staff there too!), it is an amazing privilege to be allowed into school and to share a part of our faith.
A new venture that a group of us are about to embark upon is ‘Open The Book’. This is a programme that aims to bring the Bible to life for every child in primary school. The material provided gives you everything you need, along with ‘The Lion Storyteller Bible’ by Bob Hartman, to give a fun, interactive 10-minute assembly. It is completely scripted, with an introduction, conclusion, time of reflection and final prayer. It does not allow you to go into school and ‘preach’, but rather bring the story to life and leave the children to think about it and what it may be telling them.
If you were to go into school and do an assembly every week for a year, the children would get a timeline overview of the Bible from Creation to Ascension! I am not sure we will get to go in that often, but what an amazing thing to be part of!!
Our team will include members of St Saviour’s Church, Iford Baptist Church, and possibly other local churches. Each assembly takes a team of about four to six people. Currently we are up to six members, but ideally we would like to build it up to about 12 – this is how most teams work so that members don’t have to go to every assembly and become overloaded!
So if you would be interested in joining this exciting venture, come and have a chat. There are leaflets in the Link about Open The Book – please pick one up if you would like to know more!
Please pray for this new work: that the link with schools will be strengthened, that the team will be built up and blessed, and that children will respond to the stories they hear and their lives changed!!
Caz Gatehouse, Children’s Minister
