{"id":3839,"date":"2017-07-25T15:27:59","date_gmt":"2017-07-25T15:27:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stmichaels-hls.org.uk\/?p=3839"},"modified":"2017-07-25T15:27:59","modified_gmt":"2017-07-25T15:27:59","slug":"have-faith-like-a-child-stories-from-our-year-6-leavers-services","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stmichaels-hls.org.uk\/?p=3839","title":{"rendered":"Have faith like a child – stories from our Year 6 Leavers’ Services"},"content":{"rendered":"

At the end of the school term this year we welcomed the Year 6 children from our three local primary schools \u2013 Burnside Primary Academy, Bernard Gilpin Primary School and Gillas Lane Primary Academy into church for a special leavers\u2019 service. We did this new style of service for the first time last year<\/a> and after its success we couldn\u2019t wait to welcome the children back!<\/p>\n

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Rather than a traditional style service the children moved around the different parts of our church to take part in some creative prayer activities to help them reflect on their time at primary school and think about the move to secondary school. There were 5 \u2018stations\u2019: Please, Thank You, Sorry, Together and Wow! The Please activity was about putting worries into God\u2019s hands. The children drew around their hands and wrote on their hands the things they were worried about \u2013 they cut these out and put them on a board. At this station the children were also invited to light a candle for a loved one \u2013 and many took us up on the offer. The Thank You activity was about thinking about people we\u2019re thankful for (this ranged from dinner ladies to inspirational teachers to best friends), the children made pipe-cleaner people to represent those they were thankful for. The Sorry activity involved the children taking a stone in their hand and thinking of something they\u2019d regretted and then \u2018letting go\u2019 of the stone as a sign that God forgives them. The Together activity had the children draw a portrait of themselves on a piece of jigsaw \u2013 we joined all the faces together to make one big family. For the Wow activity the children thought of a \u2018wow\u2019 moment at primary school to decorate a flag with. These ranged from passing SATs exams to performing in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory to scoring lots of goals in football!<\/p>\n

The most moving part for me this year was working with the children on the \u2018sorry\u2019 activity. One group of about 5 children came to me and a boy in the group said \u2018I\u2019m not a Christian, I don\u2019t believe in God. I didn\u2019t want to come here today.\u2019 But then quickly followed this up by saying \u2018but I\u2019m having a brilliant time today!\u2019 This boy was then the first to try the activity. Once all 5 children had taken their turn, they returned to me and I asked them how it had felt to let go of the stone. The same boy said to me \u2018can I share what my thing was?\u2019 I said he could if he wanted to but he didn\u2019t have to say it out loud. He insisted \u2018well, I want to share it as it\u2019s about someone here\u2019 at that he pointed to his friend who replied \u2018well my thing was about you!\u2019 They both said that their big regret had been fighting a lot instead of being friends. The two boys made up in front of my eyes with no prompting from me! It was a beautiful thing to see and reminded me why Jesus said we had to have faith like a child.<\/p>\n

Each service ended with the children singing a rousing rendition of the song \u2018Lean on Me\u2019 and reflecting on this scripture from Romans 12 (this is the Message translation):<\/p>\n

“Be a real family, warm-hearted in your care for one another. Look forward to God’s new world with gladness. In hard times, stand your ground: never forget to pray. Share other people’s happiness and other people’s sadness. Learn to respect everybody. As far as you can, be friends with everyone.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A big thank you to all the volunteers that made the services so special and to the children for engaging so well. Do have a look at the photos and video on our church Facebook page.<\/p>\n

We are praying for all our local schools and especially for those children moving up to secondary school this September.<\/p>\n

Every blessing, Rev\u2019d Bryony (Curate)<\/p>\n

A big thank you to the Prayer Project at the Diocese of Durham<\/a> for supporting this work.
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