Well, here we are at the end of another school year - praising God for each and every Act of Collective Worship, RE Day and special event we have been able to share with children and adults in our schools. 

Looking further back, to when I first started visiting schools, I am so very grateful to have been able to share Jesus with an entire cohort - from Reception to year 6 in some schools. I felt quite emotional at one assembly last week, realising it was the last time I would see this oldest year group. At the same time praising God for all the seeds that have been sown. 

The team here in Lewisham continue to visit a small number of schools but with increasing impact, earlier this year with the Christmas Journey for year 2’s, and in the summer term, the wonderful ‘Night Lantern’ with year 3’s. The ‘Night Lantern’ is a beautiful resource developed by Chrissie in the Eastbourne team. It is a puppet workshop and story which is allegorical, demonstrating that Father God (the King of the Stags in the story) has given us Jesus, the Light of Life (the lantern in the story) and He can bring light to each of us and those around us. 4 classes enjoyed this workshop, and we pray for its lasting impact on every heart.

In our assemblies this term we have continued with the Beyond Belief series with the following values, yes, these are apparently all school values somewhere – except the last one which is the series finale:

Cooperation: Starting with an example of a three-legged race and ending with a prayer of surrender, this worship assembly helped children understand more about Jesus’ mission on earth and how his church is like one body, working together to share the love of God.
Creativity:  We loved this assembly and there was a lot of engagement from the children as they considered how creative we all are. We talked about God as the creator of this wonderful world and each of us, and how amazing that is. We considered how the Bible shows us He has put His creativity in us!
Passion: Using a firelighter and an image of a super-hero, children discover that our passion is like a fire or a strength that can stir our spirit and cause us to do great things. The story of Jesus turning tables at the temple is used, He is determined that the temple (now the church and us, His body) can represent a place where people can meet with God and be like heaven on earth, not a place for unrighteous exchanges.
Fruit of the Spirit: A wonderful worship session to end the year on. Children wondered why on earth we a bowl of fruit in our treasure had chest! They discovered that this fruit is real treasure of heaven and how amazing it is, through Jesus, to have in our lives. In one school the Head used the words in our prayer to encourage the children as they went on to meet their new teachers for next term.

Please join us in praying for the impact of these, and all the times of collective worship, the RE days and special events that the children have experienced and will continue to experience as Spinnaker visits schools.

We hope you have a glorious summer.

With love and blessings

Caroline and the Spinnaker Lewisham Team

Images in order:

  1. Opening Newsletter image - Caroline & Phil in school
  2. Phil and Gillian operating The King of the Stags and Little Red puppets during our Night Lantern workshop where around 120 children and adults heard about how the light of Jesus can be in us
  3. Spinnaker team members from Lewisham and Eastbourne posing with 'Antlers' after the workshop
  4. An example of the craft, one child has drawn the characters of the story on her lamp - she clearly listened well and retained the whole story!
  5. The Series Finale 'Fruit of The Spirit' Illustration by Sarah Horne