Spinnaker Lewisham News Update
I am writing with an update of the Spinnaker team in Lewisham. It has been a while since you heard from us, but we have been busy!
Dear Friends,
I am writing with an update of the Spinnaker team in Lewisham. It has been a while since you heard from us, but we have been busy!
Over the past year, the team has grown from 2 to 6 members, and we are currently visiting 5 schools, 3 are in the Forest Hill area and the other 2 are closer to Brockley. These are our 2 focus areas, as we have a wonderful supportive church in each of them.
We have had interest from another school, near New Cross, with plans to pay them our first visit this term, continuing monthly after the summer. We have also identified several schools in both focus areas that we would love to visit as a team. We are praying for good connections with these schools, seeking to build great relationships and trust so that we can begin to serve and bless them with some Spinnaker assemblies!
Across the Easter season, we had the wonderful opportunity to spend an entire day in 2 schools, walking the children through ‘Easter Hope’ RE workshops. In a 2-form entry school this happened across 2 days. We started with a Palm Sunday worship assembly and then each class had a lesson with the Spinnaker team. Children were invited to travel back through time to imagine they were there, reporting on the events around the death and resurrection of Jesus. John (Phil) and Mary Magdalen (me) were present to give an eyewitness account and to be interviewed by the older year groups. Some amazingly thoughtful questions - such as ‘why did you follow Jesus?’, ‘how did it feel when Jesus died?’, ‘how did it feel when you saw Jesus alive again?’, ‘what was it like to be a friend of Jesus?’, ‘Would you have helped Jesus off the cross if you could?’ – gave opportunities to explicitly share the Gospel message in response. Questions continued as we went from table to table as children completed their worksheets. We ended the day/s with a celebration worship where children were waving streamers singing ‘God’s Not Dead, No!, He’s alive, and I know He’s living in me’. We felt warmly welcomed in both schools, and loved working with them and getting to know the staff.
Meanwhile we continue with our worship assemblies in Lewisham. Currently nearly 1,000 children, we hope soon to be closer to 1,200, regularly get to hear about Christianity, who Jesus is and how the values we live by are embedded in what He teaches. They hear testimonies from our own lived out experiences of walking with Jesus as we share and demonstrate our faith. They have opportunities to take some time out of their busy school day to reflect on what they have heard. They are invited to pray, and we pray for them!
I hope our update has encouraged you and blessed you. Please do continue to pray for us, we’d love more schools to visit, some new team members and increased income, so that we can maintain and increase the opportunities to bless our schools. Thank you!
With every blessing in Christ from all of us in the Spinnaker Lewisham team -
Caroline, Phil, Becca, Elizabeth, Kylie and Jemima
