Every year here in Doncaster, South Yorkshire, a team of Christian volunteers led by my wife Linda take more than a thousand primary school pupils on an awe-inspiring ‘Christmas Journey’.
It’s a great opportunity to sow seeds that will surely bear fruit one day for a generation largely unfamiliar with the gospel.
It’s hard work, involving a very early start as we visit each of ten schools1 armed with a car-load of props and costumes. We virtually take over a school for a morning, setting up five ‘stations’ in various classrooms where, through drama and interactive story-telling with one class at a time, we help the children capture the amazing truth of how God came among us.
Captivating Journey
Part of the last section of the journey - when the children visit the wise men and hear their story.
They begin at Advent, symbolically anticipating the Messiah’s coming with colourful clues before visiting Joseph’s workshop where, in the midst of the ‘daily grind’, he is startled by an angel with an extraordinary message.
They are then taken on an arduous 70-mile journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem courtesy of a large floor map, and some of the pupils enjoy dressing up as innkeepers in the busy town where Jesus was born.
They move on to visit the shepherds, warming themselves by the fire before they too are shaken by the appearance of heavenly beings announcing news of the Saviour’s birth. And they finish by joining the Wise Men following the star to Judea by which time, judging by the look on the children’s faces, they are well and truly engrossed by the presentation.
Judging by the look on the children’s faces, they are well and truly engrossed by the presentation.
Delight in the Gospel
Just to witness the sheer delight as their sparkling eyes light up with wonder and awe is worth all the effort as it’s obvious they have been touched by the light of the gospel of the glory of God.
Proverbs 22:6 says: “Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it.” I can testify to that. My parents were not committed Christians but sent me to Sunday School where I soaked up the wonderful stories of Jesus. I don’t remember the teachers, but I remember what they taught and used to sing myself to sleep with the hymns I learnt. And it never left me, leading me to make a true confession of faith in Christ in my early twenties.
Jesus said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven” (Matt 18:3). The uncomplicated, undiluted faith of a child is the key to the Kingdom, and we are very privileged to play a part in that.
Wide-Open Door
Linda is employed by the churches to teach Christianity and the Jewish feasts all year round. It is still part of the state curriculum, so it’s a wide-open door of opportunity for ‘visitors’ to share what the Bible means to them with the next generation.
One series she teaches, known as 'Bible Explorer', gives pupils an overall perspective of the Bible – five lessons on the Old Testament and five on the New. Linda was very much encouraged recently when one young girl, with eyes and mouth wide open with the excitement of sudden discovery, asked her with a degree of incredulity: “Mrs Gardner, do you mean to say that the baby born in a manger after 400 years of silence from the prophets was actually God come to earth as one of us?”
It was evidently a life-changing moment for the pupil – and her teacher!
If you think you could help bring the gospel into schools, why not contact Scripture Union, whose schools ministry provides plentiful advice and resources. Or consider joining the Open the Book campaign, a big part of the Bible Society’s work in schools which, overall, reaches some 800,000 children each year.
Notes
1 Only ten per cent of the total. Schools are on a waiting list to host these events. “The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few” (Matt 9:37).
