Hope Journey Explore

Hope Journey Explore

This week we shared Hope Journey Explore via Microsoft Teams with 61 children at Greasby Junior School and 28 children at Brookdale Primary School on Thursday 27th May.  I am grateful to the Circuit Team for their knowledge and support

Following my welcome and introduction, we shared four workshops

  1. Explore – using images and starting with our own church, we looked at various artifacts and furniture usually found in churches and identified what each was and what we use them for.  This included the Bible, pulpit, lectern, baptismal font/baptistry, communion table, hymn book, organ/keyboard etc.  This facilitated explanations about denominations, the history of the bible, baptism and celebration of communion.  We then looked at the development of the church and, despite some differences, we all come from one root.
The Cross as a symbol of the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ

2. Holy Books – which focussed on the Bible – structure, Old Testament, New Testament, gospels/epistles, various versions etc and compared the Bible with the Qur’an and Torah.  The children asked the most amazing questions eg how old the bible is? When and how did different versions develop?  Did they use a quill to write it?  How has the same version carried on?  They also asked How did Jesus knew he was going to be killed?  We then explained the Trinity.

The Bible is Christians’ Holy Book

3. Signs and symbols – after a fun quiz looking at company logos, we examined the meaning behind various signs and symbols.  In particular we talked about the Cross, ICHTHUS, the dove, a crown of thorns and a triquetra.  We compared the Cross to the Star of David (Judaism) and the Crescent Moon (Islam) before asking the children to design a symbol shield for themselves

ICHTHUS – The greek letters mean Jesus Christ Gods’ Son Saviour

4. Prayer – We asked Why pray? Who do we pray to? Where can you pray? What do you pray about?  We watched a video of several children answering those questions.  We explained ACTS, the Lords Prayer and introduced a holding cross, before listening to Sir Cliff Richard singing the Millennial Prayer – The Lords prayer.  We concluded prayer is taking with God, and we can pray to God at any time, in any place. Children were encouraged to write their own prayers using TSP – Thank you, Sorry and Please if they find it helpful.

The dove is a symbol of the Holy Spirit and of peace

We have displayed some of the children’s work for your enjoyment and hope you will come along to admire their work during the half term break

The Triquetra symbolises the Trinity – God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit

Thank you to Brookdale and Greasby Junior School for joining us at Hope Journey again

Sue Elliott

Hope Journey co-ordinator