Esther – Good to be me. Standing up for my beliefs. KS 1 &2

There was once a king. A very powerful king. The most powerful king in all the world. His name was Xerxes (also known as Ahasuerus) and he was the king of Persia. He could do whatever he wanted. One day he decided he wanted a wife, so he sent out an order that all the young women in the land were to come to the palace so he could choose the one he wanted. They all came and paraded in front of him, but it didn’t take him long to choose. The most beautiful woman by far was a woman called Esther. So the king married her and she became queen.

The king didn’t know much about Esther, and in particular he didn’t know that Esther wasn’t Persian, like him. Her family had been brought to Persia as prisoners, many years before, when the army conquered their land and destroyed their city of Jerusalem. Esther’s parents had died, but she had been brought up by her uncle Mordecai, who loved her very much. Mordecai worked at the palace too, as an advisor to the king, but the king had never really noticed him. When Mordecai knew Esther had been chosen he said to her, “whatever you do, don’t tell the king that you are Jewish – or that I am. He might think that we would plot against him. Just keep quiet.” So that is what Esther did.

The king had another advisor, much more powerful than Mordecai though. A man called Haman. He was the king’s right hand man, the one who was always there, whispering in his ear, telling him what he should do. Haman was almost as powerful as the king, and one day the king decided to send out an order that in future, everyone should bow down to Haman and give him respect when they saw him. Now, when the king sent out an order you had to obey it. And everyone did obey, except for Mordecai. He passed by everyone bowed; but Mordecai wouldn’t. “Bow down before me” shouted Haman. “I can’t do that,” said Mordecai. I will only bow down to God, not to people. That is what my faith tells me to do.”
Haman was furious, but he couldn’t make Mordecai do what he wanted. He was so angry he decided that he must get rid of Mordecai.

So he thought up a plan, a very cruel plan. He went to the king. “O king, O wise king. I have come to tell you of some people who are living in your land, people from another country, who won’t do what you tell them. They are a danger to you, and one day they will rise up and attack you.”
“Really!” said the king, “Thank goodness you have told me about them. We must do something to get rid of them” “Quite right, your majesty” said Haman, not telling the king, of course, that Mordecai and Esther were Jewish too. “You must send out an order that they must all be killed.” So that is what the king did. The king set a date, and in every town and village notices went up to say that the Jewish people were to be killed on that date. They were all terrified.
And within the palace Mordecai was terrified too.

He went to Queen Esther and told her what was going to happen. “You are the only one who can help” he told her, “the only one the king will listen to. You must go to him and plead for your people, tell him that you and I are Jewish too, so he can see what he is about to do.”
Esther thought about it. How could she tell the king? What if he was angry with her for challenging him? What if he decided that if she was Jewish she must die too? She was very, very scared. But Mordecai told her that no one else had the power she had, and if she didn’t help, no one else could.

So Esther decided to speak to the king. She invited him to a special feast, to put him in a good mood, and told him that she wanted to ask him for something.
When he arrived and saw his beautiful wife he said to her, “tell me what you want and I will give it to you!”
So Esther, trembling with fear, reminded him of the order he had sent out that all the Jewish people should be killed. “Yes, so what?” said the king. And Esther told him that she was Jewish too, and that his orders would mean that she would be killed as well, along with Mordecai, the king’s loyal servant.
“But how could this have happened? Why did no one tell me?” Esther explained how Haman was trying to trick the king into getting rid of Mordecai. The king was furious with Haman and sent out another order. Instead of the Jewish people being rounded up and killed, Haman was to be arrested. And he was, and the king had him executed the very next day.

And all the Jewish people were spared, and they all rejoiced, and so did the king, who was very glad that he had not lost his beautiful, brave wife. And to this day, Jews celebrate Esther’s courage with a special festival called Purim once a year, when they hear that story again, and the children dress up and act it out. They boo and hiss when they hear about Haman and they cheer for queen Esther. As it happens the festival of Purim was last weekend, so we are telling this story at just the right moment.

I think it is a good story because it helps us to remember that it is sometimes very difficult to do the right thing. It can be hard to be brave, but perhaps if we don’t help someone, no one else might, if we don’t stand up for what is right, no one else will.

Pray: For people all over the world who have to stand up to leaders who treat them unfairly. For everyone who is working to make the world a fairer place, and that we will have the courage to do what is right, like Esther did.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purim
Photos of Purim celebrations can be found very easily on Google images.

Lent/ Ash Wednesday – Jesus in the Wilderness

KS 1 & 2

From Matthew 4

Look at this picture of a desert. (OHP picture of desert)
What can you see?
What can’t you see? (trees, houses, roads…)

I wonder what it would be like to be there?

I’m going to tell you about a time when Jesus went out into the desert.

As Jesus grew up he came to realise that God wanted him to do a special job. He was a carpenter, but he knew that he wouldn’t spend all his life making things. He looked around him and saw how much people were suffering, how they often didn’t treat each other well, and they didn’t know how much God loved them. He wanted to help them to live better.
The older he got the more strongly he felt this call until, in the end he decided he’d have to do something about it.
But what? How could he do this special job? He was just a carpenter. What if he got it all wrong?

He knew he needed to think hard and pray hard, to listen to God. But he couldn’t do that at home. It was too busy. There were too many distractions.

So he went out into the desert to think and pray and listen – a lot of the land around him was desert. He went way out into the desert. There was no one there but him. And he sat and thought, and sat and prayed, and sat and listened. He didn’t even eat. Nothing was going to get in the way of his thinking.

Now, I don’t know about you, but sometimes when I know I have to do something I don’t want to do, or I am trying not to do something wrong, it’s almost like there is a little voice saying to me, “go on, just do it, it won’t matter…” In Bible times people thought of that voice as if it was a real person. They called it Satan or the Devil. It was what tempted people to do wrong.

In this story from the Bible it says that while Jesus was thinking and praying Satan turned up and started to talk to him.

You want to do God’s work… well, there’s an easy way of getting people to listen and to like you. You could give them just what they want – lots of presents. You could turn stones into bread and give them out – stones like these around you in the desert. Then they’d all follow you, wouldn’t they?
But Jesus knew that if he did this people would be following him for the wrong reasons. Not to learn to live their lives more fairly, but just for what they would get. No – people need more than bread to live on. They need God’s word, to learn about God and the right way to live.

So Satan tried another tack. Think about the Temple, he said, Imagine you are there. If you really are God’s special one, he will always look after you. Right? So, why not go right to the top and jump off? Surely he’d catch you?
But Jesus said – that’s not the right thing to do at all. I know God loves me, but that doesn’t mean that nothing bad will ever happen to me. Bad things can happen to anyone, and I know I might have to suffer because of the things I say. It isn’t right to test God like that.

So Satan tried one last time. Look. You want to help people, to have an influence on the world. The best way to do that is if you have power, if you are the king, the leader, the boss. I could give you that power, if you decided to do things my way, to serve me.
But Jesus said no again. I know that the most important thing to do is to serve God and do what he wants. Yes, I want people to listen to me, but I don’t want to make them do that by force. I want them to listen because they think what I am saying is right, so I will never serve you or do what you want.

And Satan was stumped. He couldn’t think of a single thing to say, and off he went.

And Jesus was left alone in the desert, knowing what he should do, and how he should do it. He knew that he must tell people about God’s love and show that love by treating them well, not bossing them about but helping them, not trying to get rich and powerful, and if it meant that things were hard for him, he knew it was worth it.

We tell that story in Church at the beginning of a special time – Lent. It’s a time when Christians try to spend time thinking and praying and listening to God so that they can help others. Just like Jesus we have to think hard about this, be honest about when we get it wrong and ask for God’s forgiveness and help.
As a sign of that, at the beginning of Lent we go to church for a special service when the priest puts ashes on people’s heads. It’s an old sign of feeling sorry or feeling sad. It’s a bit messy, and it can feel a bit silly but it reminds us that we all mess up sometimes, and that God forgives us and will help us.
We did this at Seal Church yesterday, so I thought I would bring in the ashes that were left over. We make them from the crosses which we blessed last year on Palm Sunday, the week before Easter. When they are blessed on Palm Sunday they symbolise our desire to follow Jesus, but we often fail and get it wrong - all our efforts come to dust and ashes. Using the Palm Crosses to make the ashes reminds us that although we get it wrong, God will always forgive us and give us a new start.

Show picture of person with ash cross on forehead. (Google Ash Wednesday – there are plenty of images.)

I left the ashes at school to be passed around with a note, as follows:

ASHES
from Ash Wednesday service

These ashes are made by burning the Palm Crosses which we blessed on Palm Sunday last year (mixed with a bit of olive oil so that they stick).
They symbolise the way in which the good intentions we had then to follow Christ and live right often come to dust and ashes.
Putting ash on your head is an ancient symbol of feeling sorry or sad. (We talk about going about in sackcloth and ashes).

You may like to show the children the ash – it is fine to demonstrate, perhaps on your hand, how they make a smudge, but I don’t suggest you “ash” the children, or allow them to ash each other, as this is part of a Christian ritual which you would really have to check out with parents that they were happy for the children to take part in.

The Lepers at the Gate – Going for Goals – making choices KS 1 &2

2 Kings 7

This is a story from the Old Testament of the Bible.
There were once 4 men who were very ill. They had a disease called leprosy, and that meant that no one wanted to come near them. They lived in a city called Samaria, which had a high wall all around it to keep it safe. When the men got ill the people in the city made them live outside the walls. They couldn’t earn their own livings so they had to beg for food from the people in the city as they went in and out through the gates. Sometimes people gave them food; sometimes they didn’t. It all depended how they felt. The men were very miserable.

Then one day war broke out. An enemy army came to Samaria. They wanted to capture the city and have it for themselves, so they didn’t want to damage it. They camped all around the city, a little way off, stopping anyone from going in or out of the city. Soon they knew that the people would be hungry, and they thought they would give in.

The people in the city ate all the food in their cupboards. Then they ate all the food in the shops. Then there was nothing left to eat. What could they do? They were all starving.

Meanwhile, outside the walls the men with leprosy were starving too. Now the people in the city didn’t have anything to give them even if they had wanted to. The men looked across at the enemy camp and wondered. If they stayed where they were they would starve to death. But if they went over to the enemy camp and surrendered perhaps they would get some food there. They had nothing to lose – no one in the city wanted them anyway. So they decided that they would creep across to the enemy camp that night when it was dark.

What they didn’t know was that on that night God had an idea too. God didn’t want the people of Samaria to starve, so this is what he did. In the middle of the night, when all the soldiers were in bed, he made them think that they heard a noise. It was the noise of marching feet. It was the noise of clashing swords and shields and spears. It was the noise of a great army, greater even than theirs. The soldiers sat up in bed. “What is that noise?” they all said. “It’s an army, coming to attack us!” And they all jumped out of bed, and ran out of their tents. There was nothing to see, but the noise was deafening. They took to their heels and ran. They ran and ran, as far away from the noise, and the city, as they could, leaving all their belongings just where they were.

The four men didn’t know about any of this, of course, so when they got to the camp, just as the sun was rising, they were very puzzled. Where was everybody? There were no soldiers on guard, and no one around at all. They looked in the tents. They were all empty. But the tables were piled high with food, and clothes, and weapons and armour, and gold and silver and everything anyone could ever want. The four men were overjoyed. They could eat and eat until they were stuffed. They could have more riches than they had ever dreamed of. And it was all for them, just the four of them. But just when they were about to start feasting on the food one of them stopped. “Wait a minute” he said. “What about all those people back in the city? They are hungry too? Shouldn’t we share this food and all these things with them? Perhaps we should go back to tell them what has happened?”

The four men stopped and thought. I wonder what they decided to do.
Talk about what the children feel about the choice the men had to make.

· What do you think they should do?
· Should they share the food, or eat it all themselves?
· Why might they have wanted to keep it all?
· People in the city hadn’t wanted to give them anything – why should they share now?
· What do you think?

The men did decide to go back to Samaria and tell the people what had happened. Then they all came and shared in the food, so everyone had some. The four men were brave and generous in doing this, and helped their whole community, even though their community had not treated them well.
Prayer: For help to think of others when we are making choices. Not just what is good for us, but what is good for everyone.

Nehemiah rebuilds the walls of Jerusalem - SEAL theme: Going for goals - persistence and hard work.

(From the book of Nehemiah in the Old Testament)

Needs: pictures of rebuilding work in Haiti (or rebuilding after some other disaster)

Once there was a man named Nehemiah. His family used to live in Jerusalem, but then an enemy army, the Babylonians, had come and defeated his people, and marched them across the desert many miles to their own country. There they had stayed for years and years, having to do whatever the Babylonians told them. Nehemiah had been born in that foreign land, but his parents had told him about the city of Jerusalem – how beautiful and strong it had been, with fine walls and gates to keep its people safe.

After a long time, there was a new king in that land, a kinder king, and he decided to let all Nehemiah’s people go home to their own land if they wanted to. Nehemiah, though, was one of the kings closest and best servants, so he stayed behind when the others left. Nehemiah wanted to see Jerusalem, but he knew the king wanted him to stay, and he had to do what the king wanted.

Then one day Nehemiah got a letter, a letter from his friends who had gone back home. He read it eagerly wanting to hear all about how beautiful Jerusalem was, but the more he read the sadder he felt. “Dear Nehemiah”, it said, “Jerusalem, our beautiful city, is in ruins. The walls have all been knocked down, the gates have been burned. People and animals come and go in and out of the city, just taking whatever they want and no one cares about it. We waited so long to come home, but there is no home to come to! Jerusalem is finished.”

Nehemiah was so sad. He didn’t know what to do. That day when he went in to serve the king, he tried very hard not to show how sad he was – he knew he mustn’t look sad in front of the king. The king didn’t want lots of long faces around him. But the king could see there was something wrong. “What’s wrong, Nehemiah?” he asked. Nehemiah told him about Jerusalem, how beautiful it had been and how it was all in ruins now.
“Well,” said the king, “then you must go back and sort it out. Rebuild the walls! Rebuild the gates! Make it safe and beautiful again! I can’t have my favourite servant sad like this.” And the king didn’t just send Nehemiah back, he also gave him all the things he would need – wood and stone – so he could do the job.

So Nehemiah went to Jerusalem. He felt much better now. He could sort it all out. He thought it would all be straightforward, but when he got there he found his problems were just beginning. It was much worse than he thought. The first night he was there, he got a donkey and rode all around the city – there was hardly any wall left - and everyone was tired and fed up, convinced there was nothing they could do. He went to the people in charge of the city and told them what he planned. You’ll never do it, they said!

“Yes I will, with God helping me” he answered, “and all of us working together.” He came up with a plan. Each family would rebuild a bit of the wall near them. If everyone did a bit, they would soon be finished.
They weren’t sure it would work, but they all set to work, and they all worked hard, and the wall began to grow. They thought they were winning, but then a dreadful thing happened.

Not everyone was pleased to see the walls getting higher. Some of the people who lived around Jerusalem didn’t want it to be strong. They wanted to be able to come and go into it, taking what they wanted from it. One day when the people came to work on the wall, they found they had an audience; their enemies had come to watch them and as they watched they kept making fun of them. “what a pathetic wall. It’s so low a fox could jump over it. You’ll never be able to build it high enough.” The builders looked at the wall, and it was true – it wouldn’t keep anyone out. They just felt like giving up. What was the point? Nehemiah had to work very hard to encourage them to keep going, but he did, and the wall kept growing.

Their enemies wouldn’t give up either though. Nehemiah started to hear reports that they were planning to attack the builders. The people were very frightened. Once again they felt like giving up. But once again Nehemiah gathered them together.

When you go out to work on the wall, he said, you must take a trowel in one hand, and a sword in the other. That way you can be ready if anyone attacks. Do whatever you have to, said Nehemiah, but whatever you do, don’t give up. And they didn’t give up, and the wall kept growing, higher and higher and higher.

And then one day they looked at the wall they had built, and they realised it was big enough, big enough to keep them safe inside its walls, big enough to keep their enemies out. It had gates that were strong, that they could close when they needed to. It was wonderful, and they couldn’t quite believe that they had done it, but somehow or other, the job was finished. They had all worked together. They hadn’t given up. And they had a great celebration, thanking Nehemiah, and most of all thanking God.

· I wonder what you think about that story – what would you have felt like if you were one of those builders. What helped them to keep going?
· It’s often easy to start a job, but it is really hard to keep going when things go wrong. People around us can encourage us. Sometimes we have to think of a different way of doing things.
· Show some pictures of Haiti (or the aftermath of a similar disaster) and of the work to rebuild there (A search for “Haiti rebuilding” in Google images will bring up plenty of pictures). Haiti had an earthquake a year ago. People have had to work hard and keep going in the face of illness and poverty, but together they are rebuilding.
· Pray for ourselves when we feel like giving up, and for the people of Haiti, that we would be able to keep going. Thank God that he is with us to help us. Pray that we would find people to encourage us, and that we would encourage others.

What's Christmas about?

It's that time of year again. Out come the nativity play costumes. Who's going to be Mary? What new slant can we take on the story this time...?

I can't answer those questions, but I recently did a staff training session at my local school on the meaning of the Christmas story to Christians. It is easy to find that the Christmas story becomes stale and trivialised, no more than a nice story to give us a bit of sparkle in the darkness of winter. But what did it mean to those who first told it (or rather "them, since there are two distinctly different stories in Matthew and Luke's Gospel - and none in Mark or John). And what does it mean to the grown-up Christians who cherish it still.

I produced a handout to go with the session I led - if it is any use to you, please use it.
It's called "Beyond the tea towels and the tinsel", and that is where I hope it will take us.

“You are the body of Christ” 1 Cor 13

N.B. This assembly is about the whole body working together. Be aware of the fact that some children in your assembly might have disabilities. Parts of their bodies might not work, or not work well. Be sensitive in the way you talk about what the body can do.

Song – I’ve got a body.

There was once a group of people who all wanted to live the way Jesus had taught them. They were Christians, some of the very first Christians, and they lived in a city called Corinth, in Greece. They had learned about Jesus because St Paul had travelled to Corinth and told them about him. They liked hearing stories about Jesus and they had each decided that they wanted to be Christians, so they came together to be one of the very first Christian churches – there wasn’t a building, but they all got together in each others homes, to eat together, pray together and help each other.

But there was a problem. They were all different from each other. Some of them were rich; some of them were poor. Some of them were men; some of them were women. Some of them were old; some of them were young. Some of them were slaves, who had to do what their bosses told them; some of them were the bosses and had slaves under them. Some of them had grown up, like Jesus and Paul, in Jewish families, hearing the stories of the Jewish people – Moses and Abraham and Joseph – and worshipping in Jewish ways with Jewish prayers. Others had grown up worshipping Greek and Roman gods and hearing stories about them.

They all had different ideas about the right way to live and the right thing to do, and they all thought that their way was the only way.

So they were always arguing. They could only see the world from their point of view – they were right and everyone else was wrong. They couldn’t work together on anything, because there would always be arguments. Instead of being friends, they were turning into enemies.

The leaders of the church were worried. What could they do? So they wrote a letter to St Paul and told him about it.

St Paul thought and thought. What could he write that would help them. Then he had an idea.

And this is what he wrote – we still have the letter – it’s in the Bible.

“Think about your body”, he said. “It’s got all sorts of different parts. It’s got feet. Feet are good.”
What can you do with feet?
It’s got hands. Hands are good.
What can you do with hands?
It’s got eyes…
A nose…

Just imagine, said Paul – and this is a bit silly – that your body was just a foot on its own. You were just one big foot. What use would that be? You could hop to places, but you couldn’t see where you were going or do anything when you got there.
Or just imagine an eye on its own – you could see everything, but you couldn’t go anywhere.
Imagine you were just a hand, or just a nose – wouldn’t that be silly?
(The children did indeed think this was very silly – “but if you were just an eye you would be rolling around all over the place…” they said. I think we miss the fun of St Paul sometimes…)

All the bits of our body do different things, but they are all important,. It’s no good the hand saying to the foot “you’re not as important as me.” They are just different, doing different jobs. If one bit of our body hurts – if our foot hurts, say - we feel sad all over.

So, said Paul. In your church you are all like a big body working together – the body of Jesus. Some of you might be like the eyes – you are good at noticing people. You see when someone is upset. Some of you might be like the feet or the hands – you are good at going out and doing something to help the people that the eyes have noticed. You all need each other BECAUSE you are different. If you were all the same, you wouldn’t be able to do all the things you need to.”

Paul wrote all that down in a letter, and he sent it off to Corinth. And the next time the people in that church got together the leaders read out the letter. And I wonder what happened. We don’t know the answer to that, because we haven’t got the letter they wrote back, but I hope they all looked at each other and realised that it was silly to fight over who was best, and who was right. I hope that they saw that each of them was important in a different way.

It’s the same in school isn’t it? Miss Smith is good at being the head teacher. Mr Wooding is good at mending things in the school. The cooks are good at making the dinners. You are good at learning things. I like coming in and telling you stories. If everyone does what they are good at, the school works well – but just imagine, if everyone tried to do everyone else’s job. I don’t know how good Miss Smith is at mending things, or cooking dinners… I might like coming in to tell you stories, but I wouldn’t want Miss Smith’s job – I don’t think I would be very good at it.

I wonder what you are good at. I wonder what your job is in school.
If we all do our job, and value the jobs that others do, we will have a happy school.

Let’s think about that for a while in silence. What are you good at and how can you use that to help others?

Prayer: Lord, help us to do the jobs we have to do in school and to notice the things others do and be grateful for them.

Ruth and Naomi – New beginnings – making someone welcome

The Book of Ruth – Old Testament.

I wonder if you’ve ever moved home and gone to live somewhere else.
· Talk about moving (sensitivity needed: children can move house for all sorts of reasons – family breakdown etc.) It can be exciting, but also strange being a new place, having to make new friends. The story I’m going to tell you is about two people who have to move home. It comes from the Old Testament of the Bible.

There was once a woman called Naomi. Naomi came from Israel, but she and her husband had had to leave their home because there wasn’t any food where they lived. They went to a different country called Moab, far from their home. When they got there it was very strange, but they settled down and they had a family – two fine sons. Their sons grew up and married girls who came from that land.
But then a terrible thing happened to Naomi. First her husband got ill and died, then both of her sons died too. There she was, in a land far from her home, with no one to look after her. The only people she really knew were her sons’ wives, but it wasn’t fair to expect them to care for her as she got old. They would probably marry new husbands.
Naomi decided she had better go back to Israel, where she had come from. She’d been away for a long time, but there would surely be relatives there she could stay with. She told her son’s wives that she was going back and started to say goodbye. She hoped they would make a new life for themselves.

But one of them, Ruth, looked very sad at this. “I can’t let you go back to Israel on your own,” she said “I will come with you. Where you go, I will go. Your people will be my people and your God will be my God.” And so she left all her family, her home, her friends, and she went with Naomi. It was a long journey, and when they got to the town Naomi had come from – Bethlehem – everything seemed very strange and foreign to her. Naomi hoped that someone from her family would invite them to stay, but no one did. What were they going to do? They needed to eat and they needed somewhere to live.

It was harvest time when they arrived. People were cutting the corn and bringing it in. In those days they didn’t have machines to cut the corn. It was all cut by hand using sharp knives. There was a custom that those who cut the corn shouldn’t cut right up to the edges of the field. If they missed a bit of corn here and there or dropped some, they should leave it. Then people who didn’t have any land of their own, who were poor, could come and pick it up and keep it for themselves. It was called gleaning. Naomi was too old to glean – all that bending down was too hard for her now. But Ruth went straight to the fields to see what she could gather. All day she worked in the hot sun, following the men who were cutting the corn. When dinner time came, and they all stopped, she kept going. While they were eating, the owner of the land, a rich man called Boaz came by to see how they were getting on.

He noticed the young woman working so hard. “Who is that?” he said. “That’s the woman who came from Moab with Naomi. She’s not one of us – she’s a foreigner – and the two of them are on their own here with no one to help them.” Boaz looked at Ruth, working so hard, and he thought she must be very brave and good to have come so far so that Naomi wouldn’t be on her own.

“Make sure you leave her plenty of corn to gather” he told the men, “and make sure you are kind to her and treat her well.”

Day after day Ruth gleaned in the fields, and Boaz watched her. Ruth told Naomi about the man who had been kind to her. Naomi was very happy to hear it because she knew that Boaz was a distant relative of hers as well as being a good man.
After a while Boaz realised that he couldn’t find a better person to marry than Ruth – someone who had shown how loyal and loving she was by the way she looked after Naomi. He and Ruth got married, and they had a son, called Obed.
And the Bible tells us that Obed had a son called Jesse, and Jesse had a son called David. I told you a story about David about a month ago. He was a shepherd boy but he became….(can you remember?)…the king of Israel.
Wasn’t it a good thing that Boaz welcomed Ruth and looked after her. Someone who was a stranger from a foreign land turned out to be really important.

Being somewhere new, or having someone new come to our class, can seem strange sometimes – we don’t like things to change – but we never know what is going to happen. A stranger can turn into a best friend, or teach us something important, or help us in some way. That’s a really good reason to make sure we make new people feel welcome. I

Pray: for all the people who have come new to Seal School this term. For all the new friends we’ve made.