A new start

On Tuesday our Open The Book Team visited Colneis and Fairfield schools to participate in their Assemblies. Our story this visit was Noah and the Flood. We have never used as many props and we had help from 7 children in each school as well as 7 team members. About 2 dozen wild animals (soft toys) were distributed to the children so that the cast could collect them. We were a bit concerned that the younger children might not want to give them back but all went well.

Once Noah, his family, all the animals and plenty of food were safely on board it started to rain. (Children patting their knees created the sound effect but had to be stopped at an appropriate time in order to hear the story). Then the water rose (a blue tablecloth raised slowly) and the Ark floated higher and higher. A dove was sent out at the correct time and eventually Noah and family and animals were able to leave the Ark. A beautiful rainbow appeared, held up by two children. Everyone celebrated and thanked God for saving them.

You may well wonder why I’m writing about our school visit but the moral of the story was that God wanted to wash his world clean as so many people had broken His rules. He wanted to wash away the sins and start again. When the first rainbow appeared it was a symbol that God promised to never send a flood like that again. A symbol that we can all make a new start whenever we need to.

Dear Lord, thank you that with your help we can make a fresh start. Thank you for the children who are so willing to participate in our plays and for the teachers who emphasise the morals in the story and tie them in with the school’s core values.