My visit to Witney this morning

I must admit that when I was first invited to take a childrens Praise Party at the Kings School in Witney whilst the adults from different link churches were going to be meeting in another hall… I was a little apprehensive.

Why?

Well, a couple of times in the past I have been asked to do this and it wasn’t until I’d arrived that I discovered that the main Church leaders did not want someone to come and minister to the children, they just wanted someone from outside of their congregation to be there to babysit, so that the maximum number of the adults, including their childrens workers, could enjoy (a very long) meeting together whilst the children were being ‘entertained’.

To make things worse they left me with lots of children (ages ranging from creche to youth) and very few adults to help me…. and ……the main Church leaders never even had the politeness to come and say hello to their hired entertainer!

Rant over because…

I am so pleased to reveal to you that the opposite happened this morning.
To start with, I was invited into the adult church congregation and welcomed and honoured by the Church leaders in front of everyone. Then when we went into our own hall it was wonderful to see how well organised everything was.I was joined in the hall by lots of enthusiastic adults and lots and lots of very enthusiastic children who were so keen to listen, learn, sing and of course join in the fun.

These church leaders did not want a babysitter / entertainer, they were really keen to have someone come in and teach and minister to their children…whilst entertaining them of course!
Well, I did my best to fulfil what they wanted for 90 minutes and loved every minute of it.

So, the good news is that some Church leaders really do care about the Spiritual lives and Spiritual growth of the precious little lambs that they have under their care as much as they care about the adults in their congregation.
I think a bit of healing of bad memories took place in me this morning. Thank you Lord.
And thank you Sarah, Guy, their family, the team that were helping out this morning and of course the Church leadership team who wanted me to be there!