dawn

When the janny at the primary school starts wondering if I'm looking for a job, that probably is indicative of just how much I've been round at the place these past few weeks!

"You seem to be here all the time!" he remarked. Pleasantly, I should add. There wasn't any aggro in his voice at all - just surprise.

Well, yes, I was round there again, ostensibly to be there when the teachers have their coffee break - a brief and hurried 15-minute break, which for them, I guess, must always seem too short. A social sort of visit. Touching base. Being there and just going with the flow.

I almost didn't make it as I had somebody in and it was tempting just to give the time at school a miss.

But how glad I am I didn't take that line! The end result of my being there was a door being opened here and there and everywhere it seemed: teacher after teacher coming up and asking if I'd come and help them teach their class some aspect of the RE course.

The 15-minute coffee break became about an hour in length as, with the coffee over and done, I went and spent some time with a teacher of a P5 class considering how I might be best equipped to help them cover all the different aspects of the course.

The outcome of it all? A five-week set of 45-minute lessons every Wednesday morning in which I'd aim to take and lead the children through the basics of the Christian faith.

Five weeks on the trot with these same 50-60 children at the P5 stage: five weeks where the chance to build relationships is there for me to take: five weeks where the chance to help these youngsters see just what it's all about is given me by the Lord: five weeks where exposure to the good news of the kingdom is something that the teachers, just as all those many P5 children, will now have.

Talk about a wide open door of opportunity!

I'd been asked back in June if I'd take another student from New College for his placement with ourselves this year. And I'd declined. And part of why I'd taken such a step was just the sense I had back then that through this coming year I'd need to have that extra time involved to be in school.

Today I began to see why!