flying a kite

The prospect of Primary 5 has loomed large in my thinking today.

The chance to give a kind of five-part, crash course on Christianity to a group of P5 children excites me no end! I mean, what an opportunity! The chance to set out in a clear and simple way just what it's all about .. well, that is the most wonderful gift from the Lord.

But Wednesday's not far away now! So I figured I'd best get down to some fairly serious preparation. They have a 'SMART' board in the classroom which will help (as long as it's prepared to recognise my laptop!), so getting the graphics ready became my first priority today. It takes time, but the pay-off's got to be great!

There's something going on in primary 5 at the school: I'm sure of it!

Last night after the service of worship a couple of (really quite young) lads approached me outside the church. They wondered what was inside the building: so I took them in (there were others inside, so it wasn't as if I was breaking the Child Protection rules!) and showed them round and said why it was that Sundays were special for us.

Sheila (who leads the work with the children here) was there as well, and invited them both along next week to share in the Sunday fun and learning time she runs - so who knows what will happen there! Oh, and they were both in primary 5! (One, to be fair, was from a different school).

And the previous week, on the Sunday morning, there'd been a couple of girls playing outside on the grass while the worship was going on. So, again, Sheila had simply asked if they'd wanted to share in all that they were doing: and these two girls had been happy to come in, and even met some others that they knew.

They obviously enjoyed it all because they were back again yesterday (even though the friends they'd met the first time round weren't there!).

Exciting how the Lord just opens doors like this. Doors of opportunity.

And doors right into people's homes and hearts! I was out again at night, calling by on different folk - and time after time, I'm thinking, open doors! The chance to enter in, to be for a while a part of the family life, to share with them and let the Lord himself be present in their homes through me.

That's really all he needs. An entrance. And as he opens doors for me, so I more and more come to see he looks to me to open doors for him. To get him in and then to simply let him loose in people's lives.

Like the couple I called on later on. Coming Alive! again (though we didn't really stick to the booklet that much at all - we rarely do!). We got onto the pleasures of flying a kite, relying on the unseen wind. And that, I think, began to help them get a sense of what the business of the Holy Spirit's all about.

Come fly with me, and all that! I think they're begining to do just that!