The Final service on the theme ‘God Bless the NHS’ was led by theSue Walkling and the Kid’s Club Team. They had rearranged the chairs in the sanctuary so that we were in groups around tables
They carried out many of the roles they do week by week.
INTRODUCTION
Sue introduced the service telling us what the team did.
Ben Ellie and Anna welcome the children, Bethan deals with technology and singing for our songs,
Lynda reads stories, Viviane, Marlene, Susan, Marilyn, Lynn and Heather prepare things in advance, and help to do the activities while offering support and a listening ear to the children. Phil and Simon offer unseen support and encouragement.
We are thankful and grateful for the privilege of working together and with the children. Showing God’s love and giving praise.
And so we began our service singing
HYMN: ‘Praise to the Lord the Almighty, the king of creation.’
PRAYER: Viviane
Dear God,
As we gather together to worship you, we can see that we’re a mixed bag of people! From different places, with myriad concerns and preoccupations. Some of us have been up for hours; some of us are just waking; some might be dreaming of bed already! Some here praise you in Welsh, some in English, some in accents from elsewhere.
There’s happiness here, and there are all sorts of painful experiences here, too. In all this, there’s one thing we have in common. Somehow we’ve been drawn here today. Yes there’s habit and routine and discipline…but more there’s the sense we must look beyond ourselves, beyond our busyness, beyond our own community.
There’s all the depth of human love, of human grief, of human hope, here. This binds us together, because it points us beyond ourselves. We come because in our smallness, we glimpse a world which is magnificent. We glimpse into the breadth, and length, height and depth into the Divine bursting into and out of human life. For this, we thank and praise you.
And as we give our thanks we also ask for your forgiveness when we have forgotten the divinity and love that is all around us.
Forgive us, for the wasted moment spent selfishly or just filling time; for the hurtful moments caused by our words or actions; for the thoughtless moments lacking in love; for the destructive moments when we let our anger rip; for the missed moments frozen by hesitation and doubt. Forgive us and surround us with your restoring grace, we pray…[Pause]
Help us now and every moment to try to live as Jesus lived, fully present, fully human, full of love. Amen
HEALING THE HURTS
This year in Kids Club we have introduced ‘wondering’ questions.
When we agreed to support ‘God Bless the NHS’ by sharing ‘healing’ stories with the children I began to wonder how we should do this? I wondered how it was best to handle stories which can be difficult to understand especially when we have all known people who have been ill and perhaps not healed in the way that we would have liked them to be and this we knew was the experience of some of the children too. SO we decided to look at healing in its broadest sense, the healing of hurts recognising the miracles of today and how we can help others and our own wellbeing including by chasing the blues away.
We made First Aid Kits PHOTO with a difference and here are yours for today, there is one for each table – later we will explain what is in them.
But to offer our wonderings and concerns we sing together ;
HYMN: We cannot measure how you heal’
‘The Kind Stranger’ Lynda. Read from the Lion Story Teller Bible
The story of the Good Samaritan is very familiar to us all, not a healing miracle but a story which perhaps points to the healing of hurts and past wounds. The Jews and Samaritans were old enemies, they avoided each other at all costs. Yet it was the injured mans enemy, a Samaritan, who dressed his wounds, took him to an inn and paid for his care until he was well again. As part of our activities to remind us how the Samaritan dressed the man’s wound they added a plaster to their first aid kit.
In your kit you will find a plaster and a label that says ‘patch up a fight’.
Please take one home today as a reminder of how we can all be part of Gods plan for healing the hurts of our world today.
Each week at Kids Club we have drinks and a biscuit, or a food related to the story, that we have made. So now it’s drink and biscuit time – you have: plaster shaped rich tea biscuits a white icing piece of lint and red icing blood!
Please make, eat and enjoy!
PRAYER Susan
“Let’s pray…Dear God, this world is full of wonder, goodness and beauty and yet we suffer from many hurts. Hurts within our bodies and minds; hurts between people; hurts across nations. In a time of quiet, we bring to you the hurts in our lives, community and world today…
Loving God, you hear our hurts, you feel our hurts, you heal our hurts. We are sorry for those times when our words, actions and inaction hurt others. Help us to see where we can be the ones through whom your healing might work, restore and transform lives. For you are the Divine Doctor; the wounded healer; the Spirit of life! Amen.”
RECOGNISING THE MIRACLES OF TODAY
Whilst using stories like the ten lepers, Naaman the Syrian and others we talked to the children about recognising the miracles of today. When we cannot find a story in our favourite books to share with the children we often use thing in a box or a bag, so in my little bag are somethings which can perhaps help us to think about the miracles around us today.
My Tablets! I don’t understand how the little tablet I take each day keeps my blood pressure under control but it does.
Special Card I had to carry this special card for three months when I took a very small yet powerful radioactive iodine tablet I marvelled at the science and skills of the medical physicists who knew how this would work for me – as incredible to me as how Naaman was healed by going down into the Jordan 7 times.
The Football At the church Simon and I went to in Oxford a 2yr old in the congregation suffered a stroke, meaning he had to learn to walk and talk again. With the skill and care of medical professionals and the encouragement of his mother who stepped beck and encouraged him to do things for himself (rather than doing them for him) a year after his stroke he was running down the aisle with the other children and he grew up to play football for Oxford County. For me his story is one of a modern miracle.
It’s time to look in your bag again – You will find paracetamol, for the over sixteens only! – when you find it in your pocket air handbag in a few days’ time or perhaps the next time you take a tablet or some Calpol you can take time to give thanks for the healing power at work today.
PRAYER Ellie
“Let’s pray…Dear God, from the mystery of the oceans to the glory of the night sky; the delicacy of our DNA to the grandeur of our mountains; from the babbling of the brook to the warmth of the summer sun, your creation is crammed with majesty and marvel. We thank you for the wonders all around us and within us. We thank you for the miracle of medicine, for the power of Paracetamol, for the everyday, extraordinary examples of your goodness and grace. We thank you for the blessing of good days, for your comfort in hard times, for your extravagant, eternal love. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.”
HYMN Wonder of these days
Words © Stewart Henderson 2006 Music Traditional, arr. Fischy Music
At Kids Club we try to share stories in lots of different ways so now we would like to share the story of The Paralysed Man as told in film the The Miracle Maker.
I wonder how the owner of the house felt as he saw his roof being taken apart?
I wonder how the man’s friends felt when he was healed?
These are some of the ‘wondering’ questions we used to share the story of the paralysed man. We chose to focus on the importance of the friends and their role in this healing story.
Without them taking him to Jesus the man would not have been healed. The story reminds us how ordinary people like us can make a difference to the lives of others. When we take someone to hospital or a Doctor’s appointment – we are being like the friends of the paralysed man.
When we visit someone in hospital, or in a nursing home or someone who is housebound we are being like the friends of the paralysed man.
When we support charities or put our old specs into the basket at the back of the church, we are being like the paralysed mans friends.
Whilst I have been talking 4 friends have been busy at the back recreating a game we played at Kids Club. They have been making a stretcher, strong enough to carry a person. Please can you bring it forward,
In your fist Aid Kit you will find some chews & a label that says ‘chews to help someone in need today;
Enjoy them as a reminder of how we can make a difference to someone today.
Now we will sing
HYMN: ‘I can make a difference ‘
BANDAGE PRAYERS
Another way we can make a difference is to pray for the people and places that we care about . today we are going to do this using the bandages in your First Aid Kit.
Please write the names or situations you would like to pray for on the bandages and we will collect them up with the offertory.
PRAYER
The last item in your bag, there is one for everyone to take home
The Prayer of Teresa of Avila. Please join in the last line
Christ has no body but yours,
no hands, no feet on earth but yours,
yours are the eyes with which he looks
with Compassion on this world,
yours are the feet with which he walks to do good,
yours are the hands, with which he blesses all the world.
yours are the hands, yours are the feet,
yours are the eyes, you are his body.
Christ has no body now but yours,
no hands, no feet on earth but yours,
yours are the eyes with which he looks
with compassion on this world.
Christ has no body now on earth but yours.
We will end our service as we do in Kids Club singing ‘Go well and safely’
‘Go well and safely’ Stay well and safely
‘Go well and safely’ Stay well and safely
‘Go well and safely’ Stay well and safely
The Lord be ever with You The Lord be ever with You