Got up late for a Sunday, at nearly seven o'clock. My first outing was to collect the Fair Trade goods from the Methodist/United Reformed Church who had been selling them last week. It was an easy day with the first service at 9.30 just along the road and the second at 11 o'clock only four or so miles away. The afternoon service was for the under five's and their parents, known as STARS (Sunday Toddlers And RelativeS).
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| Jesus compares himself to a Good Shepherd |
When we had finished the story, the song and the prayers, two visitors came in to look round the church. They declined juice and a biscuit which the congregation were having, but showed interest in the story picture. I handed a sheep figure to a little girl and asked her to show what the sheep did in the story. You can just see it at the extreme right of the picture trotting off on the way to getting lost. "Then what happened?" I asked. "Jesus went and found it" answered the four-year-old whose mother was delighted with the child's grasp of the parable. ( I had not said that explicitly. My story telling went something like "Jesus said he cares about people like a good shepherd looking after his sheep...What do the sheep need?...How does the shepherd call them?..." and so on.)
After Evening Prayer, I transported the goods from the Fair Trade stall back to the Rectory to await collection by the Roman Catholics whose turn it is to have them on sale next week.
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