This is the first week of the academic year and we meet together in chapel in different age groups during the week. Our theme is ‘Welcome to the Adventure’. There’s opportunity to review the Ardeche Adventure I took part in at the beginning of July when we were doing all kinds of activities . In this afternoon’s welcome service for about a hundred children aged about 6 to 10, I explained how my story of getting stuck in a hole in a cave reminded the Headmaster of the story of Winnie the Pooh getting stuck in a hole. It’s central to our way of remembering and retelling the Bible with each other that one person’s story will connect with something remembered by someone else.
I asked if anyone could think of a story in which Jesus seemed to be involved in an adventure? Straight away a child offered a response: when Jesus met some people who had been fishing but had not caught anything. So I asked why that story seemed like an adventure?
Another child’s hand went up: ‘Well actually Jesus didn’t know those fishermen and so when he spoke to them and told them how to catch fish they didn’t know what would happen and that’s an adventure because you don’t know what’s going to happen on an adventure.’
We agreed that we didn’t know what would happen during this school year. We will travel on together like those who went with Jesus, and see what happens.
At the end if the service I always try to stand by the door and speak to the children as they leave. One gave me a hug and told me I did remind him of Winnie the Pooh, but he thought that was a nice thing to be.
Then another child told me: ‘I thought of another story of Jesus having an adventure. It’s when Jesus goes into the desert for 40 days and the devil tries to make him do things he doesn’t want to do’. I can already see we will have plenty of connecting stories to tell each other.

Standing at the chapel door I can see in towards the open Bible on the table and out to follow the direction taken by the children as they leave and get on with the day. It’s the ideal place to keep a vigil and pray.

In our life and our believing
The love of God