‘Let my people go’
It was a breezy start to the weekend at St. Matthew’s school, with 2 hours of fun and games led by Guy Burgess. However the worst of the rain held off until after 7pm, by which time everyone had managed to get home.
Saturday morning brought an early start (for the leaders anyway) with the church open for setting up from 8am! Fr. Andrew held Morning Prayer for everyone who was there before the children arrived. Everyone crowded into the Lady Chapel, sitting on chairs, kneelers and the steps, the children of helpers sat on the floor in the middle of the Chapel, a wonderful time of shared prayer.
There was a different structure to the weekend this year. Saturday morning was taken up with the usual crafts and banner making. But this year was broken into a number of sessions around a number of playlets centred on how the Israelites escaped from slavery. Superbly acted by our young people (scripted by Fr. Andrew), the dramas also included the children themselves. They became the burning bush where Moses encountered the word of God, and tried to scare Pharaoh into setting them free by bringing plagues of flies, locusts, hailstones, boils and frogs.
After a great deal of fun, the slaves eventually moved off to the hall to celebrate the Passover (lunch!), whilst the Angel of death gave Pharaoh and his henchmen a very bad tummy ache. They then escaped to Wray Common School for swimming and games or to High Sports to scale the climbing walls.
The Saturday evening BBQ was a great success. Many thanks to the SONIC team for organising this.
The Sunday morning Celebration Weekend Eucharist saw the return of Pharaoh as he tried to follow the Israelites through the Red Sea. But the slaves once more evaded him and fled into the wilderness. Via a coach to Ashdown Forest where we set off together as the Israelites did. We spent the afternoon walking, listening to and taking part in stories and avoiding the snakes that invaded and bit all the people. We learnt how, whilst Moses was away, Aaron and the people tried to worship an idol instead of God. Finally we reached the Promised Land. The last activity was to create a picture of a giant on the floor of the woodland. Spies had brought back news that grapes grew well, but the country was inhabited by giants! So we created this one to show that we were not afraid of them!
All in all the weekend was a success and we returned tired and happy children to their parents.
As ever, we can’t thank enough all the helpers, leaders and committee without whom this weekend wouldn’t take place.
And now for next year ……….
Anne Currie