David and Goliath from EBCPCW on Vimeo.

It’s been a great privilege to be part of Open the Book Merton Storytelling team in one of our local schools. Recalling my two years of being part of this team, there was often a buzz when we arrive at the school and you can feel the children’s excitement. They’re holding their hand up in anticipation of being asked to take part in the story. It’s been a lot of fun for us too and the time invested in the preparation with props etc. realising that it is sometimes a challenge for schools to be accepting of any Christian influence from outside, this school have welcomed us and so we have been able to build on the relationship with the school.

Prayer is central to the work of OTB and since the lockdown we have continued to meet as a group to support each other in prayer. This led us to continue this ministry through recording our sessions on Zoom. Since we have Good News to share we felt the need to explore other avenues to reach the children. This has been fun too especially experimenting with virtual background scenes. The emphasis being on portraying the story and reflecting this on our faces rather than the storyteller’s acting abilities.

We will be continuing to meet virtually as a group as we don’t foresee going back to the school for some time yet. But we have had confirmation that the school will be using the recordings when they re-open for their morning assemblies. Let’s invest in the future of our children our Christian values and heritage in this age and challenging times. Let’s offer ourselves as doers of God’s will even during this pandemic.

“So, my dear brothers and sisters, be strong and immovable. Always work enthusiastically for the Lord, for you know that nothing you do for the Lord is ever useless”. (1 Cor 15: 58)