The Christmas Journey
This year at ACC we will be presenting The Christmas Journey for three days on 16th, 17th and 18th December. Productions will be at 9.15, 10.45 and 1.15 each day.
Over that time we will see about 240 six and seven year old children from our local schools coming to learn about the events of the first Christmas and why there was a need for God’s Son to become one of us. This experience takes the children right to the heart of the nativity story and to the wonder of the birth of Jesus.
The introduction is based on Creation and how God created the world as a beautiful and special place but people have gone their own way and spoiled it. This is why God needed to rescue his world and his people. The children will then watch in awe as Angel Gabriel appears to Mary in her kitchen with the news that she will have a baby who will be God’s Son. Excited shepherds are interrupted in their work on an ordinary night looking after sheep by angels singing in the sky. The children will visit the stable where baby Jesus has been born and then be led from the dusty, humble stable scene into the exotic world of the Wise Men’s Palace. Following this the children will have time to reflect upon the things they have seen and to see Christmas as the beginning of Jesus’ life and teaching about God. They will be helped to understand that the events of the first Christmas fit into the bigger picture of Christian belief about who Jesus was and why he was born.
The Christmas Journey is an imaginative presentation for churches to use with primary schools written by Moira Curry and Gill Morgan. This is the third time that we have invited our schools to this production and already around 450 children have seen it performed here at ACC. After this year’s production around 700/750 children will have seen it.
Our children’s team had been going into school for several years taking Easter, Christmas and Harvest Education Days into the children and these had been very successful. However, when I found the book of The Christmas Journey our Children’s Team felt that we could include more children by doing it in a central position and bringing the children to us. We decided that we would give it a go for the first time in 2009 and did it again in 2011 and now this time in 2013. This was part of the “Five Year Plan” for our children’s work – doing Easter and Christmas Journey on alternate years and going into schools with “Education Days” on the years in between. We are reaching the end of the five years and so will be praying about what God wants us to do next. We would appreciate your prayers – both for this years production and for whether we do it again in the future.
Our children’s workers form the core group of this production but we would welcome others being involved. No real skill is needed – just as much time as you can spare!
• We have several acting roles that still need to be filled urgently.
• We need help creating the scenery following the church service on Sunday15th. If you have time to help put up gazebos or clear chairs away or help with props we would be very grateful of the help.
• The children make a craft to take home with them and we need helpers for this.
• The team are kept going marvellously by Jan Collins with toast and biscuits and very welcome cups of tea and coffee throughout the days but help with this would also be appreciated.
• Above all – please pray. Pray that all will go well and there will be no problems and no illness of team members. Pray that each child and staff member will see something different about Christmas this year. Pray that each one will be amazed at the story of the Good News of the birth of Jesus and that this will be a seed planted in their heart that they will always remember.
Many thanks to everyone involved for their hard work and for the support of staff at ACC.
Heather Barton