Adventures north of the border

Martyn Payne

Barnabas has been at work north of the border. In partnership with the Christian Education Association Scotland (CEAS), the team spent eleven days working in schools and churches, with teachers, children's leaders, ministers and children in four venues around Scotland. This all built on previous short visits to do workshops with churches over the last two years and is part of the process of working towards the appointment of a Barnabas Team Member from Scotland for Scotland.

The programme was very full - in all we worked in eight different schools, delivering seven assemblies, twelve workshops with class groups and two INSET sessions with teachers. In addition we led four regional training events and had network meetings with ministers and local business leaders as well as participating in three Sunday morning services. All this took place in the context of some outstanding hospitality, magnificent scenery and very many memorable encounters with amazing people. Here is just a snapshot of a few of the people and their stories we came across:

Christine is an enthusiastic schools' worker in Glasgow's east end. She has a real heart for the children in her local area, urging them to see themselves as 'world-changers' and 'champions' because of what they can learn from the story of Jesus. Many come from relatively deprived backgrounds and it is the long-term bridge building that she has put in that has made it possible for the chaplaincy team from local churches to go in and lead assemblies, take RE lessons and run regular school clubs. It was Christine who opened the door into two schools in Easterhouse for the Barnabas Team to add their contribution to the good work she is doing.

Martha has been committed to children's work for almost 60 years and is still going strong as the co-leader of the work at a Methodist Church in east Glasgow. What is more, she is open to fresh ideas for reaching out to new children and she was part of our storytelling training session at her church, which attracted around 40 local leaders and ministers. She also helps lead a special midweek event, along the lines of Messy Church.

Grant Barclay is a minister in the Church of Scotland in Kilmarnock. He's been an enthusiastic supporter of Barnabas for some time now. As we left at the end of the training evening at his church which he had organized, he showed us his special 'Godly Play-style' chest of ten drawers, each with a symbol for different parts of the Bible, which he uses each Sunday in his children's address. 'All this was inspired by your visits,' he said.

Helen is also a Church of Scotland minister from Carluke in south Lanarkshire. She'd been greatly inspired by seeing Barnabas in action and told the whole meeting in Kilmarnock how she had been using new ideas in school and also how she and her team had begun a Messy Church in their area, which is breaking new ground with children and families.

Jean is a very experienced head teacher from Stevenson in Ayrshire, and not only was she delighted to welcome us into her school to take an assembly and work with the classes, but she also encouraged her staff to buy armfuls of our books, there and then! Talking to her over lunch was a great opportunity to gain some insights into the whole Scottish education scene and in particular the way that INSET works through the local authorities.

Ewen was a star for us in Oban. As leader of H2O (Hope to Oban), he heads up a small team that works in local schools. He was excited by what he saw of Barnabas in action and is keen that what they are doing in secondary schools can be complemented by the programmes we run for the primary sector. He also has the local churches behind him in all this.

Jack is head of a large primary school in Oban and was very taken by the INSET, which we led for teachers from local schools. The next day in the staff room he apologized to the rest of his staff that he hadn't promoted our visit more enthusiastically, as it had been so good and he had wished all his staff had been there.

Lucy is part of a new church in Oban and came to our training morning there. She was feeling called to work with children using art and drama. Our session came just at the right time for her and was clearly part of God's hand upon her life.

The General, as he is affectionately and quite properly called (he was there when the Japanese surrendered to Montgomery), though long retired and in his nineties, was very interested to hear about our work at the Sunday morning service in the parish of Cawdor near Inverness. He was very supportive and reflected a longing among many older folk we met that something new needed to be done to reach out to the many children who no longer had heard the life-changing story of the gospel.

Susan was at our training event in Inverness for the second year running. At the end of the session she came up to let us know just how inspired she had been by our visits. She'd be on the point of giving up her work in Sunday school but what we had shared had fired her again, giving her new confidence to carry on.

Fiona and Derek are local head teachers who came to our INSET in their area. Both were impressed by the practical and thought-provoking activities that we used - it was all so different from the boring INSET they had been used to! They took away not only new ideas but also many books. Once again it was clear that there is a real hunger in the schools for the sort of programmes Barnabas has to offer. It was especially gracious of Fiona to invite us into her school, as it was the first day of an inspection week and indeed we had inspectors in on our Barnabas assembly!

Steve is a Church of Scotland regional Mission and Development Officer and was busy taking notes during our session with local ministers at a special coffee morning. In the past there had been an active network of children's educational advisers but now new structures are in place and Steve seemed genuinely interested in how Barnabas might offer some positive input into this situation and help churches think about new ways and places to reach children and families

Jan is a local minister in parishes near Inverness and indeed was our hostess here. She worked tirelessly to put together a really exciting programme of events. She is also chaplain in her two parish schools and takes this role very seriously. She is a great advocate for our Barnabas ministry and publications. She longs that all churches should take seriously their chaplaincy role to local schools, which is something that is possible within the Scottish context but is dependent on schools' goodwill and of course on ministers who catch the vision.

And finally David - David Hamilton - was our host for the whole of this tour and looked after us so well. We are deeply indebted to him for the huge amount of work he put into the planning, administration and smooth running of all the events - not to mention his chauffeuring us safely from place to place. Though now retired, he still works tirelessly on behalf of children through CEAS and is excited that Barnabas in Scotland could play an important role in the future work of the church here, helping congregations to nurture well the children they do have, reach out to new children and make positive contacts with schools and teachers.

Each of us in the Team carries back many memories and a whole bunch of stories from this amazing tour. We learned such a lot! We now know what a 'jilly piece' is - a vital part of our assemblies in Glasgow; we now have some understanding of what presbyteries, session clerks, moderators and Kirk elders are; we are all now intimately acquainted with haggis, oatcake and even venison; and, for some of the more urban members of the Team, we have now seen red squirrels, red deer and have enjoyed breathtaking views of snow-capped mountains, driven along mysterious lochs and watched the sunset over the western isles.

This was in every sense a team effort. We had fun and encouraged each other so much by working together on events as the Barnabas Team. But we were also working with teams of local people in every place, which made it very special. Let's pray that these small beginnings may grow under God's direction into something that will be a real blessing to the work of the churches and schools on behalf of children north of the border.

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