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The Mustard Tree Trust

Lifepath 2011 at Brinkburn Priory

Staff and Pupils of Stobhillgate First School, Morpeth

Lifepath Brinkburn 14 - 16 June 2011

How does one begin to sum up an amazing few days? Perhaps a few highlights would be a good place to start:

· God blessed us with beautiful weather (one heavy shower on Thursday to allow us to check our wet weather plan worked - it did!)

· A highly motivated, enthusiastic and skilled volunteer team

· Wonderful children and staff from local schools.

Brinkburn Priory Church was transformed with banners and bunting and huge thanks to Rev. Ed Butlin for all his technical support

The children were met at the coach park and then processed down the lane to the priory flanked by flag waving team members - their group chants ringing out as they marched down.

Opening collective worship involved lively songs, interactive time-line, lots of hilarity and excellent Bible story telling from Gordon Innes. Then it was off to the various workshops linked to the key themes:

· Living was a brilliant comedy drama about a Monk's life followed by lots of interesting facts about their Lifepath.

· Believing involved either the Jesus Journey, a wonderful workshop of interactive Bible Stories; or Prayer Journey a moment of quiet in the day to consider the different types of prayer using four different work stations.

· Exploring and Learning were covered by: Medieval Games, Hand Bells, Gardening, Medieval Medicine, Harps, Singing, Art - fabric painting and pyrography, and Scriptorium - learning about the monks work of Illuminating the Scriptures.

During every workshop a bell would sound and silence reigned for 30 seconds - a moment to allow the children to experience the sounds of Brinkburn as the Monks would have done during their hours of silent meditation. These were to prove to be very special parts of the day as we all listened to the beautiful sounds of God's creation.

Lunchtime was a great opportunity to spend time getting to know children and staff and reinforcing lessons learned in the workshops. The team was extremely well fed by our brilliant catering team of Don and Dorothy Hutton.

The Closing Worship was a very special end to the day - drawing things to a close, recapping and reinforcing the Lifepath of the monks and linking it to the Lifepath of Christians today. Anna Renwick, one of our younger team members, gave a very honest and moving account of what following Jesus meant to her in her Lifepath today. The children were then encouraged to consider their own Lifepath as we asked them to build a cairn to mark the end of the day and as a sign of their participation in Lifepath.

Of course the day wouldn't have been complete without another lively action song and some very impressive, entertaining, or should I say embarrassing dancing from a few of the monks!

Lifepath Brinkburn has had a huge impact on all those involved; all the months of planning came to fruition under God's blessing. We don't know what seeds have been sown, we leave that in the hands of our amazing God but to have been part of it all has been a huge privilege.

Lifepath was a Mustard Tree Trust event run in partnership with:

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