For the first of our 2011 taster tours we went into Greensward Academy in Hockley and King Edmund School in Rochford. Both schools were really welcoming and provided us with a packed timetable of lessons to run on the bus.

In Greensward we were asked to do lessons with year 8 on Christian living which included lots of space for the students to question the team about our faith. We also did lessons on marriage with years 9 & 10 which produced some great questions and discussion and also gave opportunity to talk about forgiveness. The students were really great and we even had the opportunity to open the bus at lunchtime with students swarming onto the bus to take a look. The school gave really positive feedback and are very keen for us to do more in the school- (click on Working in schools under School information tab above to see a letter from the school.)

In King Edmunds we took lessons with the whole of year 7 on Jesus and the Easter story. This for us is a great lesson to do as it’s all about the core message of the bible and we found the students were able to understand the subject really well as they went through the different zones on the bus. As with most of the lessons we split the class in half and ran activities with groups looking at the history of the message (Jesus death and resurrection,) the meaning of the message and the application of the message for people who believe in and follow Jesus. Again the students were really keen to answer and ask questions and the school are very keen to do more with us in the future.

Another big encouragement to us was the team of volunteers we had working on the bus. Most of them come from churches in the Rochford borough and all of them were really enthusiastic and picked up the lesson plans really quickly. It can be a daunting thought to come into a school and teach but everyone found the structure and content of the lessons enabled them to really get involved with the lessons and facilitate the groups.

Our thanks goes to all involved in the week- Staff, students and volunteers and YES we will be back:)

Coming to Secondary Schools in Southeast Essex - We are offering dates in 2011 to bring the bus into your school. Schools can sign up for a whole day or several days during these weeks. For the taster tour we will be offering 3 different topics for the lessons-

Who is Jesus? Looking at why Christians believe Jesus is so significant.

Money and Poverty. What does the bible say about money and how we should treat the poor?

The Bible. We have developed some very original resources to help people understand the message of the bible.

Each of these lessons will include - multimedia presentations, interactive activities and space for questions and discussion.

For more information please contact us via the 'contact us' tab in the menu to the left.

St Saviours – Christ Our Light Mission
We spent a whole day with St Saviours Church with the bus being open to visitors through the day and then for teenagers attending an event in the evening. We had a steady flow of people on the bus through the day and there were some great conversations going on. The evening event went really well with the bus being well used for discussions on faith. What was really encouraging for me was to see the folks from the church so involved in conversations and excited about it.
Rev Louise Williams writes-

Thank you so much for supporting our mission week on Tuesday with the provision of the Route One bus. We were absolutely thrilled to see that all the youngsters in the evening went on the bus – and of their own accord – that was very encouraging. Thank you also for the training which you provided – we all found that most helpful.

YMCA visit @ Leigh Road Baptist Church

A group from Southend YMCA came to visit us at Leigh Rd Baptist Church. The evening was designed to communicate both the message of Christianity and what church is. The bus worked really well as the venue for the “message” part of this while a tour of the church building provided a fitting environment to talk about Church. David Elcock and a group of young people from the church did a great job of communicating their faith both on the bus and in the building. Below is a comment from David about the event.

Thank you so much for bringing the bus over to LRBC on Thursday for the YMCA event. It is such a fantastic resource and the way that it engages not only the onlooker but also equips the young people to speak about and expand upon the Bible is so great.