Dear Friends

A couple of weeks ago I had the privilege and joy of helping to lead the Brockenhurst
Primary School Year 6 residential trip to Swanage.
The four days away began well – I was assigned to my own minibus taking the
groups’ luggage to the YHA in Swanage – which meant no endless singing and travel
sickness to deal with! Things then only got better – what a lovely group of
youngsters! They were polite, kind to one another, engaging (I had conversations
about holidays, future ambitions in life, horses, Formula 1 Teams and much else
besides) and full of good humour. The school staff were saints in the ways in which
they dealt with whatever came up – patient, caring, efficient and very well organised.
But most of all I was impressed by the way in which the youngsters enthusiastically
threw themselves into the various activities that were set before them. These
included high ropes, coasteering, SUP, kayaking, axe throwing (yes – I did say ‘axe
throwing’!), shooting, archery (including shooting at one another – the arrows did
have big pads on though and the children wore ‘armour’), caving and putting on a
show!
Some of these activities were particularly challenging (like the high ropes, caving and
coasteering) –some went as high as they could but not to the top, others initially
refused and then had a go. All the children were moved out of their comfort zones
and as a result learned something new about themselves and one another – it was
wonderful to see their confidence and sense of achievement grow.
Jesus did a similar thing with his disciples. Throughout scripture we see Jesus taking
the disciples to liminal spaces (spaces where they would not normally go) – up
mountains, into deserts, to non-Jewish areas, engaging with those normally ignored
and overlooked. He did this to give those disciples a bigger and different view of the
world and of themselves, and with the hope that in such encounters God would be
more able to gain a look-in to their lives.
As we grow older, we tend to become more comfortable and more controlling of the
environment around us and the things we engage in, as a result there become less
opportunities for us to learn new things about ourselves, one another, and God.
Maybe we can all learn a lesson from those enthusiastic and courageous youngsters
that I accompanied on their residential trip to Swanage.

Yours in Christ

Simon