"Be joyful always; pray continually;
give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus."
1 Thessalonians
5 v 16-18
Narrowboat Visit - Class 2
Peter talking to the children in his 'living room'.........................and demonstrating knots on Nathaniel
Peter used a piece of string with many knots to teach the lesson that with Christ as your Saviour, he is there to help you sort cope with the problems in your life.
Can't quite tell if Mrs Wiltshire was getting a helping
hand or not...
The following are pieces of work done by 5 of the children along with their drawings:
Daniel wrote:
On Friday we went on a trip to a canal boat. The canal boat was called the “Gospel Belle”. It is owned by Canal Ministries. The organisation has seven boats. One of them is called the “Icthus.” We walked along the canal until we came to the “Gospel Belle”. Then we went along the plank of wood to the boat. We went inside and sat down. Inside there was a stove, a small kitchen, an even smaller engine room, a lounge and a bedroom.
The canal boat itself is 60 feet long so that means that it can travel all over the country. This is because if it was longer it wouldn’t fit in some locks which are only 62 feet long. Peter’s wife (Lin) goes to work. Peter shows her on the map where he is going to be over the next few days. Then he sails down the canal to where he is mooring.
On Thursday Lin comes home from work to where she is
staying and then Peter rings her by telephone and tells her the postcode of a
shop near where
he is
moored. Then she types it in on the SatNav and drives to wherever it takes her.
The canal boat is quite big with just about all the room a man and wife should need. When your canal boat is stuck in the mud near the edge of the canal when you’re leaving for somewhere else, you don’t try to go forwards or you will go further into the mud. You go backwards and push the back of the boat out into the middle of the canal.
The "Gospel Belle” carries 400 gallons of water in a big tank at the front of the boat. The headquarters of Canal Ministries is on the Kennet and Avon Canal near Trowbridge. Canal Ministries spreads the gospel on the waterways and helps other people.
Gordon wrote:
I went in
a canal boat. It was a bit of a squash! The boat was a narrowboat but you could
call it a barge. There were some controls at the back. An engine was in front of
the controls so I do not know how you can reach the controls with an engine in
the way! You are up to your waist in water. It was cosy. There was a little hot
black heater. There were windows and a bedroom and an open window. But the
kitchen was small and had a window.
Maayan
wrote:
On Monday we went on a canal boat and there was a very nice man and he told us lots of funny stories. Mrs Wiltshire liked the small black stove. There was a photo album and it had lots of his family and his children in it.
Matthew wrote:
My class went on a canal boat trip. The boat was called “The Gospel Belle”. “Gospel Belle” was on the side. 'Peter and Lin' was also on the side because the people who owned the ship were called Peter and Lin. Peter was a very kind man. He told us lots of funny and exciting stories.
One of the funny stories was about this man who h
ad
a shiny sports car. When he was driving his brand new car he saw a flood. He had
to go through it so he asked a man that was next to the flood if you could get
through. He said it was two or three inches deep. The man drove through it but
the water was up to the windows. The man said, “But the water only goes half way
up the ducks.”
Peter told us what the things on our school uniform meant. We asked him lots of questions. The question that I asked him was, “Do you have any fire alarms?” He said he had a gas alarm and two fire alarms. It was very cosy and our feet were under the water!
The man split us into two groups, I was in the first group. The windows were quite high and the water was half way up. We looked at the engine, kitchen and some of the stuff his relatives had bought him from different countries. He showed us how to tie strong knots. He did it on Nathaniel’s thumb.
Samantha
wrote:
Last Friday we went for a walk along the canal instead of PE. Mrs Wiltshire had told us that we were going to look around a canal boat, but did not tell us anything else. When we reached the canal she said, “It has a special name.” The first canal boat I saw was it. It was called “Gospel Belle”.
As soon as we walked up next to it an old man came out; he was called Peter. Abi and I were at the front so we went in first. To get in you either had to jump or walk along the gangplank. So we had to walk along the gangplank because the other option was too dangerous.
When we got inside he told us to take our shoes off and sit down. When everybody was inside he sat down and told us stories of him and his family. He told us story after story and they were quite interesting. He told us one story of a lady with lots of heavy shopping. She threw her shopping onto the boat and tried to jump, but she didn’t make it. She was trying to swim when a man on another boat said to her, “Stand up, Mrs,” and she stood up and it only came half way up her. Then he told us what his job was. He said he worked for Canal Ministries. He helped people and told them about Jesus. Every time he went through a lock he gave the lock keeper a New Testament. Every time somebody got a new boat he would say, “A new boat needs a New Testament”, and he would give them one. He told us of people who went along singing and clowning around and telling people about Jesus at the same time. The most surprising thing to me was that “The Gospel Belle” was a narrow boat not a canal boat!
When he had finished he let us walk around the boat. To steer it you had to go right to the back. Peter also told us of one person who tried to steer his boat like a car. He said that if you want to get your boat moving you had to reverse (go backwards) and eventually you worked your way into the middle of the canal. But if you tried to go forward you would get stuck on the side of the canal. While he was talking he gave us some booklets about what he does and he even gave us a New Testament. On the way back Mrs Wiltshire let me carry the leaflets and the New Testament.
If
you would like to know more
about the work of Canal Ministries,
click on the CM logo.