I always love...

...packing and posting the prizes for the annual Schools Bible Project, which we have run since 1989.  It's an ecumenical venture, with its origins in a group founded in the 1950s. In its present form the Project involves inviting pupils at secondary schools across Britain to encounter Christ in the New Testament and write essays. The main winners come to London for a prizegiving ceremony at Westminster, and there are a substantial number of runner-up book prizes. These currently include CS Lewis Mere Christianity, plus books by Corrie Ten Boom and Brother Andrew of "Bible smuggling" fame...

This year, despite having to work in the ghastly heat - London has felt like an oven all weekend and continues to do so - it was a happy day. We talk and reminisce, work hard, and have the satisfying task of staggering down the main road to the Post Office in the late afternoon heat with heavy parcels to be sent off to schools across Britain.  Hearty thanks to stalwarts Amanda and Mavis who really slaved away in the heat,  sorting, packing,  writing labels, wrapping, checking, and posting...the big John Paul Room at the parish centre has large windows and the sunlight poured in on to the mess of paper and sticky tape, jiffy-bags, envelopes, and  stacks of essays. We gulped water and brewed tea, took a brief break for a sandwich lunch and blessed the well-equipped parish kitchen with its fridge which had kept our food cool and the milk untainted...

The work continues tomorrow...