Do I need Jesus?

I wasn't really eavesdropping or anything. I just happened to be there and couldn't help over-hearing what the guy was saying.

"Do I need Jesus? "

He was in the church building, in fact up on the 'chancel area', right in front of the communion table. And he was on his knees. 'Troubled' is perhaps too strong a word to describe him, but he seemed perplexed and the pressure of it all was plainly getting to him.

He's one of the church leaders. I'll not name him because that wouldn't really be fair on Derek: after all, he didn't really realise that his words were being heard.

But I have to say it comes as a shock to hear one of your leaders tossing that sort of question around. I mean it's a pretty basic issue, you'd have thought.

Thankfully he reached the right conclusion! "Yes," he eventually affirmed. (I think he was really talking to himself, but maybe he was talking to the Lord: as I say, I don't think he was that aware of my being there and listening in).

"Yes, I do need Jesus!" he finally declared.

Well, my heart soared, I found myself smiling and couldn't help laughing.

This simple little cameo captured what the Holiday Club has been about. Derek does the puppets along with Phil. And the two of them are masters of their art.

Switching accents with consummate ease, from a 'Prince of Wales' impression to something straight from the Archers (and all manner of weird and wonderful male and female variants in between), and juggling any number of puppets with a racy, bible-based script, the two of them had the children riveted every morning. 130 children every day, eager, excited and full of boundless energy - and glued to their seats as they watched all the drama unfold through the lips of the puppets up front.

It takes a lot of practice of course. And that was what Derek had been doing when I caught him up there on the chancel area. Figuring out just which would be the puppets they'd be needing the next day.

"Do I need Jesus?" (Answer - Yes! Jesus tends to figure in the stories that they tell!)

That was the question the children faced as well. Day by day, in all the different facets of the Holiday Club, that was the issue each one of them explored.

There were days, indeed, this Person seemed so massive and the things he'd done so humbling that it left them little short of gob-smacked, awed and silenced.

In five short days these children got the picture: and who knows how many of their lives will have thereby been quite changed! Brilliant.

I guess it's always the question. Always the basic issue for us all.