Albert Schweitzer was undoubtedly one of the most gifted men of his generation. His strong faith took him to Africa. His 1931 autobiography, 'Out of My Life and Thought' described much of his work in Africa. His musical talent as an organist, giving benefit concerts, paid largely for the founding and running of the hospital. He wrote many books in his lifetime on different themes - theological, the organ works of J.S. Bach, how an organ works and anti nuclear. Unfortunately, in today's culture, the comments he made then about those he treated are seen as racist and having a colonialistic view of Africans. In the 50 years he worked there he positively influenced the lives of those he cared for as a doctor, surgeon and pastor. The hospital continues to be the primary source of healthcare for the surrounding region and in 2011 an African, for the first time, leads the hospital..

Caroline Chisholm is a woman spent a great deal of her time trying to help others get on in life -especially other women. With her husband Archibald she spent time in both India and Australia. In India where she opened a school. In Australia she wanted to help emigrants settle successfully there- she set up the Female Immigration Home and also helped set up a safe route for the gold pioneers to follow. She also helped migrants wanting to go to Australia from the UK. It has been suggested that Charles Dickens, in his book Hard Times, wrote his character Mrs. Jellyby as a criticism of female activists like Caroline Chisholm.

James Hudson Taylor was the founder of the interdenominational China Inland Mission. He dreamed as a child of going to China as a missionary. He fulfilled his dream but he had to set up his own mission to make it successful. He was frustrated the first time he went out because he had little support from the mission which sent him out. He did such a good job setting up his own mission for China that other faith missions followed his methods. His chief emphases were to identify with the local people by dressing 'native', direction to come from the mission field not home, efficient administration and wanting a deepening of Christian life in the home churches to encourage more to go into the mission field. He was happily married twice and both his wives Maria and Jane supported him in his endeavours to evangelise China. He spent 50 years as a missionary and went 11 times to China. Through a lifetime of ministry he fulfilled his calling.

This is the story of how Gladys Aylward, a missionary in China during the second World War, helped Chinese orphans safely across a mountain. When she returned to England she realised a film had been written showing her life and a book called The Small Woman had been published. On Google, and Youtube there is a great deal of information about how from her humble beginnings as a housemaid/domestic help became a successful missionary.

Looking for interesting missionaries and evangelists to write about I came across this lady. Incredible, as it might seem, Amanda Berry Smith started life as a slave but ended up becoming an evangelist going to both India and then to Africa. Later in life she ended up funding and opening up a children's orphanage.

William Carey is regarded by many as the founder of the modern missionary movement and as one of the most important church missionaries in world history. He believed in going to the heathen not waiting for God to do it. 'Expect Great Things- Attempt Great Things.' He began life as a cobbler. After he was converted he taught himself New Testament Greek. He spent 50 years as a pastor/minister. He founded the Baptist Missionary Society. He spent 40 whole years in India, not having a furlough. He was responsible for the Bible being translated into all the major languages of the Indian subcontinent and many dialects and wrote a number of books. In 1818 William Carey and the Marshmans founded Scrampore college - today it offers theological and liberal arts education for some 2,500 students. The powerful, and now famous book , 'An Enquiry into the obligations of Christians to Use Means for the Conversion of Heathens' - along with many others, can be found, in full, on the internet. I have found several pieces of useful information. There is a chronology of his life, a short, readable, history of his life, plus a short crossword and word search. A 'typical day' reveals he must have used at least SIX different languages on that one day!! There is a vast amount of information about William Carey on the internet. God's extraordinary 'plodder' changed the course of history.

The simple youth from the hills may have seemed most unlikely material for an evangelist, but he probably won more people to Christ than anyone else in southern Ethiopia - during the time of tremendous persecution. The missionaries who had been forced out of the country in 1937 were allowed back into Ethiopia in 1942and feared what they would find. They had left a small 'community' of just 48 Christians. They were amazed to find it had multiplied to 10,000. Among them they found Wandaro - his body covered with scars but his face wreathed in a smile. Wandaro, the evangelist, whose father had been a witch doctor, had been made an 'example of' by the authorities .He had been flogged, in public, by 5 men continuously for 3 hours with a hippo hide whip. For several days they feared he would die but thanks to the prayer of family and friends he eventually recovered. He was imprisoned for a year. He was such a model prisoner that the guards left him in charge when they went off duty. For 55 years Wandaro preached the Christian message. 8,000 people, each carrying a flower in appreciation, attended his funeral in 1991.

David Tsutada and his son Joshua are both Japanese missionaries. David is probably the least well known of the two but he is referred to as being the 'John Wesley' of Japan. He studied law at Cambridge and King's College London and at one stage envisioned himself as one day becoming Japan's prime minister. He also felt a calling to the church. He wrote a 14 page letter to his father who took his letter to an all night prayer meeting.The following day he received a cable with just two words' Obey God'. Joshua, his son, is referred to being the 'voice of emerging evangelical leaders'. He followed his father into the ministry and spent seventeen years working in India. Both David and Joshua had held high posts in several Christian organisations. Joshua has been chairman of the Japan Evangelical Association and the Evangelical Fellowship Asia.

The news of James Hannington being martyrdom, on his way to Uganda, resulted in 50 men immediately coming forward to follow in his steps. He kept an illustrated diary which some how was 'saved', brought back to the UK and published in 1886 the year after his death. The book was called ' Peril and Adventure in Central Africa. ' I have included several articles looking at his life including 'Last Journey', a timeline, two of his illustrations and a short crossword and word search. October 29th, the day he died, is his saints day.

A poetry aid and vocabulary to help children put their ideas down about Red Nose Day or Comic Relief. I have differentiated by creating 2 Poetry Aid sheets. i

I have included a definition/history of Mothering Sunday, a vocabulary and a Mothering Sunday card outline, a picture and recipe for Simnel cake which I found, plus a word search with answers. These sheets I hope will be useful.

A few sheets which could be used on Pancake day/Shrove Tuesday.

When I wrote Four Wise Men which looked at St. David(W), St. Patrick(I), St. Andrew (S) and St George(E) a number of different front covers were created. All four patron saint titles stand separately as individual sets of work on this web site. The Welsh flag is the red lion on a white/green back ground but the St. David flag is a gold cross on a black background. I also created several blanks which pupils could colour. I thought they would be useful if the pupils wanted to bring the four of them together in one booklet.

Mary Slessor was a Christian missionary in Nigeria. She started life, at 11, as a 'half timer' - school for six hours/ working for six hours for the Baxter Brother's Mill with her mother and father to become the 'white queen of Okoyong' in Nigeria. When she died in 1915 she was given a state funeral in Nigeria in recognition of her life time given to helping others. She is an inspiration for any girl, or boy, who is thinking becoming a missionary. We celebrated the centenary of her death two years ago and there is a lot of material to find on the internet about her.

St. Augustine of Canterbury I think is the ' forgotten' saint of England. He is not to be confused with St. Augustine of Hippo. He is sometimes called' the Apostle of England' or' St. Augustine the less'. He was chosen by Pope Gregory to lead a mission to Britain. His task was to Christianize King Ethelbert and his kingdom of Kent from Anglo Saxon Paganism. In the short time he was in England (597- 604 AD) he laid the foundations for the Church of England. He was the first Archbishop of Canterbury. I have put together some information about Augustine with a 'gap' sheet, a simple crossword and word search, plus an answer sheet.

John Wesley is the founder of Methodism - the Methodist church. Until the age of 35 John Wesley was a 'normal' Christian. He had grown up in a Christian family and had become a clergyman but something was missing. On May 24th 1738 he had his 'spiritual birthday'. Today we talk about being 'born again'. His outlook on life changed dramatically. His sermons were no longer ordinary, congregations found them disturbing and he, along with others, were banned from preaching in church. He became a field preacher and his statue outside the New Room sees him astride his horse. For nearly fifty years he was out in the open, in all weathers, preaching the Good News. He kept a Journal, preached many sermons, wrote many books and even a dictionary. He brought the message that 'love casts out fear' to his listeners. I have created time line and written about his life in brief using Wikipedia and a Ladybird book. The book is called John Wesley, Founder of Methodism ISBN 0946550654. It is published by Methodist Publishing House, 4 John Wesley Road, Peterborough price £2. It is a typical ladybird book - writing with a very full text and well illustrated - see examples included.

Elim Pentecostal Church have just celebrated 100 years. Their founder, George Jeffreys, a Welshman, was an evangelist with a Welsh Congregational background. At the age of 15 he gave his life to Christ. George, along with his brother Stephen and others, started a Christian revival movement. It started in a small way but soon 1000s of people came to their conventions and camp meetings and many were saved. In 1962 George spoke to Reinhard Bonnke. just before he left for south Africa.He invited him in for tea and prayed for the 22 year old, passing on his 'mantle'. Elim Pentecostal Church have brought out a book, a DVD and a Music CD to celebrate. They also have a very good web site simply called Elim - Our History.

Classes often have a 'starter' for the day. This can be How many words can you find in _________ On a special Christian festival why not take the name(s) as the starter. This could be looked at 4 ways:- 1. Creating a list. 2. Placing the words in a 3x3 or 4x4 square. 3. Creating a simple crossword with clues. 4. The teacher/parent creating a crossword for the children to solve using the answers given. The starter would be a combining of R.E. with an English spelling exercise.

I have put together 10 New Testament profiles which I hope should prove of use. I have included all/many of the biblical references for all of them. Mary and Joseph the parents of Jesus, and Zechariah and John the Baptist are related. Zechariah's wife, Elizabeth, is a cousin of Mary and John the Baptist is their son. I have included a statement explaining what happened normally to illegitimate babies in Israel 2000 years ago. Andrew, Simon Peter and Matthew are three of the disciples of Jesus. Mary Magdalene, according to the gospels, only had seven demons removed by Jesus. There is actually nothing to say what she did before she became a follower of Jesus. Lazarus was raised from the dead and Stephen was the first Christian martyr.

Harvest Festival is celebrated all over the world. The very first sheet can used to introduce a lesson on Harvest Festival, or even part of an assembly. The next sheet, a ‘comic’ clip, will work well with younger children. There is a diary and poetry aid with a ‘blank sheet’ for best copy. There is a simple word search with two anagram sheets. There is a also a sheet looking at the word’ harvest’ three different ways and an answer sheet. Children are often asked to see how many words they can find in a word. This I have done separately for both Harvest and Festival - there are so many words! Children can either look for the words and create their own crossword (many answers included) or instead, using the word list answer the crossword sheets.