Kidzone 10 - October 07.
Story - Jimmy and the six weird witches.
(If you missed the earlier parts of this serial, go to www.kidzonearchives.blogspot.com ).
Part 6 - The Screaming witch of hate.
Jimmy was in serious trouble. Following his encounter with Freda Fib, he had panicked and pressed the button to stop his train. When he had heard footsteps coming towards the Guard's van to investigate, Jimmy had jumped out of the train and ran back along the track until he was out of sight. After a few minutes, Jimmy heard the sound of his train starting up and pulling away into the distance, leaving him all on his own right in the middle of the deserted countryside.
Jimmy looked all around but, apart from the countryside, there was nothing to be seen. No people, no roads, not even any houses. Jimmy decided that the best thing he could do was to walk along the train track. He thought that if he was lucky he might come to the next station, and if he was really lucky, he might even be able to catch another train and finish his journey to Seaville.
After walking along the track for a few minutes, Jimmy heard the sound of a train coming towards him.
"Oh no" he thought "This must be my train coming back. They must be looking for me to punish me for stopping the train."
Jimmy spotted a bush near the side of the track, so he hid in it, hoping that he wouldn't be seen as the train reached him. But as the train got closer, Jimmy noticed that it wasn't the train he had been on. This was a single black engine. It was travelling very slowly, and instead of making the usual "chu. chu. chu." train sound, it seemed to be saying "hate. hate. hate. hate. hate. hate." Sitting on top of the engine was the ugliest old woman that Jimmy had ever see, She had a pointed black hat, a long black coat, and long black boots. Her head was moving from side to side as she obviously searched for something near the track. Jimmy instinctively knew that she was searching for him!
This old woman was actually the Screaming witch of hate. She was the oldest and worst of the six weird witched. And sitting next to her on top of the black engine and also searching the track were all the other sisters. There was Moaning Maggie, still muttering "It's a miserable, miserable day." There was Old Mother Curseandswear, littering the track with her scraps of paper, and calling out nasty names such as "Chicken pox." "Break a leg" and "Coughs and colds." There was the Tricky witch, but she wasn't smiling now. She had a big scowl on her face. There was Library Lizzy, still holding onto her bag full of nasty books. And there was little Freda Fib, sitting right alongside her sisters.
Jimmy moved as far into the bush as he could, trying to make himself as small as possible. He prayed and hoped that he wasn't seen by anyone on the hate train. But as the train got closer, it's sound changed from "hate. hate. hate. hate. hate. hate." to "I hate him. I hate him. I hate him. I hate him." Jimmy closed his eyes and waited. The train was right next to him now. "I hate him. I hate him. I hate him. I hate him. - - - - -" . But eventually he heard the sound of the train gradually moving away. As soon as the sound of the train became faint, Jimmy came out of the bush and began to run as fast as he could along the track, determined to get as far as he could away from the deadly hate train.
The track curved round to the right, but as Jimmy turned the corner, there just a few metres in front of him was a big black tunnel. Jimmy peered into the tunnel, but he couldn't see any light from the other end. "There is no way I am going in there," thought Jimmy. He thought of going back along the track in the direction he had just run. But then he remembered the deadly hate train, and immediately dismissed the idea. "I will just have to get off the track" thought Jimmy. But both banks on either side of the track had become so steep just before rhe tunnel, that they seemed impossible to climb. Jimmy just didn't know what to do.
After a few minutes, Jimmy heard a voice. He looked up to see a tiny figure in the distance on top of one of the banks. Jimmy couldn't be sure about this, but he thought that the figure looked like the Friendly Porter. The figure was waving his arm as though he wanted Jimmy to go into the tunnel. But then the figure disappeared.
"I guess there is nothing else for it" said Jimmy as he began to walk into the big, black tunnel. Soon there was no light at all, and Jimmy kept falling over the track as he slowly moved further and further into the tunnel. Jimmy began to think that he had made a mistake in coming into such a horrible place. He moved to the side of the track and began to feel his way along the tunnel wall, which was all slimy. Jimmy was making very slow progress, and still there was no sign of the end of the tunnel.
Then Jimmy heard the one sound in the world that he didn't want to hear - hate him. I hate him. I hate him. I hate him." It was the deadly hate train coming back towards the tunnel. Jimmy flattened himself against the tunnel wall, hardly daring to even breathe. He heard the train enter the tunnel, and as it did so the sound changed again - "I hate him. I hate him. I hate him. I hate him." It had almost reached Jimmy when the whole tunnel was filled with smoke from the engine, It went into Jimmy's nose, mouth and eyes. He began to cough and splutter. Suddenly, there was a great screech. Jimmy screamed Ahhh! And then - - - - - Absolutely nothing!
The next thing Jimmy remembered was feeling a large hand grab hold of his shoulder and begin to shake it. A voice from behind him said "Come along young man, or you will miss your train." Jimmy blinked, opened his eyes, and looked around him. He could hardly believe what he saw. He was back on the station platform where he had first started his journey. And a train had just roared into the platform with a great screech. The voice behind him said "Come on, wake up. You are going to Seaville aren't you? This is your train."
Very slowly, Jimmy realised he had been dreaming! When he was on the platform that morning, he had felt tired, and gone over to sit on a bench for a rest. He had closed his eyes for a second - or so he thought. Actually, he had fallen asleep, and dreamt all those adventures about the six weird witches!
So Jimmy got up, thanked the Porter for waking him up, picked up his suitcase, boarded the train, and went off to have a great holiday in Seaville.
Conclusion.
The Screaming witch of hate was the worst of all because hatred lies behind every nasty thing people do. It causes wars, terrorist attacks and all sorts of trouble.
This witch tried to stop Jimmy getting to the end of his journey, and lack of love (which is another name for hatred) is the thing which holds us back most on our journey to heaven. God loves you (read John 3.16), and He wants you to share his love with others. If you are really serious about following Jesus, this is something that you must do. You need to be kind and nice to everyone - even if you find it hard to like them, or think they don't deserve it. That is what Jesus would do.
Illusion - Instant calculations.
Here are two 'instant addition' illustrations that will amaze your friends. They just require a little practice beforehand.
A. Get a volunteer to write any two four-digit numbers on a piece of paper or a board. You then write out the third four-digit number, ensuring that the product of the second and third numbers is 9999. For example, if the second number is 3785, the third number (which you write) will be 6214. Get your volunteer to write out the fourth four-digit number. You then write out the fifth number, ensuring that the product of the fourth and fifth numbers is again 9999. You are now ready to amaze your class by adding up all five numbers instantly. Your answer will be 2, followed by the first number minus 2. i.e. If the first number is 4567, your answer will be 24565. Here is an example :-
Volunteer 4567
Volunteer 4291
Self 5708
Volunteer 6235
Self 3764
Total = 24565
Get your friends to confirm your answer - with their calculators if these are available.
B. Prepare four cards (A,B,C,D), each with a five-digit number on them written from top to bottom as shown.
A B C D
9 6 1 8
1 4 5 7
5 2 4 1
4 7 7 7
2 5 8 4
Get a volunteer to come and stick the cards on the board, in any order they choose, to thus form five four-digit numbers - as per the example above. Remind your friends that there are twenty four different ways in which your volunteer could have arranged the cards.
As soon as the cards are in place, write down the product of the five numbers. You could get your friends to be adding up the numbers with their calculators at the same time - but you will have the correct answer long before them! To get your instant answer, write down 2, followed by two plus each number in your second four-digit number (1457 in above example), except for the last number (7) which remains unaltered. Thus the answer is 23677.
You may wish to get a second volunteer to come and rearrange the cards, and repeat the procedure. If the cards were rearranged C.B.D,A for example, your answer will be 27691.
Laugh Break - Classic Comments (All from Children).
'Joan of Arc was Noah's wife.'
'A layman is someone who lays in bed on Sunday mornings.'
'When a woman has many husbands it is called Pollyanna.'
'When a man is married to one woman it is called monotony.'
'Jacob had a brother called See-saw.'
'Insects is burned in some churches.'
'If God rested on the seventh day, why do we have to go to Sunday school?'
'The Agnus Dei is a woman composer of music.'
'An epistle is the wife of an apostle.'
'The fast days are the days when you have to eat in a hurry.'
'The people of Lystra did not like Paul's message, so he got stoned.'
'I wish my dad was a Pastor so he only had to work one day a week.'
Your Questions Answered - Why is water essential for life?
God certainly made us a lot of water. In fact 70% of the earth's surface is covered with it, although only about 1% of it is ready to drink.
The vast amount of water on the Earth's surface helps keep Earth's temperature fairly steady. This is because it takes a lot more of the sun's energy to warm water than it does to warm land. So the land heats up during the day and cools down during the night more quickly than the ocean does. This gives different air temperatures over the land than over the sea, and this generates winds. Winds keep the air we breathe fresh, as well as bringing clouds and rain to the land.
Without water we would die in a few days. This is because it plays a part in almost every process that occurs in our bodies. Our bodies are mainly water, and water is a major part of our blood.
One of the most important things about water is that it can dissolve many other substances. Because of this, the water in our blood can carry vitamins and minerals from the food we have eaten to the rest of our body, where they are needed for growth, repair and energy.
Water also flushes our bodies of waste products, one of which is carbon dioxide produced by our cells. The water in our blood dissolves this and carries it back to our lungs where we breathe it out. When water evaporates, it absorbs heat from its surroundings. This is why sweating cools us down.
Water contains dissolved oxygen from the air, enabling fish and other water-animals to live in it.
One of the most unusual but important properties of water is that it expands when it freezes (other liquids contract). This is why icebergs float, and why ice forms first on the top of water instead of on the bottom. This means that fish can swim underneath the ice. Otherwise, all the water in a river or lake could freeze and the fish would be killed.
God certainly knew what He was doing when He designed water to be the way it is.
As liquid water is essential for life, that is why space probes have been sent to other planets to search for it. They haven't found any yet, but even if they did, that would not mean that there was life there. Water cannot produce life. Rather, life is the result of a special creation by God.
