Introduction: Welcome, my dear brothers and sisters in Christ to Teachers Talking for Term 4 entitled “The Stories we tell”. As 2020 draws to a close, we reflect back on both the anxiety and challenge of living in a world with the COVID pandemic. In his book, “Where is God in a Coronavirus world?”, John Lennox says it is the tale of the two crowns, the coronavirus that looks like a crown under a microscope and Jesus Christ as King of Kings. Where is Christ when humans are faced with their vulnerability and mortality? Karl Marx depicted Christianity as “the opium of the people” anaesthetising them to the suffering of the world. Sigmund Freud saw belief in God as a childish dream that helps us escape the helplessness we feel and see around us. But the Cross of Christ stands in the centre of history and changes everything “for it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me” (Galatians 2:20).  We are “surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses” (Hebrews 12:1) both past and present whose lives are located in God’s epic story. As teachers, we are to be God’s storytellers who unfold the stories of those whose lives witness to the good news of God’s love and make a redemptive difference in His world. This is a powerful pedagogy that can inspire our students to respond to the call of the Creator, find the deepest meaning of their lives and discover His purpose for which they can live and die. Through the voices of men and women of faith, our students are invited on their own journey to find their ’true north’. Os Guinness said “…. there is no calling without a caller and down the centuries God’s call has proved the ultimate Why in the human search for purpose.  No-one else or nothing else even comes close” (Rising to the Call np) Telling stories will create a foretaste of God’s Kingdom – living glimpses of what life is meant to be – full of meaning, wonder, hope and sacrificial love in the midst of a groaning world. The founder is to be visible in the lives of the found as they live to build a new and better world: the Kingdom of God. Let us be encouraged in our noble task as a teacher by the words of CS Lewis “…the church exists for nothing else but to draw men into Christ, to make them little Christs”. “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us” (Hebrews 12:1) Thank you for being with us this year. May you have a blessed and hope-filled Christmas and New Year as you rejoice in the love of Christ – the greatest story ever told. Grace and Peace, The Team The Excellence Centre  
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