Yesterday I had the privileged of taking Deborah to Woodroffe senior school in Lyme Regis to speak at a lunchtime Christian Union.

Time was short, but we were early enough to make the most of every minute. We arrived, the children arrived, but still we waited. It was to be led by the local school’s worker and he apparently has trouble getting through the school as so many people know him and want to talk.

The CU was opened by the school’s worker and started with a game, (Peter, Paul), Deborah was lost. Help! Had I brought her up as a social inadequate, (as so many have said of us as home schoolers), who could not even join in a simple game? No, there were some girls outside the door and no one was asking them in. Deborah got up out of the game and invited them in. Confusion! Still the game went on, with one empty chair. Deborah returned, but still looked lost.

Just play I mouthed. “Why? – There is no point in it!” She asked. She played. Much time used up they handed over to Deborah. My nerves were a wreck. Could she now get back into the stride? Was she thrown and not able to get back up? (never be the Dad of a 13 year old girl who is doing her first public presentation on her own.)

No! Deborah was magnificent. Not perfect, but great. She took the commanding position in the room and moved to keep attention and to speak to everyone. She kept the group from degenerating into small breakaway groups, by calling people back to the main topic. (Thanks to the great Speech course that ACE do.)

Her presentation was good, using optical illusions to show that things are not always what they seem to be. For example the BBC documentary about Deborah was all true, (except the bits that were dubbed over with the sound of a crying baby, the narration in bits, and well lots really… but that aside), the footage was true footage, but was edited to give an impression that was not always true to real life. There then followed some open discussion about the film. Part of the discussion brought up the idea that Deborah tells people they are “going to Hell”. She was able to go through what she normally says and show that actually the people she is talking to admit their own guilt and confess themselves that they are on their way to Hell.

Questions then moved on to creation v evolution. After some discussion that was not really going anywhere, Deborah brought it back with a question to the girl who was arguing most strongly for evolution, “What is your favourite evidence for evolution?” The answer, when pinned down by Deborah, came down to “Lucy”. Deborah’s eye’s twinkled. She was on safe ground. And as she told them about “Lucy” and what there really is in the case at the British Museum, the penny appeared to begin to drop. See Deborah’s article on Lucy here.

There were probably more unbelievers than believers at the CU, but at the end Deborah went on to challenge the Christians about taking a stand for Jesus. Although there were only 30 minutes for the CU the students kept the discussion going for 45 minutes and eventually had to be stopped as their lessons were about to resume. Most took home Deborah’s contact details, some took “Finding God’s Way” books and even some Bibles were taken. Please pray that all those youngsters have been challenged in some way.

Way to go Deborah! – It is great to be the Dad of a 13 year old girl who is doing her first public presentation on her own for the Lord.