THE ‘Easter Story 2017’ was presented over the Easter weekend at Bude Methodist Church and Holsworthy Memorial Hall, in drama, video, dance and a choir of nearly 50 voices.

An accompanying band of keyboard, drum, guitar, bass, saxophone and violin complemented the vibrant singing of contemporary and traditional Christian songs and hymns.

Beginning with a humorous 1990s ‘Yellow Pages’ advert, where a teenager groggily wakes from the aftermath of a party to discover the coffee table is scratched and a family portrait has been disfigured by graffiti, the audience is introduced to mankind’s relationship with God being spoilt because of sin — a slide show of images showing a broken, hurting world add to this.

So, the story of God’s rescue plan through Easter started to unfold with the entrance of the cross during the song ‘Help from Heaven’. A powerful mime showed a young man bound up by the temptations of today’s society and being set free, with a further sketch featuring prisoners in chains escaping from jail.

Individuals from the area told their own personal ‘story’ of God working in their lives through ‘cardboard testimonies’. A humorous drama in the style of Downton Abbey, ‘The Cost of Living’, highlighted the cost of being a Christian.

Two packed audiences engaged with the Easter Story shown in other hilarious and thought-provoking dramas, moving DVD clips, inspirational songs and a beautiful dance.

There was no charge for the evening.

A retiring offering for charity — half for Rural Lay Pastoral Work, led by Andy Jerrard, and half for the Persecuted Church, split between ‘Open Doors’ and ‘The Barnabus Fund’ — came to £1,000.

Thanks have been expressed to the whole team of over 80 people from local chapels and communities involved in this moving presentation. Many stayed afterwards enjoying a lovely supper at each venue.

Closely linked to this presentation was the distribution, on the preceding Wednesday, of free Fair Trade Easter eggs, invitations to the Easter story and Christian literature around Holsworthy town, industrial estate and the cattle market.