Our primary team are very busy delivering our second assembly of the term this week. We’ll be visiting Haute Capelles, Notre Dame, Beechwood, Vale, Acorn House, Melrose, Vauvert and La Houguette! So far the children (and teachers!) have really enjoyed the assembly and we’ve loved delivering it!

BOLT clubs are into Week 9 looking at “Jesus Rose Again”. We talk about how God has power over all things, even death. The children have a chance to think about what happened to Jesus and ask questions. We’ve had some really interesting questions and thoughts about this. One child thought that perhaps Jesus was risen from the dead because so many people loved him and that power bought him back from the dead. Questions have been things like, “Why did people not like him?” “Did Jesus choose to die?” and “Was he really dead?” What an insight into their thinking!

This week in senior lunch clubs we are looking at compassion. The Concise Oxford English Dictionary defines it as: ‘Sympathetic pity and concern for the sufferings or misfortunes of others.’ Jesus was often moved to action due to having compassion on a person in need. Sometimes we might think issues are too big and we can never make a difference but we encourage the students to think about how any action however big or small can have a huge impact on a person.

We also have the opportunity to visit Le Murier School and teach a session on Advent. We will be exploring the story of the Wise Men and how they prepared to meet Jesus. We will be discussing what we do to prepare for Christmas and the importance of remembering that this a time to think about Jesus coming to Earth.

Last week we visited Adrian Datta at St Peter’s Church for a quiet morning. We were led through a series of devotions based on Luke 10:1-9 and Jesus sending out the 72. It was an encouraging morning as we reflected on our stories of how we had come to work for PACE and our calling of being sent out to do this work. We spent time reflecting on verse 3: ‘I am sending you out like lambs among wolves.’ As Christians we are not promised an easy path, but like sheep in the fields have a shepherd so do we, as we carry out our work we have God watching over us and guiding us on our journey.

In the primary schools, we have just started rolling out our second assembly of the term. This is looking at The Parable of the Great Banquet. To begin the assembly we ask if they could invite anyone to a party, who would it be? Answers so far have included their family, their best friends, but also Michael Jackson and The Queen!

To round up the assembly, we focus on what this parable tells us about what God is like. We ask the children to identify who in the story is representing God and explain how he includes and loves everyone. God invites anyone and everyone to be his friend. This week we are visiting St Martins, Castel, La Mare, Forest, Vale and St Mary and St Michael’s.

Our BOLT clubs are on Week 8, looking at “Jesus Died for Us”. We encourage the children to ask questions. Although we can’t always answer the questions, there have been some very thoughtful ones!

Finally this week we will be visiting the Year 3’s at La Houguette to deliver a recap lesson on child and adult baptism to round up their topic. We’re really looking forward to this and are so pleased to have been invited.

This week in senior lunch clubs we are exploring the theme of Judgement. In society we can be quick to judge others but Jesus’ life was one led by grace, his death and resurrection being the ultimate example. We discuss why we are so quick to judge and what difference it would make to our lives if we followed Jesus’ example of showing grace to others.

We also had the opportunity to share at Les Beaucamp High in an assembly on anti-bullying. We shared about the importance of respecting one another and valuing each others differences rather than using them as away to be mean to one another. Concluding with Jesus’ teaching on ‘treating others how you would like to be treated.’ Encouraging them to think about walking a mile in someone else’s shoes before making a judgement about someone.

Following a nice half term break we are back to work with lots of activities happening this week.

Our BOLT clubs are starting to look at who Jesus is and what he did in our topic, “Jesus came to do good”. We challenge the children by getting them to call out what they know about Jesus, what stories they’ve heard about it and who they think Jesus is.

In senior lunch clubs we are exploring the importance of kindness and Jesus’ famous teaching of ‘Treat others how you would like to be treated.’ We are specifically focussing on this topic as it is annual anti-bullying week next week. We wanted to get students thinking about this topic and the value of being kind to one another.  

The senior team will also be visiting La Mare High for another session on prejudice and discrimination this week with year 11 students. They will also be visiting Ladies College for their final lesson on creation with year 8. The students have been very inquisitive in these sessions and we have enjoyed discussing the origin of the universe with them.

On Wednesday the team will be taking some time together with Rev. Dr Adrian Datta at St Peter’s Church where we will have a chance to reflect and pray on the work we do.

We also finally got round to taking a new team photo! It was a bit windy but we successfully got one!

Our week’s a bit quieter with the run up to half term. We’ve got assemblies at Amherst and La Rondin which will finish up our primary assemblies for this half term.

BOLT clubs are looking at “God Hears And Answers Our Prayers” and senior clubs are looking at “How Was The World Created?” We also will be visiting Ladies College for a second lesson with Year 8 on Creation.

Last night we celebrated the work of our volunteers by sharing a meal with them at La Grande Mare. There were 21 of us, representing a number of churches who support our work. As the work of PACE grows we value the work our volunteers do, we couldn’t do it without them. It was lovely to spend time with you all and we look forward to working with you more. Below are some photos of the evening.

This week we will be visiting Acorn House and Melrose to deliver our New Beginnings assembly. We will also be doing a lesson on Parables at Melrose with Year 2. The parables we will look into are The Lost Coin, The Lost Sheep and The Lost Son. We’re really looking forward to this and hope to book in some more lessons with them.

At St Martins, Phil will be delivering the final week of OT Mini to the first Year 6 class. Please pray that this goes well and they enjoy the lesson.

BOLT clubs are on Week 5 and looking at a brand new theme, God Speaks to Us Through The Bible. We talk about how the Bible is a continuing story. Our verse for the week is “Your word is like a lamp for my feet and a light for my way. Psalm 119:105”
Below is the Leaders Challenge, where one of us has to complete this talk in under a minute!

“The Bible is God’s story—a true story of His love for us. It is a story with real people that lived in cities and towns, some of which are still around today. It is a story that began thousands of years ago and carries on into the future.The Bible is the most popular book of all time! 100 million Bibles are printed each year – more than any other book in the world. The full Bible has been translated into 670 languages. The Bible is not just one book but a collection of 66 books – 39 books in the first part of the Bible called the Old Testament and 27 books in the second part of the Bible called the New Testament. It was written over a period of one thousand six hundred years by at least 40 different authors, including kings, rich people, poor people, fishermen, poets, historians, teachers, doctors and farmers. It is 100% the work of human authors and 100% the work of God. Christians believe it is inspired by God. The Bible is not just a book, but Christians believe God speaks to us through the Bible, showing us what He is like and teaching us how we should live.”

In senior schools this week, we start the first of our lessons on the Christian views on Prejudice and Discrimination at La Mare High School. This session explores how Jesus interacted with people and what we can learn from his example. Please pray that we will be able to answer difficult questions that we are asked as this topic is prone to raising hard conversations.Last week we had the first of the three sessions at Ladies College sharing about the Christian views on Creation. It was really well received by the students who engaged well with the activities particularly the one involving play-doh!! The students asked lots of interesting and challenging questions about how Genesis 1 is interpreted by Christians and seemed intrigued by how the order of the biblical account doesn’t differ to much from the order put forward by Science in The Big Bang Theory. We are looking forward to continuing these lessons over the next few weeks.

In our senior lunch clubs we are asking the question ‘Why trust the Bible?’ – With a view to exploring how the Bible even though it was written hundreds of years ago is still interesting and has meaning today. We will also lead our ‘Why is everyone still talking about Jesus?’ assembly at Blanchelande College.

Please pray for the team this week as we deliver all of these exciting things to the students of Guernsey.

This week our primary assemblies are continuing at La Houguette, St Martins, Amherst, Vale and Vauvert schools. BOLT clubs are going really well with great numbers. This week we are looking at “God Made Me Special”.

In our senior lunch clubs we are exploring the question, ‘What Is Prayer?’ and explain how prayer is how Christians develop their relationship with God. Just like we have to chat and listen to our friends to maintain a good friendship, it’s important to develop our relationship with God by communicating with him.

At Elizabeth College we are leading an assembly based on the question, ‘Why Is Everyone Still Talking About Jesus?’ We explore who Jesus is and the impact that he made on the world and why that means people are still curious about Him today. We show the studentS this video from Alpha USA as part of our assembly: 

We also have the opportunity to lead a session at Le Murier on Harvest. We will be talking about the importance of Harvest and why it is important to be thankful for what we have.

Over the next few weeks we will be leading a number of lessons with year 8 students at Ladies College on the Christian views on Creation. We will be exploring what the Bible has to say about Creation in Genesis 1 and asking the question, “Can Science And The Bible Ever Be Compatible? Please pray for us as we prepare for these sessions.

We have some very exciting news to announce! We are delighted to welcome Emma Backhouse to the PACE team. Emma is the new Children’s Pastor at Trinity Church and as part of her work, will be spending time working alongside the PACE team, helping us to deliver our schools work. We’re super excited to have her as part of our team!

“I am looking forward to building relationships with children, young people and staff in schools. Please pray that I will be able to make good connections between my church work and work with PACE.” – Emma

In your prayers, please also thank God for answered prayer in placing Emma into our team!

We are looking forward to seeing this partnership grow and develop and most importantly excited to see all that Emma will bring to the work of PACE.

This week assemblies continue at Beechwood, St Mary and St Michael’s, La Mare, Forest, Vale, Blanchelande and Vauvert. A pretty busy week ahead! 

In our senior lunch clubs, we will be discussing the question ‘What’s so interesting about Church?” and BOLT clubs are exploring “God is Love”.

We will also be doing back to back lessons at Notre Dame with Year 1 and 2. This will be our RE Inspired lesson on Creation.

What a fantastic start to our BOLT clubs! Last week we started our clubs and each one went really well. The children coming are all super enthusiastic and great fun! At Vauvert, we discovered that 30 children signed up for the club, so like last year we will be running two clubs back to back to allow 15 in each group. In your prayers this week, I’d really like to encourage you to thank God for these fantastic children who are willingly coming to a Christian club during their lunch hour!

In our other work in primary schools, Phil and Sarah took a great RE Inspired lesson on Creation with Year 1 at St Mary and St Michael’s last week. The children created some of their favourite things of creation with Playdoh, including Herm, a snowman and members of their family!

This week Phil will be taking another REI lesson on The Bible at Hautes Capelles for Year 3’s (75 children!!) Please pray for Phil and that the children are attentive and enjoy the lesson.We will also be taking our “New Beginnings” assemblies at Castel and Hautes Capelles this week too.

‘So God created people in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.’ Gen 1:27 – This is a verse we may have heard a thousand times if we have been a Christian or around Church for a long time. Yet, for many young people today it is perhaps not a very known or talked about concept. This week we have the opportunity to speak to Year 7’s at La Mare High School on ‘self-worth and relationships.’ We are able to share with them that as Christians we believe that God created each and every person for a purpose and has a unique plan for their lives.

In our clubs we are often shown the latest video which has taken the internet by storm and is making a difference or videos that the students themselves have made. So this week we are exploring the question ‘Would Jesus be a viral sensation today?’ – Explaining that Jesus didn’t have Facebook, Twitter or Instagram but wherever he went he drew crowds of people to him and used his platform to make a difference. Challenging the students to think about how they use social media and how they can use it to make a positive impact.  

This week, our practical work has really picked up again.

In primary schools we have started our assemblies with our first this morning at Hautes Capelles Infants. We’re looking at beginnings. We start off the assembly reading the beginnings of popular children’s books including The Very Hungry Caterpillar, The BFG, and The Jolly Postman. The children have to guess which book we’re reading from. We end this by reading, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” And ask them to guess this one too. The assembly then moves into looking at how God was there at the very beginning, how he made us, which means that we are special and he never leaves us. He was there at the very beginning of creation and he is here with us at the beginning of this term, of the school year and each day.

Phil will be leading Week 2 of OT Mini for the Year 6’s at St Martins this week. Please pray that the students are attentive and enjoy the lesson. We will also be delivering an RE Inspired Creation lesson for Year 1 at St Mary and St Michael’s.

Finally, in primary schools our BOLT clubs have started again for the term. They are at Blanchelande, Castel, La Houguette, La Mare and Vauvert. Please pray for good attendance for these as we’d love to have a good number for each one!

In senior lunch clubs, we are exploring the question ‘If we can’t see God does that mean he doesn’t exist?’ – There are many things in life that we can’t see, for example, gravity, oxygen and wind. However that doesn’t mean they don’t exist as we can see or feel their effects. Leading us to a discussion about ‘Who God is’ and ‘Can we see any evidence for God in our world?’ despite the fact that we can’t see him.

Have you ever tried to put toothpaste back in the tube if you squirt too much out? Ever figured out that it is impossible? This week in senior assemblies we are talking about how we can’t change what’s happened in the past (like the toothpaste once it’s out the tube, we can’t put it back in!) but we can choose how we define our future. We are really looking forward to sharing this message with Year 7’s at La Mare and Grammar this week. Encouraging them to make the most of this fresh start at Senior School and become the person they want to be.

The team have also been invited to attend a day of training with The Gideons on Friday.

We’re back into full swing at PACE this week with our practical work picking up again.

Senior lunch clubs in most of the schools are starting this week as well as various meetings with teachers booked in.

Phil will be starting the first of six OT Mini courses booked in over the next two terms at St Martins. Please keep them in your prayers this week, that he delivers with confidence and the class engages and enjoys the course.

Phil will also be popping into St Mary and St Michael’s to help teach the Year 1’s a song they are learning, “Jesus, You’re My Superhero”. They invited us to come along and join in, which is fantastic!

In the meantime, we’re preparing for the start of assemblies, BOLT clubs and lessons. Please pray for creativity as we do our planning!