The final week of term is now here and we started the week by reflecting back over the term. We have had so many great opportunities to share and communicate the Bible to so many students across the Island. We are very thankful for all the clubs, lessons and assemblies we have been privileged to lead this term. Please take a moment to look at our Newsletter where we share some of our highlights from the last few months. Find it here: 2018 Summer Newsletter

This week we have our final transition lessons as St Mary and St Michael’s, Castel and Vauvert. These sessions have been well received by the students who openly discuss the changes and challenges they are going to face at they move to their new schools. Many of the teachers have fed back that the lesson is great and fits in well to the foundation the school has already laid as they prepare the students for their move.

Finally, we had our end of term lunch on Monday but this marked the end of an era. It was Lee’s last team lunch and we were able to celebrate all that Lee has done and brought to the team over the last 16 years. He will be missed by the team and I am sure the schools and students as well. We wish him all the best as he takes up his teaching position at Elizabeth College in September.

As we approach the end of term, our week is mostly consisting of transition lessons for pupils in Year 6 who will be moving on to new schools. Feedback so far on the lessons has been very positive and we’re looking forward to delivering more this week. So far we have been to Notre Dame, Vale and Hautes Capelles. Later in the week we’ll be at La Houguette and Amherst.

Sarah and Sian have just finished their presentation assembly at Forest for the OT Mini course they did with Year 5. They delivered a quick summary of the 5 lessons they taught before the Year 5’s presented the 40 signs to the rest of the school. Well done to all the Year 5’s! We’ve already talked about booking in for next year!

Phil will be visiting St Mary and St Micheal to deliver the last session in their OT Mini today.

Please keep praying for the team as they approach the end of term, and in looking for a new school’s worker. We also ask that you continue to keep the 650 Year 6 students of the island, who will be approaching their last week of primary school and may be feeling mixed emotions about moving to Year 7.

So far this week the primary team have delivered our puppet assemblies to Le Rondin and Notre Dame schools. Later on in the week we will be visiting Blanchelande and Hautes Capelles.

Sian and Phil delivered the final OT Mini to the Year 5’s at Forest. We are looking forward to going in for an assembly in a few weeks to show the rest of the school what we have been learning about and perform all 40 handsigns.

Our BOLT clubs are into their final teaching week, where we sum up all that we have learnt over the last 10 weeks and look at how “We Can Be Friends With God”.

Last week we delivered our final senior lessons of the year, and we enjoyed the chance to discuss the Christian approach to poverty. We were able to share Jesus’ heart for the poor and how many Christians respond by supporting charities that help those in need. The lessons were well received and one student even offered to make a donation in the lesson!

This week the senior team are visiting La Mare de Carteret and presenting our popular assembly on ‘giving of ourselves.’ This means we will have visited all the Secondary Schools with the important message of being kind to others. Then at Ladies College we will be speaking about ‘Using our time well,’ when we will encourage the students to make the most of every day, whether at school, work, or relaxing during the summer holidays. Each day is a gift from God and full of opportunity.

Senior lunch clubs continue to be full of fun and this week we explore empathy. This is at the heart of Jesus’ life and teaching; he said we should love our neighbour and illustrated the point with the story of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37). We are looking forward to finding out how much the students consider the feelings of others using our empathy test!

Finally this week we will be starting an exciting new series of transition lessons for Year 6. We will be using resources from Scripture Union including their book “It’s Your Move”. Multiple churches around Guernsey have “sponsored” these books for their local schools, meaning that every Year 6 pupil will receive one to take away. These books offer helpful advice and guidance for children moving from primary to secondary schools. We will be visiting most primary schools with our secondary team to deliver a lesson looking at Changes, Challenges and Choices and to introduce them to what PACE does in secondary schools.

Please continue to pray for the team as we approach the end of term and for the students of Guernsey, particularly those moving to new schools in September.

Thank you to everyone who came to our Presentation Evening and AGM last Monday. We had a great time although it was sad to announce another change in our team. Sadly Lee will be leaving us at the end of this term to go into teaching. We celebrated his time at PACE with a poem written by Lisa, accompanied by lots of photos from over the years. Please pray for the team as we prepare for this change and for new members of the team. Also pray for Lee as he prepares to start his new job in September.

This week our primary team will be visiting Castel, La Houguette and Vauvert to deliver our puppet assembly. Our OT Mini courses will be going into Week 3 at St Mary and St Michael and Week 4 at Forest.

BOLT clubs are now into their ninth week looking at “Jesus Rose Again”.

The senior team are visiting St Sampsons High for a set of lessons on the Christian view on poverty. They explore questions such as: What is poverty? What does the bible say about poverty? And how are Christians responding to the needs of those in poverty today? The lesson is centered around several interactive activities to engage the students in thinking more deeply about this important topic.

In senior lunch clubs this week we are discussing being brave. Taking inspiration from the film Paddington 2, where Paddington bravely confronts someone in order to make the lives of those around him much better. Further to this we explore the disciples’ change in attitude before and after Jesus has been raised from the dead. They went from being terrified that they would be next to die, to going out and proclaiming the good news of Jesus. In life sometimes it might be easier to follow the crowd but often standing up for what you believe to be right can make a massive difference.

This week we will be taking our puppet assembly into Amherst, Hautes Capelles, Beechwood, St Mary and St Michaels and Acorn House.

Our OT Mini course at Forest is going into Week 3, looking at Joshua, Samson, Deborah, Gideon and Ruth. At St Mary and St Michaels we’re going into Week 2 with Moses.

BOLT clubs this week will be looking at the theme Jesus Died for Us.

This week in senior lunch clubs we are looking at the characteristic of self-control. Firstly exploring stories from when we were little and what we would do if we didn’t get our own way!! Then discussing what Paul has to say in 1 Corinthians 9:24-27 about the importance of running the race to receive the ultimate prize and that takes self-control. Athletes are a good example of the importance of self-control in order to achieve your dream and goal. Things may not happen over night but patience and determination are key to seeing dreams become reality.

We have our Presentation Evening and AGM tonight at 7.15pm for 7.30pm at Les Camps Methodist Church. We would love to see you there and would really appreciate your prayers for the evening.

We hope those of you that had a half term break enjoyed it! Our team appreciated some time off but still visited a few schools. Phil organised some students from Melrose to visit Spurgeon Baptist Church and our senior team took an assembly looking at teamwork at Ladies College.

This week we are starting our puppet assemblies in primary schools. This will be looking at changes, with Oscar wanting to fit in as he moves to a new school in September. He ends up changing his hairstyle, before completely changing his looks. His friend Amy makes him realise that he doesn’t need to change the way he looks but that it’s how he acts that will help him make friends and fit in. The assembly finishes with this summary:

“We often have things that change in our lives, and it can be scary, but it doesn’t mean we need to change who we are to fit in with other people. It says in the Bible that God made us and he loves us just as we are, and he will look after us no matter what happens in life.  So I’d like to encourage all of us to be brave when changes come along. Maybe, right now, we could all think of a change that’s coming up. Maybe it’s a new school, or a new class next year.”

We will also be visiting Vale Year 1’s this week for an RE Inspired creation lesson. We have loved delivering this lesson in the past and are looking forward to taking it to Vale. Phil will be starting a new course of OT Mini at St Mary and St Michael with Year 6, whilst Sian and Sarah continue into Week 2 at Forest.

This week in senior lunch clubs we are looking at the characteristic faithfulness. We look at the story of Daniel and the lions den and how Daniel remained faithful to God. We discuss different areas of life where being faithful is important and how following through on things we agree to or say is important. Being faithful in the small things will help us to be faithful in the larger commitments we make as we grow up.

Also this week we will be visiting Le Murier for an assembly on teamwork, taking inspiration from the story of Jesus healing a paralysed man (Mark 2:1-12). The friends of the paralysed man are determined that their friend will meet Jesus and they work together to make sure this happens. We encourage the students that teamwork is about listening and communicating and how each person has a unique set of talents and abilities to bring to a team.

Next Monday (11th June) is our Presentation Evening and AGM at Les Camps Methodist Church. We would love to see you there! It’s going to be a great evening. Please come along at 7.15pm for a 7.30pm start.

This week our primary team have had an assembly at Le Rondin looking at changes. We told the story of Jesus calming the storm, with four volunteers playing Jesus and the disciples. The rest of the children helped with the sounds and motions of the wind and the waves to bring the story alive. We then discussed how changes can be scary but in the story the disciples had Jesus to help them through it and we have lots of people around us to help us through changes.

We have also visited Notre Dame for our final “Untouchables” assembly. We’ve really enjoyed doing these assemblies, encouraging students to look out for those people who may be feeling left out and include them in their games or make an effort to be friends with them.

Phil will also be delivering a lesson on St Sampson at Forest for Year 3. Please pray that this goes well and that the children enjoy it.

Our BOLT clubs are on Week 6 looking at “God in three parts”. We will be discussing God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.

In senior lunch clubs this week we are looking at anger, considering how we all get angry sometimes as it’s part of human nature. We are giving the students the challenge of making an origami animal to see if they find the task frustrating or easy. We have had a mixed response so far! We end by looking at a verse from James which talks about being quick to listen and slow to respond in times of anger, and ask the students what they think of this advice. Conversations so far this week have been really interesting as students talk about what makes them angry and how they deal with their anger.

This week we will be visiting Blanchelande and Elizabeth College for an assembly on the theme of overcoming a fear of failure in order to try new and exciting opportunities. We draw inspiration from the disciples who hid in fear after Jesus’ death, but then when the Holy Spirit was sent to them they had the courage to go out share the good news. They were completely transformed. We encourage the students to not let fear hold them back as they never know what they might miss out on unless they try.

This week we will be visiting Hautes Capelles and Acorn House for primary assemblies continuing with the theme, “The Untouchables”.

Our two BOLT clubs will be into week 5 looking at “God Hears and Answers Our Prayers”. These clubs have been great fun over the last few weeks with both schools having a great group of children regularly attending each week. Please pray for more to join as the weeks go on but also praise God for those that are coming and that we’re getting to know each week.

Sarah and Sian Street will be starting a new course of Walk Through the Bible’s OT Mini this week at Forest. This their first course as main presenters, with much to remember and prepare. Please pray for them as they prepare, practise and deliver the first lesson during this week. There will also be a course running for Year 6 at Forest run by other Walk Through presenters, Roger and Bev. Please pray for this too and for the presenters.

Phil will be delivering a lesson on the Bible at Melrose. Please pray for him as he finalises the plan and delivers it.

In senior lunch clubs this week we are looking at the characteristic of patience and the importance of developing a patient attitude. We start the sessions off with a few challenges where the students have to exercise patience, for example, giving them a sweet and telling them if they haven’t eaten it by the end of the club they can have another one! We look at James 1:2-8 and think about how perseverance through challenges develops us a person to keep going through all kinds of situations.

This week we are visiting La Mare High for a run of lessons on Prayer. We are exploring the different aspects of the Lord’s Prayer and showing the students there are various ways to pray and different types of prayer. The students will interact with a diverse number of prayer stations with different themes: forgiveness, saying sorry, asking questions and asking God for help amongst others. Below are some images from the lessons.

The senior team will also be visiting St Sampsons and Les Beaucamps high schools for an assembly on the theme of ‘giving of ourselves’ and we look forward to sharing this message with the students.

We will be holding our annual Presentation Evening on 11th June at Les Camps Methodist Church. We’d love to see you there!

Our week has been shorter than normal because of the bank holidays but we have visited St Mary and St Michael and Amherst schools continuing our “Untouchables” assembly. Our lunch clubs also continued at Grammar, Ladies College and Vale.

We have been reflecting on our freedom in celebrating Liberation Day, thanking God for all the opportunities we have visiting the schools of Guernsey.

This morning (Friday) we spent some time at The Monnaie Chapel for a quiet morning. Here we spent some time praying and spending time in God’s presence.