Meet our new team member: Sarah Snell

I go to Les Camps Methodist Church and have been involved in the children’s ministry there for the last few years. I remember PACE assemblies when I was in school and would never have thought I would be doing them now! The puppets were always my favourite… and still are!

I have particularly enjoyed Prayer Spaces, and the lessons, hearing the children’s views and exploring different topics and Bible stories with them.

The thing I am finding most challenging is being confident and comfortable with speaking in front of a large crowd in assemblies when all eyes are on you. It is definitely a step (or a leap) out of my comfort zone but with each assembly hopefully this will improve!

Working with PACE has also made me more aware of how much of the Bible I haven’t delved into yet, we all know the story of Noah, or Jonah but it’s been great to learn new stories that I have never come across!

I am really enjoying being in the PACE team and am looking forward to what’s ahead.

BOLT CLUB

 

We have just finished our last session in BOLT club for this year. We enjoyed a fun party week, with games and an Easter egg hunt. It has been a pleasure getting to know the children in the schools we have been in and we look forward to our next BOLT clubs. We received this thank you card from Beechwood signed by all the children. Here are a selection of their comments in the card:

“Thank you so much for BOLT club and it has been some of the best days at year 4 and I had fun!”

“Thank you for coming to our school to tell us about God.”

“Thank you for giving up your Friday to teach us”

“Thank you for teaching us about Jesus in a fun way and I liked my prize.”

“Thank you for teaching me about Jesus and for the breadsticks and the raisons and my gift, thank you!”

 

 

Senior team update

The senior team have been teaching more lessons this term. They have been teaching lessons on a Christian’s view on creation, what the Bible says on discrimination and what it means to be a Christian. They have just finished six weeks of lessons working with a group of year 9 students at Le Murier, training some students to deliver an assembly to their peers on the story of Joseph. They worked alongside them to help them pass a unit for the ASDAN qualification they are working towards. They spent 5 weeks helping them prepare a presentation on the Bible story Joseph and the Technicolor dream coat with the final week being their performance to year 7 and 8 students. They focused on the theme of jealousy which is demonstrated by the brothers in the story and looked at how we can over come jealousy. This was a really great experience and the senior team thoroughly enjoyed working with the students.

During lunch clubs they have been focusing on the overall theme of Justice, for example different views on crime, punishment, war, the government and poverty. It has been a really fascinating term full of really interesting discussions!

The team are currently preparing for a group of lessons coming up at La Mare for year 11s on the creation story in the Bible.

Prayer Space set up

This is an image of a prayer space set up in a school this term. Overall the PACE team have organised and completed prayer spaces in 11 schools. As many as 19 prayer space events have happened so far with 4 more to take place next term. The purpose of prayer spaces is to teach children that they do not have to just pray to God quietly with their hands crossed and head bowed. The children learn about the different ways we can talk to God and different areas we can pray for. The children go around each prayer station in small groups with a PACE staff member or volunteer and complete each creative activity with a specific focus. The areas we focused on during our last prayer space was thankfulness, forgiveness, thinking and praying for others, peace and the love of God. The children really enjoyed each activity and we even had teachers come and use the different areas to pray!

A busy term for the Primary team

PACE have had a very busy term! We have led puppet show assemblies in all Primary schools on the island. In these assemblies we have used the puppets to teach the children about Lent and what Christians remember and reflect upon during this time. We have also taught lessons in various year groups across three Primary Schools. We have focused on the topics of parables and miracles. We teach these lessons in a fun and interactive way! We have also almost completed a course of BOLT lunchtime clubs in a range of schools. We had a large number of children attend these clubs and we have had many great discussions, activities and games.