The week before half term we delivered a set of assemblies at Elizabeth College on passion for people. We talked about how Jesus was passionate about justice and people being treated fairly. We focussed on the story of Jesus cleansing the temple and how he got angry when he saw the weak and the poor being oppressed by the rich and powerful. We concluded that in our world today there is still a substantial amount of injustice and unfair treatment of people. Sometimes it can seem overwhelming and feels like we can’t do anything to help as the problems are too big. We challenged the students to think about how one change in their life, however small, could make a big difference. 

Over the last 6 weeks we have worked with a group of students from Le Murier to prepare an assembly to present to other students in the school. This week the students performed their assembly and it was great. They lead a quiz on certain teachers’ favourite things which the students found fun. They acted out part of Joseph’s story where he gets sold into slavery and explained how favouritism is not a good quality to show as it leads to jealousy from others. They concluded that it is important to treat everyone equally and challenged the students to think about one thing they could do this week to be kind. We have really enjoyed working with the students and were really proud to see them lead the assembly so well. 

We have now started a number of OT Mini courses at La Mare, Melrose, Hautes Capelles, Castel, St Martins, St Mary and St Michaels and for the first time ever, La Rondin! Phil and the rest of the presenters are very busy but enjoying delivering the sessions to the children. Please pray for them during this busy period. We also delivered our last Jonah assembly this morning at Hautes Capelles. We are now looking forward to starting the next one with the theme of Lent!

Before half term we had a great “Space for PACE” quiet morning with Mick from Eldad. This time we walked around the Guet and Cobo and reflected on the life of Jesus. We were invited to share our favourite parable and as the weather was a bit stormy, we could imagine what it may have been like for Jesus and the disciples when they were travelling on Lake Galilee. We really value these times together as a team to take some time out and reflect on the reason why we do what we do. Thank you Mick!

Finally, at the beginning of February, Sarah travelled to Eastbourne to attend the Hand in Hand conference. This was specifically for those working or volunteering in children’s and family ministry. The weekend allowed Sarah to meet with other leaders and learn some new skills and techniques for teaching children at church and in schools. Walk Through The Bible were there and Sarah got to meet the team and share about how Guernsey is getting on. This also opened the door to meet with someone from Jersey who is hoping to start OT Mini courses in their schools. Sarah met with Bob Hartman who led some of the sessions and he was keen to say hello to everyone!

The sessions Sarah went to included; Understanding and Responding to Children’s Behaviour, Busting the Family Ministry Myths, Encountering God through Prayer as well as others. It was a really useful weekend and we hope to implement some of the techniques in the work that we do. During the Sunday morning church family service, the children helped paint some wonderful art too!

Below are some photos from the weekend. 

Last week we delivered an assembly at Ladies College on the importance of playing our part and taking responsibility for our role. We used Paul’s picture of the human body to show how we all need each other as we are all connected to each other. He says that the body is made up of many parts and each of those parts is just as important as the rest. We concluded that everyone is valuable and that all of us have unique skills and abilities which we need to take responsibility for when it comes to working in a team. 

This week we have been back at Ladies College leading lessons on the Christian views on war with year 9. The students have engaged really well with the questions and discussions, for example following our bible verses activity one student asked ‘If Jesus says to turn the other cheek then war can never be a viable option, how can Christians ever think it is OK to go to war?’ – This lead to a very interesting discussion as the students grappled with the challenging words of Jesus’ teaching. 

We have continued working with a group of students in year 9 at Le Murier on their assembly on Joseph. As part of their assembly they are acting out some of the story, we have spent the last few weeks rehearsing the story. The students have developed their characters and it is coming together really well. Last week we were discussing what we can learn from the story and one student said ‘that we should treat everyone fairly’. This is what they decided they wanted to conclude and teach the other students from the story.  

In senior lunch clubs we have looked at newspaper stories about Harry and Megan and about the tension between the US and Iran. It has been interesting to hear what the students think on these topics and we have had some interesting discussions, particularly this week about ‘Is war ever OK?’ 

We’re still very busy with our OT Mini courses. La Houguette and Forest have just done Week 4 and will be finishing next week as St Mary and St Michaels starts. Beechwood finishes on Friday, just as we start a new course at Melrose too!

Our assemblies in primary schools are all going really well. This week we’ve been to St Martins, Vale, Acorn House and Castel. We’ve really enjoyed delivering these assemblies on Jonah, and they seem to have been memorable with the children!

Our first set of primary assemblies this term have started and are going really well! Our theme is “Can We Start Again?” We start the assembly by getting our introduction wrong; our names, the time of day, the name of the school, even the year! A bit of fun to introduce how we all make mistakes but we can start again. We then show a video clip of bloopers from The Lion King, which the children love. Our story for the assembly is Jonah and through acting it out, we learn that God gave Jonah another chance to make the right choice. We finish by encouraging the children that there is always a chance to try again and make a new start. 

BOLT clubs have also started off well with our amazing volunteers. At Castel our numbers doubled in the second week and we now have 18 children attending which is fantastic. 

Last week we also had a fantastic lesson with Year 1 at Forest on Creation. We looked at the story and got the children thinking about how we should treat God’s creation. They then got to make something they like from the story out of Playdoh – great fun!

Senior lunch clubs are back up and running and it has been great to catch up with students following the Christmas holidays. This term’s theme is ‘things in the news’ – we will be giving students the opportunity to discuss and share their thoughts on current topics! 

Finally, we have an exciting training day coming up in March. Prayer Spaces UK will be coming over to speak to us and help us improve the work that we already do with them. It’s a day for anyone who is a current volunteer with us or who’s interested in becoming involved with Prayer Spaces. We would love to see you there!

It was great to be back together as a team this week after a refreshing Christmas break! We have spent time planning and preparing for upcoming activities. Phil and Sarah have been spending time with the new Walk Through presenters and working with them in preparation for Old Testament mini courses this term. Next week we will be leading courses at Beechwood, La Houguette and Forest with more requests coming in…. including lots of bookings for the NT Mini courses in the summer term. 

This week we taught 2 of 4 sessions on the Christian views on War at La Mare High School with year 9 students. A very relevant topic given the current news reports! This lesson is always a challenge as we discuss questions like: ‘Can violence ever be good?’ and ‘What makes a war ‘just’?’ We discuss the importance of having peace and justice alongside maintaining the sanctity of human life.

A highlight for the team every year is working at Le Murier School with a group of students to help them receive a unit for their ASDAN qualification. This week we had our first session where we introduced the story of Joseph and the Technicolour Dreamcoat. Over the next 5 weeks we will work with the students to put together an assembly based on the story of Joseph which they will then perform to the lower school. 

It was also great to be able to speak at Cobo Mission on Thursday evening and to meet such an enthusiastic and prayerful group of supporters. Thank you for inviting us and for all your support.

Last week, we spent three days with Notre Dame running Prayer Spaces. 254 children from Reception to Year 6, spent time in their transformed library exploring Advent and the Christmas story using a variety of activities. One of our stations let the children think about what they were waiting for this Christmas, they could write or draw it on a paper clock and place it in a manger as a sign that they trust in God’s timing. Another looked at how God guided the Wise Men with a star and how God guides us in our journey through life. Each child got to take a small star as a reminder that God is always with them. We looked at the gifts the Wise Men gave too, and how we can use our gifts, talents and abilities to help others. The children wrote things like “I can help tidy the house”, or “I can buy food for the food bank” on gift tags and stuck them onto our pile of presents. It made the children think of others and how they can use what they’re good at to bless other people. We also had a large map of the world and encouraged the children to write prayers for those people in the world who are treated unfairly or looked down on, like the Shepherds were. Prayers included “Dear God, our world is being destroyed because of climate change, please help us to serve you”, and “Dear God, please look after everyone”. The prayers were beautiful and eye opening to see what was on the children’s hearts. Our last station looked at how Mary and Joseph couldn’t take much “stuff” with them on their journey. We linked this with how we find it hard to forgive people sometimes and that unforgiveness can slow us down on our journey through life. Using Fizzy Forgiveness, we asked God to help us forgive others and let go of “stuff” that will slow us down. It was a lovely few days and we thoroughly enjoyed it. The children interacted very well and we had some great conversations. Thank you to all of the volunteers who gave up their time to come and help us out. Please have a look at some photos from Notre Dame below.

Over the past two weeks we have delivered four lessons to year 8’s on the Christian views on the problem of evil and suffering at La Mare. This is always an interesting session to lead as students grapple with big questions such as, ‘Why is there evil in the world?’ and ‘Where does evil come from?’ We look at the significance of free will and how God did not create programmed robots but free thinking individuals. We give the students the opportunity to get into the character of God and ask them what they would do in different situations… often their version of God involves them acting like the Hulk, Iron Man or the Flash! This is never an easy lesson to lead as the questions are difficult and there are no easy answers but it is a great opportunity to give students the chance to explore these deep ideas.

Yesterday we had our last “Space for PACE” of the year with Nicole Le Goupillot. Nicole gave us some time to reflect on some Christmas songs/carols and a corresponding verse and prompting question. We had time alone to read through these and see if anything struck us. We could then share this with the team and discuss what we had reflected on. It was a great end to the term, thank you Nicole!

As the term comes to a close and some of us get away for Christmas, we reflect on the different, challenging but amazing term we have had. With Emma leaving, Victoria joining, Sarah away for a few weeks and Phil having his hip replacement we have been busy! But we have come together as a team and had a really great term.

We are definitely into the Christmas season now, with invitations to the first school nativities appearing, alongside our Advent/Christmas assembly and Y3 Christmas lessons (5 already booked) and the invitation to speak to a packed hall at the Vale Reception Christingle service last Friday. It’s been great to work with lots of volunteers from a number of churches: Jean (Vazon Elim); Karen (Trinity); Frances (Spurgeon); Sarah-Jane (St Saviours); Nigel (Les Camps) and Claire (Salvation Army). The Christmas lessons and a lesson on Baptism at La Houguette have been very well received.

Another highlight was getting most of the new Old Testament Mini presenters together as we plan for the increasing number of courses next year – 8 new presenters trained this year gives us a huge opportunity to reach all the primary schools in Guernsey and, following the completion of 2 courses at Vale Primary next Monday, bookings are coming in thick and fast for next term – the demand is growing! We’ve also had lots of very interested visitors watching Claire and Phil in action, including Stuart Tanswell and Gill Nobes – rectors of Vale and St Sampson’s.

We have lead our Advent themed assembly at Notre Dame, La Mare, Castel, Forest, Capelles, St Martins, Melrose, Acorn House, Beechwood, St Mary and St Michael and La Houguette over the past two weeks. Last week Phil lead an assembly at Ladies College on the theme of respect. Using the teaching of Paul on how the body is made up of many parts and each of those parts is just as important as the rest. The assembly concluded how we are all equally valuable and no one is less significant than anyone else. 

In senior lunch clubs we have been exploring the Christmas story. This has involved some highly amusing improvisations of the Nativity story being acted out by students. It has been great to explore with students what they think the true meaning of Christmas is and to be able to share with them why Jesus’ birth is so important to Christians.  

BOLT clubs will be coming to an end next week with our party week, a time to just have fun and play all the games we have enjoyed. The last 10 weeks have gone really well and we’ve had some fantastic conversations with these 8-9 year olds. A big thank you to our volunteers who have helped us this term!

It’s been a busy few weeks, with lots of new activities starting. Our new OT Mini Presenters are beginning to lead courses. Last week, Claire Hill and Phil started back to back sessions at Vale. These are going really well and Claire is enjoying the challenge of these lessons.

We’ve now done four more Creation lessons at senior schools, completing all 15. These would not have been possible without the help of Adam and Emma who have enjoyed connecting with their local schools and being involved.

Victoria made her debut in senior assemblies, helping lead alongside Lisa and Phil at Elizabeth College. The theme of this assembly was teamwork and we used the Malteser Challenge (imagine a wooden spoon attached to a metre long stick and trying to feed someone else a Malteser with it) to illustrate it. This activity caused great amusement and I’m sure the point of working together was made! We’ve also led another senior assembly at Blanchelande looking at “Unexpected Heros” where we looked at the life of Paul and the challenges he faced.

Our last primary assembly of this term has started. We’re focusing on Advent and preparing for Christmas. We encourage the children not to forget about Jesus amongst all the excitement of food, presents, trees and decorations. The assembly starts with a “Penguin Waddle Relay” where two teams of four race each other from one side of the hall to the other with a present between their knees. This has been very funny to watch! We go on to read the story of the Wise Men from the Bible and conclude that Jesus is the most important present of all. So far we have been to Amherst, Vale and Vauvert. We also visited Le Murier with this assembly too.

Finally, we had a goodbye/thank you coffee with Emma this week. Although she is leaving the day to day team, she will still be volunteering with us for various parts of our working week. So we’re pleased to still have her working with us.