Last week, we set up a beautiful space at Blanchelande College for an Advent themed Prayer Space for the senior school students.

As Christmas carols play quietly in the background, the students enter a room filled with twinkling lights and seven prayer stations.

Here are some of the stations that we included:
There is a treasure box filled with little stars. As students think about the guiding star that guided the wise men to Jesus, they can keep a star to remember how God guides us in life and is always with us.

Gift tags are used for the student to think of their gift or talent, write it on a gift tag then stick them to present boxes to show how our gifts can help others. One student wrote that they were caring, thoughtful and kind and recognised how aspects of our personality are in fact gifts that can be used to bless others. 

Christmas baubles are decorated and written on to describe things they are grateful for then hung onto the Christmas tree. One student wrote that they had found a new love for singing. 

Thinking of Advent being a time of waiting, the student write on a paper clock what they are waiting for and then lay it in a manger as a sign that all these things are brought to God and we trust His timing. One example a student wrote was “For Jesus to come again”. 

Prayers were pinned to a map to pray for the world. One student wrote “I pray for those battling depression and that they know they’re not alone”.

The students loved the sessions and particular favourite stations were the stars and the baubles.

The leader of the sessions began with a snip and tell, where the students were asked to tell the Christmas story while the leader cuts away at paper which then reveals a nativity picture – they loved it!

We had a Emotional Learning Support Assistant visit and she was blown away by what she saw and absolutely loved it, she came to pick up ideas for things to do with her students and was so encouraged with the PACE Prayer Spaces and felt it would be of great benefit to the students.

Please continue to pray for the work. This week we’re having our lunch club Christmas parties, continuing Christmas in a Box lessons and catching up on lots of admin before the holidays! We ask for prayer for health for the team and energy to finish the term well.

We’ve been very busy this term with lots of different projects and lessons! Jo has written about a couple of them here so you can get an insight into what we are doing day to day in the schools of Guernsey.

Creation Lessons
We have enjoyed taking the Creation lesson into Year 1 classrooms across the island, this term. We introduce that we will be talking about what Christians believe about how the world was created which is right at the beginning of the Bible. 

We start by watching a beautiful video of stunning nature images from across this beautiful globe. The children love these and there are lots of “wow!” moments when they see pictures of the Northern lights or thunder storms, and lots of “cute!” moments with seeing baby animals and lots of giggles when they see funny animal pictures too.

The children then discuss what was their favourite photo and why. We talk about this beautiful world and pose the question “should people help to look after this wonderful world”? We then look at the Creation story with the use of picture boards to represent each day that was created. The day of rest is blank to illustrate that in our minds we can each think of something that we would do in the day of rest.

We ask the children what their favourite day was and why. We pose the question “could we remove a day and still have everything that we need”?

The children then enjoy making something from creation with playdough and they all share with the class what they have made and we talk about how they felt about their creation and how God feels about His creation.

A lovely conclusion to the lesson is the treasure box that we show the children. This is where we talk about God’s most precious creation that he loves so much and that we have it here in this treasure box. They come up to look inside and inside is a mirror showing them that they are God’s most precious creation.

The children conclude by discussing the importance of looking after our world and how we can do that.

Prayer Spaces
Prayer Spaces is when we take over a classroom or school library for a few days and have classes visiting us in that room to explore different ways to pray. We have several prayer stations set up where small groups of children visit each prayer station.

Examples of this include ‘prayer lilies’ where you write down a worry on a paper lily and once folded in a certain way and placed in a large dish of water, the lilies slowly open up, symbolic of us opening up to God and releasing our worries to him.

‘Sorry sand’ where each child has a tray of sand and writes or draws in the sand something they are sorry for, then wipes it away, smooths out the sand, showing how God forgives us and wipes the slate clean.

There are many more prayer stations that all show different ways to connect with God.

I love the prayer wall as it is so lovely to see what children write as a prayer to God. Examples of these prayers are – “thank you for being a Father to me” – “Thank you for the best gift ever, my life”. “Please look after my Gran in heaven”. 

A favourite is the prayer tent. A pop up tent with twinkly lights inside or a bubble tube. A chance to be still and quiet and pray in a relaxing space set apart from everything else.

Teachers love how calm it is and the children enjoy having a moment out of their busy day to reflect, think and pray.

Superhero Assembly

We have also been leading assemblies in Primary schools on the theme superheroes.

The children start with a quiz to see if they can guess the superhero from the emoji clues on screen. They tell us what their superpower would be if they were a superhero.

We then explore the idea that there is more to being a superhero such as being kind and caring and honest and brave.

We go into the story of David being chosen to be king with 9 volunteers to play Jesse and his sons. They learn that man looks on the outside but God looks on the inside. 

The children learn that there are lots of different kinds of superheroes, it is important not to judge others by the outside, and that we too can be Superheroes if we work on the person we are on the inside.

This week we are starting to deliver our Christmas in a Box lessons, visiting St Sampsons High for some lessons on Christian Views on War, visiting Amherst for a lesson on Jesus along with daily lunch clubs and a couple of assemblies. Please do keep these activities, the students, team and volunteers in your prayers this week.

This half term we have done 18 primary school Harvest assemblies.

We start with a welcome/introduction and a game.

In this game we have two teams of three children. They have to relay race to the bag opposite them, taking out one item at a time. They then dress one of the children as a farmer. The items are a hat, scarf, coat, gloves and wellies. We have deliberately mixed up the wellies and gloves so they don’t have matching pairs, on realising this they then decide whether they would like to share with the other team so they have matching pairs.

The game is great fun and the farmers look great dressed up by their farmer helpers.

We then talk about what harvest time is and the importance of sharing and giving to others. 

We lead into the Bible story about Elijah and the woman he met who didn’t have enough flour or oil, and how she did as he asked and made bread, and then there was always enough flour in the bowl and oil in the jar.

On concluding about the importance of sharing, we talk about how there are different ways of sharing. We can share a smile with someone. We can share our time. We reflect that at harvest time we are thankful for the food we have.

Our closing prayer sums up everything.

“Dear God, thank you for the food we have to eat. Thank you that we can smile and be kind. Please help us to share what we have with those around us. Amen.

It is the last day of term! We’ve had a challenging year but also seen some amazing new changes – Jo joined the team, we have a new board of trustees and we had a great Vision Night!

Our Vision Night and AGM, was held at the beginning of July at Vale Mission chuch. We talked about changes to PACE leadership with Mark Le Tissier stepping down as Chairman, Jon Honour stepping in as interim Chairman and Paul Mudge as Managing Trustee. 

There was a tribute given to Mark who was present, to thank him for his 33 years of service to PACE and talk about his new OT Mini Presenter role. Mark also shared some words about his years with PACE.

Lisa talked about the past and the importance of the three C’s = 

“Connecting schools and churches, Communicating Christian beliefs and values and Creating space to explore faith.”

There was a report on what PACE has done this year, reflections on the year and challenges faced.

Sarah gave a moving tribute to honour a wonderful, talented PACE volunteer Nigel Lewis who sadly passed away recently. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family. 

Lisa and Sarah talked about the present, update on the work and the team, with an interview with Jo on what it has been like joining PACE. 

Sarah and Eleanor shared about SWYM (South West Youth Ministries). 

Talking about the future, Jo spoke about NT Live that is open to all to sign up for, being held on Saturday 7th September at Spurgeon Baptist Church (sign up here: https://www.bible.org.uk/wtb_event_tickets.php) and the NT Mini training. 

Sarah spoke about Life Exhibition which is an opportunity for local churches to host a wonderful interactive exhibition about God and creation for school students to visit. 

Lisa shared about Andy Bannister who is an Apologist who will be visiting Guernsey in October and already has bookings to speak at various schools. 

We also spoke about church visits and the importance of getting in front of church congregations to share about the work of PACE and how people can support the ministry. Nicole Le Goupillot shared a moving message about making the most of the opportunities that we currently have in schools. 

Treasurer Dan Miller shared about the finances and also shared that he will be stepping down as treasurer for PACE and how much he has enjoyed supporting PACE in this role. PACE are actively looking for a new treasurer to take on this role. 

As it is the end of term, our termly newsletter is now available! Please read it below.

We hope you have a lovely summer and we will be back in September!

This term Lisa and Jo, along with Phil Baldock have led several Christian Worldview lessons at St Sampson High school. This lesson looks at what a Christian believes.
It starts by talking about creation. The students have the opportunity to test their knowledge on what was created on what day with picture cards to assemble in the correct order.

We talk about free will verses robots and looking at how humans make their own choices, and how as a result of free will, we see much chaos around us. We explain that this doesn’t mean that God doesn’t care but is a reminder that we all have free will and it is up to people how they choose to use their free will, and how this impacts others. 

Looking through the Apostles Creed and what Christians believe about salvation, fully puts across the Christian worldview and ties in well with their current Religious Studies topics at school.

The RS teacher was delighted at the content and said it would go well with what they were studying this term.

In primary schools we have been busy delivering Leavers Lessons to all Year 6 classes across all the primary schools, alongside local church leaders.

This lesson helps to prepare Year 6 students for their transition into Secondary school.

We look at the changes, challenges and choices that the students will experience. They have the opportunity to work in groups, think through and discuss their thoughts and worries connected to this move.

This is an interactive lesson with a movie clip, wordsearch and quiz. Looking at the story of Joseph we look at the challenges he faced, and the fact that he rose to each challenge that he faced, and then talked about what challenges they feel they will face in secondary school. 

We also let them know that PACE will be at their secondary school both in lessons and at a lunchtime club so they will see a friendly familiar face and additional support within their new environment. 

We are very grateful to the local churches for funding the ‘It’s Your Move’ Scripture Union books that we are able to gift to 696 Year 6 students. This book contains wordsearches, quiz, top tips, advice on how to tie a tie, personal survival stories from students who have been in this situation before, good advice, a primary school memory page and lots more.

We have seen the students enjoy this lesson and the teachers are grateful for us coming in to talk to them about this milestone. As soon as the students receive their book they immediately start looking through it and enjoying it.

The team and some of our wonderful volunteers recently led prayer spaces at La Mare De Carteret Primary School.

This was where PACE was able to use a classroom for a few days for up to seven sessions/groups a day for classes from Year 2,3 and 4 to visit the prayer space for half an hour a session.

The room was set up with colourful drapes, strings of lights, relaxing music and prayer stations. 

This is to encourage students to reflect/pray and to show them that there are many different and creative ways to pray. 

The group was split between three table leaders. 

We had a station with water and paper lilies. The water had stones at the bottom, we spoke about how worries are heavy like the stones that sink to the bottom. When we open up and talk about our worries and let them go, they feel lighter. The children were invited to write or draw their worry on the paper lily and fold it. They watched as the paper lily floated and slowly opened up. This was a great visual example of how it is beneficial to open up and not keep our heavy worries bottled up and weighing us down. The children loved watching the lilies open and had the opportunity to talk about the topic of worries. This station also covered how Christians believe we can bring our worries to God. 

The next station was about acts of kindness and showed different scenarios like finding a £5 note on the floor of the supermarket and then different choices of whether you would keep it or hand it in. Other scenarios involving friendship and how to treat others was also included. This station also covered how Christians believe that God wants us to be kind. 

There were three other prayer stations covering the importance of saying sorry and recognising how difficult that can be, by writing out something we may want to say sorry for or the word sorry and throwing it into the sorry bin. Being brave and writing on the letter of your name ways that God can help us to be brave. The importance of being a light for others and exploring what “Jesus is the Light of the World” means. 

The teachers thought it was very needed for the children to have space to reflect and be still. 

The children enjoyed the drawing and colouring and reflecting and being introduced to new ways to pray. 

This term Lisa, Sarah and Jo have been doing primary school assemblies on the topic of Noah and perseverance.

The assembly starts with asking the children what sporting event is happening this summer. Many children knew that it was the Olympics and had a favourite sport and athlete to share.

We took turns at various schools presenting and told the children that athletes prepare and persevere, they have a professional person advising them what to do and how to do it. We then made the link that Noah had to prepare and persevere, he didn’t do it alone, he had God telling him what to do and how to do it.

With the help of a very clever fabric change bag that changes scenes each time it is unfolded, Lisa or Sarah told the story of Noah. The children especially enjoyed making the sound of rain by patting their knees.

It was very interactive with the children being asked about their favourite athlete, what perseverance means and who helps them to persevere. 

In the conclusion the children were encouraged to persevere in life just like Noah. They were told that Christians believe that God is still helping all of us to persevere today.

The teachers appreciated the encouragement the children received to persevere. They thought the topic was very timely as schools are preparing for their sports day. One school was delighted at the topic as they had perseverance certificates to hand out to some children during that assembly.

The response from children and staff has been positive and it is also a good reminder for us all to remember to persevere and that we aren’t doing it alone. God is there to tell us what to do and how to do it and to help us each step of the way.

Lisa, Jo and Tom Saddington have also recently been taking Prayer lessons for students in Year 9 at Blanchelande College.

Prayer stations were set up in a classroom, based on the Lord’s Prayer.

Some of the stations we set up included:

A map of the world, post it notes and pens and news headlines. Students were encouraged to write a prayer for a person or country in the world and stick it to the map.

A bowl of pebbles, bowl of water, headphones and mp3 players. The students listened to a recording of Lisa’s voice encouraging them to hold a pebble and talked them through thoughts on holding onto anger and letting anger go. When they felt ready to, they could release the stone into the water and watch it sink, signifying letting go of their anger. 

Another station had pieces of bread to eat while thinking of the line “give us our daily bread”. We provided some large plastic ears and tissue paper for students to write down prayers and put them in the ears to signify God hearing our prayers. 

The most popular station was the one with pipe cleaners. This was to think of someone to pray for and make this person out of pipe cleaners as a reminder to think of them and pray for them. 

Discussion was opened up about prayer and why we pray. There was opportunity for the students to ask questions too.

Lots of questions were asked leading to deep conversations. Students asked questions such as : “Does God still do miracles?” “Why do bad things still happen?”, “Does prayer work?”. 

The students all said they appreciated approaching prayer in a way which was different to what they were used to and many had never approached prayer in a creative way before. The teachers enjoyed having PACE to lead their RE lessons and we really enjoyed delivering these lessons!