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!

Mark Chapter 6, part of verse 31 says  “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.”

God knows the importance of rest. How often do we?

In Ministry there is a lot of giving. Giving is expected whilst looking happy and joyful. You want to give of your absolute best, you want to convey the love and compassion and sheer joy of Jesus Christ to those you are ministering to. If there are struggles or sadness in your life, you put that to one side and focus on encouraging and building up others.

Do we use our phone when it is flat? Do we drink from an empty cup?

It is so important for us to recharge and to refill ourselves with living water from the well that never runs dry. If we are to go with Jesus to a quiet place and to get some rest then we need to plan this time, we need to schedule it in the diary.

PACE sees the importance of this verse and knows that to be our best to help others we need to schedule time in the diary to follow Jesus to a quiet place.

This term we were blessed to have our quiet morning with Reverend Mark Charmley.

We spoke freely in this safe space about our daily lives, blessings and struggles.

We looked at a Bible reading of when ‘John the Baptist prepares the way’, had a time of prayer then reflected on this passage as we walked through the lanes of St Saviours.

Returning to the rectory we looked at the ‘baptism and temptation of Jesus’ passage then were invited to climb the St Saviours Parish Church tower whilst reflecting on seeing life from a different perspective. Jo’s faith was tested as we climbed approximately 65 of the narrowest winding stairs that we had ever seen in a very narrow stairwell. As we finally reached the top, the fog was so thick we couldn’t see any further than the cemetery. Reverend Charmley was apologetic that the weather wasn’t clearer for our view. Jo smiled as she thought of our contemplation of seeing life from a different perspective. We felt like God was reminding us that sometimes life feels full of fog, we can barely see our hand in front of our face. We cannot see how things are going to work out and we can’t imagine the fog never being there. But the fog does lift and our perspective does change. Yes the plan was for us to have a better view from the tower, but God often changes our plans and we felt that He did speak to us through that.

We looked at our final passage and refection of ‘the calling of the first disciples’ within the small tower room.

Relieved to have made it back down the stairs and feeling immensely grateful for the opportunity to visit the tower we sat in the church sanctuary for a time of prayer. 

The time flew by and it was a truly beneficial visit, memories of which we will treasure. 

 “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.”

May we all realise again the importance of this and schedule regular time to recharge and be refilled. 

For our last blog post of 2023 we would like to share out latest newsletter with you all. It contains some important information regarding a change in our leadership. We hope you will also enjoy reading about all that we’ve done during this term.

This term has bought its challenges for the team, but we have strived to continue to serve the schools of Guernsey as best as we could, trusting that God is in control. 

We’d like to thank all of our volunteers who have been an incredible support to us, giving their time to deliver a lot of amazing activities in schools. 

Thank you for your ongoing support.  

We wish you a very Happy Christmas and all the best for the New Year.