We had a fantastic lesson with Year 2 at La Houguette last week. We were looking at the question “Was Jesus Friends with Everyone?” We first looked at what qualities the children thought made a good friend. Suggestions included; loyal, kind, helpful, caring, honest and fun. Followed by splitting into groups to hear the story of when Jesus chose his disciples. We looked at their backgrounds, what jobs they were and did an activity labelling who was a fisherman, a trader or speaker.

We then moved on to hear the story of Mary, Martha and Lazarus. The children discussed what kind of a friend Jesus was and how much he cared for this family. They finished with a colouring activity of the house of Mary and Martha. Enjoy the brilliant photos below!

This week we’ll be completing our round of primary assemblies for this term, visiting St Martins, Forest, Beechwood and St Mary and St Michael. We will also be going back to La Houguette to deliver a lesson to Year 4, looking at forgiveness and Peter.

Phil will be completing three courses of OT Mini this week at St Martins, La Houguette and Melrose. Notre Dame continues into Week 4.

Lisa and Phil will be visiting La Mare High and Elizabeth College to deliver an assembly on the importance of making good choices. We draw upon Frodo’s struggle in Lord of the Rings film where he questions his purpose of destroying the ring… Gandalf offers some advice in this time of hardship that we all face difficult circumstances but ‘all we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us’. The choices we make affect the person we become and the Bible teaches that we should ‘hate what is wrong and hold tightly to what is good’ Romans 12:9b. We encourage the students to make the most of the opportunities that come their way and to make good choices.

In senior lunch clubs we are exploring the Easter story, finding out what the students know about this event and asking them ‘what they find hard to believe about this story?’ Please pray for us as we discuss this story and explain its significance for Christians today.  

This week we’ll be visiting Hautes Capelles, Vale, Amherst, La Mare, Melrose and Vauvert to continue our Lent assembly. So far these have been going really well, the game is definitely a highlight!

BOLT clubs are on Week 8, looking at “Jesus Died For Us”. We’re really enjoying getting to know the children and seeing them each week. It’s always great to walk into the school and the children are eagerly waiting for us!

We will be delivering a lesson to Year 2 at La Houguette looking at “Jesus as a Friend”. We will be looking at the key questions: “Was it always easy for Jesus to show friendship? Was Jesus friends with everyone?” We’re really looking forward to this lesson, please pray that it goes well and that the children enjoy it!

This week in senior lunch clubs we are exploring the importance of perseverance when taking on new and difficult challenges. We look at the life of Jonah and how he chose to run away from his task but actually in running away that caused more problems for him. Christians believe that God has a plan and a purpose for each person and although it may not always be easy it often turns out to be the most fulfilling and exciting!

Our visits to Trinity Church continue with two more classes from La Mare coming along to find out how the local church can have an impact on the community. Sue Le Friec from Guernsey Welfare explained what the charity does and how it supports people all over Guernsey. See the pictures below of the students visit last week.

This week we will be visiting Notre Dame, Acorn House, Amherst and Blanchelande to continue with our Lent assembly.

Our BOLT clubs are starting to look at Jesus with the theme “Jesus Came To Do Good”. After a quick talk about who Jesus was and what he did, we ask the children what they know about Jesus. They may have heard about different miracles, or parables or they may have some questions like “How did Jesus walk on the water?”

Last week Bishop Darlington from Kagera in Tanzania, who was over with Dr Sue Wilson and Tumaini, came with us to a few of our assemblies and lessons to watch what we do in schools. During one visit at Vale Infants, we were told that Year 2 have just started learning about Africa. After Phil mentioned that he lived in Kenya for a while, the teacher of Year 2 jumped at the chance of asking if Phil would like to deliver a lesson for them! He will be going in this week to do that, which is great. Although not “RE” it is a step forward to them involving us more in their curriculum.

Our OT Mini courses will be going into Week 2 at Notre Dame and Week 3 at Melrose and La Houguette.

In senior lunch clubs we are discussing the question ‘Is it risky to be a Christian?’ – we explore different characters in the Bible who experienced persecution and discrimination. We also discuss if persecution of Christians still happens today and draw upon recent research from the charity Open Doors who do an amazing work helping Christians around the world who don’t have the freedom to practice their faith openly. Find out more here: https://www.opendoorsuk.org/persecution/

This week we are leading a set of sessions for La Mare High Year 10 students on the Church and how it impacts its local community. Rather than taking the lessons at school, we have organised for the students to visit Trinity Church and see hands on how the local church is working in its community. They will hear about different ministries the church is involved in and the reason the church feels it’s important to help other people.

We have also had the pleasure of hanging out with Keith Mallett, a board game enthusiast who has been in Guernsey for just under a week. He has been visiting schools and church youth clubs and sharing his testimony with students as well as teaching them about his board games.

We have now started our second assembly in primary schools, looking at Lent and how it is a time for Christians to have a “spring clean” of themselves and change any behaviors, or habits and improve themselves. To begin our assembly, we have a competition where two teams have 30 seconds to run to the middle, pick up one piece of rubbish, run back and but it in their bin then tag their team mate who does the same. The winner is the team that has the most at the end! We also watch a video clip from Lego Batman and talk about how it’s not only super villains who make bad choices, maybe the things we do aren’t quite as extreme but there are things that we could change about ourselves. We encourage the children to think of things that we all do that we could “throw away” and write them on bits of paper then actually throw them in a bin. So far common suggestions have been; bullying, not listening, swearing, retaliating, ignoring people and being rude.

Our OT Mini courses move into Week 2, with another one starting at Notre Dame. They do the course every two years with Year 5 and 6 so there is about 70 students for that lesson! Please pray that they engage with the stories and enjoy the session! Our BOLT clubs are looking at prayer this week, with an opportunity for the children to write a prayer of their own if they would like to.

This week in senior lunch clubs we are exploring the significance of the Bible as one big story. We look at passages in the book of Isaiah which talk about future events particularly in relation to the coming of Jesus. The Old Testament and New Testament are very much linked together and Isaiah is just one example of where we see this occur. The Old Testament is key to helping us understand the events written in the New Testament.

The final session at Ladies College on the Christian views on War was great and the students engaged well with the activities. Please see the pictures below of some of the comments students made about the lesson.

After a lovely half term break, we’re back refreshed for the rest of the term!

This week in primary schools, we’ll be visiting Amherst, Hautes Capelles and Vauvert for assemblies. Our BOLT clubs are on Week 5, looking at “God Speaks to Us Through the Bible”.

We will also be completing two courses of OT Mini at Vale as well as starting another four at St Martins, Melrose and La Houguette!

In our senior lunch clubs we are exploring the character of Gideon and discussing what characteristics make a good hero. Gideon was an unexpected hero, even when he doubted his abilities God still pursued him because God knew all that he was capable of doing. When we doubt ourselves and our capabilities Gideon reminds us that we all have the ability to be a hero!  

The Year 9 Le Murier students put on an excellent assembly, the performance ran smoothly and everyone played their part brilliantly. We have really enjoyed this experience and we will visit the school for the final session this week to talk about how the assembly went and to write up the paperwork for their ASDAN qualification.

We will also visit Ladies College for the final Year 9 session on the Christian views on War.

We’ve had two primary assemblies this week, at Notre Dame and St Martins. Our BOLT clubs continue, now into Week 4, looking at “God Made Us Special”.

Two OT Mini courses have now been completed, at Hautes Capelles and Forest. Their performance assemblies will be at the end of this week, please pray that these go well!

This week is performance week at Le Murier, they will be leading an assembly they have put together on the story of Jesus calming the storm. It has been great to work with the students over the last 5 weeks and help them to prepare their presentation. They will lead the assembly for year 7 and 8 students. We can’t wait to see the final performance!

In senior lunch clubs we are exploring the character of Joshua. Joshua had to follow in Moses footsteps, it probably seemed a rather scary task but he decided to go for it and he was able to lead the Israelites into the promised land. Following on from last week where we looked at what can hold us back we will explore the importance of pursuing new tasks even if it’s daunting.

It’s great to be back at full capacity again with Emma’s return from a month of travelling! Welcome back Emma!

This week we only have one primary assembly with Vale Infants but our Walk Through the Bible courses continue. Sarah and Sian will be completing their course tomorrow with their final session at Forest.

BOLT clubs continue with more children attending each group, we’re looking at God’s love this week. So far the children’s questions, comments and enthusiasm have all made the half hour we spend with them very enjoyable. It’s so great to be able to get to know the children more each week.

The sessions on War at Ladies College were well received and as the students engaged with the activities they had some very interesting insights and thoughts to offer.

This week we will visit Elizabeth College for a set of assemblies on creativity. For Christians God is a creative being and we can see that in the creation of the world. When God made people in his image he made us with the ability to be creative.  Humans have done some incredible things and achieved some remarkable feats. Yet our identity is even bigger than the things we do! As Christians we believe we are ‘made in the image of God’ – and because of this we are of ultimate worth and significance – above and beyond our achievements.

In senior lunch clubs we are exploring what people are afraid of in life. Drawing upon the life of Moses we encourage the students they are not alone in facing things they are scared or worried about. Moses had a big challenge to overcome when he had to return to Egypt but God promises to be with him all the way. Moses also has Aaron to help him through the trials and challenges and we have people around us to help us when we are afraid. We never have to feel like we are on our own.

Another busy week for us! We have primary assemblies at Castel, Melrose, La Mare, Beechwood and Vauvert. We had to delay a couple of assemblies last week because of illness. Please continue to pray for strength and health for our team!

The OT Mini courses continue, all at different stages, but all going very well! We have at least one lesson every day of the week which is great and keeps us busy!

BOLT clubs started well last week with enthusiasm, excitement and some very interesting discussions.  We are hoping for some more attendance this week as news of the clubs spread. Some of the schools have accommodated us by moving other lunch clubs to ensure the children that want to attend BOLT club do not miss out. We’re very thankful for our wonderful volunteers who are helping us run these clubs.

Last week’s lessons at St Sampsons High were a huge success, the students engaged well with the content and asked some extremely thought provoking questions such as: ‘Why did God put the tree in the garden?’ ‘If God knew we were going to fail, why did he bother to create us in the first place?’ ‘Why did God not stop WW2?’ – These questions have no easy answers and it was a real privilege (and a challenge) to discuss these deep and profound questions with the students.

This week we are visiting Ladies College to deliver a set of lessons on the Christian views on War to Year 9. The lesson focuses on the Just War Theory and Pacifism. We will also discuss what the Bible teaches about the sanctity of life and the importance of justice. We have no doubt that these sessions will lead to lots of questions with no simple answers, please pray for us as we get ready to deliver these lessons!

In senior lunch clubs, we are exploring the theme of sacrifice and drawing upon the life of Abraham as an example of what it means to be obedient to God.

We will also be delivering an assembly at Ladies College on the theme: “Strong people don’t put others down, they build them up.” We look at the life of Jesus as an example of how he equipped and transformed people into becoming the best version of themselves.

Our first primary assembly of the term starts this week. We will be visiting Hautes Capelles, Acorn House, Forest, Beechwood and Vauvert. Our assembly looks at the story of Zacchaeus. Using an interactive story and a “snip & tell” recap we encourage the children that even though Zacchaeus was an unpopular person, Jesus was different. He welcomed him, cared for him and spent time with him! We are all precious to God and we should look out for other people and care for them as Jesus cared for Zacchaeus.

Our OT mini courses continue in various schools, they are all going really well and we continue to enjoy them too! Our new BOLT clubs start this week too at Forest, St Martins, Notre Dame and Beechwood.  This week we’re looking at “God is awesome” and introducing the children to what we will be looking at over the next 10 weeks.

This week we have the opportunity to lead six year 7 sessions at St Sampsons High on the Christian views on evil and suffering. The main focus of the lesson is to look at how God can exist in a world where there is so much bad. The central part of the session is to help students understand the importance of Free Will. We have the wonderful Nicole Le Goupillot, from Delancey Elim Church assisting us in delivering these lessons.

It is our third week at Le Murier and the parts have now been allocated so we will be working with the students to develop their individual roles for their assembly.

In senior lunch clubs we are exploring the question: ‘Is it ever OK to be angry?’ The session gets students to think about different situations they might find themselves in ranging from, ‘the internet stops working’ to ‘your best friend is being bullied’ and how they would respond. Drawing from the stories of Cain and Abel and Jesus cleansing the Temple we discuss the question: ‘Can anger can ever be used for good?’

Finally, we thought we’d share some pictures of our Reflective Spaces with you. Last week, we spent 3 days at St Martins School guiding around 400 children in Years 2 – 6 around multiple prayer stations. These were:

Light Lillies – letting go of our worries.
Thankful Ribbons – what are you thankful for?
Sorry Slates – God always forgives us when we say sorry.
Fingerprints – We are all special and unique, precious to God.
Quiet Area – a space to pray or reflect.
Thankful Playdoh – can you make something that you are thankful for?
Question Wall – what do you want to ask God?

We had a fantastic time and the children were all wonderful. A big thank you to all our volunteers, those who cut out lillies and those that gave up part or all of their day to help us!

Enjoy these photos!

We’re having a very busy week, spending 3 days at St Martins Primary for their Reflective Spaces. So far it has gone really well, please pray for the next two days, that the children will enjoy it and learn more about God and prayer.

On Monday, Sarah and Phil started another OT Mini course with a Year 5 class at St Martins and Sarah and Sian have just done their second week at Forest. Phil has also started two back to back courses at Vale and Capelles and another at Beechwood! It certainly is very busy but that is great! This makes a total of 8 courses being taught in the week!

The overall topic for senior lunch clubs this term is characters from the Bible. This week the series starts by looking at Adam and Eve and exploring the importance of choice and what influences us when we make decisions.

Last week at Le Murier we introduced the story of ‘Jesus calming the storm’ (Mark 4:35-41) followed by a great discussion with the students as we explored what the narrative teaches. This will be the foundation for the assembly they will create over the next few weeks. This week we will start to think about how we can deliver the story and which parts the students will play.