A very Happy New Year to you all.

This term we have hit the ground running with many different activities starting straight away. One of the exciting opportunities is helping a group of students at Le Murier School with their ASDAN qualification. We will spend the next 5 weeks helping them to develop an assembly based on a Bible story which they will then present to their peers. We are thrilled to have been asked for the third time to come and help the students with this project.

We are also looking forward to catching up with the students after the Christmas break in our senior lunch clubs. These weekly groups allow students the chance to play games and chat in a fun and relaxed setting and it is a real blessing to be part of their school week!

Sarah and Sian started their OT Mini course at Forest and Phil started another one at St Martins! Our term is full of these courses, with multiple lessons going on each week so we’d really appreciate your prayers!

We’re looking forward to the year ahead and excited for the opportunities that God will give us to develop our work.

Last week we visited Melrose, Castel and Notre Dame to deliver lessons on the Christmas Story. This was a lesson for Year 3.

We started off the lesson asking the question, “Has Christmas Lost It’s True Meaning?” This was the overall question of the lesson and we would come back to it at the end.

The children came up with lots of answers to what Christmas meant to them and we made a list. These included; the birth of Jesus, decorations, snow, family time, presents, games, fun, happiness and many many more!

Phil then told the Christmas story using Godly Play. The children were all mesmerized by each character and listened very carefully, answering all the questions afterwards.

In one school we had time to tell the story of Papa Panov. We then split into small groups and used the technique of hot seating, where a child became a character from the story and answered questions.

Finally we finished by making a little booklet of the Christmas story. The children loved doing this and there were some great booklets made!

We hope you have a lovely Christmas!!

We’re nearly at the end of term! Our primary school work has slowed down this week with only a few lessons to take. Today we visited Year 3 at Notre Dame where 42 children looked at the question “Has Christmas lost it’s true meaning.” We used Godly Play, craft and discussion to remind ourselves what the real reason of Christmas is: Jesus! The children were fantastic and asked some great questions and had some very thought provoking comments. We will do a more in-depth post about these lessons soon with pictures!

We will also be taking this lesson to Melrose this week. We had to postpone it as Phil was stuck in Alderney at the end of last week! Please pray that this runs smoothly and the children enjoy the session.

Phil and Sarah have been to Le Rondin and Forest’s Christmas productions, both were fantastic and it was so lovely to be invited! We will also be attending the infant and junior productions at Notre Dame.

This week in senior lunch clubs it is Christmas party week. A chance to have fun, play silly games and eat yummy food with the students. This year we challenge the students to make a Christmas themed display out of marshmallows and chocolate matchmakers, so far we have had a snowman warming himself by the fire and a beautiful nativity complete with very fluffy sheep!

We will also visit La Mare High to deliver our Advent themed assembly exploring the Nativity Story and take the final prejudice and discrimination lesson for this term.

Please pray for us as we approach the end of term and also for the teachers and students of our schools!

We’re starting to wind down a little now as we approach the last few weeks of term and Christmas! Our BOLT clubs are in their last week, ending on Party Week with games and silliness! After spending time with the children for 10 weeks, it’s sad for us and them to leave but we’ve had great fun.

Our Christmas lessons are starting this week with one at Melrose. We’re really looking forward to this and exploring the Christmas story with the children.

In senior lunch clubs we are exploring the Nativity, quizzing them on the story to find out what they know. We also challenge them to see if they can tell the Bible story in 30 seconds, so far we have had some very interesting versions of the Christmas story. This week the Advent assembly was delivered at Blanchelande College and Ladies College.

Now that we’re in December, we’re really privileged to have been invited to attend some of our schools Christmas productions. These are always great and it’s so lovely to have been invited! We have La Mare and Blanchelande this week.

This week BOLT clubs are on their last teaching week, looking at “We Can Be Friends With God”. We round up what we’ve learnt over the last 10 weeks:

“Over the past 10 weeks we have taught you lots of things about God, how He created the world, how He loves us, and made us special, how He speaks to us, and wants us to pray to Him. Why did God do all these things? Because He wants a friendship with us. Throughout the Bible, the people didn’t always listen to or want to know God. By sending Jesus He showed how important we, humans, are to Him. The Bible says God wants nothing in return other than our belief in Him. People get closer to God by doing different things. By reading the Bible to understand more about Him. By praying, as then God can help us to know what is best for our lives. By going to church so that they can sing and tell God what they think of Him. Just like we spend time with our friends, God wants us to spend time with Him. Do these things make us perfect people? No – we all do things that are wrong, and make mistakes. But really all these things do is help us to be closer to a God who wants to be our friend.”

We have assemblies with Amherst this week, both infants and juniors, Blanchelande and Vauvert. Phil and Kate Hatton will also be delivering their 4th OT Mini session at St Martins with Year 6.

The season of Advent starts this weekend, so we are leading a number of senior assemblies over the next few weeks based on preparing for Christmas. This week we are at Elizabeth College. We look at different activities we have to prepare for, including Christmas and then talk about how Advent is a time to stop in amongst all the busyness and remember what Christmas is all about. The true reason for this wonderful season which is Jesus coming to earth.

In senior lunch clubs we are looking at the importance of forgiveness. Exploring what makes it difficult to forgive others and how sometimes we all need to be forgiven. Looking at how Jesus taught us to forgive those who have “wronged” us just as sometimes we need forgiveness too.

We will also be leading two sessions at La Mare on the Christian views on Prejudice and Discrimination.

“Pray Day is the third Tuesday of November every year when schools across Europe and around the world are the focus of prayer.”

This week we have been reminded about the importance of praying for our local schools as national Pray Day for Schools took place. We thought we would update you on all of the schools that we visit on a regular basis. The activities we deliver in these schools range from assemblies, lessons and lunch clubs. We feel very privileged to be able to serve the schools in these areas. Below are the schools we visit and some prayer points to help guide your prayers:

Primary:

Acorn House
Amherst
Beechwood
Blanchelande
Castel
Forest
Hautes Capelles
La Houguette
La Mare
Le Rondin
Melrose
Notre Dame
St Martins
St Mary and St Michael’s
Vale
Vauvert

Secondary

Blanchelande College
Elizabeth College
Grammar
Ladies College
Le Murier
Les Beaucamps High
La Mare High
St Sampsons High

Prayer Points:

• For new opportunities in all schools.
• For new relationships with staff and students.
• For friendships among the students, especially in secondary schools.
• For the States as they decide on changes in schools across Guernsey.

As ever thank you for your support!

Find out more info on Pray For Schools here:

Pray Day for Schools

Our primary team are very busy delivering our second assembly of the term this week. We’ll be visiting Haute Capelles, Notre Dame, Beechwood, Vale, Acorn House, Melrose, Vauvert and La Houguette! So far the children (and teachers!) have really enjoyed the assembly and we’ve loved delivering it!

BOLT clubs are into Week 9 looking at “Jesus Rose Again”. We talk about how God has power over all things, even death. The children have a chance to think about what happened to Jesus and ask questions. We’ve had some really interesting questions and thoughts about this. One child thought that perhaps Jesus was risen from the dead because so many people loved him and that power bought him back from the dead. Questions have been things like, “Why did people not like him?” “Did Jesus choose to die?” and “Was he really dead?” What an insight into their thinking!

This week in senior lunch clubs we are looking at compassion. The Concise Oxford English Dictionary defines it as: ‘Sympathetic pity and concern for the sufferings or misfortunes of others.’ Jesus was often moved to action due to having compassion on a person in need. Sometimes we might think issues are too big and we can never make a difference but we encourage the students to think about how any action however big or small can have a huge impact on a person.

We also have the opportunity to visit Le Murier School and teach a session on Advent. We will be exploring the story of the Wise Men and how they prepared to meet Jesus. We will be discussing what we do to prepare for Christmas and the importance of remembering that this a time to think about Jesus coming to Earth.

Last week we visited Adrian Datta at St Peter’s Church for a quiet morning. We were led through a series of devotions based on Luke 10:1-9 and Jesus sending out the 72. It was an encouraging morning as we reflected on our stories of how we had come to work for PACE and our calling of being sent out to do this work. We spent time reflecting on verse 3: ‘I am sending you out like lambs among wolves.’ As Christians we are not promised an easy path, but like sheep in the fields have a shepherd so do we, as we carry out our work we have God watching over us and guiding us on our journey.

In the primary schools, we have just started rolling out our second assembly of the term. This is looking at The Parable of the Great Banquet. To begin the assembly we ask if they could invite anyone to a party, who would it be? Answers so far have included their family, their best friends, but also Michael Jackson and The Queen!

To round up the assembly, we focus on what this parable tells us about what God is like. We ask the children to identify who in the story is representing God and explain how he includes and loves everyone. God invites anyone and everyone to be his friend. This week we are visiting St Martins, Castel, La Mare, Forest, Vale and St Mary and St Michael’s.

Our BOLT clubs are on Week 8, looking at “Jesus Died for Us”. We encourage the children to ask questions. Although we can’t always answer the questions, there have been some very thoughtful ones!

Finally this week we will be visiting the Year 3’s at La Houguette to deliver a recap lesson on child and adult baptism to round up their topic. We’re really looking forward to this and are so pleased to have been invited.

This week in senior lunch clubs we are exploring the theme of Judgement. In society we can be quick to judge others but Jesus’ life was one led by grace, his death and resurrection being the ultimate example. We discuss why we are so quick to judge and what difference it would make to our lives if we followed Jesus’ example of showing grace to others.

We also had the opportunity to share at Les Beaucamp High in an assembly on anti-bullying. We shared about the importance of respecting one another and valuing each others differences rather than using them as away to be mean to one another. Concluding with Jesus’ teaching on ‘treating others how you would like to be treated.’ Encouraging them to think about walking a mile in someone else’s shoes before making a judgement about someone.

Following a nice half term break we are back to work with lots of activities happening this week.

Our BOLT clubs are starting to look at who Jesus is and what he did in our topic, “Jesus came to do good”. We challenge the children by getting them to call out what they know about Jesus, what stories they’ve heard about it and who they think Jesus is.

In senior lunch clubs we are exploring the importance of kindness and Jesus’ famous teaching of ‘Treat others how you would like to be treated.’ We are specifically focussing on this topic as it is annual anti-bullying week next week. We wanted to get students thinking about this topic and the value of being kind to one another.  

The senior team will also be visiting La Mare High for another session on prejudice and discrimination this week with year 11 students. They will also be visiting Ladies College for their final lesson on creation with year 8. The students have been very inquisitive in these sessions and we have enjoyed discussing the origin of the universe with them.

On Wednesday the team will be taking some time together with Rev. Dr Adrian Datta at St Peter’s Church where we will have a chance to reflect and pray on the work we do.

We also finally got round to taking a new team photo! It was a bit windy but we successfully got one!

Our week’s a bit quieter with the run up to half term. We’ve got assemblies at Amherst and La Rondin which will finish up our primary assemblies for this half term.

BOLT clubs are looking at “God Hears And Answers Our Prayers” and senior clubs are looking at “How Was The World Created?” We also will be visiting Ladies College for a second lesson with Year 8 on Creation.

Last night we celebrated the work of our volunteers by sharing a meal with them at La Grande Mare. There were 21 of us, representing a number of churches who support our work. As the work of PACE grows we value the work our volunteers do, we couldn’t do it without them. It was lovely to spend time with you all and we look forward to working with you more. Below are some photos of the evening.