We finished our first round of assemblies at Hautes Capelles this week and are starting our second round at St Mary and St Michael, La Houguette, Vale, Vauvert and Forest primary schools. We are now looking at the story of Jesus Heals a Paralyzed Man, focusing on the actions of his friends, as they lowered him through the roof. Our assembly starts with a game which involves volunteers trying to walk with a ball between their knees, followed by the story being told. The children help bring the story to life by doing some actions or making some noises when certain words are said. For example when the word “friends” is said, the children shake hands with the person next to them.

The assembly is then summed up by bringing out the actions of the four friends, and how they carried their friend and cared for him. They did not stop until they introduced him to the best friend anyone could have, Jesus.

Our OT Mini courses are coming to an end in their Week 5, where some of the events we look at are the exile and return of Judah, Zerubbabel rebuilding the temple and then the long wait before Christ is born. In the next few weeks the children will perform all 40 hand signs to the rest of their school and receive a certificate marking that they completed the course.

BOLT club is also into Week 5, looking this week at God Hears and Answers our Prayers. We talk about how God might not always answer our prayers straight away in the way that we were expecting but he always hears them, whether we say them in our hearts or out loud.

In senior schools, our mini-series has started well in lunch clubs where we had lots of fun playing a guessing game making things out of Play-doh. We introduced the biblical creation story and laid the foundation that all Christians believe that God created the world. This week we are asking the question ‘what about science?’ exploring whether science and the Bible can ever be compatible when it comes to creation.

We are visiting Elizabeth College this week for a run of assemblies on the theme of giving of ourselves and loving our neighbour, drawing on inspiration from footballers who have used their money or celebrity status to help other people. We conclude that we can all be like the Good Samaritan and help others who are in need. We are also back at La Mare to do our final lesson on the Christian attitude on War. Finally, we are continuing our lessons at Le Murier and this week we have a dress rehearsal before the students lead the assembly in front of their peers.

This week we will be taking our primary school assembly to Notre Dame and Castel schools. Our BOLT clubs are looking at the theme “God Has Plans for Us”, where we talk about how our skills and abilities are signposts directing us to the paths that God has for our lives.

Our OT Mini courses are on Week 4 and are all going really well. Last week, one student approached Phil before the beginning of a session and said “I’m really enjoying these RE lessons!”

This week in senior lunch clubs we are starting a mini-series on the creation story. We are looking at the account in Genesis 1 and how Christians interpret it; this week is about how God’s creation is a gift. Also we continue our sessions at Le Murier, where the parts for the assembly have now been allocated to the students. This week we will help the students to develop their different roles.

Another exciting opportunity for the senior team this week is a lesson at Blanchelande College on the theme of evil and suffering. We are looking at Christian views on the causes of evil, how we should respond when bad things happen, and the role of Jesus’ death in dealing with it.

Our week has been busy with primary school assemblies at Amherst, St Mary and St Michael and Le Rondin schools.

In our Year 4 BOLT clubs we have been looking at the theme “God made us special”. We talk about how God made each one of us, and we are all unique. One of the activities encourages the children to look at their thumbprints and create a picture of themselves using their thumbprint as a face.

This week in Senior Lunch Clubs we take on the question of ‘Is Christianity Untrue?’ – looking at the reliability of the Bible!

Last week we had our first session at Le Murier School working with a group of students to put together an assembly based on a Bible story. This work will go towards the students ASDAN qualification. We are looking at the story of Moses and the theme of of overcoming difficult circumstances and having to be brave. We are excited about this opportunity to work with the students.

This week our team will be busy with a variety of lunch clubs, lessons and assemblies.

We will have assemblies at Vale, St Martins, Beechwood, La Mare de Carteret Primary, Acorn House, Blanchelande, Amherst, Melrose and Ladies College.

Our primary assemblies have the theme of “God’s Love Never Goes Off” where we explain that God’s love doesn’t have a sell by date, and is new every morning. This includes an exciting sketch with food that has gone “off” including a green orange..!

BOLT clubs began last week with an great number of children attending in each of the five schools. This week the theme is “God Loves Me”.

OT Mini will also continue into Week 2 in Hautes Capelles, St Mary and St Michael and Amherst Primary schools.

Happy New Year from the PACE team!

We have hit the ground running in 2018, having already led a Quiet Spaces day at Melrose and delivered R.E. lessons on the Christian approach to money and gambling at Blanchelande.

This week we are starting BOLT clubs in five new schools: Amherst, Forest, St Martin’s, Notre Dame and Beechwood. Week one’s theme is ‘God created the world.’ Senior clubs are also starting again.

We have assemblies at Blanchelande (senior), La Houguette, Vale Infants, Vauvert, Forest, Le Murier and Ladies’ College.

This is also a busy time for Walk Through the Bible presenters as there are courses beginning at six different schools this week: Hautes Capelles, St Mary and St Michael’s and Amherst (run by PACE) and La Mare de Carteret, Castel and Blanchelande (run by Roger Brooks and Bev Oldfield). So over 300 children will be doing ‘Walk Through’ this week!

Have a great week!

Today we taught two lessons at Castel Primary school. We used a Christmas RE inspire lesson plan. The lesson focused on the question, ‘Has Christmas lost its true meaning?’ We started off by asking the children what Christmas means to them and then compared it to what Christmas means to Christians. We then looked at the Nativity story as well as the Papa Panov story. The children finished by making their own nativity book.

This will be the last week of puppet assemblies. They will take place at Amherst infants, Le Rondin and La Mare. We will also be teaching some lessons at Castel with the theme of Christmas. We will be using a RE inspire lesson plan and have asked volunteers to come and help with group work within the lesson. We are also very excited to be having a prayer space day at St Mary and St Michael on Friday. Using the theme of advent we hope to provide an environment for each child in the school to be able to reflect, pray and explore emotions.

The secondary team are very busy this week planning for lessons, assemblies and lunch clubs for next term. Please pray for energy for the whole team as we approach the end of term.

Last week we finished our primary lunch clubs with a party! We organised some Christmas themed games as well as playing some of the children’s favorite games from the lunch clubs. It has been a pleasure getting to know the children over the last 11 weeks and have found our time with them valuable. We would also like to thank our volunteers for all of their hard work and dedication. We are looking forward to starting the clubs again after Christmas for year four children at Amherst, St Martins, Forest, Notre Dame and Beechwood.

We had the pleasure of visiting St Sampson’s church on Sunday to share about the work of PACE and to create a mini prayer space event based on what we do in schools. We hope that the church was encouraged by what we shared. We would like to thank them for their prayers and continued support for us as a team.

The PACE senior team are leading assemblies in Elizabeth College, St Sampson’s High School and Ladies College this week on the theme of Advent. We look at different traditions from around the world. Did you know that in Japan, Christmas remains a novelty, with a few small secular traditions, such as, gift giving and light displays? However, a new, quirky “tradition” has emerged – a Christmas day feast from KFC! We then look at the importance of preparing for Christmas and take some time to reflect on the reason for the season, thinking about the tradition of advent wreaths and what the different candles stand for: Hope, Peace, Joy, Love and Jesus. To finish we play a video of the Nativity story.