This week we are having our regular lunch clubs and had an assembly yesterday at Le Rondin. We wrote a different assembly to suit the needs of the children at the school. We did our assembly on Creation. We taught them a creation song, encouraged them to explore objects from creation and read the creation story. Our theme was harvest and being thankful for God’s creation.

We would like to thank everyone for their prayers in regards to the number of children attending lunch clubs. We went to our first lunch club at Vauvert and were delighted to have 29 very enthusiastic children! Due to the large number of children we now run two lunch clubs at Vauvert at the beginning and end of lunch. Please continue to pray for more attendance in our other schools.

The secondary team have been doing assemblies in Ladies college and in Elizabeth College with the theme of gratitude and serving others. They are also running regular lunch clubs in La Mare de Carteret, Blanchelande, St Sampsons, Elizabeth College, Ladies College, Grammer and Les Beaucamps.

This week we have been continuing our assemblies in Amherst, Capelles, St Martins, Beechwood, St Mary and St Michael and Forest. The children have seemed to really enjoy these assemblies and are enthusiastic in audience participation and volunteering for acting roles.

We have started our BOLT lunchtime clubs this week. We are regularly doing these clubs in Blanchelande, Castel, La Mare, La Houguette and Vauvert for the first term. The club runs for 10 weeks with a party week to finish. The club include fun games and activities, a short talk and discussion. The clubs are fast paced and the children are very excited to win a prize if they attend four sessions. Please pray for more children to attend next weeks clubs as word of mouth spreads and we are able to advertise in our assemblies.

This is our first week back in schools for the new school year. We spent Monday morning practicing our new assembly and praying for the week ahead. We will be visiting a number of schools. We will be doing assemblies in Castel, La Houguette, Vale infants, Melrose primary and Vauvert. In our assembly we will be looking at the story of the Prodigal son. We will be encouraging children to think about a new start, not focusing on mistakes they might have made last year but using this new school year as a fresh start for new opportunities.

Phil Baskerville is currently away on a Walk through the Bible conference and will then be meeting with the RE inspire team. This is a very valuable resource we use for our lessons and Phil will have the opportunity for more training and a chance for observing lessons in action.

We are also looking forward to next week, when our BOLT lunchtime clubs are starting.

This is an area we have focused on during our prayer space.

Lent can be a time when we reflect on all the good things we have in our life-a warm bed, delicious food, caring families and fun toys to play with.

So many people in the world do not have some of these things. Some people do not have houses, or warm and comfortable beds to sleep in.

Imagine if this was your  house. Would it be warm? Would it  be safe?

Some of the refugees that travel around the world have less than this box and sleeping bag. How can we help people like them?

The children considered this while writing a message or drawing a smiley face on the box. This was to show that they care about people who have less than them. We suggested the children could pray and ask God to help these people.

Chloe moved to the island in the summer from London with her husband and 18-month-old son, Eli. They have been really enjoying exploring and living on the island so far. Chloe is a trained primary school teacher, which is very helpful to us. In her own words:

‘I am really enjoying my experience with PACE – I love being back in the classroom and teaching again. I am learning so much with PACE, teaching older children, and my first time puppeteering! I love working as a team and visiting the schools, although I am still relying on my Sat nav to find my way around! I am looking forward to the experiences I will gain during my time with PACE.’

I go to Les Camps Methodist Church and have been involved in the children’s ministry there for the last few years. I remember PACE assemblies when I was in school and would never have thought I would be doing them now! The puppets were always my favourite… and still are!

I have particularly enjoyed Prayer Spaces, and the lessons, hearing the children’s views and exploring different topics and Bible stories with them.

The thing I am finding most challenging is being confident and comfortable with speaking in front of a large crowd in assemblies when all eyes are on you. It is definitely a step (or a leap) out of my comfort zone but with each assembly hopefully this will improve!

Working with PACE has also made me more aware of how much of the Bible I haven’t delved into yet, we all know the story of Noah, or Jonah but it’s been great to learn new stories that I have never come across!

I am really enjoying being in the PACE team and am looking forward to what’s ahead.

We have just finished our last session in BOLT club for this year. We enjoyed a fun party week, with games and an Easter egg hunt. It has been a pleasure getting to know the children in the schools we have been in and we look forward to our next BOLT clubs. We received this thank you card from Beechwood signed by all the children. Here are a selection of their comments in the card:

“Thank you so much for BOLT club and it has been some of the best days at year 4 and I had fun!”

“Thank you for coming to our school to tell us about God.”

“Thank you for giving up your Friday to teach us”

“Thank you for teaching us about Jesus in a fun way and I liked my prize.”

“Thank you for teaching me about Jesus and for the breadsticks and the raisons and my gift, thank you!”

The senior team have been teaching more lessons this term. They have been teaching lessons on a Christian’s view on creation, what the Bible says on discrimination and what it means to be a Christian. They have just finished six weeks of lessons working with a group of year 9 students at Le Murier, training some students to deliver an assembly to their peers on the story of Joseph. They worked alongside them to help them pass a unit for the ASDAN qualification they are working towards. They spent 5 weeks helping them prepare a presentation on the Bible story Joseph and the Technicolor dream coat with the final week being their performance to year 7 and 8 students. They focused on the theme of jealousy which is demonstrated by the brothers in the story and looked at how we can over come jealousy. This was a really great experience and the senior team thoroughly enjoyed working with the students.

During lunch clubs they have been focusing on the overall theme of Justice, for example different views on crime, punishment, war, the government and poverty. It has been a really fascinating term full of really interesting discussions!