This term started like all those that have gone before it, with a team meeting however, this one looked like no other in the history of PACE, it took place over the internet on Zoom – the new ‘normal’ for so many people working from home. It was announced last week that Guernsey Schools will remain closed until May half term. This means no PACE activities will be able to take place for the foreseeable future.

We are often asked how many schools there are on the island. There are 16 primary schools and 8 senior schools that we work in. We have designed a map for you to see the location of these schools. Please do continue to pray for the schools at this time.

The team will be taking this time to catch up on admin and to prepare lessons and resources for future activities. Phil is very busy planning and preparing for the launch of a new 5 week New Testament Mini course (from Walk Through the Bible)  which we hope to be able to roll out later this term or in the new school year. Sarah is busy working on our website and we hope to have an updated ‘History’ page to share with you soon. Victoria is keeping busy by creating lots of great visuals for us to use in our work. Lisa has been busy reading and updating the policies… we will let you decide who drew the short straw!! 

Here is a little piece of history as Phil prepares to launch NT Mini. We have been teaching our 5-week Bible courses – Walk through the Bible – since October 2008 and, for those who like numbers, some amazing figures:

First ever course in Guernsey was at Vale Juniors in 2008 where our very own Victoria was a member of the class! (Phil feels very old!)

Since that one course in 2008-9 it became 3 courses in 2009-10; 4 courses 2010-11; 14 courses 2011-12 and in 2012-13; 18 courses in 2013-14; 22 courses in 2014-15; 17 in 2015-16; 23 courses in 2016-17; 22 in 2017-18; 15 in 2018-19 and this current year we hope to complete 17 courses. That’s a total so far of 170 courses……850 lessons…..to 5,797 children in every primary school in Guernsey! Amazing! And with lots of new presenters trained, many more lessons to come! 

We hope you are all keeping well during this time. Thank you as always for your support!

We hope this Newsletter offers some positive and uplifting reading in these unfamiliar and uncertain times we currently find ourselves in.

We would like to draw your attention to our lessons section as we have been busy with many amazing opportunities to explore the Bible with children in Year 5 with a number of OT Mini courses running simultaneously. We’re so thankful for the unique opportunity we have in Guernsey. 

As you are aware the term was cut short and we were unable to complete all that we had hoped. However, we aim to continue when the schools return and so are faithfully preparing for when this happens. 

We may not be able to be a presence in our schools, but we can still pray for all the children, students and teachers that we have seen over the past few months. We ask that you too remember them and those still working or attending school in your prayers.  

Thank you for your continued support.

We hope you have a lovely Easter!

“When anxiety was great within me, your consolation brought joy to my soul” Psalm 94:19. 

The last few weeks have been chaotic and uncertain with the situation surrounding Coronavirus changing daily. The guidance and advice had a big impact on our work as we looked to support the schools of Guernsey. Our diary went from overwhelmingly full to nearly empty overnight as many assemblies, lessons and lunch clubs were rightly cancelled. Please join with us as we pray for schools across the Island as they adjust to working at home over the next few weeks. 

Due to the Coronavirus pandemic and the advice given on non-essential travel we took the decision to cancel our Prayer Spaces Training Day which was due to take place on Saturday 21st March. We hope that this event will be rescheduled for later in the year. 

A weird term, but SO much achieved! Lots of new OT Mini presenters now ‘up and running’ – well done Claire, Eleanor, Frances, Nigel and Sarah-Jane – and, although some courses were interrupted, we have taught 43 OT Mini lessons to nearly 400 children, including our first ever lessons at Le Rondin……. with lots more to come (?!? we hope!) next term. Great comment on our last day of teaching – from a parent-teacher – her son was struggling to come to school through all the uncertainties but she told me ‘he got up and came to school that day because he was desperate not to miss the OT Mini lesson’!! I love it!! – Phil

One set of lessons we were able to continue with was ‘Christian views on Creation’ at Blanchelande with year 9 students. These lessons are always interesting as we discuss with students the origins of the world. We discuss Genesis 1 asking the students to think about what is the most important part of creation and do they think anything could have been left out? One activity involves them putting the days in order using images which depict each day. We set Victoria the task of creating some new images and they are so good we thought we would share them with you. Please see below. 

In the past week we have started our new primary assembly. This time we are looking at food and how we are very blessed to have so much but that there are some people in the world who don’t have as much as we do. We use the story of Feeding the Five Thousand to illustrate how the little that the boy gave and the power of Jesus made a huge difference to many many people. We conclude by challenging the children to do something in the next week to help other people. That could be sharing their food with someone, baking someone a cake or buying an extra tin of baked beans and putting it in the food donation bins. We encourage them that even a little act of kindness goes a long way.

Our many many OT Mini courses are going well and Phil and the team are working hard! Last week for the first time, Phil started a course at La Rondin which has gone down very well with the pupils there. We’re excited to see the developments of this relationship with the school and the children there. St Mary and St Michael’s new course started yesterday which takes us to seven courses running at the same time! Please keep Phil, the team and also these schools in your prayers!

In BOLT clubs we’ve moved on to looking into the life of Jesus. We’ve discovered that he came to do good and this week have looked at why he died for us. Using a bit of science, we show the children how Jesus washes away our sins and forgives us.

In senior lunch clubs we have continued looking at things in the news and have had some great discussions with the students. We have looked at the impact of Brexit, the outbreak of Coronavirus and climate change. As the end of term draws closer we will look at the Easter story and the events that took place over 2000 years ago and how they still have an impact on the world today! 

The week before half term we delivered a set of assemblies at Elizabeth College on passion for people. We talked about how Jesus was passionate about justice and people being treated fairly. We focussed on the story of Jesus cleansing the temple and how he got angry when he saw the weak and the poor being oppressed by the rich and powerful. We concluded that in our world today there is still a substantial amount of injustice and unfair treatment of people. Sometimes it can seem overwhelming and feels like we can’t do anything to help as the problems are too big. We challenged the students to think about how one change in their life, however small, could make a big difference. 

Over the last 6 weeks we have worked with a group of students from Le Murier to prepare an assembly to present to other students in the school. This week the students performed their assembly and it was great. They lead a quiz on certain teachers’ favourite things which the students found fun. They acted out part of Joseph’s story where he gets sold into slavery and explained how favouritism is not a good quality to show as it leads to jealousy from others. They concluded that it is important to treat everyone equally and challenged the students to think about one thing they could do this week to be kind. We have really enjoyed working with the students and were really proud to see them lead the assembly so well. 

We have now started a number of OT Mini courses at La Mare, Melrose, Hautes Capelles, Castel, St Martins, St Mary and St Michaels and for the first time ever, La Rondin! Phil and the rest of the presenters are very busy but enjoying delivering the sessions to the children. Please pray for them during this busy period. We also delivered our last Jonah assembly this morning at Hautes Capelles. We are now looking forward to starting the next one with the theme of Lent!

Before half term we had a great “Space for PACE” quiet morning with Mick from Eldad. This time we walked around the Guet and Cobo and reflected on the life of Jesus. We were invited to share our favourite parable and as the weather was a bit stormy, we could imagine what it may have been like for Jesus and the disciples when they were travelling on Lake Galilee. We really value these times together as a team to take some time out and reflect on the reason why we do what we do. Thank you Mick!

Finally, at the beginning of February, Sarah travelled to Eastbourne to attend the Hand in Hand conference. This was specifically for those working or volunteering in children’s and family ministry. The weekend allowed Sarah to meet with other leaders and learn some new skills and techniques for teaching children at church and in schools. Walk Through The Bible were there and Sarah got to meet the team and share about how Guernsey is getting on. This also opened the door to meet with someone from Jersey who is hoping to start OT Mini courses in their schools. Sarah met with Bob Hartman who led some of the sessions and he was keen to say hello to everyone!

The sessions Sarah went to included; Understanding and Responding to Children’s Behaviour, Busting the Family Ministry Myths, Encountering God through Prayer as well as others. It was a really useful weekend and we hope to implement some of the techniques in the work that we do. During the Sunday morning church family service, the children helped paint some wonderful art too!

Below are some photos from the weekend. 

Last week we delivered an assembly at Ladies College on the importance of playing our part and taking responsibility for our role. We used Paul’s picture of the human body to show how we all need each other as we are all connected to each other. He says that the body is made up of many parts and each of those parts is just as important as the rest. We concluded that everyone is valuable and that all of us have unique skills and abilities which we need to take responsibility for when it comes to working in a team. 

This week we have been back at Ladies College leading lessons on the Christian views on war with year 9. The students have engaged really well with the questions and discussions, for example following our bible verses activity one student asked ‘If Jesus says to turn the other cheek then war can never be a viable option, how can Christians ever think it is OK to go to war?’ – This lead to a very interesting discussion as the students grappled with the challenging words of Jesus’ teaching. 

We have continued working with a group of students in year 9 at Le Murier on their assembly on Joseph. As part of their assembly they are acting out some of the story, we have spent the last few weeks rehearsing the story. The students have developed their characters and it is coming together really well. Last week we were discussing what we can learn from the story and one student said ‘that we should treat everyone fairly’. This is what they decided they wanted to conclude and teach the other students from the story.  

In senior lunch clubs we have looked at newspaper stories about Harry and Megan and about the tension between the US and Iran. It has been interesting to hear what the students think on these topics and we have had some interesting discussions, particularly this week about ‘Is war ever OK?’ 

We’re still very busy with our OT Mini courses. La Houguette and Forest have just done Week 4 and will be finishing next week as St Mary and St Michaels starts. Beechwood finishes on Friday, just as we start a new course at Melrose too!

Our assemblies in primary schools are all going really well. This week we’ve been to St Martins, Vale, Acorn House and Castel. We’ve really enjoyed delivering these assemblies on Jonah, and they seem to have been memorable with the children!

Our first set of primary assemblies this term have started and are going really well! Our theme is “Can We Start Again?” We start the assembly by getting our introduction wrong; our names, the time of day, the name of the school, even the year! A bit of fun to introduce how we all make mistakes but we can start again. We then show a video clip of bloopers from The Lion King, which the children love. Our story for the assembly is Jonah and through acting it out, we learn that God gave Jonah another chance to make the right choice. We finish by encouraging the children that there is always a chance to try again and make a new start. 

BOLT clubs have also started off well with our amazing volunteers. At Castel our numbers doubled in the second week and we now have 18 children attending which is fantastic. 

Last week we also had a fantastic lesson with Year 1 at Forest on Creation. We looked at the story and got the children thinking about how we should treat God’s creation. They then got to make something they like from the story out of Playdoh – great fun!

Senior lunch clubs are back up and running and it has been great to catch up with students following the Christmas holidays. This term’s theme is ‘things in the news’ – we will be giving students the opportunity to discuss and share their thoughts on current topics! 

Finally, we have an exciting training day coming up in March. Prayer Spaces UK will be coming over to speak to us and help us improve the work that we already do with them. It’s a day for anyone who is a current volunteer with us or who’s interested in becoming involved with Prayer Spaces. We would love to see you there!

It was great to be back together as a team this week after a refreshing Christmas break! We have spent time planning and preparing for upcoming activities. Phil and Sarah have been spending time with the new Walk Through presenters and working with them in preparation for Old Testament mini courses this term. Next week we will be leading courses at Beechwood, La Houguette and Forest with more requests coming in…. including lots of bookings for the NT Mini courses in the summer term. 

This week we taught 2 of 4 sessions on the Christian views on War at La Mare High School with year 9 students. A very relevant topic given the current news reports! This lesson is always a challenge as we discuss questions like: ‘Can violence ever be good?’ and ‘What makes a war ‘just’?’ We discuss the importance of having peace and justice alongside maintaining the sanctity of human life.

A highlight for the team every year is working at Le Murier School with a group of students to help them receive a unit for their ASDAN qualification. This week we had our first session where we introduced the story of Joseph and the Technicolour Dreamcoat. Over the next 5 weeks we will work with the students to put together an assembly based on the story of Joseph which they will then perform to the lower school. 

It was also great to be able to speak at Cobo Mission on Thursday evening and to meet such an enthusiastic and prayerful group of supporters. Thank you for inviting us and for all your support.

Last week, we spent three days with Notre Dame running Prayer Spaces. 254 children from Reception to Year 6, spent time in their transformed library exploring Advent and the Christmas story using a variety of activities. One of our stations let the children think about what they were waiting for this Christmas, they could write or draw it on a paper clock and place it in a manger as a sign that they trust in God’s timing. Another looked at how God guided the Wise Men with a star and how God guides us in our journey through life. Each child got to take a small star as a reminder that God is always with them. We looked at the gifts the Wise Men gave too, and how we can use our gifts, talents and abilities to help others. The children wrote things like “I can help tidy the house”, or “I can buy food for the food bank” on gift tags and stuck them onto our pile of presents. It made the children think of others and how they can use what they’re good at to bless other people. We also had a large map of the world and encouraged the children to write prayers for those people in the world who are treated unfairly or looked down on, like the Shepherds were. Prayers included “Dear God, our world is being destroyed because of climate change, please help us to serve you”, and “Dear God, please look after everyone”. The prayers were beautiful and eye opening to see what was on the children’s hearts. Our last station looked at how Mary and Joseph couldn’t take much “stuff” with them on their journey. We linked this with how we find it hard to forgive people sometimes and that unforgiveness can slow us down on our journey through life. Using Fizzy Forgiveness, we asked God to help us forgive others and let go of “stuff” that will slow us down. It was a lovely few days and we thoroughly enjoyed it. The children interacted very well and we had some great conversations. Thank you to all of the volunteers who gave up their time to come and help us out. Please have a look at some photos from Notre Dame below.

Over the past two weeks we have delivered four lessons to year 8’s on the Christian views on the problem of evil and suffering at La Mare. This is always an interesting session to lead as students grapple with big questions such as, ‘Why is there evil in the world?’ and ‘Where does evil come from?’ We look at the significance of free will and how God did not create programmed robots but free thinking individuals. We give the students the opportunity to get into the character of God and ask them what they would do in different situations… often their version of God involves them acting like the Hulk, Iron Man or the Flash! This is never an easy lesson to lead as the questions are difficult and there are no easy answers but it is a great opportunity to give students the chance to explore these deep ideas.

Yesterday we had our last “Space for PACE” of the year with Nicole Le Goupillot. Nicole gave us some time to reflect on some Christmas songs/carols and a corresponding verse and prompting question. We had time alone to read through these and see if anything struck us. We could then share this with the team and discuss what we had reflected on. It was a great end to the term, thank you Nicole!

As the term comes to a close and some of us get away for Christmas, we reflect on the different, challenging but amazing term we have had. With Emma leaving, Victoria joining, Sarah away for a few weeks and Phil having his hip replacement we have been busy! But we have come together as a team and had a really great term.

We are definitely into the Christmas season now, with invitations to the first school nativities appearing, alongside our Advent/Christmas assembly and Y3 Christmas lessons (5 already booked) and the invitation to speak to a packed hall at the Vale Reception Christingle service last Friday. It’s been great to work with lots of volunteers from a number of churches: Jean (Vazon Elim); Karen (Trinity); Frances (Spurgeon); Sarah-Jane (St Saviours); Nigel (Les Camps) and Claire (Salvation Army). The Christmas lessons and a lesson on Baptism at La Houguette have been very well received.

Another highlight was getting most of the new Old Testament Mini presenters together as we plan for the increasing number of courses next year – 8 new presenters trained this year gives us a huge opportunity to reach all the primary schools in Guernsey and, following the completion of 2 courses at Vale Primary next Monday, bookings are coming in thick and fast for next term – the demand is growing! We’ve also had lots of very interested visitors watching Claire and Phil in action, including Stuart Tanswell and Gill Nobes – rectors of Vale and St Sampson’s.

We have lead our Advent themed assembly at Notre Dame, La Mare, Castel, Forest, Capelles, St Martins, Melrose, Acorn House, Beechwood, St Mary and St Michael and La Houguette over the past two weeks. Last week Phil lead an assembly at Ladies College on the theme of respect. Using the teaching of Paul on how the body is made up of many parts and each of those parts is just as important as the rest. The assembly concluded how we are all equally valuable and no one is less significant than anyone else. 

In senior lunch clubs we have been exploring the Christmas story. This has involved some highly amusing improvisations of the Nativity story being acted out by students. It has been great to explore with students what they think the true meaning of Christmas is and to be able to share with them why Jesus’ birth is so important to Christians.  

BOLT clubs will be coming to an end next week with our party week, a time to just have fun and play all the games we have enjoyed. The last 10 weeks have gone really well and we’ve had some fantastic conversations with these 8-9 year olds. A big thank you to our volunteers who have helped us this term!