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!

It’s been a busy few weeks, with lots of new activities starting. Our new OT Mini Presenters are beginning to lead courses. Last week, Claire Hill and Phil started back to back sessions at Vale. These are going really well and Claire is enjoying the challenge of these lessons.

We’ve now done four more Creation lessons at senior schools, completing all 15. These would not have been possible without the help of Adam and Emma who have enjoyed connecting with their local schools and being involved.

Victoria made her debut in senior assemblies, helping lead alongside Lisa and Phil at Elizabeth College. The theme of this assembly was teamwork and we used the Malteser Challenge (imagine a wooden spoon attached to a metre long stick and trying to feed someone else a Malteser with it) to illustrate it. This activity caused great amusement and I’m sure the point of working together was made! We’ve also led another senior assembly at Blanchelande looking at “Unexpected Heros” where we looked at the life of Paul and the challenges he faced.

Our last primary assembly of this term has started. We’re focusing on Advent and preparing for Christmas. We encourage the children not to forget about Jesus amongst all the excitement of food, presents, trees and decorations. The assembly starts with a “Penguin Waddle Relay” where two teams of four race each other from one side of the hall to the other with a present between their knees. This has been very funny to watch! We go on to read the story of the Wise Men from the Bible and conclude that Jesus is the most important present of all. So far we have been to Amherst, Vale and Vauvert. We also visited Le Murier with this assembly too.

Finally, we had a goodbye/thank you coffee with Emma this week. Although she is leaving the day to day team, she will still be volunteering with us for various parts of our working week. So we’re pleased to still have her working with us.

Following a refreshing half term break the PACE team are back in action. Phil has been given the all clear following his hip replacement and has now rejoined the team. It is great to have him back and we are thankful that all has gone well following his operation. Thank you for praying for Phil over the last few months.

This week we have led 11 lessons on the Christian views on Creation at three different schools: La Mare, St Sampsons and Ladies College. We have enjoyed all these sessions and the students have engaged really well with the activities and questions. It is always interesting to hear from the students about how they think the world was created. Some of the sessions have been with Year 7 students. We have enjoyed reconnecting with pupils that remember PACE from primary school and finding out how their transition to secondary school has gone. Much to the joy of Phil one major thing they remember is the ‘creation song’ and so we have had many renditions sung to us this week!!

In senior lunch clubs we have looked at the topic of forgiveness, posing the question ‘how easy do we find it to forgive?’ In BOLT clubs the theme for this week was ‘Jesus came to do good’.

We have some exciting news to share with you this week! PACE have hired a new schools worker, Victoria Thorburn.

Victoria has joined PACE after completing an HND course in art and design where she was able to explore her faith through her art. She enjoys working with the youth and finding creative ways to explore faith in the world today. Victoria goes to Eldad Elim Church and has been involved with the youth work as well as being on the worship team. She enjoys reading comics, composing music and making one too many puns. We are really looking forward to getting to know her and see her grow into her role at PACE. Her first team meeting involved tea and cake at Oatlands! Thank you for your prayers in our search for a new worker, we’re so pleased to have Victoria on board!

In other news, the primary assembly is going well and will be delivered to Vale, La Houguette, St Martins, Vauvert, Beechwood and Amherst this week. Lunch clubs are continuing to run. In the senior schools, we have been exploring friendships and relationships. This week in BOLT we are looking at the Bible and how “God speaks to us through the Bible.”

Next week, we will be delivering the first of 14 lessons on the Christian views on Creation at Ladies College, St Sampsons and La Mare High. These will continue after half term. Please pray for the team as they lead these sessions.

Last week we had the Hautes Capelles lesson looking at the Bible with Year 3s. The session went really well with the children interacting with the activities. We started by asking them what they already knew about the Bible and were encouraged by the amount they could tells us about stories or people in the Bible. When we looked at specific stories like Creation, Noah, and Jesus in more depth, they were able to fill in the gaps when we asked them. The lesson was received well by the school and said that “it was a great introduction to the special book that Christians believe in.” Thank you to Adam and Claire who helped us in presenting this lesson.

Lisa and Claire Hill, from The Salvation Army, visited Le Murier school to deliver an assembly on Harvest to the Year 7s. We looked at our favourite food, where food comes from and the importance of sharing our food. This was illustrated by Lisa refusing to share her box of Celebrations! Claire then reminded Lisa the importance of sharing and giving with a joyful heart (2 Corinthians 9:7.

Primary assemblies started off at Hautes Capelles last week, continuing at Forest, La Mare and Castel this week. Our theme is feeling like the odd one out and the importance of including and helping our neighbours who are feeling left out or are in need. We use the story of the Good Samaritan to illustrate the importance of being a friend to everyone.

In senior schools, we have visited Elizabeth College this week where the assembly looked at taking responsibility for your actions. Lisa was joined by Mick from Eldad to deliver these assemblies. We encouraged the students to think about what kind of person they wanted to be. At Ladies College we will lead an assembly on how the choices we make impact other people.

A message from Phil:
“It’s been a very different start to the new school year for me personally! Instead of the usual new term busy-ness, I had my long awaited and much needed hip replacement operation in early September, and after 4 days in hospital I returned home to start the long enforced lay-off period of rest and recuperation, which will take me out of ‘up-front’ action until after half term, having been signed off work by the surgeon for 6-8 weeks! The operation went really well – thank you so much for your prayers and the many cards that have appeared! So now it’s keeping up with the prescribed physio appointments and exercises which, hopefully, will produce a much more mobile and energetic me!!

Before the op, however, it was great to be able to train 5 more new OT mini presenters in late August, having now been authorised by ‘Walk through the Bible UK’ to train new presenters myself here in Guernsey – so welcome to the team: Sarah-Jane Allen (St Saviour’s); Tim and Dorcas Berry (La Villiaze); Frances Ogier (Spurgeon Baptist) and Eleanor White (St Peter’s). That makes 8 new presenters this year as the demand for this exciting 5-week Bible course has grown. Excellent!!”

We’re slowly getting back into a routine, with our senior lunch clubs back up and running. It’s been great to catch up with the students following their summer holidays. This term we are also leading three BOLT clubs at Blanchelande, La Houguette and Vauvert schools. These have started this week with the session “God is awesome”.  At Vauvert we had 24 children attend Week 1!

We thought we would take some time to do some training in preparing and giving talks. Sarah and Lisa along with Nicole Le Goupillot are following the Loud and Clear 4 week course, produced by Ali Martin from Soul Survivor Church. This course teaches about the importance of preparation, structure, illustrations and other key aspects of communicating the Bible. We have really valued the sessions so far and being able to talk about what works for us and develop our skills. If you’re interested in doing the course yourself, it is free and you can find the videos and resources here:https://www.soulsurvivor.com/loudandclear

Next week we have a lesson at Hautes Capelles with Year 3 on The Bible. We have been busy planning this session alongside our volunteers. We will be using a variety of activities to engage the students including songs, worksheets and storytelling to introduce them to the Bible narrative. Please pray for us as we prepare and lead this session. 

Just to update you, Phil is making good progress in his recovery following his operation. Thank you for all your prayers.

The beginning of September means the start of a new school year and we are looking forward to all the new and exciting opportunities that this year has in store. There are a couple of pieces of team news we would like to share with you. Firstly, as many of you will know, Phil was due to have a hip replacement at the start of this term (4th September). We have had word from him that all is well and he is recovering on the ward and hopes to be home by the weekend. Please pray for Phil as he takes some time to rest and recover following his operation. 

The second piece of news is that PACE is hiring. We are looking for someone passionate about children and young people to come and join our team. If you know of anyone who would be interested in a part-time schools worker position please encourage them to get in touch at hellopace@paceguernsey.com. Please also pray for the right person to come along and join us. 

The start of term has been a mix of meetings and emails as we start to contact schools and plan out our vision and goals for the year. Lisa had the opportunity to go to a School’s Worker day conference put on by Youthscape held in Luton on Monday. She was able to connect with other organisations who are doing similar work all over the UK and beyond. Lisa was reminded of the importance of being a Christian presence in schools. Scripture Union state that 95% of children and young people don’t engage with a local church. Therefore the work that PACE does could be the only interaction that some young people and children have with Christianity. If you would like to get involved in our work in anyway please do get in touch. 

Finally, please pray for the team as they embark on the adventure of a new school year. You may have missed our summer newsletter so we have attached it for you to look at. 

The last two weeks of the summer term were spent at Vauvert and La Houguette for Prayer Spaces.

Please enjoy these photos from both events. Thank you to all our volunteers who helped make these events possible!

With not long left of the term and the summer holidays waiting, we’re not exactly slowing down just yet! This week we’re in Vauvert for their Reflection Spaces. Starting this morning and running for three days we have a mix of different stations set up in a classroom. The stations include;

• Seeds of Hope
• Sorry Bin
• Light Lilies
• Thankful Ducks
• Quiet Space
• Finger Print

We’ve got a number of volunteers helping us over three days, thank you to all of you!

We will also be taking a number of Transition Lessons in the following schools; Hautes Capelles, Castel and Amherst. Please pray that the students respond positively and find the lessons helpful.

All of our lunch clubs are coming to an end this week too, including Vale and St Mary and St Michael’s BOLT clubs and St Sampsons and Grammar senior lunch clubs. These have been great fun and we’ve loved getting to know the students more each week!

Please see some of the photos below of our set up for Vauvert!

Wow, it has been an incredible week. Bob Hartman spent the week with us, visiting 8 schools, speaking at churches and running a storytelling workshop.

Bob’s busy week began by speaking at our AGM last Monday. On Tuesday we visited Beechwood, where Bob led an assembly and two lessons for Year 5. They really enjoyed it, there was a lot of laughter! Some of the children even asked Bob for his autograph, which soon had nearly the whole class getting one! That afternoon we took Bob into St Martins where he again led two lessons this time with Year 3 and an assembly.

On day 2, we started with St Mary and St Michaels, holding multiple lessons and ending with an assembly. This was followed by two lessons and an assembly at Amherst. A lesson with Bob usually involved him telling a number of interactive stories, answering questions and inventing a brand new story with the children.

Thursday started with a junior assembly at Vauvert followed by the morning at La Houguette. Here Bob did two lessons and an assembly. An assembly with Bob consists of just him (and occasionally some volunteers too!). He stands at the front of the hall and tells a story, always with a message alongside. The children will join in and do the actions and noises to help bring the stories to life. It’s a lot of fun! After La Houguette we spent the afternoon at Notre Dame. Again the children were very enthusiastic. One child even said that she thought Bob’s books looked very intriguing and that he had inspired her to write stories too.

On the last day in school’s Bob visited Vauvert and La Mare, taking lessons and workshops. These were received very well.

On Saturday morning we had invited teachers, church leaders and children’s workers to a storytelling workshop run by Bob. It was a fantastic morning, Bob taught us lots of tips and tricks about storytelling and we had a lot of fun as well! Thank you to everyone who came, donated or helped bring the morning together!

Bob ended his busy week by speaking at two churches on Sunday, Les Camps Methodist and Vazon Elim.

We would like to say a huge THANK YOU to Bob for visiting us and teaching us so much. Thank you also to his hosts, those who donated and made this week possible. We ask that you join us in thanking God for this opportunity and also pray that Bob has a restful week!

This week we will be continuing our Transition Lessons at Notre Dame, St Mary and St Michaels, St Martins and Forest and taking a number of assemblies in Castel, Amherst and La Mare Primary and High schools.

Please see these photos below of Bob in action!