Category Archives: Blog

PACE UPDATE

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We’re nearly through the first month of 2023! Already we feel we are well underway for a busy year ahead.

In the last two weeks we have started our new primary assembly looking at the Wise and Foolish builders, the parable told by Jesus in Matthew. Our assembly starts with looking at what a New Year’s resolution is and one of us announces that our resolution is to never be late for the whole year – not even by a minute! Through the telling and acting of the story we learn that sometimes the choices we make aren’t the best and things can crop up and rock us so we need to build our year on solid foundations, on making wise choices. But each day is a new start and we can learn from our mistakes and try again. So far we’ve had great feedback and teachers are finding the message fits in well with what they are encouraging the children too.

This term we have also been back at Le Murier working with Year 9 on a module for their ASDAN qualification. We are helping them to plan and prepare an assembly which they will present to the lower school. This year we have chosen the story of the Paralyzed Man who comes down through the roof and is healed by Jesus. We have had many discussions about how this part of the story can be acted out!! The conclusion they are bringing out of the story is it’s important to help people and it’s important to be a good friend. All parts have now been cast so we are busy working out the logistics, costumes and learning lines. Please pray for them as they rehearse and prepare for the final presentation.

Hello 2023!

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Happy New Year! Can you believe we are in 2023?! Although the weather may be a bit miserable, we’re very happy because we have a wonderful new team member! Alex Contreras joins us with a background in teaching and youth work. She is very involved in the Catholic churches and has three children. We’re so pleased Alex has joined our team and she’s already getting stuck in with our lunch clubs and assembly planning! Thank you for all your support and prayers in our search, we knew God had it all in hand!

Our wonderful volunteers are also getting stuck in this term with six OT Mini courses being taught a week in four schools! Sarah-Jane and Eleanor are leading La Houguette, Frances and Sarah-Jane are at Melrose, Nigel, Bryan and Frances are at Beechwood and Lisa and Sarah are about to start at Castel. We’re so pleased to be able to cover so many schools – we couldn’t do it without them!

We’ll hand you over to Eleanor now for a message about SWYM.

Last time on the blog, I shared that SWYM’s vision and passion is that every child and young person in the South West (and now, in Guernsey!) would encounter Jesus, know him and make a choice to live for more. What is this going to look like in practice in Guernsey?

SWYM’s main strategy is to place trainee children and youth workers with churches, local ministries and schools work projects. We hope to have a cluster of SWYM trainees in Guernsey from September 2023. They would be placed in a local church and hopefully also work closely with PACE so they can get experience in schools.

Trainees will have a great support network on island, including their line manager, mentor, and support from their peers and the area co-ordinator at a weekly cluster meeting. They will also go to SWYM conference in north Devon six times a year to meet with all the other trainees and have training together.

I’d love a bit of help from you all, as PACE supporters based in churches across the island. We are looking for people who would like to train with SWYM.

Do you know anyone with a heart for children and young people who would love to train as a youth and children’s worker? The initial commitment is for a year on the ‘Be Transformed’ year but there are then opportunities to progress, including to degree level. Many trainees, but definitely not all are in the 18-25 age bracket. A potential trainee could be also someone who would like to retrain, or someone who has recently retired and is ready for a different challenge.

Please, have a think and pray and if anyone comes to mind, have a chat with them and suggest they get in touch with me. I’d love to hear from them. eleanor@swym.org.uk

HAPPY CHRISTMAS!

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We have made it to Christmas 2022! It has been a challenging term but a great one too! Please enjoy reading our newsletter for this term!

We would also like to make you aware of our updated Twelve Baskets postcard. As we have previously written, we have been busy delivering our Christmas in a Box lessons so we wanted to revise our postcard to reflect the financial cost of these lessons. Please do have a read through!

We hope you all have a very Happy Christmas and a wonderful New Year. Thank you for your continued support during 2022! See you all in 2023!

PACE UPDATE!

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We’re now into December and that means Christmas Lessons!! We have started this years run of Christmas in a Box lessons this week! So far we have been into Hautes Capelles and La Mare. Over the next few weeks we will be delivering this lesson to about 265 Year 3 children across Guernsey!

We have also been busy delivering lessons in secondary schools! Lisa and Howard Davenport (Eldad Elim) have been teaching sessions on ‘A Christian World View’ looking at the fundamentals of what makes someone a Christian at La Mare with Year 7. The students have been asking some great questions like ‘How do we know God exists?’ and ‘What happens when we die?’. We have enjoyed teaching these sessions and are looking forward to our last one next week!  At Blanchelande Lisa and Tom Saddington (Catholic Church) have been leading lessons on the ‘Christian views on Creation’ focusing on the question ‘Are Science and the Bible compatible?’. Again these sessions lead to some very interesting discussions.

Finally we have our next message from Eleanor about SWYM!

In the last blog, I mentioned that we are very excited about a new partnership between PACE and SWYM (South West Youth Ministries).

SWYM’s vision and passion is that every child and young person in the South West (and now obviously, in Guernsey!) would encounter Jesus, know him and make a choice to live for more.

That means reaching out to children and young people in all their diversity, whatever that looks like; for example, ethnic diversity, different socio-economic backgrounds, children and young people who have additional needs. My family has moved around quite a bit and so I’ve had the opportunity to be involved in a variety of churches in the UK, NZ and now in Guernsey. I’ve observed that welcoming ALL children and young people can throw up challenges for churches and there have often been times when I would have loved more help and support in this area.  

It’s fantastic that SWYM have the opportunity to partner with PACE in Guernsey because what PACE is already doing is completely aligned with SWYM’s vision. For over 30 years PACE has worked in Guernsey schools. Lisa and Sarah and the volunteer team do such an amazing job and they aim to reach every child in every school, every year.

Back soon to tell you more about what the partnership will look like in practice.

Love Eleanor  

PACE Update

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We’re very excited to have started two new OT Mini courses at La Mare Primary with Lisa and Bryan Pill making their debut and at Notre Dame with Tom Saddington, Frances Ogier and Sarah. It’s great to be able to start new partnerships within our presenter team and be able to continue with what Phil started. Next week Sarah and Eleanor White will also be starting a course at St Mary and St Michael too.

We are also just starting this half term’s primary school assembly. We have chosen the theme “Heroes” and look at how we can be everyday heroes. We use the story of Gideon and discover how he was a hero, not by his own strength but by God’s. Even though he wasn’t sure, he followed God’s instructions and went on to be a hero! We encourage the children that even though we don’t have the tech of Iron Man or the strength of the Incredible HULK, we can still be a hero everyday:

  • By developing your character so that you’re helpful and respectful in the things you think, do and say.
  • By overcoming challenges and not giving up when things look too difficult or too hard.
  • By being enthusiastic in trying to be the best person you can be.

At the beginning of the week, Lisa was joined by Howard Davenport (Eldad Elim) to lead an assembly to the Year 7s at La Mare High. The assembly is one we’ve done before looking at not letting the past dictate your future. This includes the popular toothpaste challenge where two students have to draw one for our presenters. They are they challenged to put they toothpaste back into the tube – which they can’t do! Who do you think they drew? And whose drawing was better?

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PACE Update

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This week Lisa and Howard (Minister at Eldad Elim Church) have been in La Mare High School delivering lessons on Christian views on prejudice and discrimination. The lesson focuses on the example of Jesus and the children look at the story of ‘The Man Born Blind’ (John 9:1-12) and ‘The Woman at the Well’ (John 4). They act out these stories in groups and think about ‘what was the prejudice/discrimination happening?’ and ‘What did Jesus do?’. They all agree that Jesus’ example is one of kindness and equality for all people regardless of who they are or where they come from. The students have engaged really well in these sessions and have enjoyed acting out the stories. We finish the lesson by thinking about how Christians are persecuted for their faith around the world to day and play this video from Open Doors https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXB8gx8-Wdk. The students are often shocked to discover that this is happening in our world today. 

Sarah and our amazing volunteers have also been delivering some lessons to Years 1 and 2 on Creation. This is a lovely lesson where we use Godly Play to tell the story of Creation and have discussions about the days. The children then get to create something of their own with Playdoh and we talk about how they feel about it.

Our Harvest primary assembly is going well, with Sarah, Lisa and Tom (Saddington) delivering it to many schools over the last few weeks too. Below are some photos from Acorn House. In the assembly we spell out the word “Harvest” and then tell the story of Ruth, Naomi and Boaz and rearrange the letters to spell out words such as “starve”, “eat”, “have” and “share”. All to do with Harvest and encouraging the children to think about what they can do to be a kind community and share with other people.

At first, the word is spelt wrong so we have to get into the right order!
Ruth and Naomi had to find food to EAT!

Please keep praying for our work, for the children and young people we come into contact with and the teachers and school staff we speak to.

New Term!

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We’re back! It’s a new term, a new school year and a new team, well sort of! As you know Phil and Victoria left us in the summer, moving on to other adventures. So Lisa and Sarah are the current PACE team, alongside all our wonderful volunteers who help us run so many of our activities. We’re still hiring so please keep this in your prayers. We also celebrated Lisa being with PACE for 10 years! Congratulations Lisa!

Over the last few years we’ve started running volunteer training days in September and before Covid we invited Prayer Spaces in Schools over, which unfortunately had to be postponed. However this past weekend we finally held our Prayer Spaces training day. We were blessed to have Tim, a founder member of the Prayer Spaces in Schools national team, now the GB Team Leader and Liz who is on the GB oversight team, works for Bristol Schools Connection and was one of the masterminds behind Christmas and Easter in a Box!

Tim and Liz stayed with us for two days and we were able to spend time with them hearing stories, being inspired and encouraged and getting to know them. On Saturday we had 20 volunteers and supporters attend some fantastic training, where we got to learn about the vision, theology and values of Prayer Spaces and the impact they have of school life and the children/students. We spent time setting up some stations and learning about how we can improve and create effective prayer stations. We can’t wait to put what we’ve learnt into action and provide some meaningful, peaceful, reflective moments in our schools.

This week we’re starting our run of primary assemblies, with the theme of Harvest. We will be running these at Vale, St Mary and St Michael’s and Vauvert with Amherst, Forest, Acorn House, Melrose, Vauvert and Notre Dame next week.

Summer Newsletter 2022!

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We’ve had a fantastic term with many opportunities to explore faith with the children and students of Guernsey. However we are sad to see the departure of two very valued members of our PACE family, Phil and Victoria. We hope you join with us in thanking God for them and asking for his peace and guidance in their future endeavours. PACE are looking for a new team member so please keep this in your prayers too.

Here is a link to our latest video which outlines what we have been doing during 2021/2022. We played this at our AGM as a summary of our work.

We hope you enjoy reading our newsletter below!

Have a great summer!

PACE Newsletter Summer 2022Download