Holiday Club

Wow, we had such a good week and it is just the end of the week Sunday service to go.

It wasn't just the leaders coming together as a team - even though they are from separate churches and don't meet very often. It wasn't just the involvement of people in changing how the church looks. It wasn't just the fact that the children embraced all the things that we did as part of the holiday club, including the prayer wall, story room that created a powerful environment for stories of Peter and Jesus, games, craft, workshop, writing songs, etc, etc. It wasn't just seeing children who in other circumstances would be doing their best to act cool and not join in and yet in this situation were shouting along, trying to do all the activities and wanting to talk about things.

But it was all those things and even more. It was the chance to see children who hadn't really heard about God before (however much God has been trying to meet with them) listen and go home and tell their families about him. And the opportunity as a leader to feel that you were serving God in a way that was making a difference.

But as children's leaders our job doesn't stop when the children go home. Our prayers continue. We pray that God will work in the lives of those individual children and we can also invite them to other holiday clubs and groups we are running.

So I thank God for all that has happened this week. One of the best bits in terms of activities being the Floundering evening - fish version of a beetle drive. Having families come to the Rocky's Plaice restaurant and see what their children had been part of, meet with a variety of people over a fish and chip supper and having fun together.

God has done some great work in so many holiday clubs up and down the UK this summer!

Rocky's Plaice Holiday Club

This year your church may be one of the churches using the Scripture Union Rocky's Plaice material. Like lots of different set materials we have found that we have to make it work for our church and for our children.

That said, we didn't feel the material was a good this year as in previous years, last year was especially brilliant.

We have tried to make the music work for us by having the children create their own Rocky's Plaice song. The best thing about this is that the children who have been coming for years can do something a bit different, the same ole' format is something new for them. They can make up works from stories they have heard about Peter and also get to know the stories even better.

The stories themselves (while important like all bible stories) weren't inspiring for children, especially when there are other stories about Peter that are exciting, relate to their lives and more to do with the fish and restaurant theme. So we will be using stories like fishers of men, feeding the 5000 and Jesus, after the resurrection, sitting with the disciples after helping them catch lots of fish.

We have also used some of the workshop ideas from last year and have incorporated a dance and drama workshop into one of those days.

I'm sure telling I'm other children's workers about "sucking eggs" but I feel it is best to find materials and then make them come alive for your own leaders, children and skills. Don't be afraid to take your material in a different direction and get excited about it. The more passionate you are about the material the better you are trying to share it with others, including the children.

We have also decided to take our material one step further - we are having a social evening with the families of the children coming to our holiday club. We are having a Floundering evening, it's a a bit like a beetle drive but the aim is to make a fish not a beetle. We will have lots of fun and games and finish with a fish and chip supper. A great way to sit and chat with the families as well as just the children.

Thanks to Scripture Union for inspiring us in unexpected ways this year.