7th January: Just a ‘child’? Equipping Event, East Sussex

I hope you all had a great, restful Christmas and New Year – I certainly did! It was great to spend time with both our families and relax, as well as playing with the children and eating far too much!

Having been ill just before Christmas (kindly passed on by my lovely little niblings!) and so being off work the last 2 days of 2011, I came back to a mountain of emails and a Christmassy desk! It’s straight back into lots of busyness. 2012 sees 10 Just A ‘Child’? Events, the first of which is this Saturday at Welcome Baptist in Heathfield, so we are getting ready for that. January itself is quite a busy month:

• 7th Just a ‘child’? Event in Heathfield
• 10th Baptist Assembly Planning Meeting
• 11th SOLID Remix Management Meeting
• 12th Viz-A-Viz Ministries UK Team Strategy Meeting
• 15th Ed and I are taking both morning services at Elim Braintree
• 18th Children’s and Family Ministries Conference Planning Meeting
• 21st Worship Rally at Trinity Baptist Church
• 22nd Taking both morning services at Trinity Baptist Church
• 28th Training day at Newbury Baptist Church
• 30th Junior SOLID Management Team Meeting

This weekend saw the first inter-generational evangelism conference run by Viz-A-Viz Ministries. It was held at the Bridge Methodist Church in Radcliffe, Manchester – a church we have very good links with through Liv’It Camp. The conference consisted of a Friday night session and then on Saturday streams looking at evangelism amongst Children, Youth and Adults.

Ed and I led the Reaching Children stream – adapting material from the first Just a ‘child’? equipping day.
Joy and Andy led the Reaching Young People stream.
Special guest Rich Powney (now officially an associate speaker for Viz-A-Viz) led one of the Reaching Adults stream – unpacking the Engaging Through Story resource.
Jon Stannard led the second Reaching Adults stream – creative ideas for street evangelism, including practical!

The whole weekend went really well, with around 50 people attending and some great feedback. One lady who attended commented in an email afterwards:

‘I got so much from it, it really got my fire burning so much brighter again!’

There were some great stories from those involved in street evangelism – most notably the fact that it was easier than they thought it would be, and people were more receptive to talking than they thought they would be! I think for many people it was an opportunity to be inspired and reminded of the call to share their faith with those around them.

The Bridge Church were fantastic hosts – the food was great! Ed, Jon and I travelled back to Essex on the Saturday night while Taste, Andy Keel and Rich stayed for services on the Sunday and then Liv’It Reunion in the evening. I was disappointed not to have been able to stay but the van coming home was full!

On a personal note it was great to stay with the lovely Mike and Judith Hainsworth (who have such a gorgeous house!) – friends from Liv’It Camp. Their hospitality for my flying visit was much appreciated! It was also a chance to catch up with the wonderful Paul and Hannah Schofield (Metro Christian Centre) – always fun and good to chat.

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After a couple of days off I’ve been back in the office this week working on all sorts of things! The Just a ‘child’? event that should have been taking place in Sussex tomorrow has been postponed due to viability and will now be on the 7th January at Welcome Baptist Church, Heathfields. Taste have taken Andy with them to Germany for a few days so I’m heading to Braintree for the weekend on babysitting duty for my littlest niblings!

This past week my brother Russell had his induction service as Assistant Pastor at Yeovil Elim. I travelled down on the train and met Mum and Dad who had gone down a couple of days earlier. Spending a whirlwind 18 hours with my family was lovely, and I especially enjoyed being able to take Sam my 9 year old nephew to school. The induction service itself was great – a real sense of love and excitement from the church as they welcomed Russell, Becci, Chloe and Sam in (although they’ve already become very settled and active members of the church). I felt really proud of my brother and I know that they will be really happy at Yeovil Elim and God will use them all for amazing things. You can see one of Russell’s recent sermons here.

I have recently lead a couple of services back at my home church Elim Braintree. The 11.30 Young at Heart Service is an all age service incorporating songs, activities and stories designed to help children and adults engage together. It’s been a real privilege to be part of the life of my home church, giving something back after all the teaching and encouragement I’ve received over the years! With a wealth of Arise Ministries resources and ideas behind me I’ve been able to do things a little bit differently and have some fun while learning with the children and grown ups! Yesterday we were  thinking about Harvest and helping those in need and us young ones made this beautiful banner!

This week preparations are underway for our first Just A ‘Child’? Equipping Event of the new term – on Saturday 1st October at Fullbridge Church, Maldon. Really looking forward to sharing with people enthusiastic about children’s ministry and hopefully injecting some enthusiasm and vision for their ministry with children in the local area.

With the arrival of Viz-A-Viz Ministries’ new National Director comes lots of exciting plans, ideas, visions and things that will be happening over the coming months. To keep up to date with all that Viz-A-Viz Ministries is doing and planning, please sign up in whichever way suits you:

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>> In other news, Andy is preparing to move into his new place sometime this week so we’ve been busy painting his room and buying curtains! Please pray for a stress-free and easy move and that he will settle in quickly.

Following the cancellation of Leading Edge, an informal gathering of people was semi-organised on the site of Warwick School with around 150 people camping between Tuesday 2nd and Sunday 8th August. The event was nicknamed ‘Over The Edge’ which then merged into ‘Over The (H)Edge’! Viz-A-Viz Ministries agreed to offer 2 days of youth and children’s programme and so early – 5.30am to be precise –  on Wednesday morning Ed and I headed to Warwick to set up in the Pyne Room and provide a morning and evening programme on Wednesday and Thursday.

With the help of Hannah and Naomi Swift and Hannah Cresswell, we explored how God uses ordinary people like us to do extraordinary things. We had a Superhero Theme and used the song ‘Jesus You’re my superhero’ by Hillsong which got stuck in everyone’s heads and you could hear the children singing around site! We had a Superhero drama and Superhero games (Pin the eye patch on the superhero, super strength relay, Super villain skittles…), made our own clay Superhero and found out about lots of Superheroes in the Bible.  The children were very excitable and we had some great times of singing worship and jumping around as well as some quieter times thinking and praying in groups. It was such a privilege to spend a few hours with them and help them uncover truths about God and how He can use us despite our faults and fears.

Over The (H)Edge was also a great social time, catching up with some friends (Ben Read came back to join the youth team) and meeting new people. There was a really relaxed feel over the campsite and a great sense of community spirit as people invited each other to share drinks and nibbles in their section of camp.

Next Up…. Kingswood Baptist Holiday Club: The Knights Of Truth