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

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

Solid Festival 2011 – 8th-10th July.
‘For God called you to do good, even if it means suffering, just as Christ suffered for you. He is your example, and you must follow in his steps.‘ 1 Peter 2:21

Wow, this time last week it was pouring with rain and a very dedicated team of wonderful people were setting up for Solid Festival 2011! (I was sat in a marquee making lanyards – I wasn’t going to get wet!). The youth festival ran from Friday Night til Sunday Lunchtime, and Junior Solid (for school years 3-6) ran all day Sunday. I had my normal role at the youth festival of ‘hostess’ – meeting and greeting visiting speakers/bands to the site. Then Sunday was where I got really busy – co-presenting with Ed in ‘The Hive’ for four, hour long sessions (The children are split into four groups and rotate around 4 different sessions including crazy games and outdoor activities) about what it means to follow Jesus and rounding off the day all together in the Big Top with the Junior Solid Roadshow.

The weekend had it’s hiccups, with bad weather meaning marquees were a mission to get up, delivery drivers getting to the end of their shifts and so not delivering our much needed radios, a few power issues…but actually it was an awesome weekend! I didn’t see too much of the main sessions in the Big Top but from the buzz on site and feedback from various people know that God moved awesomely in the over 700 young people that were there. Mark Ritchie returned for a second year, his comic style mixed with powerful teaching made him very popular – as well a site wide trend on twitter about Angry Poos (no I don’t know either!!). Worship was led by Jimmy Orr from Church.co.uk (married to Kat Orr, a previous Optimum Volunteer) and was a great mix of old and new songs. I especially enjoyed the mash up of Matt Redman’s ‘You Never Let Go’ with Eminem’s ‘I’m not afraid’. There was a fantastic time on Saturday night of young people coming forward to really commit themselves to following Jesus and their youth leaders were encouraged to pray for them, which from feedback they really appreciated the opportunity to do that, allowing them to know what went on at Solid and follow up their own young people afterwards.

Sunday was my first experience of a whole day of Junior Solid, having previously taken part in the Roadshow, but this year being on management meant I was a lot more involved! Ed had done most of the preparations for the Hive as I had been busy preparing the Roadshow and so I just stepped in to help lead. Much to my delight the ‘hilarious’ joke Ed has prepared and repeated non stop for the previous 2 weeks was a complete flop (Now i’ll know if he reads this because if he does he will try and protest!!) but fortunately the rest of the material wasn’t! Through interactive activities, video clips and teaching we looked at the fact we are all invited to follow Jesus but all need to make that choice to follow him. We were also privileged to have Big Fish Little Fish joining us to lead some singing fun! The feedback we got was great and the kids really engaged with what we were doing, even in the last session when they were all exhausted!

Then at the end of the day it was off to the Roadshow and 400 hundred tired but excited children with their leaders. We looked at the messages of making Wise Choices and Jesus giving us Second Chances through more songs with Big Fish Little Fish, some drama, video testimonies, teaching and a live interview testimony with Rosie, an 11 year old with an incredible passion for sharing Jesus with the people around her. It was sad when it was all over and exhausted we (well not me!) packed everything away, finally getting home at 9pm. Monday I was pretty dopey all day having suffered from a severe lack of sleep!!

So many people worked so incredibly hard during and leading up to Solid, Karen and Claire are definitely top of the list!! My Andy is also at the top, as co technical manager he started work at 7am and finished at 1pm, constantly on call and the first on and last off site. Well done you, I’m so proud!!

Despite the tiredness and occasional grouchiness, it was all so worth it, seeing young people and children connect with and worship God – such a great thing and a privilege to be involved with. Please join me and the rest of the team in praying for all who were there, that the buzz of Solid won’t be just that, but that they will be encouraged and inspired to make a difference and share Jesus with those around them.

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Next up: Liv’It Camp starts 23rd July so am preparing a talk for that. Also busy emailing out publicity for ‘Just A Child?’ equipping conferences in Essex and Sussex in the Autumn – ask me if you want details!

A while ago Dan and Jeni Wicks asked Andy and I if we would help them out at Burlington Baptist’s Church Weekend Away – running the Children’s Programme. We of course said yes and emails went flying between us to sort out who was doing what, what equipment was needed…then a lunch meeting on Thursday (less than 24hours after Dan and Jeni had arrived back from America so were very jet lagged!) to finalise plans and we were all ready to head up to Vauxhall Christian Trust Farm on Friday. Our home was a caravan (the boys slept in a hut while us girls had the caravan, but we made use of it in the evenings to play Uno and make hot chocolate!) and our venue was the Games Room. The whole site ate together and the food was very good!!

Over the course of the weekend we had between 18 and 23 5-11 year olds for about 9hours in total. The theme of the weekend was Worship and looking at all the different ways we can worship God. We did lots of singing and crazy dancing as well as games (inside and outside), crafts (making flags and shakers), challenges and stories. We also had a drumming workshop and a choice of painting or football. The children were fantastic – so enthusiastic, friendly and willing to join in. We had lots of laughs with them, but also some awesome moments of response.

One of the best bits for me was on the Saturday evening. I was down to do the story of Paul and Silas in prison, and had prepared something but in the afternoon just felt to change it (how many times does that happen?! Despite all the preparation God leaves it til the last minute to change it!!) to something a bit different. As it happened that evening they were all absolutely shattered and wouldn’t really have coped with anything active (planned idea) but really engaged with what we did. We all sat in a circle and I passed around a bowl of pieces of paper with descriptions of what it would have been like in prison. Each child got one and read it out: ‘It was dirty’, ‘It was cold’, ‘There were spiders’, ‘There was no medicine’ – we talked briefly about each one as we built up a picture of this horrible prison that Paul and Silas were in. Andy and Dan played Paul and Silas singing in the corner and I told the story of the earthquake and the prisoners chains breaking but them not leaving and the guard asking to be saved. The emphasis of the story was the fact that despite the circumstances Paul and Silas still worshipped God. We then went round the circle again, reading out the description and after each one saying all together ‘But they still worshipped God’: ‘It was dirty’ but they still worshipped God , ‘It was cold’ but they still worshipped God, ‘There were spiders’ but they still worshipped God, ‘There was no medicine’ but they still worshipped God. The kids were then given a tag to attach to a bracelet they made and encouraged to write down a difficult situation they were going through and to remember to still worship God. I wasn’t sure how well they would connect with it but was amazed at how much they concentrated and catching sight of some of the things they had written brought tears to my eyes ‘I want to get on with my brothers and sisters’, ‘I want to see my dad’, ‘Home’ – even the very youngest child asked to have a word written so she could copy it. I was bowled away (maybe I shouldn’t have been, maybe it was my little faith) at how God wove all the elements and ideas to really speak to the kids there.

So much of children’s ministry can be flowery basic stories and ‘God loves you’ stuff which is all so important but there is such a depth and spirituality in children which is often untouched. It really challenged me to expect more of children – to enable them to grow and flourish, rather than treating them as children that can’t respond until they become teenagers! To see the excitement on the kids faces as they understood something or answered a  question – to see them talking about Jesus is fantastic and makes all the hard work so worthwhile!!

Another great aspect of the weekend was to spend time with Dan and Jeni, great friends that we don’t see enough of! They worked so hard putting this weekend together and we were really privileged and excited to be part of it with them. Also massive thanks to Heather especially and Burlington Baptist for making us so welcome and looking after us!!