Back to work, back to reality...

...as Soul II Soul never quite sang.

Well, I'm three weeks back after a three month sabbatical and it's been an interesting time to say the least.  It was always going to be a bit of a challenge to get back into the groove and, actually, who's to say that it's a good idea to get back into the old groove?   I've been trying to catch up with people and situations, some of which (both the people and situations) I'm finding rather perplexing but the rest and recharge of sabbatical have been beneficial and have helped me through. 

After two difficult weeks it was good to get back on track with what it should be all about, as we celebrated 'On Your Marks', a Holiday Club for 80 children.  It was a great team effort and tonight I eagerly await the opening ceremony of the 2012 Olympic Games knowing that the Holiday Club team played a blinder.  A day of rest tomorrow and then Sunday morning brings around my favourite service of the year - the Holiday Club service.  Bring it on!

The picture?  I got pied today as the villian of the 'On Your Marks' drama.  Messy Church just got messier.   

Mission Rescue - Sunday Service

Last week we followed up the Mission Rescue Holiday Club with our Mission Rescue Sunday Service.  It has been our practice for the last six years to give the following Sunday service completely over to Holiday Club.  Feel this is very important, the rest of the church get to see what we have been up to and many of the kids come back and bring their parents to see what they have been doing.  

So on Sunday morning we only sang songs that we had been singing at Holiday Club - complete with actions and jumping around - silly sketches, games (taking jelly babies out of cold porridge with your teeth), puppets etc.  My talk was just ten minutes trying to make the link between Moses as a rescuer and Jesus.  One of our teenagers made an amazing cake for everyone to share afterwards and we had a great time.  This is often our biggest service of the year, attracting even more than our most popular Christmas service, though this year numbers were a bit lower. 

Today - one week on - we carry on with the first 30 minutes of the 75 minute service given over to very child friendly activities.  We sang one of the Mission Rescue songs, read to them from the wonderful Jesus Story Book Bible and played a game with coloured balls and hula-hoops.  Not sure the game worked very well (that was down to me) but over the years have come to the realisation that we need to be lively and attractive to kids and families through the year, not just once every 52 weeks.  

As a footnote, my biggest fear was that such a move would alienate and upset the more elderly in the congregation, so I took it slowly at first.  Realised a couple of years ago when no-one complained about the custard pies that they didn't mind at all.  In fact, they love it.  They love to see children in the church and a bit of life about the place. 

Mission Rescue

As I try to start back blogging after the best part of a month away from it, time to catch up on what I should of blogged about.

First up is one of my favourite weeks of the year, kid's Holiday Club.

This is the club the church runs for 5-11 year olds on five mornings and then cap off with a related service on the Sunday. This year we ran through the last week in August (which was a cool way to celebrate a birthday) and the theme was spies - Mission Rescue being the title.

Through the songs, messy games (taking jelly babies out of bowls of custard, rice pudding, cold baked beans, mushy peas and cold porridge - without using hands) craft, drama, dvd and general mayhem we tried to communicate something of the story of Moses and the way that God helped him rescue the people of Israel out of Egypt.

It was a great week! We had between 62 and 67 kids each day which is a little down on previous years but actually makes for a better week in many ways; you get to interact with them rather than spend all your time trying to get them to listen / calm down / stop hitting.

Part of what I love about the week is working together with a large team - 26 volunteers aged between 13 and 78 (I think - it would be rude to ask). So much of my work is pretty solitary and so this is something I particularly appreciate. I also like the fact that I am not leading the team. Someone much more capable does that! My role this year was to co-host the session when we were all together and to lead the 9 year olds. They were a terrific group of girls - we had one boy but for some reason he didn't come back on the Tuesday.

The week was really good. If I had one criticism of it (or of myself) it was that having learned so much about Moses as a rescuer from Monday to Thursday, it was a big leap for them to learn about Jesus as an even better rescuer on the final morning. With hindsight I would have sowed in little bits and pieces throughout the week.

Tomorrow I want to blog about the Mission Rescue Sunday service that we followed up the week with.