It was a great week, a real laugh and suprisingly very relaxing. I found I learnt alot, shared ideas and felt re-invisioned for kids work. I can't wait for June when I have to plan more discovery zone. The week ended in a very peculiar way, but more of that in a minute.
Each night we did two celebrations that are meant to be for children and their parents. We found that many others came along, maybe for a more relaxed atmosphere. The night consisted of games, drama, worship, teaching, puppets and a time for prayer and reflection. The event ran at a fast pace, due to how much we had to fit in an hour but also so that we maintained the kids attention.
Each day we had a team meeting to plan the evening and also to hang out and get to know eachother. The team were fantastic, we gel-ed together quickly and there was alot of banter and laughter. It was great to spend time with more experienced kids workers and to learn from them, as well as to share ideas.
The kids were fantastic, they wanted to have fun and to learn more about God. It was a priviledge to minister to them and see them grow in their faiths. I loved praying for the adults, chatting to them and seeing them inspired.
I realised what an honour it was to have grown up in the type of churches that I grew up in. Churches that look out, churches that are more bothered about justice than what type of chair they sit on, churches that are a mobilised group of people rather than an empty building.
Yesterday, one of my chalet buddies and a fellow all age team mate came down with a tummy bug. At 4pm she felt really ill and it was time to notify Butlins and the Spring Harvest top dogs. It ended up with the four of us in the chalet being quarantined. I felt slightly like I was a monster in monsters inc that came back with a bit of human on me. We were not allowed to leave our chalet and so couldn't take part in the all age celebration.
This was a bitter disappointment for the four of us and for the team. This left the team of 5 guys to run the whole show, with an hours notice. Before coming to Spring Harvest I was looking forward to being critiqued of my teaching skills; last night was the night I was due to speak. I had to hand over my talk, but the guy who did it told me what he thought of it! The guys had to talk in forsetto voices to do the puppets, one parent remarked that they seemed 'drag'.
The time was then enforced rest that can't have done me any harm. We had a girly evening eating chocolate and playing cards and this morning went to see Faz, a housemate of mine from Brum. Looking back, I don't feel I missed out on anything and I think it was awesome that 5 guys ran a kids venue for 3 sessions. Firstly it shows that there are men in the church and men that can rise to a challenge and two that there are men that do kids work!
So, it was a great week and I would jump at the chance to do it again. I am looking forward to singing songs without doing any actions though! So tomorrow I get on a plane to Bolivia...... I will write again in a few days.
No comments:
Post a Comment