Playgroup is booming!

It's hard to believe that in the middle of 2009 we were wondering if persisting with Playgroup was a waste of energy - it was very tiny, and though we had lots of visitors, they rarely came back a second time. The two co-ordinators discussed it, prayed about it, and decided to give it one more term - but with some changes. We decided to have 'activity stations' around the room, for example, a playdough table, a mat with cars and trucks, a kitchen corner, a rug with toys for pre-walkers; and we introduced a much more structured program, so that every week there is a craft, a story, and singing time, and to choose themes that suited the time of year.

And Playgroup hasn't looked back. It's a Christian Playgroup, that's open to anyone; what that means is that we do say thank you to God before we hoe into the fruit and water for morning tea; and we do sometimes play Christian children's songs in the background, and now and again the story book will be a story from the Bible. We

don't expect everyone to be a follower of Jesus, and we don't push people - parents or children - to talk about God.

One of the big hits has been the craft - we always have a craft that involves parent and child working together, and it's great to be greeted at the door by small children asking, "What are we making today?" Great also to be greeted by mums saying, "Look what we made at home this week - we thought you might like to do this one at Playgroup sometime!"

And I love the end-of-term get-togethers! One of the mums suggested that we could book a table at one of the many terrific, very reasonably priced restaurants in Carlton, for a late-ish dinner - leave the littlies at home with spouse, and just enjoy a bit of grown-up time. Her idea was very well-received, so we've had dinner out once a term ever since!

And Playgroup just keeps growing. Four new families have visited this term, and it looks a though they are all planning to stay. With 37 people last Wednesday morning, we're looking nicely full!

So now I reckon it's time to think about starting a second Playgroup!

(For more info about St Jude's Playgroup, click on the button in the right hand column)

Toolbox Parenting Seminar - A first!

On Sunday 10th October after morning services finished we had our first Toolbox Parenting Seminar.

Toolbox is a brilliant course; written in New Zealand by Christians who were working with troubled youth, it encourages parents to see themselves as coaches, training their children towards the independence, values and self control they will need in adult life, providing a a secure base for exploring and developing life skills, and creating great family memories.  What particularly impresses me is how encouraging it is - it's about understanding what kind of parent you are, then choosing what kind you want to be, and what sort of family you want to have, then equipping with 'tools' - strategies to choose from.

Beth Barnett, Children
 & Families Facilitator
for the Baptist Union
 of Victoria

Usually the Toolbox course is presented in 6 informal small group sessions, over six or twelve weeks. Presenting it in seminar format was a new venture for us, and it turns out it's a new venture for the course as well! We wanted to make the course more accessible for busy parents, and especially to make it easier for both parents to attend - both parents agreeing on values and strategies is always the ideal.

So 20 parents arrived at St Jude's, and we gathered around coffee tables in the hall where Beth Barnett took us through the Toolbox approach and selections from the course. Later in the program Beth and our own Emma Baillie facilitated small groups in discussing strategies and issues specific to 6-12 year olds or 0-6 year olds respectively.

It was a terrific afternoon - parents commented that they learnt a lot from the seminar, and were keen to experience the rest of the course. We were made very comfortable with tea, coffee and delicious home-made treats available throughout. Kids were contentedly occupied with a great program organised by our very gifted leader, Jo, and her volunteers, at no cost to parents.

With such a successful beginning, we're planning to run a Toolbox Seminar each term next year, covering the remainder of the course, but also offering the main principles each time so parents who missed the first one don't have to wait a year to get started with this really useful course.

Film & Pizza Night 11th September

It's astonishing how the term flies by - where did it go? Maybe it was all the colds and flus and tummy bugs that have been interrupting - it just seems as though we've settled into the routine and it's almost the end of term! But end of term is great, cos that means it's time for a Film & Pizza night!
Kids in Grades 3-6 invite their friends along, we all bring our own beanbags, sleeping bags and cushions; and we have a great social night together - without mum & dad!
This time we're watching 'The Tale of Despereaux' - which is a very quirky tale indeed, full of mice with unusually large ears, rats that DO like sunlight, gourmet soup, distressed princesses, and unlikely heroes with swords and courage and chivalry...
And because we love to eat together, there'll be plenty of pizza, and we're going to make fairy floss too - yum - maybe we can experiment with a bit of food-colouring...
Film & Pizza night is for anyone in Grades 3 to 6 - if you'd like an invitation, leave a message for Katie Peken on 9326 1556.

School Holiday Program Vibe! only 7 days away!

This time next week, I'm looking forward to hanging out with a whole bunch of kids, learning about Peter the fisherman, playing games, learning songs, getting to know each other, and eating great food - mmmmm. We've got a great team of leaders, rearing to go, the program is coming together and looks fun and exciting - with some space for reflection and processing too - and the menu is firming up as well! Right now we're working on decorating - with a fishy theme, of course!
Get your registration forms in this week, and I look forward to seeing you on Tuesday!

Vibe! will be full of fishy fun!

Less than two weeks 'til Vibe! Our theme will be 'Peter: Totally Hooked!'

Peter was a fisherman until he met Jesus, running his own business on the sea of Galilee. When he met Jesus, he became his student first (that's what a disciple is), and then his friend. He travelled around with him, heard his teaching, and saw the amazing things he did. We're going to learn a great song about him - one of my favourites!

Peter and Jesus spent a lot of time close to water and boats. So there'll be lots of activities about beaches, fishing, and all sorts of water creatures - but no swimming, you'll be glad to know - not when it was -1 degrees yesterday!

Even without swimming, you'll have lots of fun and learn good stuff as you hear fish talk, enjoy the fishy buzz words, hear stories told from under water and lots more!

Vibe! School holiday program is only 3 weeks away!

It's hard to believe the term is nearly over! The weather has turned chilly at last, and we're all thinking about the winter break. Maybe you're wondering, what are the kids going to do while I'm at work? Or maybe you're thinking, it'd be great to schedule in some fun activities with other kids to mix it up.
Well, look no further! Vibe! is a full two-day program, designed to fit around your working day. Kids arrive at 8.30am, we provide all the activities, and even the food, and pick-up is at 5.30pm. What could be better?
Click on the title to go to a page of information about Vibe!; you can also view a pdf file of the daily program and download the registration form there.

Getting Better at What We Do!

Kids matter, and we believe the time we spend with them has significance, for now, for the rest of their lives on this earth, and on into the next life too. We want to make the best of the time we spend with kids, on Sunday mornings, in religious education classes, at Film & Pizza nights, over morning tea, on church camps, and everywhere else. So last weekend four of our members went along to the Ministry to Children conference, out at Mount Evelyn, which is about an hour to the east of St Jude's - a bit less when the traffic is good! It was good fun meeting lots of people from other churches, and we heard some really inspiring talks from Wes Stafford, who is the President of Compassion International; there were lots of great electives to choose from, I wanted to be in two or three places at once - connecting with boys, how to create experiences for kids, how to manage classroom behaviour, great storytelling techniques, and lots more. There was a 'marketplace' of excellent resources, too.
One of the highlights for me was hearing from two primary school children, a brother and sister, who visited Cambodia recently and were inspired to raise funds for children there who can't go to school because they have to work to help feed their families, so they are trapped in poverty. Those two kids stood up and explained what they are trying to do, and how, and they invited us to help them help Cambodian children. You can find out more here. I had a lump in my throat, being challenged by such young ones to be more generous, and to try to make a difference in the world. It reminded me that Jesus said we need to be like children, to be his kind of people.
Now to put what we've learned into practice!

Participation and Contribution...

Those two words have been on my mind lately. In the Anglican church, we believe that children are fully part of the church family. When they are baptised, the whole congregation joins in and says, 'We receive and welcome you as a fellow member..." I've been thinking about what that could look like. It's a bit of a foreign concept to some church-goers, who grew up on the 'Children should be seen and not heard' principle - which I think sometimes really means, "Not seen and not heard"!
But the Lord Jesus is in the business of breaking down barriers and bringing together people who have nothing in common except him.
In 2010 I am committed to working harder at including our kids as PARTICIPATORS and CONTRIBUTORS. By the time they reach High School age, I'd like them to be totally at home, understanding everything we do, enjoying taking part, confident that they belong, and knowing that they have something to offer that's truly important to everyone.
We're starting small, building on what's already happening. Already, some of the high school kids, and one of the Year 5s is helping run the pa system. Some of the kids help serve communion. Two of the kids groups are rostered on to prepare and serve morning tea. A couple of the Youth boys play the drums regularly during morning services.
There's lots more that could happen. Kids could take turns reading the Bible, or leading parts of the service. They could encourage us by telling us about service projects that they are involved in in the local community. Often during services we have 'open prayer', when anyone can come up to the microphone and lead the congregation in a prayer. I'm looking forward to being led by one of the little ones.

2010 - A Fresh Year Begins!

Wow! Christmas came and went in a crazy rush, and the 'quiet' summer period is almost over - where did it go, and what happened to all the projects I was saving 'til then? Victorian schools start back next Monday, families are gearing up, and kids are maybe excited, maybe apprehensive, maybe ambivalent... Here is some helpful advice from "Parents Inc." - the folk who wrote the excellent "Toolbox" course (if you click on the heading of this post, it'll take you to their website and more parenting tips):

New Year, New Classroom...

• Whether your child is about to start school for the first time, or you’ve been through it all before, here are a few tips to help make the transition out of holidays a little easier on the whole family:


• Get back in the habit of homework by having regular reading time every day. Ask questions about what they’ve read, and get them to write a little bit too.


• Start gradually making bedtime earlier; late sleep-ins or bleary-eyed children won’t help stress levels in that first week back.


• Get the family thinking about ways to make school mornings run more smoothly. A personalised chart is a great way to make sure kids know what they need to do and can check it off as they go. They’ll grow in responsibility, and you can break the nagging cycle!

With school starting, term-time program resumes this Sunday for our kids groups. This term we're thinking about the early church - what happened in the first few years after Jesus lived, died, came back to life, and then went to live with the Father. That would have been an exciting time - for the first time people were hearing that God loves us, and made it possible for us to be his friends - lots of these people had only ever heard of gods who were fickle and violent and selfish, and the only way to relate to them was to beg and plead, make bargains, and butter them up.

Imagine hearing for the first time of a God who wants to do us good, who is more eager to give us good things than we are to ask him for them! It would have been a scary time too - because not many people believed in Jesus, and the early Christians were often viewed with suspicion, even thrown in gaol, or beaten up, or even killed because of their beliefs. What a privilege to live in a country where we can openly worship Jesus, talk about him, meet together, and tell other people about our beliefs.

While we think about the early church, we're also thinking about our church - St Jude's wants our kids to know that they are truly part of this Christian community, so we're looking at ways to encourage kids to participate and to contribute. This year the Diggers are joining the morning tea team, rostered on together to prepare and serve morning tea a couple of times each term - many hands make light work, and they loved the trial runs we had last year!

Our MCs are also looking for ways to include kids in the whole-church part of our services, to encourage them to join in with the rest of the congregation, and to take part in leading prayers, Bible readings, etc. Ideas welcome!

Pizza, Rats, and Edible Christmas Decorations

Two weeks ago we had our last Film & Pizza Night for 2009 - it was a different feel to usual, because we held it in the main part of the church, instead of our usual location, the crypt - but I think the kids enjoyed the opportunity to play games and munch pizza in amongst pews and traditional stained glass windows!
It was a creative night - 22 kids (mostly boys) started by eating pizza, then mixing up batches of Dutch Pepernoten - kids worked in groups of 4, and lined up to melt butter in the microwave, then collect sugar, went off to mix it all up thoroughly, lined up for the flour, then the spices, and so on. Once it was all mixed, they divided it between them, and kneaded and molded and patted and thumped their dough into something which might be hung on a Christmas tree...
While the Pepernoten was baking in the church kitchen, we watched "Flushed Away" - it's lots of fun, and voice-stars Hugh Jackman, Ian McKellen, Kate Winslet and a few others you might recognise too!
We discovered that the more you work the dough, the better the finished biscuit holds its shape. Hmmmm - something for our young MasterChefs to remember for next time.... Not many ornaments were recognisable - or hang-able! when they came out - the picture above is definitely NOT what they looked like - but they were put to the taste test, and even the reluctant kids said they tasted good!
Not to worry, you can't have too much craft, so we finished off the evening by making edible Christmas wreaths - we handed out sturdy paper plates with the middles cut out - so they were just the outer rim. The kids decorated them with Christmassy colours of crepe streamer, in all kinds of creative ways, then used hot glue guns to attach caramels in foil wrappers - they looked fabulous at the end - I'm really regretting that I didn't take my camera along this time!!

St Jude's in December

There's so much happening in December! It's crazy, but fun too. Here's what's coming up:

On Friday 4th December, Princes Hill Primary School has its end of year Christmas bash for all the kids who have been in Christian Religious Education in 2009 - can't wait, my class are going to sing 'Jesus Superhero', looking very spectacular in superhero capes!

On Saturday 5th December, it's the last Film & Pizza night for 2009 - kids in Grades 3-6 will be watching 'Flushed Away', and making souvenirs - or maybe edible Christmas tree decorations... yum! If you'd like to come along, contact me for an invitation - Katie.

On Saturday 19th December, it's Carols on Carlton from 7 to 9 pm - we meet in Curtain Square on Rathdowne Street, North Carlton, and families bring picnics along and sing or listen to lots of carols - the band this year is terrific, I've been listening to them practice! Carols is open to anyone, you can get a candle for a small donation, and I've heard there's going to be a puppet... everyone is welcome. We're hoping for good rain all month - except for the 19th!

On Sunday 20th, we're baptising two very small members, a brother and sister, during the 9am service - yay!

Also on Sunday 20th, we say a huge THANKYOU to all the folk who have been part of the children's ministry at St Jude's in 2009 - all the kids who have come along week by week, and the faithful, caring and creative leaders who have prepared diligently, and met with the kids and learnt with them and cared for them and worshipped with them all year. Celebration time!

Then on Thursday 24th December, it's Kids Carols in the church from 6-7 pm - it's especially for any families with kids in Infants and Primary school (though everyone is welcome), so we sing lots of well-known carols and have a skit or story, it's very casual, and we have lots of fun. This year the theme is Promises...

And of course there's Christmas Day! There are two services, one at 8 am, which is more reflective, and one at 9.30 am especially for families - all ages welcome. This year we'll be thinking about Santa Claus - the man behind the magic!

I do hope you can join us for some or all of our December activities!

"Chicken Run" and UV creations!

I love Film & Pizza nights! Our Term 2 F&P night was last Saturday, and twenty-three kids in Grades 3 to 6 turned up in St Jude's crypt to eat lots of pizza, watch "Chicken Run", and make UV puppets. These pics are from my mobile phone, so they aren't great, but I know a couple of people took better ones (they have groovier phones!), I'll put them up when I get them.

We started with some games - you had the choice of lobbing hacky-sacks onto targets, then doubling your winnings (sweets) by performing a challenge, like standing on one leg, holding the other leg up with one hand while touching your finger to your nose for a count of ten...; or you could try to flick a coin onto a table - if your coin landed in a circle, you won a prize, but if it landed in a circle of the same value as the coin, you won two prizes!

Then it was time to eat - wow, everyone was starving! Don't they get fed at home any more?? - and to start the movie. Once the chickens had escaped safely from the farmyard with determination and terrific teamwork, we started on the UV puppets. They're very simple, but really effective - you just need some flourescent coloured cardboard, black textas to draw your designs, masking tape to hold them together, and a couple of special effects UV lights hired from a dramatic lighting company (it cost us $20 for two - bargain!) and Bob's your uncle.

And it wasn't only the kids who had a good time - it was great weather for an evening out - not too chilly, and only a sprinkle of rain, so some of the parents chose to make the most of being on Lygon Street on a Saturday evening: one couple road-tested a pub that's under new management, and I overheard two dads who hadn't seen each other for a while, deciding on the spur of the moment to catch up over dinner - great idea!

Why People Don't Go to Church

This is a youtube ad for a church in America - I think it's spot-on! Have a look: Why People Don't Go to Church.

School Holiday Program - Gearing up for Vibe!

Time is flying, and we're getting very excited about Vibe!, it's only two and a half weeks away! Chris Young is working on finishing touches to the program. I'm gathering lots of circus-type equipment - hoola hoops, juggling balls and sticks, parachutes, 'diablos' - you know, they look like huge hour-glasses suspended on a string, and you spin them and toss them and do amazing tricks with them.


Verdi the puppet is getting wriggly in his storage box... Julie, who is a mum in our 9am congregation, has offered to help out with food - and that's great, because she's a fabulous cook!

If you'd like to come along to Vibe!, click on the picture of the jumping kid at the top of the page - it takes you to the Vibe! webpage where you can download the registration form and more info about the program. We're looking forward to seeing you there! :)

Warm bricks outside - warm people inside!

This is a more friendly picture of the outside of St Jude's! Over the past year, the brickwork has been gradually cleaned and restored (it was getting very crumbly, the roof was leaking and plaster was falling off the walls inside) - and underneath all the soot and grime it turns out there was a very pretty Victorian building! There's more work to come, especially on the Lygon Street side. But on the inside, we still love to welcome visitors and newcomers and folk who just want to check out a family church. Do drop in!

A Book Worth A Look!

I'm recommending a book I haven't read yet - I've ordered it, but it's ten days away... but I heard the author this week, and I'm confident it's going to be worth a look. The book is "Is It a Lost Cause?: Having the Heart of God for the Church's Children" (Eerdmans, 1997).

This week a group of staff from St Jude's went to the Melbourne clergy conference, which was held in Bendigo (it actually rained the whole time we were there - yay!) (I mean that sincerely, they're drought stricken up there).

The keynote speaker was Marva Dawn, a theologian from Regent College, Canada, and she was terrific - knows her Bible really well, and is a gentle but very engaging speaker. I've come away convinced over again that what we do in front of kids speaks every bit as loudly as - more loudly than! - what we say. Marva's topic wasn't specifically about children, but often she referred to the impact that something would have on kids who are watching. Like reading the Bible - if we read it, then they learn that reading the Bible is a good thing to do. If we read it carelessly, then they learn that it's not very important. If we read it carefully, then they learn that reading the Bible is important.

I'm reminded of a talk I heard once - can't recall where, or who the fellow was! He said he was on a bus one day, and there were two very small boys sitting together, obviously brothers. They couldn't have been more than four and six. As the speaker swung on the pole of the bus, he heard one of the boys start to sing quietly. He leaned a little closer, and heard him very tunefully sing, "I can feel a Four-X coming on...." His point was, if a child that young can learn to sing a beer advert. what makes us think they're too young to learn more useful, healthful things?!

'Leaders To Go' conference

Katie Peken and Chris Young attended the bi-annual 'Leaders To Go' conference, which was held at lovely Anglesea this year. Every second year it's near Melbourne, in between it roves around the country, and people come from all over Australia, New Zealand, and further afield. It's a one-of-a-kind conference, because it's especially for people who have leadership roles in children's ministry, and need not only to know how to communicate, nurture, engage and mentor children; they also need to have skills in adult leadership, recruiting, training, building teams, developing skills in the leaders they lead.

This was Katie's third L2G conference, Chris's first. It was definitely worthwhile; there were keynote talks about leadership (fancy that!), child theology (not what we anticipated, which was, what does God say about children - it was rather, what does it do to your understanding of God when you remember that in the Bible he speaks to children as well as adults?), and advocacy (that is, making sure children aren't overlooked in the decision-making of the church). There was lots of time in small groups to discuss and work with the ideas we heard in the keynote talks.

There were also two sessions of electives; I went along to Pastoral Care of Families, but didn't think I learnt much of value there, it was largely about the characteristics of a family pastoral worker, whereas I want to know what I can do to better care for families - back to the drawing board on that one! I also attended a more helpful session on avoiding burnout - brilliant Terry Williams from Scripture Union Queensland gave us his 12 top tips for staying fresh and encouraged in ministry.

There was a mad evening called 'Market Place' where delegates had the opportunity to tell us about products and services they offer, and in some cases, about projects they'd like help with. Batches of ten delegates had one minute each to give us a teaser (there was a prize for the most creative!), we chose which to follow up, then they had ten minutes to explain more fully, before we raced back to the main meeting space for the next batch of ten. It was crazy, but a fun way to find out what's out there and what different people are doing and developing.

What I love about Leaders to Go is the generosity of the organizers - their whole focus is to serve children's ministry leaders, so they record all the talks and provide them on a cd for no extra charge at the end of the conference - along with photos of everyone who was there so we can remember who we met later, all the powerpoint slides, film clips we discussed, games we played - everything, because we might find a use for it in our ministry. They stay up all night copying the wretched things! Those folk deserve a medal, for all the love and care they put into organising this conference.

So - let me encourage you - if you can make it in 2011 - DON'T MISS LEADERS TO GO!!

Profile: The Diggers - Grades 3-6 at our 11am meeting

The Diggers are a great bunch - there are around 12 this year, and there are a lot of boys! Usually our group time starts with an energetic game - seems to help with being more settled afterwards... We don't have a lot of room, our meeting place is one of the church foyers, bright and pleasant with lots of cushions on the floor, but pretty squeezy; so we head outside and use the paved entrance on Lygon Street for relays, hopscotch, trust games etc.



Then we head inside and have something to munch on - to replace all that expended energy! Then we look at the Bible - we've just finished a series about God's faithfulness, looking at how he kept his promise to do good to Abraham and his descendants, when Abraham was so old he thought he could never have a baby, and when Isaac was getting on and still hadn't found a suitable girl to marry; and finally last week, when Jacob sneakily tricked his older twin and his father into giving him the inheritance and blessing that belonged to Esau. We thought about our families and our world, where people can be horrible to each other; but God doesn't give up on us, he still keeps his promises; so we prayed about bullying and wars and families where brothers and sisters are mean to each other.



This coming Sunday we start a new series, but also the Diggers are bringing their favourite songs to church to share with each other - we'll be asking, what do you like about that song - why's it your favourite? We think this will be a good way to get to know each other better. With so many boys, I'm guessing we'll get an interesting selection of songs!

Carols in Carlton - waterlogged!!

We planned a great evening of carols (lots of the familiar ones we all know), a crazy bloke called the "Backyard Bard" who tells the Christmas story as if it was happening right now, and a home-grown puppet show. But as the afternoon drew on, the rain came down - and it just kept on falling.... Curtain Square was covered in puddles, and the marquee started to look like a kids' wading pool on stilts! The band, made up of folk from St Jude's Unichurch congregation, were all dressed in their spiffy neat dark clothes, with tasteful red accents; and they'd been practicing and sounding great - but no gig. The Kent Hotel is just across the road from the park, and we thought maybe they would like some cheery Christmas carols to entertain their diners - so we offered - and they said they were very interested - but simply couldn't fit the whole band plus instruments in, especially since all the diners had had to move in from the footpath tables to get out of the rain. So we packed everything up again... but it wasn't a wasted evening, we had a great time preparing for it, and pottering around the district letting people know about the Carols; and in spite of the rain we met lots of people out walking their dogs in their raincoats, and it seems there were plenty of folk disappointed that the event was cancelled. Watch this space for the 2009 Carols in Carlton!!

St Jude's Family Camp, August 29-31

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it's Michael Collie, singing 'Jesus Superhero'!
On Saturday evening before dinner the Band played kids songs for about 45 minutes - it was fun to see all generations joining in the actions and raising the roof.
(Great band, too - thanks guys!)

Never too young (or old) to get into the actions for 'Jesus Superhero'!

Our first combined Camp for the 9am and 11am folk - we had a great time getting to know each other better, singing together, hearing from returned missionaries Michael and Elspeth Collie, and talking about future directions for St Jude's family ministry.

A reflective moment ....

The Youth ran a mad Quiz night - it was brilliant, with lots of crazy categories that involved every age group - here, tables are competing to see who remembers the most nursery rhymes! Congratulations to the folk at the nearest table, left of the picture!