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!!