A short Passover movie for parents and teachers

A Jewish friend of mine sent me a link to a Passover meditation which I thought so suitable for all us parents and teachers that I am sharing it with you:
http://www.aish.com/movies/4sons.asp

And it's fun!

Happy Easter (Spanish style)

Wishing you all a very happy and peaceful Easter with lots of family time!

Denise

The Magic Carpet!

Siân had just asked me to put rugs on the agenda of our last Planning Meeting (because the rugs which have served us well to keep the littliest children off the cold tiled floor had got too dirty to use), when lo and behold! a lovely big oriental rug appeared with the ones we use!

Please would the kind donor own up so we can check that it really is for our use?

A BIG THANK YOU!

Sunday 18 March was Lions Heraldic SPLASH 2007

It was a busy weekend for us as, not only did we host the Training Day, but the Junior Church was well represented by both a teacher (well done, Neville!) and several teenagers. More photos on http://2007splash.blogspot.com/

JUNIOR CHURCH Training Day on Saturday 17 March 2007

The Church of Scotland sent a team of three to help us host a training day for Junior Church teachers here at St Andrew’s. The Training Day was a stimulating occasion, an opportunity to meet people involved in youth training and teaching from other churches in Brussels and beyond and, of course, to brush up on our teaching skills!
It was open to everyone, whether they had taught or not. Despite unwittingly competing with Jonathan Aitken’s visit to St Paul’s, Tervuren, our training day was fairly well attended, especially in the morning.

The Rev. Linda Pollock is a Regional Development Officer specialising in work with children up to the age of 12 years.
At the beginning of the day, Linda placed a tiny chair in the centre of the room. It was to remind us that our children should be at the centre of our minds and activities, not behind, not in front, but right in the centre.

“It was a refreshing, uplifting and useful day. I love children and I agree with Linda that they should be “in the centre”. Let’s show them that they are!” (Isabelle)

Linda showed us that what we all crave is a sense of belonging and that what we can give our children on a Sunday is something that cannot be bought: a big welcome to show them that there is at least one other person besides their parents who is pleased to see them at church. The least we can do for the children in our church is to learn and use their names. Linda urged us not to be embarrassed to give them that welcome and, if it felt risky, to “be a fool for Christ”!

Linda invited us to consider how we cuddle and care for our babies physically. “If we do all that for them,” she asked, “how can we fail to nurture them spiritually?”

“Thank you to everyone for making it such an encouraging day. We believe in young people! Let’s help them keep the faith!” (Graham)

In response to the question: “How we can juggle our busy lives in which the modern child is expected to take part in all sorts of sporting and cultural activities?” there was no way round the straight answer: “Prioritise!”

“I found it very worth worthwhile. Each of the speakers was really inspirational. They gave good ideas and lots of food for thought. . . . I really appreciated meeting and talking to members of other churches too.” (Siân)

We were delighted to have Brigid from St Anthony’s, Nancy from the International Baptist Church and Niels from Amsterdam. Group work was all the richer for the input of teachers from other backgrounds, with different experiences to share with us.

“Coming to Brussels was well worth the travel. I found Linda’s training and the group discussions very inspiring. How to give our young church members a sense of belonging and how to know their world were the most important lessons I learned.” (Niels)

Linda urged us to get away from the idea of “Sunday School” and educating our children in favour of connecting with them and giving them praise and recognition.

“My understanding of the difference is the "Sunday school" has an emphasis on education whereas "Junior Church" is a continuation of worship. If we focus just on education then we deprive the Junior Church members of the "worship" part of their church experience. The Junior Church is made up of education and worship, while Sunday School is oriented around education only.” (David)

Rather than “dismissing” them from a worship context to an educational context, Linda would like to see children being given responsibilities within church and letting children feel loved taking precedence over studying a lesson.

“It was great for me to find out how things are done at other churches. We all want what’s best for he children and it’s great to get other perspectives. The day opened my eyes about children and worship. At my church we have Sunday School for one hour, and then ‘Children’s Church’. We call it ‘Children’s Church’, but it is just an extension of Sunday School with different activities. I am rethinking how we are going to do things for the fall. I am leaning towards ‘Children’s Church’ being just worship time.” (Nancy)

Linda also commended Fischy Music to us. In fact Fischy Music came to St Paul’s, Tervuren last November http://standrewssundayschool.blogspot.com/2006_11_01_archive.html

Linda left us with plenty to think about and also a stack of documentation to look at including “Godly Play” http://www.godlyplay.org.uk/ which is a Montessori method of asking “wondering” questions and leaving room for open responses. (How many children know that the bets are on that the answer to any question has to be either “God” or “Jesus” in traditional educational settings!)

Graham Allison and Steve Mallon, associate secretary of the Mission and Discipleship Council with responsibility for education and nurture, talked more specifically about teenagers and young adults. Together Steve and Graham emphasised the importance of connecting with young people through music, affirming them by listening to what is important to them and giving them permission to talk about difficult subjects such as gun violence and rape in a place of safety in which they will receive a responsible response.

“The training day showed me the importance of creating a trusting and safe environment for the members, where they can feel comfortable in discussing what is on their minds.” (David)

Graham gave us an example of a different way of treating the stories we know so well. With one group of older teenagers he had plates depicting scenes from the Creation. After telling the story the conventional way, the group experimented with the order of events: “what if?” which gave rise to creative and refreshing ways of looking at it.

John Fisher closed proceedings with a short talk on Child Protection, which expanded into an informative and revealing discussion on fire procedures, which need to be refined for periods when the Junior Church is meeting (more on that shortly).

“I must say that for me the day was both inspiring and encouraging. It's reassuring to be told that whatever we do or don't manage to teach the young people we work with, the most important thing is that we be there for them and take an interest in them. I should think that we all came away inspired to do at least that” (Sia)

“I thought Saturday was useful and even though our church set-ups are rather different, there’s a lot to be learnt from listening to how others do things. I thought Linda, Graham and Steve had a really good approach. I took away the bit about aiming to be a prophetic voice and about being positive about our young people. Thanks for organizing the event.” (Brigid)

“Thanks for a great day and for inviting others in the religious community. I hope we can reciprocate someday. I so enjoyed Linda’s presentation and would love to have any information she sends.” Nancy

Looking good!

Two weeks ago I was like Job tearing my hair out because only one participant had enrolled for our Training Day and there was a serious risk that the trainers would outnumber participants!

So I said to God,

Look, I've done my bit - so how about You doing Yours?

And He did!
Now we have a very respectable 15 or more participants, including two from Amsterdam and two or three from other churches in Brussels.

We're looking forward to this Saturday immensely!
Welcome to all participants and the training team!
If you are not joining us in person, please be with us in spirit and pray that Training Day will be enjoyable and useful for all.
Thank you!