Some people don't get why I chose to use a week of my annual leave up on holiday club. Basically I do it because we get to spend the week with about 120 kids, half of whom don't go to church. Add in their parents and this is an amazing evangelistic opportunity. I don't count myself as a natural evangelist - some people have a real gift for telling others about Jesus. I don't. But I can be part of an amazing team who, through everything that is holiday club, live and breathe who Jesus is. And then we let Him do the rest.
And this was a fantastic week. It's a well oiled machine these days, so most of the organisational stuff smoothlessly happened behind the scenes. The team, all of whom are volunteers- not one person paid to be there, teens and adults, all working together, and having a load of fun in doing it. Of course this is part of what makes it such an amazing week, the huge fun we have. And I think the kids catch this- being a Christian is fun, and the parents see that Church is a great community.
Of course the special stuff, the stuff God does with our offerings, its hard to capture - but Sarah and PJ taught them about prayer, using Rachel's 'Chat, catch and pass' . Prayer is simply chatting to God, about everyday stuff, every moment of the day. and God chats back, and if we listen, we will hear Him (catch) and sometimes He will talk to us about stuff for other people (pass). It's simple but its given me great confidence in my own prayer life (its too easy to think that God couldn't possibly listen to my simple rambling prayers). In the week we saw kids praying all the time, on their own, in small groups, in the prayer shack/ boat.
We heard stories from parents of children committing to take time every day to listen to God. We saw kids and leaders have words and pictures. We saw healings. We saw God be God, hopefully unlimited by us. And we saw teens and adults grow in confidence and faith. We also had people who didn't understand, who got confused and disturbed by what we were doing- lots more prayer needed....
And of course for many of these kids we won't see what grows from the seeds planted this week. Some we will not see again, some will simply come back next year. But that's ok, we helped sew the seeds, God will water and tend, we keep praying for them.
This year was special because for lots of significant people on team it was their last year. And next year will be different. But different can be good, and I'm sure it will.
So, as I start getting ready for Sarah's birthday BBQ, and then go back to work, with an essay I never finished (due in in 2 weeks!) and two weeks today is Hannah and PJs wedding, and tired and aching, do I regret how I spent this week - not at all :)
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