Summer Holiday Club 2nd-6th August

What a wonderful week we had during the holiday club this year and how lovely the weather was for us, much better than expected!

In total we had 22 children that registered, although in reality we only had 20 on one day and 19 the rest of the days.

In 2021 the All Blaby Churches Holiday Club met from 2nd - 6th August and the children really enjoyed their time with us.

Our theme was ‘Secret Agents’ and we looked at Luke’s gospel for clues about Jesus and who He is. During the week we looked at the following stories -

Day 1 The paralysed man through the roof,

Day 2 the widow’s son raised to life,

Day 3 The story of Zacchaeus,

Day 4 The death of Jesus and

Day 5 The Resurrection appearance of Jesus at the lake.

As we were secret agents we made glasses and magnifying glasses and wore a hat on the first day.

During the week we looked at the paralysed man being let down through the roof, and how Jesus forgave his sins and then healed him. On Tuesday we saw how Jesus raised the widow of Nain’s son, thus giving life. On Wednesday we looked at the story of Zacchaeus desperately wanting to see Jesus and so climbing into the tree, Jesus during tea with him told him the one thing that would make him happy inside was to give away everything he'd stolen. Once Zacchaeus did this he had loads of friends and was happy. So, during the first three days we saw how Jesus healed physically, spiritually and mentally.

On day four we looked at how this was possible, and it was Jesus’ death on the cross that released us from our sins and gave us new life. The final day we looked at the resurrection of Jesus and explained how He is alive forever and ever and He always lives with us.

Each day we did activities that went along with the theme, so we created the house with the man going down through the roof, we used a plate to create a sad and happy face on, we made a tree and put Zacchaeus in the tree, we made stained glass crosses and pictures to show light from dark. As Jesus shared a meal of fish with the disciples, so we made fish on our last day.

Everyday, with the exception of Friday (when it rained) we went over to Stokes School field to let the children run around climb trees play with the mud. They all had a great time. Our altogether time looked at the stories using the flannelgraph and the children were so good and remembered so much of the stories and the meanings, I was really impressed and it had been a pleasure to spend time with these young people talking about Jesus.

Every day we also sang and had two songs which Eva put actions to, the children (and adults) really enjoyed this! A successful week but marred by the positive COVID case of one of the children after the week had ended. (Although no one else from the Holiday club caught COVID from the infected person), so that meant we continued to keep the church a safe place to be.

Many thanks to the helpers, Susan, Eva, Hollie and Frankie and on Thursday and Friday Carole Lacey too. You were all brilliant, thank you so much. Julie