The Morgan-Gurrs

Our annual team conference was fantastic – lovely people, great kids workers, good food and a wonderful speaker. The feedback from the team is still coming in, all appreciating the input and the time out from busy schedules.

As mentioned in our previous blog, we set the meeting room up as an underwater world, which was much appreciated by the team – especially the fact that we’d taken the time to think it through and as one member said: “…make such a wonderful, visual, adult space for us…” Many thanks to Judi and Mike for helping us. The photos really don’t do it justice!

A local garden centre (Old Barn) lent us two HUGE penguins to add to our watery world – photographed with Steve. They also attended our management meeting on the Friday morning……. (Well, we are children’s workers!)

We also had a radio controlled fish – also huge – who made a guest appearance in Kay’s rendition of the Jonah story…. expertly driven by our technical advisor, Pete Edley )

Ali Campbell’s talks were spot on – a real blessing. One member said “I’m still processing the last talk and it’s time to hear another one…!” Everyone found something to stretch them, encourage them and bless them.

Now to start thinking about next year!

After coming back we’ve been busy with various other things – Kay attending a Spring Harvest consultation meeting about the 2013 theme, in London. She was very grateful for a smooth and easy solo journey, and thoroughly enjoyed the process of thinking and debating the various ideas put in front of them. People forget that children’s workers enjoy debating theology too! On Thursday we were both with out Future Builder students, talking about Puppets, ventriloquism and tricks.

Thankfully we have a quieter week next week, ready for a full on week of assemblies and meetings the following week.

This weekend is our team conference! On facebook, many of our colleagues are making comments such as “5 more sleeps ’til conference” and “The Dalesdown challenge will be…..” and various other rather competitive team members are comparing skills for the unofficial wii challenge on Saturday night!

It’s always a lot of fun…..

This year’s theme is ‘Salmon or Jelly Fish’ and the Laing room (Meeting room!) will be set up like an under water world. The theme ties into the fact we are a bit of a Salmon type organisation – often going against the flow. We’d rather not be a Jelly fish organisation – going where the flow takes us.

Please pray for us – for the team, that it would be a refreshing and fun filled weekend, and for us – for strength and wisdom as we host it. Also pray for Ali Campbell, our speaker for the weekend – some one who like us, never seems to stop!

As if you didn’t know – Christmas is on its way! The preparations, decorations and hype seem to get earlier every year and the real meaning feels as though it’s slipping away.

Sounds a bit ‘bah – humbug’ doesn’t it?!

We’ve had a very busy couple of months, and have only just found time to start thinking about Christmas. But – the Christmas news letter has been written!

Leading up to this point, we have done many assemblies, including one new school. Delivered some training, including a full day’s training on children with special needs for London City Mission, two weekend events for One Way, and a couple of sessions for the Knowle Parish day of ‘inspiration and encouragement’ on leading small groups and positive discipline. Had meetings all over the place, planned future events, had management meetings for Children Worldwide etc, etc (You get the idea….!)

On November 20th we celebrated the 20th Birthday of Dalesdown. It was a great time, both looking back and being thankful for God’s faithfulness and blessing, and prayerfully looking forward to all the future holds. Our thanksgiving service was followed by a Ritz style tea party for all who came – the dining room was transformed amazingly, and got the comment “I’ve been to the Ritz, and this is far, far better!!” We also had prayer stations representing every aspect of the work of Family Foundations Trust (Including Dalesdown and Children Worldwide)

During December, as well as a few bookings and  quite a few meetings we hope to get some writing done and take some time to reclaim our house from the ravages of children’s work and being too busy. Kay is hoping to find a desk and a floor in the office!

On the subject of writing, you may notice an extra page on the site: “Musings of a Kids’s Worker“. This is a link to Kay’s personal blog, but we hope to put the latest additions on this page too.

Meanwhile – have a blessed time in the busyness of the season.

We came back from our much needed holiday just over a week ago, but dropped straight back into work headfirst! Why do holidays always leave you with such a huge pile of work when you get back?
We took the twitter feed off the blog whilst we were away as a security measure (Just in case Kay was tempted to twitter whilst we were away…… which she wasn’t!) As you will see – it’s back on now, so you can continue to see what we are doing in real time, as well as enjoy some of our more off the wall thoughts!
It’s our council of reference meeting tonight – always a time of encouragement as we look forward, and thankfulness as we look back.

Well, the camps are over – not just the ones we were personally involved with, but also the Children Worldwide ones we have responsibility for.

All went well, Children and young people became Christians and many moved on in their faith – brilliant! There are many stories we are unable to tell you for reasons of confidentiality, but we can say that many hurting children learnt that there are some adults you can trust, others built up their self confidence, and others were able to be the children they are  - just for a little while.

We now move back into the world of assemblies, meetings, training days and preparation for the year ahead – the diary, once again, looks very busy!

Many thanks for all your prayers.

It’s Thursday afternoon of camp – and it’s been raining! The first significant period of rain for the two weeks of camps we’ve done.

This week is the camp for our youngest children, and it has been so much fun – the children have seemed very small compared to the previous camp, and much more willing to do things. The leaders have been great, and very willing to join in everything and be with the kids…..having fun!

We have been taking the morning teaching sessions, looking at Paul’s third journey and subsequent journey to Rome. One morning turned out to be interesting as the electricity dropped out just as we were starting! It took Kay back to her roots, as she carried on without anything technical and told the story straight. It may well have been one of the best morning meetings!

The evening meetings have been on significant encounters with Jesus, each session taken by a different person every night.

Each year on this camp we look at the biography of a well known Christian – and this year we were learning about Joni Eareckson Tada, someone who has been a huge help to many people over the years, including many on the camp.

Joni was kind enough to record a message for the campers, and we played it to them last night – the looks on their faces were amazing and the gasp audible as they realized Joni was speaking to THEM! But no where near as amazed as some of the leaders who were thrilled that Joni had taken the time to record the message. It was one of those precious memories to be stored away and appreciated for a long time to come.

We have one more day to go – the sun has come out again, and we’re hoping it will be dry enough for the bonfire tonight. We all go home tomorrow evening after a final day of learning, swimming, horse riding and much much more.

Hungarton’s “Aspire” camp was great – the leaders worked hard and served well, the campers listened, joined in and had a huge amount of fun (along with the leaders!). This week the site is occupied by the youngsters of St.Luke’s Church, Thurnby.

This week also sees the start Children Worldwide’s “One Way” camps both in the UK and in Latvia. The UK camp is the last of 3 camps at Dalesdown, and this one is the children’s camp. Please pray for Sarah Covington and her excellent team of leaders, and for Jon Bonner who is the speaker for the week.

The Latvian One Way camps are “English Speaking” camps, where the campers can learn basic English, as well as hear about the Gospel. Please pray for Kristaps as he directs these camps, and for Graham Reed who is the pastor for both the camps – plus the mixed Latvian and English team.

The Camp at Dalesdown is in need of prayer – one of the leaders was taken to hospital last night with an Asthma attack (now back on site, but not well) and another leader, a policeman, was called back into work because of the riots, so they are two male leaders down. We are thankful that a visiting friend of CW was able to stay and fill in last night!

The next Hungarton camp (Activate) begins on Sunday, and we are putting the finishing touches to some rather inventive styles of story telling. We need to do some off site videoing for the first story….. Which will involve much wig wearing, strange accents and pretending to be on the news….. (We do have fun in our job!)

Please keep praying!

It’s that time of year and camps are in full swing all over the place.

Although we are physically involved in the Hungarton camps in Leicestershire, as general directors we are the ones ultimately responsible for other Children Worldwide camps, both here and in Latvia.

The camps at Hungarton are going really well. This week we have a mix of kids from both church and non church families – some with no knowledge or understanding of the things of God. This has made putting things together quite a challenge – especially for Steve, who is co-leading the worship.

Although Kay is in charge of all things technical for the week, her expertise in other areas is being well used!

We have a great team of leaders, but please pray for the tent leaders specifically, especially in the tent quiet times as they try to lead the kids in looking at Isaiah 53 in the mornings. Some of the kids are finding the questions the passage raises great and a challenge, but others are answering the obvious questions, but are not easily able to apply the truth to their own lives. (The answer is always Jesus, but that’s where it ends!)

Please pray that the kids with church backgrounds would not only hear and understand, but that the “penny would drop” from head to heart.

And pray that those who have no church background would be able to understand what is being taught, and be able to apply it to their own lives.

In the morning meetings, Tim Dixon is teaching about Joseph’s life…..his story telling is quite colourful, lively and totally engaging! But he isn’t holding anything back and is challenging the kids about the way they live their lives – this morning especially!

In the evenings we are looking at stories where people encountered Jesus in unusual ways – yesterday was Jesus clearing the temple. The whole idea about a gentle Jesus losing His temper caused some lively debate for some of the tents in quiet times! Tonight is the thieves on the cross.

Although we do have specific roles here, it is more in a support role – which we love, and Kay is really appreciating just being in the background and helping where there is a need, or if a leader needs specific help with how to engage the children with quiet times.

Our next camp, “Activate”, back here in Hungarton is in 2 weeks and we are adding the final touches to the teaching on Paul’s final Journey. (“Taking God’s glory with us where ever we go”) But more on that in another post!!

Kay has recently opened up a discussion on twitter about the sort of songs children’s leaders choose to use in kids work.

As an introduction to what we are saying, we should tell you that Steve writes excellent songs, full of teaching/information that are usable with both church and non church kids (Mainly for 5 – 7 year olds and all age worship, but some for older kids too).

He recently received his royalty update and found that for use in church, his best selling song was one he wrote as what he calls a “throw away fun song” – no teaching, no theology – just a list of actions, with the only religious words being “…as we praise the Lord”.

We believe kids are capable of so much more, and the songs we choose for them to learn and sing should reflect this – many children love some of the adult praise songs and understand what they mean, so why not use good, solid teaching songs written for the age and stage of the children we work with?

Over the years we have heard other song writers say the same thing, as some kids albums seem to be happy to settle for songs that fit into the “I can shake this or that to make God smile” culture.

We understand the issues kids workers want to avoid, namely, making non Christian kids sing words they don’t believe – but is there an argument to be made that God understands this? He’s not going to strike them with lightening because they don’t believe the songs they are singing – after all, many adults do it every Sunday in our churches!

In a world where many adult Christians learn most of their theology from songs – it is true to say that many kids and teens do the same.

On a similar theme – how similar or different should our music with kids be? Should we be emulating music that often comes from an angst ridden gang culture, or should we be different?

Some good writers to look out for (Apart from Steve!): Trevor Ranger – new album out and brilliant! Dave Godfrey, Doug Horley and of course, the lovely Ishmael!

You could never call our work boring! The variety of what we do is vast – ranging from writing material, to teaching about puppets to foundation classes in schools, from taking all age services to talking to a local ladies meeting!
The last month has seen us doing a huge range of things.
The teaching theme for “Activate” (Formally “Hungarton week 1″!) is now settled, inspired in part by Krish Kandiah’s book ‘Route 66′. There’s still a way to go in planning the presentation, but we’re quite excited about it!
This week is a week of meetings – Kay was in London Yesterday for a ‘Churches for All’ partners meeting, and today is a Children Worldwide management meeting in Birmingham. On Thursday we’re going to see a prospective member in Cambridge!
Keep following the twitter updates.