The Morgan-Gurrs

Or should that be thankyou God for home groups?!

We’ve had three Sundays away from our home church, and will be away for a further three before we make it back. Thankfully we have been able to make our home group meetings. (Looking at Missional Church – click here to see a youtube clip on what that is!)

Please pray for us during these weeks, that we remain ‘fed’ and refreshed spiritually as we give out to those we minister to.

At the end of May we attended the Children Matter Forum: Leaders from organisations who work nationally with children getting together to discuss many things to do with children.

Ian White Spoke, using the theme of being “Exiles on Main Street”, starting by getting us to discuss “In your own experience, what has been changing in and around The Church to place it in exile” and “Is God putting us into exile, and if so, is He putting us there for a reason?”

Not everyone agreed that the church was in exile –  more that Church, having been firmly embedded in the local community is no longer embedded. So…. it was a lively discussion.

These thoughts formed the basis of the rest of the sessions.

Some of the Things I wrote down:

For the Jews, Exile became a place of renewal. It evoked (8th Century BC):
Brilliant Wisdom Literature
Renewed Faith
Closer Community
Commitment to Scripture

Q: What if The Church (Ie:Us) is in exile during all of our life times? How will that feel and what would it mean to our ministries?

Q: What hope of renewal (especially in our shared concerns) can we see, that is not just wishful thinking (or loud shouting!), but is truly re-thinking, re-imaging and re-describing a larger reality? (That one made me think!)

The Church of England Going for Growth document. One Quote from it:

1.9 If, instead of trying to teach good news to children (and young people), the Church tries to become good news, it will need such fresh eyes to see itself. Such a church would need the confidence to deal with questions rather than always having to find the answers. It would be prepared to surrender its life and lets its institutions be transformed. The sadness is that churches rarely have the confidence which enables them to face the questions theology may ask of them, especially in the devastating directness such questions may take on in the mouth of a child (or young person).

Churches lack the humility to face the truth about the quality of their life and worship and to set about addressing the needs which are then identified. A church which welcomes children (and young people), accepts their gifts and ministries, meets their needs, advocates justice, seeks new life, challenges evil with love and truth, and continues to learn the values of the Kingdom by living them, is a Church which is good news not only for its members but for the world.

There’s much more to post, but it’ll make this blog update far too long! So I’ll post some more of the nuggets and challenges from time to time in the future.

We really do need to update the blog more! But if you’re following our twitter updates, you should get the feel of what we have been up to in the last few weeks.

The assemblies this term were a continuation of the story of Elisha – this time the part where Gehazi follows Naaman and asks for the money Elisha refused. Once again the children listened in amazed silence, and loved Stilton the rat’s thoughts on being honest. We’re looking at continuing with the story of the floating axe head……. but what would God want to say to the kids through it? Never lend your tools to a theology student?! Thankfully we have the whole summer to think it though.

If you live in the Leicester area, and have contacts with a school – why not suggest they give us a call and book us for an assembly? We’re always happy to add more schools to those we already visit.

Last weekend we joined Hill Cliffe Baptist Church from Warrington, on their church weekend at Cloverly Hall. We had 9 of their delightful children for three sessions, and did a short family praise party for them too. We were warmly welcomed and felt at home with them instantly!

We did three Hebrew names for God with the Children: Jehovah Jireh, Jehovah Nissi and Jehovah Shalom. We used the Bible stories associated with these names to teach about God’s Provision, Protection and Peace (Having all three begin with P was pure accident!) We also did prayer activities around each theme to help anchor what we had been learning. It was very obvious that the children understood the teaching and were starting to put into action what they had learnt.

We had some time just playing too – especially with lego!

We’re back from Spring Harvest in Minehead with so many stories, there are too many to write here!

Have a look at Kay’s twitters from on site and you may get a small flavour of what went on, but here is an ‘overview in a nutshell’:

Weeks 1 and 2, Kay was the special needs consultant. Steve ably assisted her, but also did 2 gigs per week in the skyline, performing some of his story songs.  The guests we worked with were gracious and polite in all situations, and children who had additional needs were well catered for by excellent teams of special needs volunteers. There are many lovely stories of how children who don’t normally settle, settled into their programmes with no problems – thanks to the dedication of these volunteers.

The various teams Kay worked with and briefed on working with those who have additional needs, including the excellent stewarding teams, were so good, she had very few issues to deal with over the two weeks.

On Week 3, we were running Whizz Kids – the programme for 5 – 7 year olds. With a largely new team (60% had never served with us before) we were wondering how we would cope! But they were all fantastic! We had to hit the ground running, and they all coped admirably.  Throughout the whole week they never ceased to bless us. (Including finding a chocolate bar ‘inside’ Albert just as Kay was about to do a sketch with him – slightly disturbing, but it did cause a fit of the giggles!!)

The teaching (God’s Character reflected in us) was clear and obviously well understood by the children.

On one day we had prayer stations, organised by Rachel and Kim from  Orison. They were great – and the kids were enthralled by all the things they could do to pray. One of the photos below is of the ‘WOW’ tent.

Other photos below are:
Kay (In Uniform!) watching the kids having so much fun, the building was just filled with laughter.
And the craft on day 3 waiting to go out to the kids ready to take home

Many people have asked how to pray for us while we are at Spring Harvest.
Below is the text of what we are giving out to those who receive our prayer letters:

Praying for Kay & Steve at Spring Harvest

Week 1: 3rd - 8th April:
Kay is the Site Special Needs Consultant (Kids and Adults). Steve is a VIP guest, helping Kay and doing two performance slots in ‘Skyline’ (7^th April, 3.15 – 3.45pm and 9.30 – 10pm )

Week 2: 8th - 13th April:
Kay is the Site Special Needs Consultant (Kids and Adults). Steve is a VIP guest, helping Kay and doing two performance slots in ‘Skyline’ (12^th April, 3.15 – 3.45pm and 9.30 – 10pm )

Week 3: 13th - 18th April:
Kay and Steve leading Whizz Kids.
Also leading a ‘marriage’ seminar on 16th in the afternoon

Specific information:

2nd April (Good Friday) is the final set up day, and this is the day we will arrive on site. (Other set up teams and head office staff will have been there a while before!)

2nd-3rd : Kay will be checking venues for accessibility, meeting with the children and youth special needs teams, Training the stewards and speaking teams on dealing with those guests who have additional needs, and making sure everything is in place for those guests.

Kay also has responsibility for mentoring the special needs volunteer teams in the youth programmes for the two weeks.

Guests start to arrive on 3rd April in the afternoon – This will be Kay’s busiest day. Changeover day on 8th  April is also a very busy day!

Kay’s work is very varied over these two weeks:
Talking with parents of children with additional needs if their child isn’t coping/settling, making sure children’s specific needs are addressed, advising special needs coordinators in children and youth venues, Making sure adults that need additional support in various venues are helped to access the programme (Access, induction loop, signers, large print words etc, etc) Basically – if a child or adult had an additional need, and are having difficulties – Kay is the person they speak to.

The ability to be in three places at once would be very useful – that’s where Steve comes in! At the end of each week she has to make sure reports are written plus noting ideas for next year.

Whizz Kids Programme on Week Three:
There will be a total of 41 people on team. The majority of the team have never served on a Whizz Kids team before.

The children we have are aged 4-7 years old (Only 4 year olds who have been at school for one term)

The team arrive at lunch time, and we start registering children at 2pm until 8.30 pm. We also need to train the team during the afternoon. Because of the cost of hiring vans, we can’t get the van to site until after 2 pm, so set up is going to be quite stressful!

The first children’s programme runs on the 14th.

Timings are: on 14th- 17th

7.30 am – Team prep, set up, devotions, rehersals etc.

9.40am – 1pm – The programme is running, but the last child is usually on their way by 1.15/1.30.

We then have to pack up the venue and have a debrief, then get to lunch by 2pm….. It’s quite tight on timing!

For the team, the afternoon is free, but various team are expected to do babysitting in the evenings. Kay and Steve are generally busy with team and programme stuff for the whole of each day.

The 18th is different: The programme runs 9.10 – 11.30, after which we have to pack up the venue, and load the van ready to go back to Leicester.

Kay and Steve will have been up from before 6 am on this last day as they have to have their chalet cleared before breakfast. With the long journey home, it’s a very tiring day, so any help with the unpacking at the Meadows in the evening would be much appreciated!

We’ve just noticed we didn’t do an update on our visit to Latvia!

With all the preparation for Spring Harvest, the visit to Latvia, and the many other things we are called upon to do, unfortunately writing our blog came at the bottom of the list. We hope you have been following Kay’s twitter updates on the right of this page, as they have photos and a running commentary on what we have been up to.

The visit to Latvia was awesome. The team over there is growing very fast, and they have some lovely folk involved with all aspects of their work. Touch camp starts very soon, and planing for all their other camps is coming on well.

The purpose of our visit was to attend their annual members meeting, to encourage, help and advise, and spend some time with our lovely director over there and her new husband.

We leave for Minehead on Good Friday, leaving the house in the very capable hands of our house sitters.

On weeks one and two, Kay will be the Site Special Needs Consultant, and Steve is classed as a ‘VIP’ guest(!) He will be doing two performance slots in the skyline each week. If you’re there, check the Harvest news to see which days and what time, and come and encourage him. He’ll also be helping Kay with her role as usual.

On week three we will be once again leading Whizz Kids – and that’s the role that takes so much time, preparation, planning and so much of our sanity!!

Please pray for us – for wisdom, integrity, safety and peace for all three weeks, and for the whole team (Most of whom are new to Whizz Kids) on week three. Many of our leadership team at Whizz Kids are either new or have taken on different roles – please remember them in your prayers too.

Do keep following the twitter updates, and we will try to update the blog regularly whilst we are on site!

We’ve been on a lot of motorways, A roads and B roads in the last week!

Last Sunday we drove down to Hassocks, ready for an early meeting on Monday morning in Worthing, and drove back in time for tea in Leicester.

We managed a day at home before going to Ross on Wye for a couple of days to celebrate our 14th Wedding anniversary – a welcome break amid all the busyness!

Tomorrow evening (Sunday), Steve’s youngest son, James is to be baptised. James’ journey has been a long one, and his testimony is awesome. He is quite nervous and would appreciate prayer. We will be taking a few tissues along to the service………!

On Wednesday we will be back on the motorways – in the evening we will be at a camps taster evening at Dalesdown, and then on Thursday morning we will be flying out to Latvia for the CW Latvia annual members’ meeting. (leaving our trusty house sitters in place to look after things back home). We fly back on Monday 8th.

Do keep an eye on the twitter updates (On the right of this page) as we will try to keep twittering from Latvia!

Kay is doing some research at the moment about bullying and how the Church community helps children and young people who are bullied.

If you have a moment – could you look at the page about this and answer some questions?

Thankyou!

Our team conference (5 -7th Feb) at Dalesdown was great! A lovely time of fellowship all round. It was great to have Graham and Steph Reed with us, as well as the newly married Iveta with her hubby Andris, over from Latvia. It was also wonderful to have David Iliffe, the founder of Children Worldwide with us briefly – he is very frail now, and finds it difficult to remember who people are. But on the year we were to present the vision for the future – it was a privilege to have him there.

The food was absolutely awesome – which is always helpful! Add to that the fact that we had planned in plenty of time to just chat and drink coffee/tea. It’s always so good to meet up with all of our members and hear what they have been doing, and to encourage each other in our many ministries.

The new vision and plans for the future were presented and very well received.  All the members were enthused and excited about it all, and our newer members were able to see the amazing history we have and how the past and the future tie in together.

It’s always difficult to describe what Children Worldwide is about and how we got to where we are, just because we do so many things! So it has been a good exercise to think it through and write it down as part of the vision for the future.

One of our friends from church came up with a very good description of Children Worldwide this week: “You’re a bit like a crocheted patchwork blanket – each square beautiful in it’s own right, but each one essential to the look of the whole blanket”. They were right – each member with their own amazing sphere of work, but each one vital in the make up of the organisation!