Another year, another Holiday Club

Holiday Club is over for another year.  Thank you to every who has been praying for us.  It’s been a great week with as many kids coming as we could cope with.  I’ve been doing holiday clubs for years and I have to say this has been one of the best.  It takes over your life and you go around singing the theme song and doing the actions involuntary.  There were 10 scary minutes on Tuesday when the lap-top refused to read the DVD.  We think there was a tiny scratch on the disc and it the lap-top was being a bit fussy.  This was one of those moments when the manse being next to the church was a life-saved because I was able to get our, less fussy, lap-top, and our magnificent technical team managed to transfer everything in the nick of time.  I wonder if magic lanterns caused so much trouble.  It’s a wonderful privilege being able to bring the gospel to so many kids.  Our prayer now is that the seed that was sown will take root in their young lives. 

One of the important dividends of holiday club is that team members get to know each other better.  It brings together people who wouldn’t normally socialise and who only see each other at church on a Sunday. 

Last night we had our Thanksgiving Service.  Our usual practice is to have three of the team say something about how they feel about the week.  All of them spoke with great warmth and enthusiasm. 

One of the things we need to learn to do better is involving people, not just for one week a year, but continually.   I often say that no one should be doing two jobs until everyone is doing one, but of course it doesn’t work out like that.  There is nothing quite like doing the Lord’s work to help us grow in our faith.  Sitting in church and listening to sermons is never enough.  The point of preaching is to equip the saints for works of service (Eph.4:12).  The Church, as well as each individual, has a responsibility to make that a reality.