Your Marks” Holiday Club 2012


“On Your Marks” is a Scripture Union holiday club with a global games sports theme and is based on significant events from the life of Jesus found in Mark’s Gospel, giving children the opportunity to discover what it is like to be a member of Jesus’ team. Our Holiday Club this year commenced with an Opening Ceremony Service complete with televised torch relay, limbo competition and javelin prayers. This was followed by a picnic and games at the park. The Church was decorated with sporting equipment, flags, balloons and medals and by Tuesday morning an impressive flame cauldron was in place to add to the Global Games theme.

Up to 100 primary-school aged children arrived each morning to complete introductory activities at their team tables, including sports scratch art magnets and sweetie prayer bracelets before joining together in an energetic warm-up routine led by two of our fabulous teenage helpers. Each day focussed on a different sport – volleyball, blind football, cycling and rowing – and this was reflected in the warm-up, team game and daily sports and Bible quiz. Competition amongst the teams of Archers, Cyclists, Divers and Rowers was fierce as they tried to avoid the daily forfeit. Our Team Rector, Revd. Philip Ritchie acted as the main presenter, holding everything together from the front, introducing the DVD clips of Christian sportsmen and women sharing their sporting experiences and how Jesus makes a difference in their lives as well as explaining the Bible stories of Jesus calling the first disciples, healing blind Bartimaeus, being called Messiah and walking on water. Daily memory verses helped reinforce the message.

Lynsey Crisp led our worship brilliantly –we had noisy energetic songs such as the” On Your Marks” theme song and “Celebrate God” which had all the children and helpers on their feet singing enthusiastically and joining in with the actions as well as the calmer song, “Shine out for You”.

This year our craft activities were making and decorating biscuits, sports mobiles, cress mascots and edible torches – picking up the sporting theme as well as giving the children a chance to explore their creativity.

Our week concluded with a Closing Ceremony Praise Service which included a fantastic powerpoint presentation of photos taken throughout the week, medal presentation to all holiday club children and a chance to consider what next for Team Jesus.

A huge thank you to all the adults and teenage helpers who worked so hard in advance and during the week to ensure everything ran smoothly and the children were supported and encouraged throughout. Watch this space for details of our 2013 Holiday Club.

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Previous Holiday Clubs ...

Showstoppers 2011
Over four mornings in early August, St Mary’s Church was transformed for our annual Holiday Club for primary school children, which this year took the theme of a film set, complete with director’s chair, megaphone, clapperboard and dressing table. As the 100 children arrived each morning they completed activities at their team tables before a helper made themselves up as a clown to signal the start of the programme. Our Team Rector, Revd. Philip Ritchie, assumed the role of director for the week, introducing the activities which included a daily dvd and Director’s Chair section where God’s great plan for his world was explained through key Bible stories, starting with Creation, then the story of Daniel in the lion’s den. The children arrived on a very wet Thursday morning to find the stage set with a Christmas tree and decorations as we looked at the birth of Jesus and on Friday Easter eggs and banners helped focus our minds on Jesus dying and coming back to life again to complete God’s rescue plan.

A mixture of noisy energetic worship songs and quieter songs to help calm proceedings were all brilliantly led by Lysney Crisp whose enthusiasm encouraged everybody, children and adults alike, to join in. Competition was fierce as the four teams of Actors, Directors, Musicians and Singers battled during a daily team game catching balls in buckets to win sweets and showing off their team chants. The children tried equally hard to recall the daily Bible memory verses.

Each day the children got to choose a craft activity, which included making and decorating biscuits, sock puppets, hama beads, shoebox theatres, masks, edible microphones, shakers made from pringle tubes and a dance workshop featuring music from The Lion King; all these activities gave the children opportunities to explore their creativity and their finished creations were proudly taken home.

Our week concluded with a family picnic on the Friday lunchtime and a Holiday Club Praise Service on the Sunday morning, where we learnt that God has a plan for each of us and were able to share the Holiday Club activities with the Church family through a fantastic powerpoint presentation of photos taken throughout the week.

Holiday Club would not be possible without an army of dedicated volunteers and this year was no exception – almost 60 adults and teenage helpers were involved, planning and sourcing craft activities, preparing refreshments and supporting the children throughout. Thank you to everybody who helped and to the fantastic group of children who made up this year’s

SHOWSTOPPERS! Holiday Club – you are all stars!