Annual Vestry meeting report – 30 Oct 2011
Children’s Ministry
Cross Training – Sunday school programme
This year – 2011
- I lead a team of eight leaders, including myself, and three helpers teaching on Sundays. The leaders are provided with all the material that is needed to teach from.
- There are approximately 30 children coming to Cross Training every Sunday; this includes the children who are a part of Bible Tots.
- We currently run 4 different age group classes:
Bible Tots (18 months – 6 years),
Grade 1-4,
Grade 5-7 Girls &
Grade 5-7 Boys.
- Cross Training runs throughout the entire year, except during the June/July and December/January holidays.
- During the June/July holidays I put in place a teaching roster, run by volunteer relief teachers. This gives the regular teachers a break from teaching.
- During December/January holidays I will be providing activities for the kids to do during the church service.
- For most of this year I have been a relief teacher. The reason for this is due to the fact that nearly every week, there is a teacher from one of the classes that has not been able to teach, either they have been away or they have been ill.
- Every Sunday morning, there is a children’s slot in the 9:30am church service. This slot is sometimes used to communicate different events that may be occurring. Alternatively, it is used to introduce the lesson that the children are going to be doing that particular morning. These intros have proven to be very fruitful in helping the children in their understanding.
- There is currently a notice in the bulletin with a question about the Cross Training lesson. This is to encourage the parents to discuss with their child what they have been learning at Cross Training each week.
Next year – 2012 vision
1) I would like to be able to split up the Grade 1-4 class into two separate classes.
For two reasons:
- This class is currently a fairly large group of children.
- These children are also at various stages of development. For example: A Grade 1 boy will be at a very different level of learning in comparison to a Grade 4 Girl.
Unfortunately, as of yet, I have not been able to do this for the lack of teachers.
2) I would also like there to be two teachers per class.
For two reasons:
- This is so that the teachers can take turns teaching every alternate week. This will take off the pressure & responsibility of having to teach every week.
- Secondly, if one of the teachers is unable to teach on a particular week because they are sick or away the other teacher can take the class.
I have had this system running, for about a month, in one of my classes. And it has been working really well.
Unfortunately, again I have not been able to run all the class in this way, for lack of teachers.
3) I know of, at least two of my leaders, who will not be continuing in Children’s ministry next year.
Therefore, I am in need of replacements for them.
Kids for Christ – Friday night programme
This year – 2011
- KFC happens every Friday, during term time.
- I am the main teacher for this group on Fridays.
- I have a team of 6 other leaders, 4 of which also help out with Cross Training on Sundays.
- These leaders take it in turns helping me, on a roster basis, on Friday nights organise the games and activities for the kids to do.
- There are about 15 kids who come regularly to KFC on Friday nights.
Next Year – 2012 Vision
1) I would like to split up the KFC group into two groups, separating the children into a younger and an older group.
For two reasons:
- At the moment the Grade 7’s do not attend KFC at all. Their reasons are simply because the programme is “babyish” for them.
- Same reason that I mentioned earlier: These children are at various stages of development and they learn differently.
Colin Wade and I have been discussing his possible involvement with this. However, in an ideally I would rather he not take on the extra responsibility since he is already involved in Cross Training on Sundays.
2) Ideally, I would prefer to have two separate teaching teams, one team for Fridays and another team for Sundays. This would require more leaders.
School’s ministry
This year I have been going into two schools.
- Blairgowrie Primary School – I am a part of a team of four ladies. We go into Blairgowrie Primary every Friday, during the school terms. We teach two separate groups of children. This year we have been teaching them all about different “hero’s” in the Bible, i.e. Nehemiah, King David, Jesus and Ester.
- Mini Minds Nursery School – I teach at Mini minds, every Thursday. (Because it is a nursery school they do not have term breaks.) I have been using the same material that we use at CCB for the Bible Tots programme. I have found that this has not only been a ministry to the children, but also to the teachers at the school.
Holiday Club 2011
- We held our holiday club in March earlier this year. (29-31 March 2011)
- The holiday club was held over a three day period.
- We had 65 kids come to our Holiday club this year, considering CCB has not run a holiday club for about 7 years, this was an outstanding turnout. Most of the children who attended the holiday club were not from CCB. Therefore, we were able to reach members within our community. Advertising (flyers, posters & newspaper adverts) played a very big role in this.
- The theme for this year was Fear Factor. (Contrary to the theme, the teaching was all about how we no longer have to be afraid if we believe in Jesus.)
International Food Festival
This year we had our first International Food Festival on 16 September 2011. We had 13 different dishes from different countries. These dishes were made and donated by various members in the church. We charged R40, which gave people a chance to taste foods from four different countries. There were about 70 people, adults and children, who attended the event. All the money that was raised went towards the funds needed for the Kids Camp. We managed to raise all the support that we needed for the children and the leaders. (We even raised extra which we will more than likely give towards the Youth Crossword Camp happening at the end of this year which will cost nearly R800 per person.) The evening was a great time of fun and fellowship. Due to the great success of the event we have decided that it will occur annually.
Kids Camp 2011
- The kids camp was held at the end of September (23-25 September 2011).
- There were eighteen children (four of which do not attend our CCB) and 12 leaders that went on the camp.
- We went to Sikelele Adventure village in Magaliesberg. It is a really great campsite, with lots of facilities for the children to utilise. Sikelele is owned by a Christian couple, who are very loving and willing to help where they can. We will definitely be using this campsite again.
- Over the weekend we studied the book of 1 Peter. It was a challenging book for the children to grapple with, but they learnt a great deal from God’s Word and how it applies to their lives.
- We also had lots a game time – We had many bumps and bruises from the camp, but the children & leaders had great fun.
Christmas Play
This will be taking place on Sunday, 27 November 2011.