about holiday club 2011...

Abigail, me and Grace

Alright, so let's start with holiday club... I helped run it from June 26 - July 1 at my church. It was a great time! I've helped run it in previous years, actually probably the last 4 or 5 years, but never to this extent before. The first couple of times, I was the admin girl who organised registration, did data capturing and took photos occasionally. I was the scared little teenager who was petrified of children. Strange, I know, but I had no idea how to relate to them, and they scared me! I'd run away from a situation where I'd need to interact with anyone more than 2 years younger than me. Maybe it's cause I'm the youngest of 3. My mom says that when I was little, she ran a Bible study at our house, and all the other young kids would come and play with all my toys, which apparently made me mad. Scarred child. Whatever the reason, I avoided children like the plague.

Last year, I stepped out a bit and volunteered to help out with the grade 6-7 age group. I lead the small group time and even told the story/lesson for the day! A big thing for me at that time, cause I was also petrified of speaking in front of people - like freak out, nauseous scared.

The awesome thing about this year, is that I was doing almost everything I could. I was leading worship (something else I would have rather died than do previously - I refused to sing or play piano in front of people, and the idea of leading scared me too), telling the story with confidence, teaching the memory verse, leading a small group, and leading the afternoon prayer meetings with the leaders. Yeah, big change! Reason: only Jesus.

One of the most amazing thing for me, was that I hardly even saw any of the other leaders because I was so engaged with the kids. It was easy for me to get down on their level and love them, have fun with them and be part of their lives. And I enjoyed it! Sometimes during the day, I would have a 'Woah, I'm actually doing this and loving it! Yay God!' It was awesome!

I wish I could have blogged each day, but I was so exhausted that I didn't get a chance, and I also ended up losing my voice/ finding my man voice during the week. Too much screaming and singing :) But it was SO worth it! And besides, my man voice is super sexy! The not so fun part was having to lead worship and have my voice break like a pre-teen boy. Luckily, I had two amazing singer/guitarists who backed me up amazingly!

I found it so interesting to see how different people reacted to the kids - many of the younger leaders who hadn't lead before were much more observers/baby sitter type mentality, whereas I found myself having fun with the kids in what they were doing, being their friend and not just watching them. It also fascinated me how kids need to be corrected and given an alternative in love, not just shouted at and told 'no'.

On the Monday evening, we showed the 'Jesus Freaks' movie to the leaders. Wow, it gets me every time. I got to share a bit of my experience at YWAM, and had many of them asking questions about it and getting pumped to serve Jesus.

We also had a prayer and worship time on Tuesday night for the leaders - a time of refreshment and refilling. We can only give out of what we have, so we need to be filled to overflowing to give and not run dry - else we're giving people our leftovers. We want to be giving them the good stuff and teaching them how to receive His love in abundance too! It was such a beautiful time in His presence. One thing I felt so strongly was that we can know that God loves us. That's easy. The hard part is actually letting Him love us. So often we think we're unworthy of His love. We know He loves us, but we don't let Him love us. And it's only once we let Him love us that we can really love others.

Me and some of the kids

It was adorable to have those few kids who'd keep you a seat and always want to come and sit on your lap, hold your hand and be on your team in the games. One of the most precious moments was when this one little boy was hugging me and sighed saying 'I love you'. One of the other girls told me I was her favourite leader. One funny moment was when the grade 4 girls in my small group said that I was 'like, a million years old!'. It was so awesome to see how much fun the kids were having, and hearing them say how they wished it would go on for longer, not just a week. It amazed me how much love these kids needed and wanted. You give them a little bit of love, and they just latch onto it, craving more. The beautiful thing is that God IS love, and we were there to love them with Him, so it was Him they were latching onto. My prayer is that they will continue to realise this, and continue to crave and seek Him all of their lives.

As one of the older leaders (most of them were in early high school), I got to not just be an example to the kids, but to the leaders as well. What an amazing privilege! Many of the girls who were in my small group last year (in grade 7 at the time) were now leaders this year (in grade 8). That blessed my heart so much! It was so amazing to watch all of them grow just in one week, and to see Jesus shining out of them.

On Thursday, we 'presented the Gospel' to the kids. I still don't really like that phrase, but I'm too tired right now to think of a more accurate one. Some of the kids were crying as Justine (a particularly awesome friend of mine), told them about what Jesus did for us when He died on the cross and what it means for us. I think about 30 kids said that they wanted to know more about Jesus and made a decision to follow Him, which is so amazing!

My small group of grade 4 girls were a bit frustrating. They had a problem with staying on topic, and kept diverting back to their pets. On Thursday though, I actually got them to talk seriously, and we got onto the topic of how the heck do you hear God?? So I taught them something we call 'listening prayer' where you ask God to give you a word, picture, or word of encouragement for the person in the middle. I also got to explain some other things like how the Bible was written etc, and about creation a bit, and other interesting conversations that I didn't expect to have until I had kids one day :)

So all in all, it was one amazing week! I got to love people, have fun, encourage others, teach, lead, be an example and worship Jesus - I think I'd like to do this forever! Oh wait, that's the point :) How exciting! It was so amazing to love these kids with His love, and make a lasting impact in their lives. They're at such a beautiful, vulnerable stage where they need so much love, and only God's love is enough. I'm praying that what the kids and leaders learnt during that week will stick with them all their lives and that His love will cover them and protect them from the lies of the enemy and this world.

The super grade 3-5 leaders