Good to be a kid again...

This week I had 4 awesome days off from Monday to Thursday! Despite thinking initially that I'd have nothing to do for 4 whole days, I realised that this week our church was running Kid's Club 2006, a school holiday program for kids!

After spending Monday at home watching TV all day in the form of the World Cup final and some compulsory viewing leftover from last week, I was all ready to get outside and help out at Kid's Club!

The program started on Tuesday and we had around 20 kids. This year the Club theme was 'Around the World', each day being focussed on the culture of a different country. We started with Australia since it IS the best country on earth! The gospel theme for the day was that God created the world and we had stories, puppet shows, singing, games, memory verses, and craft that were used to teach the kids. It was great that by the end of the day, most of the kids seemed to have remembered this main point!

On Wednesday, the theme country was Mexico and myself and Thomas dressed up as Mexican amigoes enjoying an afternoon siesta (which is what I feel like having just about now!). The gospel theme was how all mankind has sinned and that God's punishment for sin is death. Although it was a pretty serious topic, the kids seemed to grasp the main point and the seriousness of it. Other fun things we did included doing a Mexican hat dance, and making a traditional Mexican toy!

Today was the last day that I could attend even though the program finishes tomorrow. The theme country today was Japan and a number of leaders were sporting ninja headbands, karate outfits and traditional kimonos! The gospel topic was that Jesus died to save us and this was well taught via Liz's storyboard. We went down to the park as well to play parachute and stuck in the mud and by the end of the day we were all exhausted!

The last few days have been just such a lift for me. In a time when work has been challenging and I haven't always been in the brightest of spirits, helping out at Kid's Club really helped me remember what's important and valuable in life and gave me so much encouragement both from the kids and the other leaders. It reminded me how much I love working with kids and perhaps that's what I want to spend the rest of my life doing...