Late last year, Matt Watts, vicar at St John’s Westport, suggested we run a January school holiday programme in Granity – a small coastal town 30km north of Westport. Granity itself has a population of around 180, with nearby Ngakawau and Hector bringing the total community to about 380. St Peter’s Church is the only church in the area, and the local primary school has a roll of just 25–30 students. There are also a few home-schooling whānau living nearby.
When Matt made the suggestion, my heart rate jumped – I’d never run a holiday programme before and it definitely pushed me out of my comfort zone! But God has a way of providing what we need – courage and inspiration for me, a small crew of local volunteers, a visiting YWAM team, and even a Granity community group that offered to fund all our resources. Thanks to their generosity, we had bottled water, fresh fruit each day, pavement chalk, balloons, and a swim ticket for every participant. What a blessing!
We ran the programme Tuesday to Thursday in the final week of the school holidays, from 10am to 12pm each day. On Thursday, after a shared lunch, we headed to the newly refurbished Ngakawau swimming pool for an afternoon of fun and sunshine.
With some great advice from Amanda Poil, I decided to build the programme around the Fruit of the Spirit – a theme I felt would appeal to any parent, Christian or not. After all, who wouldn’t want their tamariki to learn about love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control?
Eleven children enrolled. We encouraged whānau to commit to the full three days so the kids could get the most out of it. Three of the tamariki were local to Granity and part of St Peter’s Church, while the other eight travelled each day from Westport and were part of our St John’s or LightHouse families. We didn’t have any children from Granity outside the church community this time – but hopefully word of mouth spreads before next year!
Having led LightHouse for a few years, I knew that keeping activities short and varied would work best. We played Fruit of the Spirit Bingo (like regular Bingo, but with the nine fruit instead of numbers), and Fruit Basket – a high-energy favourite that quickly became a daily must-play. We also wandered through the bamboo walk behind the church to the beach to collect driftwood for making fruit of the Spirit mobiles. (Yes, the beach trip was included in the Risk Management Plan – Russell will be glad to hear it!)
The YWAM team taught us the fruit of the Spirit song, and those who were part of the holiday programme later shared the actions with the wider LightHouse family. After nine weeks of singing it, I reckon all our LightHouse tamariki could tell you what the fruit of the Spirit are!
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We have invited these writers to share their experiences, ideas and opinions in the hope that these will provoke thought, challenge you to go deeper and inspire you to put your faith into action. These articles should not be taken as the official view of the Nelson Diocese on any particular matter.
Late last year, Matt Watts, vicar at St John’s Westport, suggested we run a January school holiday programme in Granity – a small coastal town 30km north of Westport. Granity itself has a population of around 180, with nearby Ngakawau and Hector bringing the total community to about 380. St Peter’s Church is the only church in the area, and the local primary school has a roll of just 25–30 students. There are also a few home-schooling whānau living nearby.
When Matt made the suggestion, my heart rate jumped – I’d never run a holiday programme before and it definitely pushed me out of my comfort zone! But God has a way of providing what we need – courage and inspiration for me, a small crew of local volunteers, a visiting YWAM team, and even a Granity community group that offered to fund all our resources. Thanks to their generosity, we had bottled water, fresh fruit each day, pavement chalk, balloons, and a swim ticket for every participant. What a blessing!
We ran the programme Tuesday to Thursday in the final week of the school holidays, from 10am to 12pm each day. On Thursday, after a shared lunch, we headed to the newly refurbished Ngakawau swimming pool for an afternoon of fun and sunshine.
With some great advice from Amanda Poil, I decided to build the programme around the Fruit of the Spirit – a theme I felt would appeal to any parent, Christian or not. After all, who wouldn’t want their tamariki to learn about love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control?
Eleven children enrolled. We encouraged whānau to commit to the full three days so the kids could get the most out of it. Three of the tamariki were local to Granity and part of St Peter’s Church, while the other eight travelled each day from Westport and were part of our St John’s or LightHouse families. We didn’t have any children from Granity outside the church community this time – but hopefully word of mouth spreads before next year!
Having led LightHouse for a few years, I knew that keeping activities short and varied would work best. We played Fruit of the Spirit Bingo (like regular Bingo, but with the nine fruit instead of numbers), and Fruit Basket – a high-energy favourite that quickly became a daily must-play. We also wandered through the bamboo walk behind the church to the beach to collect driftwood for making fruit of the Spirit mobiles. (Yes, the beach trip was included in the Risk Management Plan – Russell will be glad to hear it!)
The YWAM team taught us the fruit of the Spirit song, and those who were part of the holiday programme later shared the actions with the wider LightHouse family. After nine weeks of singing it, I reckon all our LightHouse tamariki could tell you what the fruit of the Spirit are!
Check out other articles in the
series below.
More articles in the
series are to come.
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