Food Fight!

‘FOOD FIGHT!’ was the shouts this morning as 75 kids and the Kids Club leaders had a full on food fight. Tomatoes, custard, beans, angel delight, whipped cream, sweetcorn, ice cream, chocolate sauce and bananas were flying left right and centre and the chaos of Kids Club began. Dan and Sarah were representing the boys and girls and were both pretty messy by the end having ended up in the Kids Club stocks! Balloons of custard were falling from the ceiling, mashed bananas were flying and flour made an entrance as well before the chilli drinks came out…suffice to say they didn’t go down to well and did in fact come straight back up!

Once the mess was cleared up we were looking at a sacrifice that had been made for us. We looked at how a fireman and a soldier often sacrifice themselves for the freedom of a place of a person and Jesus did a similar thing. Jesus gave himself as a sacrifice so that we may be free, free from sin, free from dear of death and free to know God. What an encouraging site it is to see a room full of kids stand and say they’re going to follow Jesus!

I can’t wait til the Easter Special.

Dan
Kids Club Team

Love – a chance to act.

This morning we had 72 kids come to KidsClub and because of a rare occasion of having not enough leaders we had a lot of young leaders on stage running the morning along side Chris and I. Takes me back to being 16 and being on stage for the first time back in Farnham – oh how things have changed.

This morning we were looking at love. We base our teaching on Metro Ministries pre-written lessons and today’s was called Love Is Not A Feeling. Although it sounds strange at first the lesson was about how love isn’t just something you feel or something you say, it’s something you do. You have to choose to love people and you then have to act upon it. Imagine what it’d look like if everyone really knew how to love. This week I am expecting to see some shocked teachers, parents and friends. As children decide to love people the way Jesus loved us. Selfless. Unconditional. Constant. Imagine if there was a generation who were so loving, would the media not be shocked, would it not be the kingdom of God coming on Earth?

72 kids, 8 adults and 8 teenagers this morning were reminded or heard for the first time what real love is, let us now see it in schools, estates and streets across North Southwark.

Dan
Kids Club Team

How much is “enough”?

Recently when walking  around and doing my Kids Club visits last week, I was looking at my long list of kids and thinking about how many of them actually come to Kids Club on a Saturday and how many I have never spoken to.

So I came up to a house in Rotherhithe where two boys live. I’ve knocked for them every week and managed to talk to the mum and kids a few times, but they hadn’t turned up to Kids Club yet; and conversations at the door didn’t look like it was going to happen any time soon. I half wondered whether it was worth knocking for them again, they didn’t seem like they were going to come before; so what would be so different this week.

So just as I was about to pass the block, I felt really strongly that I needed to visit these Kids just one last time. I went upstairs and had a cool chat with the boys and told them I’d see them on Saturday, and you know what; Saturday morning 10.30 am these two boys walked through the door with big smiles on their faces.

It just made me think, so often we give up on people, and others give up on us too. We keep on putting time and effort into people, but a time comes when we don’t think it makes a difference of we’re there or not. But you know what, God never gives up on us. He holds onto us when everyone else around us has given up. We always want instant results, but His timing is perfect.

For these two boys, coming to Kids Club on Saturday meant that they got to hear about the promises that God has for their lives; promises that aren’t like the ones they hear every day that just get broken. Something happened on the last visit which meant they got to hear this message, but if I had ignored that gut feeling they would’ve missed out.

Sometimes all it takes is that one more visit, that one more conversation, that little bit more effort. Trying to work out if we’ve done “enough” means that we could miss that vital opportunity.

God is working in these kid’s lives, and His timing is perfect. We just need to stay obedient, and trust that He’s got it all figured out.

Lucy

Kids Club Team

This is my King Kong impression.

So a major part of Kids Club is the weekly home visits and tonight I did mine, and what fun I had. At first I saw lots of parents and has some good conversations. However the fun started at the very end as I was knocking on the last few days. Surprised at the few kids I see week in week out weren’t home I was making my way to the last 2 doors and I bump into 3 of the most faithful kids that come. As we bump into each other we all shout each others name and one of the kids jumps up at me. After checking the amount of berries they had collected between them and spinning them round in the air the conversation went a little bit like this…”this is my king kong impression” and I proceeded to crawl around on the floor banging my chest. Who would have know something so childish could be so much fun. I think something happens in those moments. It’s like the extra mile. Relationships are built during the moments of madness that not many other people would do. We then went and did one of the last two visits all together and after that we said goodbye.

 

So I make my way up to the last door and before I even knock I hear screams and shouts “DAN! DAN!” 7 kids in the front room all unable to manage to open the door so the visit was done through the window. Despite the sheer noise I manage to learn all the names of the kids I’d not seen before and find out how the girls I knew were doing. For the next 10 minutes we talk about all sorts of things and then I was rudely told that when I dance on Saturday mornings all the kids just laugh at me…so a dance off broke out. Me on the outside, 3 kids on the inside. I definitely won – you can’t beat the robot and the moonwalk.

 

This is what it is all about though isn’t it. As I walked off the estate I’d been on there was a smile so large. Something ‘magical’ had occurred.

 

Dan

Kids Club Team

The Power of Prayer

Prayer is one of the most powerful things we have as Christians. The ability to talk with and listen to God is a truly amazing thing and today at Kids Club we were looking at the Power of Prayer.

“When I pray you answer me” was our memory verse and different leaders shared how prayer had changed their lives, how it changed the lives of Moses and the Israelites and how today we are able to pray as well.

So that’s what we did. There is something about seeing 50 kids praying together that makes you realise why Jesus said we should have faith like a child. Not only was seeing 50 kids praying an encouragement it was also a challenge, a challenge to make sure I am praying enough.

Today different leaders shared how prayer had effected them, the question is are we going to have a childlike faith and continue to plead with, praise and persist with God?

This week I am certain that as we go out on our home visits we will hear stories of how God has answered the prayers of numerous kids and how praying is the best, if not the only answer to many of the issues, struggles and problems we face.

Dan
Kids Club Team

The start of something magical?

After a random conversation in the City Hope office earlier today a decision has been made to run a Kids Club blog. This will be the place where we will be sharing the latest stories, facts and general goings on from Kids Club. For those of you who don’t really know what Kids Club is please feel free to check out our official page at http://www.cityhope.co.uk/kidsclub

We look forward to hearing from you and we will see you soon.

Dan

Kids Club Team