Holiday Club (3)

Our Holiday Club is called D Mains has got talent!

And in some ways that tells you everything. An astonishing array of God-given talent, not so much on display, as at the service of the Lord and for the enrichment of the children of the community here.

I always feel hugely privileged, and deeply humbled, by sharing in this annual ministry which together we're glad to exercise. Yesterday I highlighted the blessing it is to have so many young folk involved. And there's no doubt about it, it's genuinely invigorating having them around and sharing with them in what the Lord is about - ".. so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's".

I'm no ornithologist, so the comparison is rather lost on me: but I think I get the drift!

Your youth is renewed. It's true in two complementary senses.

For the young people growing up among us here, and sharing in the disciplines and demands that the Holiday Club brings, their involvement becomes the means by which the Spirit of the living God does something wonderfully renewing in them. They grow in Christ by absolute leaps and bounds. You can almost see it with the naked eye.

And for those for whom middle and later years of life have long since seen them rather 'settle down', having these young folk around somehow makes us all young once again. We find our energy levels soaring, our embers of enthusiasm erupting in flame, and our expectancy through the roof.

Our youthfulness renewed.

But there's more than simply the blessing of having these young folk around. It's the fact that we're all in the thing together, old and young alike, combinging a multitude of different talents in a single cause which lies close to the hearts of us all.

The body of Christ.

There must be somewhere in the region of 70 different folk involved in one capacity or another.

Some of them out in full view, public, up-front roles. Others who die at the prospect of that, and working away in the kitchens (yes, plural - there are two entirely different constituencies being catered for: those involved in the Holiday Club, children and leaders alike, and a whole load of parents and friends who come around the place, glad of the chance of a coffee or tea and some lunch).

Folk who are brilliant at crafts of all kinds, and folk who are super with games - all of them hugely creative in what they produce for the children, and how they are able to tie it all in with the theme that the Ckub is pursuing that day.

Musicians, and born entertainers. People to take all the photos: people very willing to take on their shoulders the hard, laborious business of all the photocopying.

A pool of different, very able people who do the talk for the children each day. Others who lead the team each day in opening the Word of God. A couple of remarkable men as puppeteers who hold the children (and most of the adults as well) totally spell-bound every morning and who, with the text of the Bible as their script, make the Word of God come pulsingly alive.

And alongside all of them - and countless more - there are loads of folk who share in this week by their faithful, daily praying. The body of Christ and the Spirit of God and the kingdom of heaven on earth.

It's a highlight of our year. And for some, at least, we pray, a defining moment in their lives.