Monday, 2 September 2013

Lighthouse 2013! Give me an 'L', give me an...


I forgot to post this before, but here is what I thought of Lighthouse this year (also in the St Peter and St Paul Parish Magazine):


Lighthouse is over and I am absolutely shattered and dare I say it, a little bit bored.  I know, I know it’s only just finished but it was a busy week.  What do you expect?  Now all I have to do is look for a job and I reeeally don’t want to do that!  So to keep myself busy and to keep the spirit of Lighthouse alive I thought I would share with you some highlights from the week. 

Firstly for those of you that don't know what is (where have you been?!)  Lighthouse is a Christian Holiday Camp that runs for one week every summer in Great Missenden for children aged 0-12 years (well that's what my CV says anyway).  It happens in tents and many larks are had.  

This year I have been running the ‘Ark Tent’ with three wonderful people, Charlotte, Maddy and Lucy.  The Ark tent is of course the best tent and is full of four and five year olds  - almost 200. Each year there is a theme and this year it was… LIGHT.  Alongside the theme there is a drama – one in the main tent and one in the Ark tent.  In the Ark tent we were going on holiday – such fun!  We learnt about God’s guiding light and how Jesus is the light of the world AND we learnt that teaching all of this to four and five year olds is rather difficult.  The whole God and Jesus being one in the same and Jesus being the son of God and the son of Mary and Joseph and oh have I mentioned the whole holy spirit thing – I think you’ll agree is not the easiest of things to teach small children.

The week went well though with only a handful of hiccups (mainly mine, but that’s what eating cold rice does to you) and I think/hope everyone involved had an enjoyable time.  I have summarised my week below, which I hope will give you an insight into lighthouse and make you really, really, really, want to help next year.

Monday:

Aim: Creation story.  Let there be light.
Drama: Maddy and Katherine are deciding where to go on holiday and how to get there.
Best part of the day:  Explaining to Maddy that we cannot get to the seaside on a toddlers trike because we both won’t fit.  Maddy replies “Sure we will”, before pulling me on top of her on the trike.  We laughed.  A lot.

Tuesday:

Aim: Moses led his friends (also known as Israelites) out of Egypt. God was a guiding light.
Drama:  Maddy does not listen to a sign from God and falls in a river.
Best part of the day:  Conversation with a five year old –

5 year old: “Are you and Maddy really going on holiday?”
Me: “Yes of course”
5 year old: “So are you going to Butlins then?”

Wednesday:

Aim: Jesus healed the blind man Bartimaeus (all his friends called him Bart – obviously)
Drama:  Maddy gets lost but she trusts that Jesus will help us find her and keep her safe.  We trusted a stranger named Bob.
Best part of the day:  Jumping around on stage like it was my last day on Earth – probably too much coffee (I blame the Lighthouse CafĂ©).  We accidentally sent our five year olds onto the games field half an hour early.  This could be seen as a disaster but it meant I could practice being a shepherd (with children instead of sheep – but you got that right?).

Thursday:

Aim: Crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus
Drama: We realise that Bob has sent us in the wrong direction on purpose. We forgive Bob because Jesus forgives us.
Best part of the day: It is traditional on Thursday to tell the children the crucifixion in the morning and the resurrection in the afternoon.  At the end of the crucifixion story I announced that I was very sad. I did not want Jesus to die.  After I said this a boy sat at the front came up to me and said, “don’t worry, that’s not the end of the story.  My dad told me that Jesus rose again.  He comes back to life.”  How great is it that parents are having these conversations with the children? (Answer: it’s unbelievably great).

Friday:

Aim: Paul/Saul spreading the word of God.
Drama: I want to tell my family about my holiday.  We soon realise that we should be telling people about God/Lighthouse instead.
Best part of the day:  The kids being so unhappy to leave lighthouse.  Also the realisation that having custard poured over you and having a shaving foam pie thrown in your face is a lot more fun than it sounds.

So there you have it, Lighthouse in a nutshell.  It is really, really, really fun and you should definitely sign up to help next year! The link is here: http://www.lighthousemissenden.org.uk.  I will love you forever if you come and help next year! 



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