Word on the Street: Pathwayz Update

 

In everything you do, work with all your heart, as you are working for the Lord and not for other masters. It is from God that you will receive your reward. It is God you are serving.

Colossians 3:23-24

Having left Camelot behind, Pathwayz has gone back in time to ANCIENT GREECE!!! It is the year 776 BC and we are inventing the Olympics. Each week, we will be learning about what makes a good athlete and are focusing on Performance, Responsibility, Pride, Unity and Respect.

 

In our first week back, we met Zeus, a toga-wearing Ancient Greek who welcomed us to Olympia. He taught us all about the 100m sprint and how important it is to try your best. We made our own athlete’s vest with the verse ‘Do you not know that in a race all the runners run but only one gets the prize? Run so you may win!’ (1 Corinthians 9:24) and had our own little sprint races to see which one of us was the fastest. We talked about people on television who might be trying their best and winning (such as Usain Bolt, the Welsh rugby team and JLS) and those who may be trying their best but having some difficulties (such as Cardiff City or Liverpool (sorry to any of you who are fans!)). Finally we talked about all the things we could try our best at this term: making tea for Mum, tidying all our toys away, doing our homework or working hard at rugby and gymnastics. We learnt that it is always important to try your best – and usually we can always try just that little bit more!

 

In our second week, we met Olympia, a lovely toga-wearing friend of Zeus, who taught us all about the marathon. We discovered how important it is in a race of 26 miles to keep going and stick with difficult things. We made little men with movable arms and legs with the verse ‘Press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize’ (Philippians 3:14) and wrote down things which we find really difficult such as behaving ourselves and handwriting! We competed against each other in little endurance tests such as squatting against the wall, holding a heavy object and not-blinking and played a game involving a bar of chocolate, a knife and fork and a pair of socks! We learnt how important it is to endure difficult things, to keep going when we find things hard, and how wonderful we feel when we finally succeed!

 

As we continue to learn how to be good Olympians, we hope to learn our new song, ‘One Way’ by Hillsong. The middle passage, which involves quite complicated actions!, has our kids singing ‘He is the Way, the Truth and the Life, we see by faith and not by sight’. It is hard to explain the emotion felt by our leaders when we see twenty-five children singing this back to us at the end of our sessions but any stress, bad feelings or frustrations you might be dealing with on any given Tuesday melt away.

 

Finally, our new memory verse, taken from St Paul’s letter to the Colossians, teaches us to work with all our heart. At Pathwayz, we try our hardest to provide for the kids of Caerau and to give them an hour and a half of fun, friends and God. We ask that you continue to pray for us, the club and our children, and to help us serve God in any way you can.