Posts tagged Pathwayz
Pathwayz Report
0Word 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.
Word on the Street: Pathwayz Update
02 months ago
Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armour of God, stand firm with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of justice in place, and with the shoes of readiness. Take up the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit.
Ephesians 6 v.14-17 (paraphrased)
At the request of King Arthur, Pathwayz has been asked to provide new Knights for his Round Table in Camelot as all of his Knights are busy on their own adventures! In seven weeks, we have found ten Knights to join Arthur at his table and will be looking for many more as we continue on our quest.
Having studied three virtues (Honour, Camaraderie and Mercy), we moved onto the trickier virtue of Sacrifice. As we learnt about the ways in which people used to sacrifice animals to God, and burnt our own little pictures of cows and sheep, we discovered that the ultimate sacrifice was Jesus giving up his life for us. We talked about all the things we would struggle to give up for other people; the most difficult turning out to be giving up the Xbox!
In the following week, King Arthur was absent as he was stuck in Ireland after the rugby! We met Queen Guinevere who taught us all about Courage. We made our own super-heroes, thought of the good things we could do that may be a bit frightening (such as standing up to bullies!) and made our own Worry Webs. Based on the dream-catcher, the Worry Web was a little round web designed to catch all our worries and fears so that God could look after them for us.
After half-term, we learnt all about Humility. One of the more difficult virtues, we learnt that humility meant both being humble (admitting that we were wrong) and being modest (not always seeking recognition for good deeds). We built team Humble Pies made up of our apologies for things we did wrong, made little people which explained how God knows what we are like on the inside and not just on the outside and played a game in which we had to secretly give each other presents without anyone knowing who they were from. This taught us that it is important to do good things even if nobody knows we are doing them!
In the last week of February, we learnt all about how important it is to love God. We sang a song written for the session describing Luke 10:25-27 – in which a man asks Jesus what is the most important commandment. The words ‘You must love the Lord God with all your heart’ were sung to both ‘He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands’ and ‘What Makes You Beautiful’ by One Direction!
We made flowers to give to God as a symbol of our love and played a game which required asking for help in exchange for points. We learnt that loving God isn’t always easy but that with God’s help we can do anything.
With just four weeks of the term left, we will continue on our quest to find new Knights to join Arthur in Camelot. As we celebrated St David’s Day by making daffodils to give to God, our Knights of Pathwayz Code of Honour reflects St David’s message to do the little things. We know that by smiling, listening, being nice to others and having good manners, we can make our little world a better place. Over the next month, we will all become fully-fledged Knights of God as we learn the importance of wearing his armour wherever we are.
Nicola Preece
The Pathwayz Report
0Word on the Street: Pathwayz Update
Jesus said: “I am the light of the world. Whoever believes in me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.”
John 8:12
After ten weeks of hard work, the closed sign has been turned over for the last time in our own little coffee shop, Central Perk, and we have waved good bye to Jesus’ friends.
Having met a whole host of heavenly people, from fishermen to tax collectors, the sick and dying to lonely women, our tenth visitor was a little more controversial. Judas Iscariot was welcomed on stage as a man who had made mistakes – someone whose greed had outweighed his friendships. He told us how he loved money and had been convinced to give important information to the priests in exchange for thirty pieces of silver; he had tried to give the money back but the damage was already done. We made our own silver coins, learnt how to share chocolate coins between our friends, wrote down all the things we had done which we were sorry for and played a game of snakes and ladders based around forgiving and forgetting. We learnt that God will always forgive us if we are prepared to say sorry.
Our eleventh visitor was John the Baptist, Jesus’ cousin, who taught us the importance of bravery. John told us how he had lived in the wilderness, eating only locusts and wild honey, and how he had spoken out about Jesus even though people might not have believed him. We thought about what we might like to take into the wilderness (playstations, chocolate and mobile phones were popular choices) before realising that, without electricity, candles and courage were the better choices. We made shields to remind ourselves that God is our armour and that, with Him, we will always be safe.
Our final guest was Mary, Jesus’ mother. She told us all about her visit from Gabriel; how scary it was to have an angel in her kitchen, how daunting it was to be chosen by God but how wonderful it was to be able to say yes. She taught us the importance of listening; to our Mums, our friends and most importantly to God. By saying yes to God, we are agreeing to the plan He has for us and living our lives in the best possible way.
Our cafe closed as Advent began and in these final weeks, we are joining Mary and Joseph on their journey. Beginning each session with prayers, we are lighting candles on the Advent crown, reminding us that Jesus is the light of the world. In our first week, we met Gabriel who told us his version of his encounter with Mary. As God’s number-one angel, he told us how he had been sent by God to deliver a message. We made our own little angels for the Christmas tree, made Christmas presents for different teams and pinned the halo on the angel!
At the beginning and at the end of each session, we are repeating a prayer which reminds us that Advent is not a countdown but a preparation for Christmas. We invite you to say, or think, these words with us as we continue our journey to Bethlehem:
God, Help us to get ready for Christmas. Help our heads to think of you, our eyes to look for you, our voices to talk to you and our hearts to welcome you. Help us to be ready for Jesus. Amen.
The Pathwayz Report
05 months ago
Having brought New York to Caerau, Central Perk (our own little coffee shop) is continuing to welcome a whole host of heavenly guests as we meet more of Jesus’ friends.
In the first three weeks, we met James, John, Matthew, Mary, Martha and Lazarus, listened to their stories and learnt how and why they became friends of Jesus. Following on from Lazarus, we met Thomas, who told us of his disbelief that Jesus had risen from the dead. We thought about our own doubts (whether it will rain tomorrow, whether Wales could win the world cup, whether Father Christmas was real!) and learnt that we don’t have to see things to believe in them: we can’t see gravity and yet we don’t all fly up into space!
After Thomas, we met Peter, one of Jesus’ best friends. He told us of how he had been afraid to tell people he knew Jesus but how Jesus had called him the ‘rock’. We made pet rocks (sticking googly eyes on pebbles and building a house for them to live in) and learnt the actions to the song ‘The wise man built his house upon the rock’.
One of our lesser known guests to the cafe was Simon the Zealot. He told us how he had believed that Jesus had come to lead an army against the Romans but Jesus had taught him “Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be children of God” (Matthew 5:9). We thought about all the little acts of peace we could do in our lives (talking to new friends in Pathwayz, trying to stop an argument between friends, being quiet so your Mum can have a rest) and made and decorated doves. We also learnt and performed a Pathwayz Peace Dance based on the New Zealand haka!
After a well-deserved half-term break, our cafe opened once again to welcome Mary Magdalene who told us how lonely and sad she was before she met Jesus. Jesus changed her life so much that she was the first person to see him after He rose from the dead. We decorated friendship crowns made out of two people holding hands and thought about all the people Jesus chose to be friends with: angry people, sad people, lonely people and sick people.
Our cafe will be open for another three weeks as we continue to meet and talk to more of Jesus’ friends. We have begun to realise that Jesus made friends with all sorts of people from lonely, ostracised women to tax collectors to simple fishermen. Accompanied by the Friends soundtrack and The Beatles song With a little help from my friends, we are learning that Jesus will always be there for us and, in return, we must help Him by sharing His good news with everyone we meet.
Nicola Preece
The Pathwayz Report
06 months ago
By Nicola Preece
Jesus said: “I am the light of the world. Whoever believes in me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.” John 8:12
Having bid farewell to Doctor Who, and successfully travelled the world, Pathwayz has now settled in New York, or Central Park to be exact! Accompanied by the soundtrack to Friends, we are discovering the importance of friendship and learning that Jesus is the best friend we could ever have.
In the first week, we met James and John who told us their story of how they met Jesus. We learnt that Jesus wants us to be “fishers of men” and we discussed who we should tell about Jesus: the lonely, the sad, the angry and the people who do not believe. We made our own fish and had great, splashy fun playing hook the duck.
The following week, we met Matthew the Tax Collector who told us that he used to care more about money than anything else. Having been told by Jesus to follow him, Matthew decided that nothing was more important than him. We made money bags, played an obstacle game and discussed if anyone was more important than God: we thought about our parents, ourselves, school friends, boyfriends and girlfriends and learnt that God is more important than all these people!
Our latest visitors to join us in our cafe were Mary, Martha and Lazarus. Together they told us their own personal experiences of Jesus. We learnt that Mary loved nothing more than to sit at Jesus’ feet and listen whilst her sister, Martha, worried more about cooking and cleaning. We wrote down our own little worries, such as who we would play with at lunchtime or not being able to do our homework, and decided not to let them worry us. We acted out a news report of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead and played miracle bingo in which we learnt of all the wonderful things Jesus has done.
As we continue to meet more of Jesus’ friends, we are realising that, just like James, John, Matthew, Martha, Mary and Lazarus, our lives are greatly improved by knowing Jesus and that nothing is impossible with God.
And now a big ‘Thank You’ . . .
I would like to take this opportunity to thank you all for your response and prayers to my plea for new volunteers. We have now acquired three team leaders who have agreed to devote their Tuesday evenings to Pathwayz and we could not be more grateful for their support. The new term has started with two weeks in which thirty-six children turned up and, without the help of our new volunteers, we would have been unable to run the club as effectively as we would like. We ask that you continue to pray for the club so that we may continue to provide love, support and friendship to the children of our parish.
Nicola
Pathwayz Appeal
08 months ago
In last months edition of the magazine, I wrote an article asking for you all to consider Pathwayz Kids Club and its struggle to recruit new volunteers. As the new term awaits, we find ourselves desperately searching amongst friends, family and congregations for people willing to devote an evening to teaching the children of Caerau with Ely about God.
This is not a new struggle; each term Pathwayz continues through the unfaltering dedication of its leaders who, over the past year, have dealt with the departure of nearly all of their original team members. Despite this, we celebrated our 5th birthday in May – a wonderful achievement for a club led entirely by volunteers between the ages of 16 and 25.
We at Pathwayz ask you all to consider joining our team. Spending an hour an a half immersed in the conversation of primary school children, listening to their insights into the Bible, God and the world at large (for example the strange belief that it was David Cameron who wrote the Pslams) is rewarding and fulfilling experience which is unique to the club.
Although our leaders are predominantly “youthful”, we do not discriminate and anyone willing to help will be welcomed regardless of their age! At the very least, we require volunteers to simply watch, sit or talk to the children; the planning and teaching of the session is only divided up amongst those who feel confident enough to do so.
Our belief that God will provide for the club is fundamental to our mission. For five years, God has provided us with the skills, the knowledge and the volunteers to keep the club running and we ask for your help in this to continue. If your help cannot be given physically, we simply ask for your prayers that we may find the support to reach our 6th birthday and beyond.
Nicola