RE Team Blog – 2

Blog Entry 2 – March 2024

There's a book I love to read to my children – "Oh the places you'll go!" by Dr Seuss. If you have read it you'll know exactly what I'm referencing in this months blog post. If you haven't read it I would recommend it, it's a wonderfully affirming book with a message for All ages, not just children – I'm sure Joe and Sam would let you borrow our copy if you'd like.

For this months blog post I'd like to talk about "the Waiting Place" – Dr Seuss refers to this as "a most useless place, for people just waiting". I've found myself in the waiting place this month – waiting for an Email to be replied to, or a school to get back to me with a date for that Easter assembly I've been planning for months, or for buses and trains that sometimes don't show up! The waiting place is frustrating but I disagree with Dr Seuss – it is not useless! There are many uses for waiting and in this season of Lent when we are waiting for the triumphant arrival of Jesus, I have found waiting to be quite useful!

Being in the Waiting Place with my own work has allowed me to support the work of others. I have been able to support Sprotbrough Open the Book team with their assemblies and I thoroughly enjoyed presenting "the kind stranger" story with them to 3 schools that I don't normally get to visit. It was a beautiful moment to hear a full assembly hall of children praying The Lord's Prayer together! Thank you Sprotbrough team for this opportunity and I look forward to supporting you more in the future!

I have also had the opportunity to meet with Elise Deput who works for The Church of England and heads up a project called "Church in Schools". Elise presented a 2 minute story at Joined up conference this month which really planted a seed in my brain. I would love to create a Church in school – especially in an area where the closest church of any denomination is about a mile away. So watch this space for exciting developments in Doncaster and if you'd like to know more about Church in Schools you would be more than welcome at one of the Networking events – the date for the next meeting is still to be arranged but I will let you know ASAP!

The the observant among you, you'll notice I just mentioned Joined up conference! This is a fab event that happens in Victoria Hall, Sheffield on the first Saturday in March every year! There are workshops and information stalls and it's a great resource for all involved in children and youth work, whether that's voluntary or paid. The cost of the ticket is £15 and you get a subway lunch as well as all your refreshments throughout the day included in that price! Get it in your diary for next year, I really recommend it!

If you'd like an opportunity to network with youth workers a bit closer to home you would be welcome to join the Doncaster Youth Hub monthly Prayer Breakfast at Powerhouse Church on Thorne Road at 9am. The next breakfast is Tomorrow (13th March) and the next three dates are 10th April, 8th May and 12th June.

Finally, I'll leave you with a question/comment I just received in one of my lessons this month. "Aimee, you know the crowds that welcomed Jesus? Do you think they were waiting a really long time? Because I remember waiting ages to get into a concert and it was really boring but I knew it would be worth it. Maybe they felt like that too?".

God Bless you all!
Aimee