Parish of Sandford

At the end of 2006, Sandford Parish started a Girl's Brigade company. It was a small start-up, but by January 2007 they had a roll of almost 20 girls with twelve to sixteen turning up each week. This was obviously a work of God. Leaders are hard to come by, and our Parish could only supply a few. So, other Girls' Brigade companies from across the river would help us while we helped them on their nights. Eighteen months on, this is still working well and we are making wonderful inroads into the community. Most of the girls have no other contact with our church, so this is church for them. Things go up and down, just like any ministry, but God is blessing the work of our hands as he draws girls to our church.

KidzChurch at Rokeby was a start-up in early 2007. We knew we needed something for kids in the morning while the sermon was on, and so we flew by the seat of our pants and 'just did it'. Twelve months on we average about twelve kids a week, sometimes more. We only have about half an hour while the adults hear the sermon and a couple of songs and announcements. If it is a Communion week, the kids will go back into church to have communion with their families. The Children's hall was a bit 'adult-ish' and so a mural is in the throes of being painted at the moment. We hope this will give the kids a sense of ownership of their hall. It will be a picture of a glamorous castle with many windows. In each window will be placed a photo of a child who attends KidzChurch. That will make the wall a prayer wall so the Parish can come into the hall when the kids aren't there and pray for them.