In the week of Monday 29 July to Friday 2 August 2013 we held a holiday club at St Matthew's. The programme for the week was taken from a Scripture Union book called Wastewatchers which focuses on themes of transformation in the Bible. Each day was structured to include games, a Bible story which was included on a DVD, crafts and activities - all in the space of just under 2 hours!

On day one the theme was From Nothing to Something which looked at the creation story in Genesis. The activities were planting seeds, making flowers out of tissue paper and pipe cleaners and finger paintings of

different kinds of insects - all encouraging the children to think about the world God created. On Tuesday and Wednesday the themes were From Water to Wine (The Wedding at Cana) and From Darkness to Light (Jesus heals the man born blind). The last two days focused on the Easter story - From Death to Life and From Sadness to Joy. This gave us a great opportunity to look in a bit more detail at what happened on Good Friday and Easter Day and to explore the range of emotions Jesus' friends must have felt over those few days. The children's work was displayed in the church afterwards for the congregation to see.

The children who came along were a joy to have in the group and they all said that they had enjoyed themselves very much and would come back next year if they had the opportunity. I hope that they have all learnt something of our Christian faith during this week that they can take away into the rest of their lives. A small army of helpers and young leaders came along to help lead activities and games, make refreshments and help with setting up and tidying away every day. Without these people, the holiday club would not have run and certainly would not have been as successful as it was.

Please find below a selection of photographs from the week.