‘Hallowed’ 2011

The day began bright and early – the Children’s Team (Chrissie Wilkinson from Oxford, John O’Brien from Sheffield and ourselves from Brighton) arrived at City Temple, Holborn, London at 7am and began to pray for the day ahead.

Kalpana Thomas, the founder, so wants ‘Hallowed’ to take Halloween back to its Christian roots as All Saints Day. She had advertised the children’s event (running parallel to the adults’ prayer meeting) as “fun, with a deep spiritual element of introducing the kids to a God who loves them like a Father – a Father who will never leave their side, who lavishes them with affection, understanding and salvation”.

The fun began at Registration with a clown showing party tricks to individual children as they arrived. The 5 to 11 year olds enjoyed ice breakers and team games to help them get to know each other as they had come from different churches from across the region.

God had prompted Chrissie, John and us to follow Jane Mackie’s ‘Kids Pray!’ book – 8 steps of heart preparation towards Listening to God. We wanted to encourage the children that they could have a two-way relationship with Father God themselves.

As they engaged with what we were doing, the children enriched the discussion of how to ‘get rid of junk’ that separated us from God and ‘restoring our relationship’ with Him. Beccy led a time of worship, including the beautiful song, sung as a prayer, about getting to know ‘Father God’ more. This session ended with a really energised song ‘R U Ready?’ to share God’s glory – the children stood in amazement at the worship of the zany grown-ups on the Team!!

We encouraged the 14 young people to be open to His love and Holy Spirit and gave them space to hear from Him. One 9 year old had a picture of someone climbing a mountain and putting a flag at the top. Others shared how peaceful or happy they felt as they rested in God. Later, having listened for themselves, they then drew around their partner’s head and shoulders and wrote down on the paper the words God gave them, to bless each other.

We were thrilled to be invited downstairs to join the adults’ meeting. We entered the auditorium in single file marching with banners, as an army. The song we sang declares that ‘Children of the Cross’ are able to sing His praise, to silence the enemy and say that the Lord saves. Individual children then shared what they had received from God, before praying for the grown-ups.

Another children’s entertainer, ‘Lily Lollipop’, led an hour’s fun before our parachute games at the end of the day. At just after 7pm we left exhausted, but happy, knowing the children had met with God!   

Jon and Beccy Bebb

Turning the Tide

November 2011