At the start of 2011 we launched our Young Leader Programme – with a vision to develop, equip and disciple the 13-17 year olds who assist us on GET Sported Camps. Our first Young Leader Training Day took place in February Half Term. Our initial intake of 9 Young Leaders had a fantastic time learning about sports coaching and match refereeing, developing their leadership skills, and preparing for the Easter Camp curriculum “The Master Plan”. Our coaches greatly enjoyed building on our relationship with these Young Leaders and the whole day was finished off with a Pizza Hut social!
We are looking forward to being involved with these, and more, Young Leaders over the course of 2011. If you would like to be part of our Young Leader Programme, and volunteer on our Summer or Autumn GET Sported Camps, then please email bath@wsmcamps.org or frome@wsmcamps.org
From 25th – 27th October, WSM Bath and Bristol teams partnered together to stage two more ‘Get Sported’ outreach sports camps in Bath and Frome. 101 children between the ages of 5 and 12 attended over the 3 days of programme which included a variety of sports, the ‘chill out zone’, the Get Sported Championship and a terrific curriculum called ‘From start to finish’, where the children were taught and encouraged to focus on how to make a good start on things in life and a relationship with God, how to endure in the middle and then how to ‘finish strong’ and what that looks like. These themes were mapped throughout the sports sessions and ministry team talks and the interaction with the children was wonderful.
Coaches, workers, volunteers from local churches and developing and mentored Young Leaders, many of whom previously attended camp as a child delivered the content. A number of children chose to start a friendship with God and some others decided that they wanted to be more consistent in their pursuit of Him.
WSM Bath and Bristol partnered with volunteers from local churches to stage 8 different Get Sported Camps over four weeks of the school summer holidays in Frome, Bath, South Bristol and North Bristol. A brilliant time was had by all including 15 different daily character qualities built into ‘Teamwork’, ‘Changing Teams’, and ‘Winning & Losing’ ministry curriculums plus great sports coaching and fun games through football, rugby, tennis, cricket, softball, athletics, baseball, volleyball, basketball, Ultimate Frisbee, Ringo, team building, dodgeball, handball, dance, arts and crafts and performing arts through a partnership with Freedom Theatre Company.
Over 300 different children between the ages of 5-12 attended the camps in total, all hearing the good news of Jesus and many making decisions to follow Him. It was wonderful to have so many volunteers from local churches helping on the camps including over 25 ‘Young Leaders’ who joined to assist and be mentored over the summer.
Six schools, 650 children and 50 teachers were reached during a fantastic outreach involving workers and volunteers from WSM Bristol, Bath and local churches. The Kids Games involved dividing up the given year groups or in some cases the whole school into teams who then rotated around activity stations including sports, arts and crafts, games and Bible discovery. The theme of the Games was ‘I Belong’, where children were taught and discovered that they really do belong to God and His family and that they should treat others as though they are important too. Everybody had a great time and this is a project we are hoping to help roll out throughout the country linked to the 2012 Olympic Games in London.
During the Fifa World Cup, both WSM Bristol and WSM Bath connected into the fever of the tournament to reach friends and the community by hosting match screenings in various homes with food and in churches as larger screen events. Despite England’s poor showing, a great time was had and a good number of people were reached using ‘The Prize’ DVD which features current Christian players sharing their testimonies on the greatness of Jesus.
