The theme for our annual HOLIDAY CLUB this year was “The Guardians of Ancora”. The Holiday Club was open every morning from Monday 14th August to Friday 18th August. Portholme Church was transformed into the Guild and Hall of Memory for the city of Ancora and we played host to 30 keen and eager young Apprentice Guardians.
The Guardians of Ancora is a fantastic, week long, programme of activities (developed by the Scripture Union) which is crammed full of exciting activities, great Bible teaching and introduces children to Jesus and tells of the amazing things he did. During the week, the world of Ancora, the City of Hope, is introduced. At the summit of Ancora stands the Spire of Light which lights up the whole city. The stories of the Saga (the Bible) are told there every day, and the power of storytelling fuels the light of the Spire.
Each story of the Saga is represented by a story-treasure (some sort of object or artefact): these are stored in the Hall of Memory. Once, the Hall of Memory in the city of Ancora was filled with wonderful story-treasures, but now, many of these objects have been lost. The people of Ancora are determined to recover the lost story-treasures so they can, once again, tell the stories. The existing Guardians have recovered some of these but others still need to be found and so they have sent out an appeal for new recruits and this is where the Apprentice Guardians join the story. Each day the Apprentice Guardians set out – with the help of the Keeper of the Keys and Kal the Aquaneer – on a quest to find a story-treasure, return it to the Hall of Memory and explore the story it represents.
What happens during the Holiday Club? Well, there’s laughing, learning, singing, dancing, praying, talking, listening, thinking, laughing (yes we did a lot of that!) and let’s not forget this is a way of reaching out to some of the estimated 95% of children and young people in England and Wales who aren’t in church and providing a way in for children to find faith, grow in faith and reach out to their friends in faith.
