Wednesday, 17 October 2007 00:00 | and posted in Events
It's me again. I'm exhausted - but oddly content, sitting here writing this, stuffed full of burgers from the team BBQ which has just been held to celebrate the end of a tiring week of Holiday Club.
At Basecamp B I had felt a bit insignificant - I was only going to be a trainee leader at a morning holiday club, whilst most people had practical placements on SU Holiday camps. I was so wrong to feel belittled. Holiday clubs have something that SU Holidays lack. PRIMARY ONES!!!
The club (called "Jungle Juice") was for primary aged kids. Our club was short of real leaders - but had plenty of teenage helpers and so, along with two faithful helpers, I was assigned the position of "main leader" of the "Bouncy Bunnies" (!). Our group consisted of four primary ones. Hmm, let's see... so 3 leader-type figures and 4 children. Sounds easy doesn't it? Don't be fooled...
After a leaders session of prayer on Monday morning the kids began to arrive at 9.45am. As each of my group came in I tried to learn their name, chat to them and encourage them to write their name on a badge. My first problem of the day came when one of my small boys refused to leave his mother. Trying to remember tips from basecamp I tried to draw him in and lead him over to the rest of the group. Nothing doing. In the end his older brother was the hero, coming over and promising to sit with him until his mother could leave. I felt a bit like a failure, but tried to shake the feeling off.
My next problem became obvious pretty soon. The two girls in my group were constantly copying each other- if one was using the purple pen, suddenly it was imperative that the other used the SAME pen at the SAME time. If one started tapping their feet loudly during the quiz the other would start moaning about how bored she was. If one went to the toilet during a prayer the other would race noisily after her... I think you get the idea. They were rivals. I told one of the leaders that we were struggling to keep them under control and from then on things were much easier, knowing that there was someone else watching over them.
Of course, I did what most people do in a crisis. I looked everywhere first before I turned to God. Big mistake. When I did eventually pray for the kids in my group I saw big changes. By Wednesday, the boy who had screamed that he didn't want to come into the hall was hugging his mum once and then running over to show off his fluffy snake. (Which he got points for bringing in!) He learned our names and seemed to be really enjoying the club! As for our pair of girls they began to respect us a bit more (and, thankfully, when one of them spilt their juice accidentally on my t-shirt on Thursday the other one didn't copy them...). By the service on Sunday morning everything was going pretty well. Sure, I had a faded orange squash stain on my t-shirt (the shirts could not really be washed as the logo would have come off so the team was pretty disgusting) but the four kids from my group were up singing songs, answering quiz questions and generally looking enthusiastic about the Bible!
Basecamp B helped me a lot - it provided me with knowledge on handling kids who wanted to climb all over me (or, in this case TWO kids who wanted to climb all over me) and it had taught me that, if I wanted my kids to actively participate in the club then I would have to show some enthusiasm first. This led to me actually having to look like I enjoyed doing the "Jungle Jive" - the spot in the day where everyone got up and basically did some aerobics - not one of my strengths...
Oh, yeah I forgot to mention that I played a part in the drama. Everyday at around 10.30am you could find me hurriedly shoving on a huge green shirt, a sunhat and a fake beard (seriously glad I don't have a real one - they are so uncomfy) inside the small tent we had put up on the stage area. I played an old man who told parables of Jesus whilst wandering aimlessly through the jungle. Think that sounds strange? Well, on the Friday I had to leave the club and visit a university open day (without the beard!).
So basically, our club seemed like a success. With God being at the heart of it, I guess I should never have worried in the first place! My group the "Bouncing Bunnies" came second in the overall competition and I learnt a very important lesson: the worst thing you can give a Primary 1 is Haribo. Take notes, it'll serve you well. My group certainly lived up to their name, "Bouncing Bunnies," after a whole ton of sugar!
So any trainee leaders out there helping at holiday clubs - hope you had as great an experience as me. And to any prospective trainee holiday club leaders - watch what you write on your SU paperwork. It turns out that everything about you gets sent to the team leader so that they can discuss it with you. I wrote some pretty cringe-worthy things...
Find out more about Basecamps here.