Praise God, what a fantastic day we had!!  The weather was truly amazing; God really answered our prayers there!

The day began at 8:45am when registration opened for main group leaders to book their group in and choose their children’s activities.   All the groups are sorted into one of five registration points, A, B, C, D or E.  The first session starts at 9:30am when all the groups go off to begin their day in their registration sets.  There are five different activities that the children get to enjoy throughout the day, Stubbers Activity, Fridge, Craft, Sports and ‘Its A Knock Out’.  These sessions are run by qualified and competent staff from Stubbers, SOLID Partnership organisations and other fully CRB checked volunteers.  Each session lasts for one hour and all groups get to visit each activity…

Stubbers Activities
Each group had a maximum of 10 participants per instructor.
The choice of activities were -
-Wall climbing    -Challenge course       -Pamper pole
-Tunnelling        -Mountain Boards        -High Ropes Course
-Canadian/Open Canoes               -Kayaking

Fridge
The Fridge was quite a ‘chill out’ venue; most children sat and relaxed, while others jumped about on inflatables and trampolines, jousted each other on a pole joust and most still choose to get their face painted too! 

SOLID Smart
Included over 40 different craft activities for the Children to participate in, or they could express they’re creativity in a dance workshop or on various games consoles!

SOLID Sport
Junior SOLID, like all Children’s fun days, wouldn’t be complete without football.  So the sports programme included not only a mini football competition but also a coaching session with an FA trained coach!  And then for the not-so sporty ‘sock wars’ was a great fun alternative as well as uni-hock.

It’s A Knock Out
Made up of 5 different games the group is split into teams of 8-10 and the aim is to beat the other teams.  Games this year were – sponge bob which involved throwing a wet sponge around, Water Pole navigation through an obstacle course without spilling 2 buckets of water. All mixed up giant jigsaw type puzzle to get the teams thinking… Hopping mad space hoppers racing round a tough course and Flipping Cones involved 100 cones and 2 teams racing to have the most flipped over their way!

Once all five groups have completed all the activities we all come together for tea, which was provided by the Romford YMCA BBQ.  And once everybody is sufficiently fed the end of day road show is ready to begin…

The road show was a 45 minute program of games, stories, worship, drama and fun cumulating in a short talk about Jesus with an opportunity to respond at the end.  The road show followed a theme of going on a journey, climbing up a mountain.  The mountain symbolised our lives and the rope that held us in place, no matter what, is Jesus.  We watched a video of Dave (Co-Host) and Billy (worship Leader) racing up a climbing wall trying to be the best and fastest!  Dave & Sam told us a true story from the bible about a little shepherd boy who visited his brothers in the war fields and ended up battling a giant and winning!! (David & Goliath) 2 children battled it out to see who could make the best trifle, one had a bowl the other one had only their hands to mix it in.  Back by Popular demand, Horse and Donkey came and tried to cheat their way to the top of the mountain by firing themselves out of a cannon… which as you can imagine, didn’t quite do what they wanted it to and it did not help them get to the top quicker!  During the whole road show we interspersed everything with a few songs to worship God, we sang ‘Jump up and down’, ‘I’m gonna clap my hands’, ‘Our God is a great big God’; ‘He’s Jesus’ and ‘Keeper of my heart’.  Then at the end of the short talk the Children were given the opportunity to respond to what they had heard, should they so wish.  So in order to respond a rope was placed all around the marquee and children who wanted to make a first time commitment and ask Jesus to be their friend were invited to stand and hold on to the rope, and prayed a prayer to ask God into their lives.  Then the children who were already friends with Jesus stood up and joined their new brothers and sisters holding the rope to strengthen their own commitment and stand with the new Christians offering support and welcoming them to the family.  This was amazing, there were so many children standing up, saying they wanted to follow Jesus. 

So…
We know that however much fun is had at Junior SOLID it can always be better next year, in order to help us keep on getting better we need to know what you think!!  If you have not already done so please return your feedback form as soon as you can, if you have not received one contact the SOLID office and we will send you one.
Some feedback so far –

“I’ve been bringing Children to SOLID for seven years, and as always it was a fun day in a safe environment.  The day was enjoyed by Children and leaders alike.”

“Atmosphere was excellent – very friendly”

“I found Junior SOLID very relaxing and enjoyable.  The children also had a great time and are looking forward to going back.”

"This year was my first experience of Junior Solid and I really enjoyed it!  It was a fun-packed day and a great chance to worship God together." - Laura Mitson (Host)

New for this year we will be writing and sending out a ‘friends of SOLID newsletter every term.  If you would like to receive this newsletter and be kept informed of what is going on in the world of SOLID please email your name and email address to solid@vizaviz.org