TAKING THE GOSPEL TO 17,000 CHILDREN

by Dawn Clancy

The mega-event, called Ride the Wave, took place at Plymouth Pavilions on Saturday, 16th September. It was the culmination of a year's planning and preparation and a week's hectic work by myself, Mike Law of the Plymouth Christian Resources Project and others.

Between 11th and 15th September, four OAC evangelists, two workers from the Resources Project and twelve students from the nearby Marjon's College worked in two teams to take seventy-two assemblies in sixty-eight primary schools (for children between the ages of five and eleven).

Also during that week, twenty-eight churches from different denominations, with some assistance from the students,organised daily children's clubs for an hour after school. Twenty-one of these clubs were visited by the evangelists.

In this way, a total of 16,948 children were reached with the gospel in their schools. This was in addition to the clubs run by seven churches during the summer.

The theme for the week was based around the life of Peter (with tenuous surfing connections!) The main event on the Saturday was attended by 2,500 children. It took the form of a two-and-a-half hour stage show with songs, a band, puppets, drama, conjuring, sketches and a sketchboard Bible story. Professional lighting effects and a big-screen video added to the scene and enabled everyone to have a clear view of all that was going on.

Although they were very noisy, it was obvious that the children were watching and listening to the very end. The vast majority really enjoyed the afternoon and went home with a leaflet explaining the gospel, which included a response form for them to return. We await the return of these forms with eager anticipation!

Dawn Clancy is a evangelist with Open Air Campaigners who works in the South-West of England. In case you thought that organising an event like Ride the Wave took up all of her time, she has also has an ongoing programme of school assemblies, church missions and other events all over Devon - and when she gets five minutes to spare, her own church always seems to get her involved in something!