Hannah Felsbourg
2 July 2024
More than 100 primary-aged children will hear the gospel at an annual program at St John’s Diamond Creek this school holidays.
The action-packed Going Bananas school holiday program will include dance, music, craft, science, games, and biblical teaching.
The initiative aims to instil faith and leadership skills in young participants, providing them with a solid foundation for their lives.
St John’s generations minister Maddy Bialecki said she hoped young people would come away from the program alive with the knowledge of who Jesus was.
She said this year’s theme for the program was Jungle Rumble. The message was it was a jungle out there, and people needed Jesus to help them find their way.
Mrs Bialecki said group teaching would be followed by small group discussions that would cover Jesus’ identity through John’s gospel.
She said the program used biblical principles to provide a toolkit to navigate what it meant to be a Christian in this world and to celebrate it.
The program will run from Wednesday to Friday in the first week of the winter school holidays. It is open to children from both church and non-church backgrounds.
Read more: Melbourne churches transform kids’ lives one hour at a time
Team coordinator Kylie Pilkington said the program’s focus on mentoring fostered a core group of volunteers who were invested in the program.
“We’re hoping that Going Bananas gives them a purpose and a place that they really feel at home serving the church,” she said.
Ms Pilkington said Going Bananas was a fantastic way for the four congregations from St John’s to come together. She said volunteers ranged from 12 to over 70 years old.
She said the program provided an accessible pathway to church because people brought their children to the event even if they would not normally attend a Sunday service.
This experience also brought people back to the church who had not attended for years and opened conversations with them about the gospel.
“Ultimately we’re trying to speak the truth of Jesus into kids’ lives, so we want the kids who are participating in the program to love what they’re learning, learn to love Jesus, and take some of those truths home and speak them into the lives of their family as well,” said Ms Pilkington.
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