Little Sparks In The United Benefice
The United Benefice Children's Ministry
“Little Sparks: Igniting the Foundations of Faith” is the strap line for our children’s work within the Benefice, covering all 3 churches. Our aim is to give children of all ages a good understanding of the Bible and enable them to discover the living Lord Jesus for themselves at their own pace. We want to give them the building blocks to come to their own faith as and when they are ready.
About Little Sparks
Under usual circumstances:
At St Peter’s, Little Sparks run the Sunday School group during the normal 11am service most weeks of the year, the monthly Praise Party event and the Thursday morning toddler Stay and Play sessions. We also run special craft events at Easter, Harvest and Christmas.
Little Sparks at St Mary’s, Aspenden covers the monthly Family service on the first Sunday of the month.
Although there is no active Little Sparks group at St Mary the Virgin yet, there are plans to run an annual Holiday Club based in Westmill but open to other children from the Benefice too.
Little Sparks Leaders
At the moment Little Sparks is headed up by Alex Kanold, a registered childcare provider, Ofsted approved and fully DBS checked. She is supported by Sarah Hill, a local GP, and Margaret Lawrence, a retired teacher, both of whom are also fully DBS checked. Together we aim to provide a variety of styles and occasions for children to encounter faith, encouraging questions and exploration. We are also used to running sessions with a variety of ages and abilities, including children with additional needs.
Latest News
During the Covid-19 crisis of 2020 we have produced weekly pages for the Church at Home pack including Bible story and reflection, suggested activities, colouring sheet and word search; and a weekly Sunday school via Zoom following the same theme. We have also organised a ‘Seeds of Faith’ stand that enabled anyone passing to take a small pack of seeds, a pot and some compost and to join a Facebook group to show progress, take part in competitions and to post thoughts about the seeds of our own faith, and how they are growing. This has proved to be very popular with the local community and over 600 packets of seeds have been distributed.
