The Morgan-Gurrs

The Morgan-Gurr Blog/website has moved!

2008-10-06T16:27:00.003+01:00

The Morgan-Gurr Blog/website has moved!

Please reset your bookmark to www.themorgan-gurrs.co.uk

All the old postings have been transferred across, complete with comments, by our lovely hosting person - Peter Sharp (Thanks - Pete!) and Kay is currently getting to grips with the new way of blogging!

The new features on the new site are: A diary page, a more detailed page about us (Taken from the very old website - if you can remember back that far!), and a page about Fibromyalgia and MPS.....that's there so we don't have to keep explaining what's wrong with Kay!

The Pages coming in the future will be: Steve's new songs to listen to and request copies if you want them, Articles on kids work and pages about the research Kay is doing in various areas of Kids work

Enjoy!

2008-09-25T15:11:00.003+01:00

We're back in England, catching up with emails and letters....and a mountain of washing and ironing!

The holiday was just what we needed - quiet, peaceful and unhurried.

The holiday company we used was part of XL and went bust half way through our first week - because our holiday had started and the company was ATOL covered, it meant we could stay on, and through the kindness of the Greeks (especially the owner of our apartment) we could stay in our accommodation, even though the owner wasn't being paid for it!
Our flight had been upgraded to a Thomas cook flight weeks before we left, which meant we had no worries about the flight home either.

Whilst away, Kay listened to "The Shack" on audio book. She loved it and can highly recommend it! It's one that hasn't been to every one's theological taste....but then it is a novel, not a theology book! Check out the web site http://www.theshackbook.com/ for more info and reviews.

The photo below is of our favourite kitten who lived at our apartments and just a couple of the enormous cakes we consumed whilst there! If you're on face book, there are more photos on Kay's profile.

September update

2008-09-03T23:33:00.000+01:00

It's been a while since we have updated, but the circumstances of the past month have been extraordinary. The following sounds very disjointed, but as you read you will see that this has been a difficult blog update to write.

It has been a month of both blessing and pain.

The month started with burying Kay's dad's ashes – with just a short "service" around the grave.

Then off to the Dalesdown camps, where all went very well – the kid's camp that we were around for was brilliant.

Only two days after returning we learned of the tragic death of the teenage son of some good friends. A death that has shaken the whole church. Words alone are not enough to convey our feelings in this. The funeral was a powerful reminder of God's grace, and full of hope – but as we've said…there are no words…. our friends have been an amazing example of how God upholds in such awful times, and the young people great in showing what "being church" really means.

With heavy hearts and full of prayer for our friends, we went ahead with a planned break with our lovely friends Mike and Judi to the Gorsley festival, where RT Kendall was the main speaker. It was an amazing weekend – we were able to relax and laugh with our friends, and learn so much from the teaching. One of the sessions was about when we ask "why?" and was very helpful for us. We came back – still sad, but re-envisioned in the role we have and ready to face another day.

A week after our return we heard the very sad news that Kay's friend from childhood had passed away in very sad circumstances. On top of everything else that has happened this has been hard news to take - completely numbing and heart wrenching.

But….even with the question why on our hearts we can still say "I know that my redeemer lives".

Kay's health has not been good, with the pain levels very high for a few weeks now, which makes sleep very difficult. We have found some treatment for the pain that occurs in her facial muscles and eyes - this is going to be expensive, but we hope worth it! That treatment will start in two weeks.

We are off on holiday soon, so just tidying up the house enough for the house sitters to be able to at least get in. Two weeks in Greece sounds very appealing right now…..!

Whilst making clear our own pain in all this news, we also acknowledge that the pain of our friends and their families is so much greater and would ask you to pray with us for them.

Thankyou

Hello from Dalesdown!

2008-08-12T14:40:00.003+01:00

Here we are at Dalesdown with lovely campers and very nice leaders!

Kay's job is easy - everyone is so happy there is very little for her to do in her role as house parent to the leaders, so she's being Steve's beautiful assistant and camp photographer!

Steve is leading worship and doing some puppetry. Jim Bailey has been awesome with the kids - winning the children over instantly - even the boys, and getting some good solid truths over to them in a fun (actually hilarious!) way. The Spicy Camels have made just one appearance and were very politically incorrect - as usual!

Today - Steve Legg is doing a "set" for the kids....and has just arrived, so guess where we're off to now......!

Phineas Frog

2008-08-08T22:32:00.001+01:00

We appear to have adopted a frog! A regular visitor to our rather leaky garage he sits by the bucket that catches the drips. We have named him Phineas!
He seems more than happy for us to be around in the garage and has been known to hop up to Kay when she’s been putting the washing in the washing machine.
On the whole he seems a rather friendly frog.
Off to Dalesdown on Saturday for the children’s camp there. Steve will be leading the worship and Kay will be house parent for the leaders. We’ll be letting our house sitters know they need to look out for Phineas

Hungarton Camp - Weeks one and Two

2008-08-04T09:17:00.003+01:00

Two weeks are over…and we survived….just!
Week one was the week for our younger campers….even younger than usual as we invited specific 8 year olds (who were nearly nine) to fill some of the gaps we had- it's unusual to have gaps on this camp!
Great fun was had by all, the food was excellent as usual (Thankyou Audrey!) We didn’t drown anyone in the pool, the rope swing was well used, the horses were ridden everyday (Thanks Tina and team) and the zip slide encountered no “incidents”! And the fun didn’t end there.
There was then the addition of “The Log” – no ordinary log…it was huge and provided a focal point for the campers to sit on and chill. (Photo below)
The leaders were fantastic – hardworking and fun, and well as a Godly example to the kids
The teaching went down very well – we taught in the morning and an assortment of folk taught in the evening.
The biggest fun memories from week one…so many to chose from, but one would be Kay getting the giggles half way through the story on the final morning (It was Steve’s fault – his acting was just a little too convincing!)
The other photo below was from the camp fire – it looks huge and the kids look close – but photos can be deceptive…..the children were very safe!

Week two was very different – especially for us. We didn’t have a specific role, so spent a lot of time praying, chatting to kids and leaders and generally trying to care and support where needed.
Again – much fun was had by all, and most of the info above is again true! These older campers also have two trips out – one to Rutland water to do team building water activities, and one to Drayton Manor.
As week one, the campers made the most of all the facilities and had a lot of fun (looking at some of their face book comments, they had a LOT of fun!)
The teaching was from Philippians in the morning and looked at some of the subjects kids wrestle with in the evening.
Memorable fun moments were – a strong gust of wind lifting the bouncy castle complete with blower – Audrey saved the day by unplugging it very quickly! (For those worried about health and safety - It was lunchtime and no kids on it – if kids had been on it, it wouldn’t have lifted!)
The other moment was waking up to sheep in the field – opening the caravan door and finding them blocking the way!
Thanks for praying

Preparation for camp

2008-07-16T22:02:00.004+01:00

Wow - it's a long time since the last update!
We've had lots of meetings, paperwork and planning over the last few weeks. Most of the meetings were just too complicated to report on!Yesterday Kay was at a meeting in London with Spring Harvest looking at the way we help children with Special needs - it was a good meeting!

The rest of this week is a mix of things.....risk assessment and special needs care plans ready for the camps, along with preparing the teaching for week one. We are helping with the "impact" week on the Hamilton Estate here in Leicester, organised by Hope Hamilton Church. We are helping with the Kids Zone mornings by doing the story/meeting bit at the end of each morning on Thursday and Friday.

This evening was the final set up for camp - which starts on Sunday. All the tents went up in record time....photos below! We had a huge team of people from the church there working really hard to make the site habitable and safe. It was getting dark when we left and people were still there cleaning and clearing - amazing!

Nearly finished....!

The "walls" being built
for the dining room

Tea break time!

Back home...

2008-06-25T12:18:00.003+01:00

We had a lovely time with the children at Pilgrim Hall this weekend - the photos are their attempt to "create" using playdough as we looked at how God created the world and everything in it.

On Monday we went to the launch of the new ‘Children and Schools Work’ option for those studying for a BA at Moorlands College (Christchurch). It was great to share with them in that. Do go to the Moorlands web site and scroll to the bottom of the page for more information

Yesterday was our management meeting - a good time of discussion, planning, praying, drinking tea and coffee and eating!

This week brings more paperwork and meetings, including our council of Reference meeting tonight!
On Saturday Kay will be at a Training day in Kings Lynn doing a session on children with special needs in the church.

Another update...

2008-06-17T12:01:00.002+01:00

Today we were at St.John's school in Leicester for two assemblies. It was a surprise to be greeted with a round of applause when we walked in - and we hadn't even done anything! Both assemblies were well received, with lots of laughter (As Steve mimed being the begger at the Beautiful gate - VERY funny!) and good point was made.
Over the past week we have been at a club at Enderby Free Church, In Leicester; training the Future Builder Students in Birmingham and doing lots of paperwork!
This weekend we will be doing the children's work at Pilgrim Hall (Uckfield) for a church from Tulse Hill, and then on Monday onto the launch of Moorlands college's new applied theology course - Children and youth work option....very exciting. And then on Tuesday we have the Children Worldwide management group meeting in Birmingham. So life is busy again for a while!
A change around with medication for Kay means she's in a bit of pain - muscle spasm in the shoulder today meant she could only manage one crutch...and made walking and sneezing interesting! But we still managed the assemblies!

And the Work Goes On...

2008-06-06T09:30:00.002+01:00

This week is a schools work week - mixed with a lot of paperwork that needed catching up on!
We started the week stopping with our lovely friends Mike and Judi down in Hassocks, ready for a Family Foundations Trust directors meeting on Monday evening - a good and positive meeting looking to the future and praying through plans and ideas.
We have done 3 assemblies this week, and we are looking forward to an after school club at a local primary school, Launde in Oadby this afternoon. This school is new to us as children's workers. We were invited by fellow church member Heather, who teaches there.
The assembly run this time is the healing at "The Beautiful Gate" in Acts 3.
Tomorrow is The Whizz Kids re-union in Birmingham.....Kay's making the salads for the lunch......!

Thankyou

2008-05-31T20:04:00.001+01:00

Thankyou to everyone who has been praying for us after the death of Kay's father.

The funeral was last Friday.

Kay's mum coped very well and says she felt as though God was carrying her through the day. Her testimony of how God has helped her and comforted her is wonderful. There is a lot of adjusting to do for all of us, but obviously, more so for mum. Please do continue to pray for her – much of her life was devoted to caring for dad in the last few years, so the change for her is huge.

Dave – Kay's big brother has been brilliant – do continue to pray for him and his partner Vicky.

Kay's mum asked her to sing at the crematorium service, but she ended up singing at the main service too. It wasn't easy, but with a lot of prayer and determination she managed it. Mum had chosen the Stuart Townend version of Psalm 23 – it's in two parts, so Steve, as well as accompanying, had to help sing the two part chorus, and joined in when Kay's voice threatened to falter – which really helped

It's hard to believe that life goes on – we have assemblies and an after school club to do next week, and a church weekend coming up later in the month – all of which need preparing, but inspiration is difficult to come by, so please pray for supernatural inspiration for teaching for both the schools and the church weekend.

You'll probably gather now that it is Kay writing this……Steve has been fantastic in supporting both myself and my family through what has been a difficult couple of weeks – mum said quite rightly what an amazingly supportive and dependable man he is (part of the exact phrase was – "you've got a good 'un there…."). With my health still not good and being in a lot of pain – especially with the stress of the last week, he has been great, never complaining and constantly finding new ways to help – including bringing ice cream to help keep me smiling. Please do pray for him as he continues being a "good 'un"! Words cannot describe just how great he's been.

Once again, thankyou for your prayers. xx

Prayer please

2008-05-20T16:20:00.002+01:00

Thanks to everyone who has been praying for us over the last few weeks and months of being so busy.
We have something else we need prayer for:
After many months of poor health, Kay's dad passed away this afternoon.
The events that led up to this were so obviously in God's hands. Firstly we were here and able to rush dad to the hospital in the early hours of this morning. At this point we were unaware what the problem was - and thought the issue to be one that could be sorted.
The events that followed showed that getting him to hospital was timed very well, as mum would not have been able to cope with what happened.
In the end he died peacefully, we were able to read from the Bible and talk with Him about God's love. It felt as though he needed our permission to go with the assurance (for both he and us) that God was in control and would welcome him no matter what. With that assurance, he peacefully slipped away with mum holding his hand and Kay by his side.
Do pray for Kay's mum (Pauline) and brother (Dave) and his other half (Vicky), as well as Kay and Steve.
Thanks.

Back from Latvia

2008-05-06T17:36:00.002+01:00

We are back - tired but happy! Some of the photos are to the side of this entry in a slide show (Taken by some lovely Latvian ladies - but they took way to many to put all of them on the blog!)
We didn't have an Internet connection there - so apologies for no entries.
The seminars went really well, the delegates were great and a real encouragement and Andy our pastor did a fantastic job. The Children Worldwide Latvia team (Iveta, Alesja and Karlis) were their usual hardworking and encouraging selves, with the addition of Lelde who was our translator (Brilliant job Lelde - and sorry about all the long words!)
We always learn so much from the team there - their passion for prayer and spending time with God is an example for us all.
The journeys were good, and the airport assistance worked for Kay. We were all tired - as the Latvian team don't tend to understand the word "sleep", and Iveta is just a constant dynamo without an off switch!
Now it's action stations ready for the sports and activities weekend at Dalesdown - please pray that everything that needs to be done will be done, that all the information for team will get there and that we would have wisdom as we finalise teaching and put the final parts of the programme together. But most of all - please pray for peace of mind...we are still very, very tired from Latvia.

Off to Latvia

2008-04-28T17:51:00.002+01:00

We're off to Latvia on Wednesday afternoon - flying from Stanstead.
We will be speaking at the children's workers Seminars held at Norkalni, a conference centre linked to us, near Riga.
We have a LOT of seminars to do! And we have the pleasure of taking our lovely Pastor, Andy Upton, with us to do the Bible studies, and to preach at
Vilandes church, a baptist church in Riga, on Sunday. (where the office for Children Worldwide Latvia is)
There will be 40 delegates coming, many of whom have been before - which is great as it gives a chance to build on what we have done in previous years.
Kay has airport assistance booked - which is very good at Stanstead. Do pray she copes with journey without being too tired!
We will return on Monday 5th May, in time to go to Dalesdown for the Sports and Activities weekend there, starting on 9th May! (And giving our house sitters a couple of days without responsibilty!)
We will try to keep you updated from Latvia...if the internet connection holds! You may even get photos - you never know!

Urgent Prayer Need in Kenya

2008-04-14T10:44:00.003+01:00

We received this from our colleague, Monica just minutes ago. Jack is her contact (and friend) when working in Kenya:

Urgent Prayer Request from Obambo

Cynthia, Sandra and Fiona, all school girls and nieces of Jack, are on a bus from Siaya to Nairobi. Their bus together with several others have not arrived in Nairobi. It is believed that the bus has been hijacked by the Mumgiki, who are a militant group in Kenya. Their aim is to kill and cause mayhem. They do not want the new government arrangements to work. To make matters worse the wife of one of their leaders was killed recently. Please pray and I will let you know when there is any news.
Monica

Update at 1.30pm:

GOOD NEWS FROM KENYA

Thank you for your prayers. Cynthia, Sandra and Fiona are safe at home.
Because of the wisdom of their bus driver they were able to get a Matatu to their home in Nairobi.
Please keep praying because of the threat of violence in Kenya.
Monica

Prayer For Ishmael

2008-04-13T17:58:00.003+01:00

Many of you will be aware by now that Ishmael has been diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukaemia.

Rather than putting lots of information here, please do follow this link to Ishmael's website for more information on how to pray for him and his family, and find information from his good friend Jeff on how to help with the urgent financial need that comes out of this situation.
Thankyou.

A Summary of How Spring Harvest Went For Us!

2008-04-12T17:22:00.003+01:00

We’re home – happy and very tired!
We asked people to pray for various things – this is how those prayers were answered…..
The two weeks of Whizz kids went very well. Even with a team on week two where the majority were first timers with Whizz Kids, everything went smoothly. When we went to site, week two team wasn’t full, but was by the time we started week 2 - with CRB checks in place too (Spring Harvest will only allow team with CRB checks done by themselves to serve on team).
The teaching, although challenging, was well received, even more so on week 2. The leadership team for Whizz Kids had changed a little since last year, but all worked brilliantly together with no issues or problems….thanks guys – you made our lives so easy!
We found the Butlin’s staff very helpful, with keys to the rooms we needed found in record time and locks replaced where keys wouldn’t work.
On the day Kay had to go to Minehead – she was packed up with a feast of a packed lunch by the lovely hospitality team in Skegness, and then driven safely by Paul from church (haven't mentioned your full name Paul - so your treasure in heaven is quite safe!).
Because we hadn’t been to Minehead for so long – Kay was a little worried, knowing so much had changed, but within a few minutes of arriving all was explained clearly, coffee made and a choice of sandwiches offered! Any help she needed was on hand until Steve arrived safely a couple of days later.
Steve had been left to finish the final day’s programme in Skegness on his own – and did a great job (Maybe Kay can retire now!) and the pack up went smoothly and quickly with everyone off site or out of the venue before 1.30pm….a record!
Whilst in Skegness, someone tried to steal Kay’s electric scooter, they were disturbed, but not before damaging the key lock badly. She had to scoot around with the wires twisted together to make it work, but the Spring Harvest team were great in arranging to get it fixed, and the admin support team managing to fix it – even down to using a bit of plastic bucket – especially shaped, to mount the new key barrel.
Kay managed really well, Steve had adapted the scooter to take her crutches, and although she had to work out medications to suit the level of activity, by halfway through Skegness week 2 she had managed to get it all sussed and sailed through Minehead week one (3rd week at Spring Harvest) with a manageable level of pain.
We were loved and supported by not only the Whizz Kids team – who were a constant encouragement…and continue to be with their notes, texts and emails, but also by the Spring Harvest teams from head office, the admin and steward volunteers and the speakers and event leadership teams on both sites. Spring Harvest in Minehead is still ongoing, with a week and a half to go – so please continue to pray for them.

Too Busy to Blog!!!

2008-04-08T17:01:00.003+01:00

Sorry for the silence!

Kay arrived safely in Minehead on 4th April ready for Spring Harvest week 1 there, and Steve finished the Whizz Kids programme in Skegness on 5th. On arriving home Steve helped to unpack the van alongside our lovely driver, Graham and the wonderful Sally. (Thanks guys!) He arrived safely in Minehead by lunchtime on Sunday - much to Kay's delight!

Kay's role has been interesting in many ways - and quite enjoyable - we're not going to put any stories about it here...as it's not really appropriate, but below are a couple of Whizz Kids Photos - one of a birthday hat, and the other of one of our group areas!

Steve is officially a guest - but he's managing to find things to do - as he doesn't really do guest!!!

Week 2 at Skegness Spring Harvest in Full Swing.

2008-04-02T21:29:00.001+01:00

Day 3 of Spring Harvest week 2 is coming to a close, and we have done
two programmes with a full team - so thanks for praying! We were still
3 special needs carers down, but the rest of the team was full.
Most of the team have not served on a Whizz Kids team before, but they
have been fantastic.
We have a lot of children from different countries - thankfully with
excellent English, but great fun to talk with.
There have been many funny stories such as the nick name one of the
children has for Kay (bearing in mind she is on crutches!) the name is
"The funny dancy singy lady"! Yes Kay has been doing actions...in a
limited sort of way - but we wouldn't call it dancing!!! We agree
with the funny singy bit!!!
The other thing we found amusing is the story of two of our birthday
children - they were in the same team.... We have one child that is
balloon phobic, and we make special balloon hats for children with
birthdays (May put a photo of one on the site tomorrow) and both our
birthday children were in the same team as the balloon phobic! When
you know we have 12 teams this week....this is quite amazing.
We had a plan and seem to have cured the balloon phobic child - yeh!
Kay has a seminar tomorrow - shared with two other lovely ladies, on
parenting a child with special needs. She leaves for Minehead on
Friday after 1pm.
Please pray for Steve as he remains to finish the programme at
Skegness, and pray for a smooth and trouble free pack up for him, with
no stress. (It can be one of the most stressful parts of Whiz Kids)
There is a lot to pack up! He drives down to Minehead to join Kay on
Sunday
Thanks for your prayers - keep praying!!

Week one almost at an end

2008-03-28T22:58:00.000Z

The first week is drawing to a close - and it's been a great week! No time to give you a full update, but the pictures are - the multi-sensory area for our children with special needs, the end of a particularly messy craft, and one of the games (Can't show pics of kids - so legs only!!!)
Week two starts on Monday, but we don't have a full team, so that's a real worry. Please pray that one of the security people we want on team will get his CRB through by Monday morning to allow him to work with us! Another 6 team are needed by Monday morning.

A Smooth First Day at Whizz Kids!

2008-03-26T19:11:00.002Z

Yesterday's set up day for Whizz Kids went very well, and our first programme today went very smoothly. The least amount of tears and toilet runs ever for a first day!
The fire drill - that we were all dreading - went well, with all children out of the venue in less than three minutes....not bad! The team is fantastic and just get on with the job in hand without complaining - brilliant!
Mike, our story teller was great as Isaiah this morning....with a very convincing welsh accent (!)
The overall theme of hope was introduced by Albert, Starsky and Stilton, with a very good listening by the kids.
This year's teaching is a very difficult theme for 5 -7 year olds to understand, so please pray for us as we try to put it across.
We will put photos on here eventually, but the camera is locked up in our venue....on the other side of the site!
More tomorrow......

Safe arrival at Spring Harvest in Skegness!

2008-03-24T19:19:00.003Z

After a week of packing box after box in the basement of the Kings centre in Wigston, we did a very fast load of the van on Sunday afternoon (thanks to the many volunteers who turned up to help. We then drove up to Skegness today, through quite a few snow showers!
It is bitterly cold....but at least the chalets are warm and dry, and the welcome even warmer! The van arrived safely and early, and was unloaded by the advanced team....cheered on by our lovely God daughter Caitlin.
Tomorrow, the team arrive in the morning and we register the children in the afternoon and evening (as well as training the team that couldn't make it to the training day). It will be a long and tiring day....for everyone on team.
Our first programme will run on Wednesday.
Please pray for our leadership team - some of whom are new to their roles. Dan Dooley has taken on the challenging task of being our venue manager - quite a responsibility!! So pray for him please - especially over the next two days - the toughest days for a venue manager.
We will try to keep you updated on how Whizz Kids is going, and how the team are - so keep checking back to see how we're getting on!

Never Ending Paper Work

2008-03-05T16:39:00.002Z

OK - so it's been a bit quiet on the blog!
That's because it is sometimes very hard to make paperwork sound exciting! But....without all this paperwork, Whizz Kids at Spring Harvest wouldn't run as smoothly as it does.
So pray for us as we put the final tweaks to the teaching into place, and find ways of making it memorable and exciting, and then make sure the scenery to go with it doesn't need too much mending (The problems of loaning it out!)
Also pray for all those coming on team, and for those God is nudging to come, but haven't applied yet!
Spring Harvest not only needs volunteers for the kids work (Although we are full on week one now) they need lots and lots of stewards ....check out the Spring Harvest volunteer's page for more info.
Please pray for Kay in this busy run up to the event - with all the packing up to do, it can be very tiring so she needs to pace herself. Some important test results have been lost by the hospital, and may take yet another week to be found! In the meantime, she is still bouncing around on her shock absorber crutches and managing to do everything she needs to do!

A Four Foot Tall Ball of Fur.....

2008-02-19T13:55:00.005Z

This is the new addition to the Morgan-Gurr Puppets - He is 4 foot tall and very furry!! Kay has wanted him for the last 5 or 6 years and is very happy to have fullfilled her dream of owning him.
The photos were taken by our lovely Latvian friend Iveta who is in Leicester at the moment.

Comments from Isaac Watts on Children's Worship

2008-02-13T11:49:00.001Z

Steve has been writing many, many songs in the past few weeks, and has also been talking to some one about children and worship. Out of these chats Steve found out about the following from Isaac Watts - the language is old - so you have to read it carefully, but what it says is at the heart of what Steve tries to achieve when writing songs.

TO ALL THAT ARE CONCERNED IN THE EDUCATION OF CHILDREN.

MY FRIENDS,

It is an awful and important charge that is committed to you. The wisdom and welfare of the succeeding generation are intrusted with you before hand, and depend much on your conduct. The seeds of misery or happiness in this world, and that to come, are oftentimes sown very early; and, therefore, whatever may conduce to give the minds of children a relish for virtue and religion ought in the first place, to be proposed to you.

Verse was at first designed for the service of God, though it hath been wretchedly abused since. The ancients among the Jews and the, Heathens taught their children and disciples the precepts of morality and worship in verse. The children of Israel were commanded to learn the words 8 of the song of Moses, Deut. 31:19,30; and we are directed in the New Testament, not only to sing, "with grace in the heart," but to "teach and admonish one another by hymns and songs," Ephes. 5:19. And there are these four advantages in it:

1.   There is a great delight in the very learning of truths and duties this way. There is something so amusing and entertaining in rhymes and metre that will incline children to make this part of their business a diversion. And you may turn their very duty into a reward, by giving them the privilege of learning one of these songs every week, if they fulfil the business of the week well, and promising them the book itself, when they have learned ten or twenty songs out of it.

2.   What is learned in verse is longer retained in memory, and sooner recollected. The like sounds and the like number of syllables exceedingly assist the remembrance. And it may often happen that the end of a song, running in the mind, may be an effectual means to keep off some temptations, or to incline to some duty, when a word of scripture is not upon their thoughts.

3.   This will be a constant furniture for the minds of children, that they may have something to think upon when alone, and sing over to themselves. This may sometimes give their thoughts a divine turn, and raise a young meditation. Thus they will not be forced to seek relief for an emptiness of mind out of the loose and dangerous sonnets of the age.

Eastney Evangelical Free Church

2008-02-07T13:34:00.000Z

Last weekend we were in Southsea, Portsmouth at Eastney Evangelical free church . On Saturday morning we did a training session on using puppets, and on Sunday led the all age service - Steve spoke on Daniel, making the point that although Daniel was brave, the main point was who Daniel had his trust in.
We felt very welcome and at home there, and stayed with the lovely Hacker family who quickly sussed out Kay's love of coffee!!
From there we went to Littlehampton to stay with our friends Jan and Peter, ready for a dalesdown camps meeting on Monday evening....but managed to squeeze in an assembly at Jan's school in Worthing at lunchtime, and a couple of coffees and a squishy cake with our friends Jim and Helen and their lovely daughter Becca.....It's not ALL hard work!!!

Where does the time go!

2008-02-03T19:48:00.000Z

Time seems to have run away...with only one day actually at home in the last 10 days!

Our busy time started with a meeting with the lovely lady who oversees the work with children who have special needs at New Wine - a very helpful and enlightening meeting!

It was then onto the Children's Ministry conference, with Kay doing seminars and Steve shooting off into London on the Saturday for a day studying eschatology at Kings College London. (I think his brain has recovered now!)

The CM conference went very well again - even with Kay as a speaker we found it a great time to "take in" and were encouraged by the main teaching sessions.

We stayed down in the south for a Trustees meeting and a meeting with a colleague, arriving home very late on Tuesday night.

Wednesday was spent at home - with Steve finalising his new songs and Kay getting them recorded onto CD, then off to Birmingham on Thursday to lecture our lovely students on the Future Builder's course, and then speak at our friends church about children's work in the evening. Friday came and we drove down to Stevenage to meet up with one of our colleagues, and then on to Southsea (Portsmouth). More of that in the next entry!

Quick update

2008-01-23T14:49:00.000Z

It was a good assembly again today - and a lot of the shopping for Spring Harvest (Whizz Kids) was done on the way home - courtesy of the Tesco sales!
The new crutches arrived yesterday - an hour after our blog post asking for prayer(!) and Steve managed to suss out how to make the suspension bits work - so now Kay is bouncing as she toddles around on them.
The physio appointment wasn't so bad - mainly a review, well half a review, with the other half next week.
After that - hydrotherapy! Much more fun than being pulled around!
Tonight we have some friends coming round to pray with us.......'nuff said really!

Ammandford one weekend - Eastbourne the next!

2008-01-22T10:58:00.000Z

Last Saturday we were in Ammandford in Wales doing a puppet training day for Ammandford Evangelical church. It was lovely to have a whole day on it rather than trying to squeeze everything in to 2 hours! What lovely enthusiastic people they were, with plenty of tea/coffee and pastries (Very welcome after getting up at 04.30 am to make sure we arrived on time.) A video was taken, and if we're brave, we may put a clip on the blog. But then again.......!
Tomorrow we will be taking a full school assembly at Hope Hamilton School here in Leicester....and carrying on with David and Goliath - this term's assembly subject.
This weekend we will be in Eastbourne for the Children's ministry conference, where Kay will be taking two seminars - one on bullying and one on working with small groups. On the Saturday, Steve will be attending a Spring Harvest speakers day in London.
Steve is doing very well with all the songs he has had to write, and he is currently putting them through his final editing process.
Kay has a physio appointment this afternoon....and fun isn't the first word to spring to mind! Do pray she gets her new shock absorber crutches before Friday - they would be very helpful for all the walking involved over the weekend, and more comfortable than her current brand!

Back in action....

2008-01-15T11:21:00.001Z

As you can see - with three blog posts in a day, we are now back in action.
Steve is writing songs requested by a dvd animation project on a tight deadline - he's aiming for 12 or thirteen songs and has around three left to go. They sound great!
This morning we did an assembly at Tythorn field primary school here in Wigston - the story was David and Goliath, the theme we brought out was "Choosing to do the right things can make you a hero". This was drawing on a point one school said to us about teaching children that they have a choice to do right or wrong...."we need more teaching on choices!"
We have three assemblies tomorrow (Two in one school!) and one on Thursday.
Please continue to pray for Kay - her health is not too good at the moment as she comes off one set of tablets ready to start a different set, and also waits for some more tests and physio.

We're God Parents To the Lovely Rachel

2008-01-15T11:04:00.000Z

On Sunday we had the amazing priviledge of becoming God parents to Rachel Gidney, 5 year old daughter of Dave and Sheri.
Rachel asked to be 'baptised' so she could show her friends and teachers that she loved Jesus. Rachel is very shy (which Kay can relate to!) so to ask for baptism was a very brave thing to do.
The service was great - a mix of lovely songs chosen by Rachel, a heartfelt talk from their vicar, Mike, and a requested appearance of Albert and Starsky.(requested by Rachel of course).

There were 6 of us promising to stand with Rachel in her Christian walk - and all very honoured and blessed to do so.

News from Kenya

2008-01-15T10:58:00.000Z

We have an associate who works under the banner of Children Worldwide in Nairobi.
The latest update we have came via a colleague (Joolz) who has worked with him over there.
His email is as follows:
Grace and peace be with you all in the name of Jesus .Thank you for your prayers over our election which was very peaceful, but after the announcement of the results there was a great problem, riots began and people were fighting with the police, bullets were being shot everywhere.
10 people were shot dead near our church.No one went out.We have no food because all the shops and stores were closed down. Churches were burned with fire .Our church in Eldoret, kakamega and kitale were all burned down. Most of of the members were rescued by the police. Now they are they are still at the police.They have no place to sleep, they cannot eat, we cannot eat neither.So please we need your lots of prayers. Many things are damaged.Thank you for calling me to check on how we are doing .Truly we need your calls and encouragements. We never experience such a thing in Kenya before. Otherwise God bless you and we wish you a new year full of great opportunity and opening of great doors. All shall be well.

We have no phone or broadband!

2008-01-12T11:30:00.001Z

We have had no land line phone for 3 days, + limited internet access from today...so apologies if you have tried to ring us. We should have internet running on the computer soon via Kay's mob phone. (It's a new laptop + she hadn't got round to setting that bit up yet!)
meanwhile - Kay's mobile phone number is:
07976 627811

**12:00 update. Still no phone - but limited and slow access to broadband!

New diary on line!

2008-01-05T20:09:00.000Z

Our diary has been updated - just click the link opposite to see what we are up to!

Back from Filey

2007-12-21T13:45:00.000Z

We've just had 6 days in Filey - rest, short walks, reading, knitting (Kay - not Steve!) Writing Christmas cards and letters and trying the different home made cakes at the local tea shop!

No photos I'm afraid - we were so busy relaxing, we just didn't get round to taking any.

Christmas is fast approaching - we are taking the Christmas Eve service at Knighton EFC. (for those who don't know - that's our very supportive home church!)

We're spending Christmas day with Kay's Big Bruv and his lovely other half - Vicky. Both sets of parents will be their too - so quite a house full!

We'll put our new diary on line in the new year

Until then - enjoy one of Kay's Christmas pictures, and have a happy Christmas!

half way through our sabbatical

2007-12-13T15:02:00.000Z

Yes - it has been quiet on the blog, hasn't it!
We have been on a much needed sabbatical and having set ourselves some small tasks - we've actually ended up resting and reading! (And making Christmas cards!)
We come out of the break to do the Christmas eve service at our church and then go back to our break until 3rd Jan. We then go into a very busy New Year. (We'll update the diary soon!)
Tuesday was Kay's Birthday, and we went to stay with some good friends in Hassocks, had a celebratory meal, and then another one on the Wednesday as the trustess and volunteers from Dalesdown met together for a Christmas lunch. It took a very long time to get home, but now we are looking forward to a short break in Filey, with our usual house sitters looking after the house and the phone.
We may put some photos on the blog to prove we know how to rest..........!

Feedback From Northern Ireland...

2007-11-19T21:44:00.000Z

While we were in Northern Ireland, we went to Holywood Primary School. They emailed to say thankyou, and showed us what they put on their website about us.
This is it:

Dear Kay & Steve,
I wanted to write on behalf of our school to thank you for the assembly you did with us in school. The staff and children enjoyed your visit very much and talked about it enthusiastically after you left.I have put your photo on our school website along with a short piece of News that children in my class recorded after seeing your performance. if you are interested in looking at it, it can be found on http://www.holywoodprimary.ik.org/ in the latest news section. Thanks once again.
Keep up your great work! It was very nice to meet you too.
Debbie Crookshanks

And on the web site:

All the boys and girls were treated to a great assembly.
It was led by husband and wife team Steve and Kay Morgan- Gurr from Leicester.
We met Albert the chimpanzee, Starsky the rabbit and the story from the Bible was about Peter.
It even included a visit from Mr Impossible of all people!
The children and teachers really enjoyed the assembly. Many thanks to Steve,Kay,Albert and Starsky !

A Great Christmas Resource

2007-11-14T13:13:00.000Z

Jeff Lucas has done a fantastic evangelistic booklet for Christmas – the idea is that churches can buy it in bulk to give to people who come to carol/Christmas events.
He says "It’s designed to be kingdom focused, (let God change a broken world through you – not just get Jesus in your heart and go to heaven), with a light humorous touch and not be fluffy and sentimental. It also empowers journey as well as crisis conversion."
Having read through the booklet, all we can say is - at last a cringe free Christmas resource that I would be happy to give to parents coming to our all age events.
If you would like to read the text first - contact us by using the comments button below and we'll let you see the text.
Orders can be processed through a local freephone number - 0845 166 8463. The cover price is 1.50 per unit but by buying quantities churches can get a massive discount – 67% - bringing the price down to just 50 pence.

So Grateful.......

2007-11-13T15:39:00.000Z

On Sunday night we had a phone call to say that James Steve's Youngest son, (Kay's stepson) and his fiance Naomi had been taken to hospital after a serious fire. Because of on going police investigations, I don't want to say more about the circumstances, but we are amazed and thankful to have them alive and well.
We knew they hadn't been burnt, but had inhaled a lot of smoke. We were in the dark about what their flat was like.
We got straight down to the hospital and stayed with them until they were moved to a ward.
It took a while to find out the full story of what the flat was like - although the fire was down stairs, super heated smoked filled their flat causing devastating damage, the fire men had to break windows to get water inside to stop their flat bursting into flames too. Add to that ..... the fireman's boots.......you can imagine the rest!
They have not manged to rescue much, but they have managed to save their most precious things. Very few clothes were rescuable. They were insured, and the housing association are paying for hotel, bed and breakfast, and money for evening meals.
We asked people to pray for peace and a calm approach to sorting things out and that prayer is being answered. Pray for James's Grandma - it has been a huge shock for her.

The travellers return

2007-11-07T17:48:00.000Z

It seems a while since our last post doesn't it?!
After managing to get to the last hour of the Dalesdown prayer day last Thursday, and having a chat with our lovely administrator - Pete, we then went to stay with our friends Mike and Judi Southcombe. (We stay there so often we are now honorary Southcombes!)
The next day (Friday) we flew out to Ireland where we were due to work with Holywood Parish Church in Belfast. We trained all day on Saturday, led the family service on Sunday morning and popped into two other services to show what we we up to(!) We then went into two local schools on Monday Morning, before flying back to Gatwick in the afternoon.
We had a lovely time in Holywood - the hospitality was amazing....we had been warned, but it still took us by surprise. Many thanks to Sharon and Peter for your many encouragements, inspiration and hospitality - we have both come home physically heavier but very encouraged!
From Gatwick we went straight back to Dalesdown, just in time for a Camps debrief meeting that evening. The next day we had a management group meeting for Children Worldwide - it was long but profitable. After a minor detour to Scripture union offices on the way, we arrived home on Wednesday afternoon.
There now follows a couple of days of paperwork, and our first weekend off in weeks!

Back home - for a couple of days!

2007-10-28T20:13:00.000Z

We are back in Leicester - over fed and very tired!

Over lovely hosts in Fleet, and various people from the church have fed us so well - I'm not sure we will want to (Or need to) eat for another week! We have been spoilt and cared for in an amazing way - thankyou to John and Christine who "put up" with us for the week and the various others who also fed us, made us coffee, worked with the children and cared for our every need.

The week went very well, the kids were great - polite and open to the stories and message of the week. Thanks for praying for us all.

The photo is of Steve doing a puppet sketch with the younger children, who were taught and looked after by Steven their minister and the lovely Bee, along with other equally able helpers.

This morning the all age service went well - the church looked like an underwater world with all the craft the children did!

We now have two days to catch up before the travels begin again - check out the diary to see what we will be up to.

First day of the holiday club!

2007-10-22T14:03:00.000+01:00

We are in Fleet (Hampshire) this week, running another “Beach Party” holiday club. (Yes we know it’s October – but we can pretend!)
Despite the road the church is on being closed for road works, we still had quite a few children, all of whom joined in and listened well. Having done this holiday club for a number of years, we have got to know some of the children well and how they “tick”, which makes life a little easier!

The photos should give a bit of an idea of what went on……
The craft is usually left to the child’s imagination, but this year steered to things to do with the sea or beach. Again, the photos give an idea of what they chose to do.

We Hate Electronic Diaries!

2007-10-18T23:17:00.000+01:00

Do you ever have one of those days when you think your computer/PDA/mobile phone are demon possessed? Well we have had one of those weeks.
We noticed a couple of weeks ago that a date had dropped off Kay's PDA phone, but just thought it was one of those things - until it came to this week, when we found TWO things had disappeared! One was yesterday - a lecture for one of the YWAM courses and one for today - a lecture for our Future Builder course. We managed to fit them in, but it meant three bookings per day!
Fortunately, having been interviewed as referees for someone in the morning, the Ywam lecture (on working with 5 - 7's) was in Nuneaton, and the assembly we had that afternoon was also in Nuneaton.
The assembly this morning ended in time for us to drive over to Birmingham, where the Future Builders course is based, to have lunch with everyone and then deliver a lecture on child development, before driving home, having a quick meal before driving over to Hungarton for a camp debrief!!
Tomorrow we are being visited by one of our colleagues, and then Kay will be collecting her dad from hospital in the evening (Nothing serious - tests to check him out after his illness in the summer)
As you can imagine - we are now quite tired - but it doesn't let up yet. We are in London on Saturday for a planning meeting for the Latvian camps, and on Sunday we drive down to Fleet ready for a half term holiday club starting on Monday.
We do have one window of respite.....we are going to watch the Rugby on Saturday evening with Kay's brother and his girlfriend - wooohooo!!!!

Redditch - then off to Dalesdown.....

2007-10-15T09:17:00.000+01:00

Yesterday we were in Redditch at Oasis Christian Centre to do a family service.
The first most noticeable thing in this church was how much people smiled….even before the service began!
This is the church our colleagues Nick and Sarah Morgan go to. They have adopted triplets – so their hands are very full! We had the privilege of seeing one of the triplets take his very first steps during the worship time! (yes really!)
We talked about heroes and following the right hero – Jesus, and if you do follow Jesus, being a hero that points to Jesus, although we took and hour to say it with various puppets, tricks, stories and songs. (We still can’t believe Albert said his heroes were the Chuckle Brothers! But it did help us make a very good point…….!)
We’re off to Dalesdown at lunch time for a director’s meeting, and then Kay will be off to London on Tuesday for a Cheltenham Bible Festival Meeting.

London and back......

2007-10-13T16:52:00.000+01:00

Today we were at Lindsay Park Baptist Church in Kenton, London for a training day.
There were people from a few churches, some local, and one church from the other side of London!
Steve's Subject was "Why do we do Children's Work" (Good question!!) and Kay's was "Managing difficult behaviour, including special needs" (Two seminars squished into one!). Kay's seminar sparked quite a debate about the level of discipline we should use in Sunday school....until lunch intervened!!
Tomorrow we are off to The Oasis Christian Centre in Redditch to lead a family service.......

Theology Versus Tweeology

2007-10-11T18:27:00.000+01:00

Kay put this on the Children Matter network today and we thought you might like to see it.

We'll let you know if there are any comments back!

1 Peter 3:15 says:……. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.……….
My question is: Can our children and teenagers do that? Can many of our young leaders do that?
We spend a lot of time looking at the theology of children – and that is great, but how much time do we spend on making sure we are teaching good theology to our children?
I believe, that in an effort to make things accessible and politically correct for the children, in many cases all we have succeeded in doing is watering down vital parts of the gospel.
Over the last 10 or more years I have been told over and over again that we should not use the term “Father” when talking about God because we may upset those who, for whatever reason don’t have a Father. I firmly believe that we have done the children a huge disservice in teaching like this. Having been in children’s work for over 15 years, I have the pleasure of talking to young adults who have grown through this style of teaching. Those people where the Fatherhood of God was taught sensitively and well say that being taught God was their Father was their “saving grace”. The knowledge that God was the best dad ever, even when their own dad wasn’t around, helped them to grow in their faith with confidence. Those who had this vital piece of teaching withheld – for all the best reasons, often still struggle with relating to God in the intimate way that a father and child should relate. I know two national children’s workers who never had a father at home, but both would agree with this. One was taught about Father God and one wasn’t. The one that wasn’t regrets the fact that he wasn’t taught this. Both teach about a loving Father God where ever they go.
Within that frame work of teaching, we have correctly tried to find a way of teaching about God’s love and Jesus’ death by teaching that God/Jesus is our “special friend” or a “friend that doesn’t fall out with us”. I would like to ask; when do we move the children on from this aspect of God and teach them more? Being such an ancient Kids worker, I now have the children who were first taught in this way coming through as leaders, and find that many of them still have only that basic understanding of Jesus as friend. They have no realisation of redemption, forgiveness, and sanctification. (Yes I know they are big words!)
As these leaders have grown into adulthood, they believe that they “chose to follow God”, whereas in reality – God chose them. Their faith is based on how God makes them feel, not on the reality of repentance, redemption, sanctification or even forgiveness. They often have no understanding of who they are in Christ. The true realisation that they have authority and have been forgiven has not been fully understood. Not knowing the full extent of God love has had huge implications in their Christian walk and is bourn out by the fact that I spend a lot of time counselling children’s workers about self image, guilt and assurance. If you don’t know the truth, then the devil’s lies are harder to refute!
Like the Fatherhood of God issue, I believe our children are again being robbed of a true and full relationship with God by teaching this way.
It is these people who have only have a basic understanding of their faith who are now often responsible for teaching the next generation. I hear stories mis-told, vital facts left out or misquoted, passages taken out of context and misunderstood.
In the distant past, revivals have begun with a young child claiming that people need to repent – do our children even know what this means now?
From knowing true forgiveness there flows the knowledge of no more condemnation, the ability to forgive and accept forgiveness, and the assurance of heaven.
As our children grow physically – we move them from milk to soft food to meat. Every parent will know that when a child is faced with a huge chunk of meat – we lean over and cut it up for them – we don’t take it away and give them a sloppy milk meal instead.
I’m all for teaching the gospel in an understandable way, but we do need to make sure that we start adding meat – by cutting it up, not mushing it up!
In Latvia, where I see the full message of God’s love and sacrifice taught, and leaders who don’t shy away from teaching all of God’s truth, I find young men and women who are secure and unwavering in their faith. Coming to faith is called “repentance” there, and that phrase is explained clearly. I see young people studying God’s word, fasting and praying, expecting great things from God and seeing them happen.
No, it isn’t all perfect over there – but God is moving! And I believe the fact that the children are given the full truth – cut into little pieces – is part of the reason why.
The Bible states in John 8:32:
Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.
Let’s set our children free!

From One Meeting To the Next!

2007-10-09T22:22:00.000+01:00

All the Spring Harvest meetings are over - Monday evening saw us looking at the theology of the teaching theme (Set in Isaiah) in quite a lot of detail. This was very helpful, and this morning we thrashed out how to teach the children about different aspects of hope from the "exilic" chapters in Isaiah! It is a difficult theme - we will be teaching concepts with very little narrative, but I do believe the theme is really good and teachable (with a lot of wrestling and prayers for inspiration and wisdom!!!) As soon a this was over, we had lunch and then went straight into the National Children's Ministers Retreat. This ends tomorrow after lunch, but having opted to commute each day, we now have to be back in Nuneaton for 7 am tomorrow!!
We spent the afternoon and evening sharing, praying, eating junk food, drinking coffee and playing games on a wii......our first ever attempt at this! There will be some stuff to report back by the end of the retreat - we will put it on the blog when we have it in a form we can use, with the confidential bits taken out!!!!

Back home....for a few hours anyway!

2007-10-08T15:06:00.000+01:00

We are now at home after what was a brilliant training retreat. On Saturday night we had a time of quiet worship followed by prayer stations – the photo shows (In a round about way) a little of those. I couldn’t take many photos because we didn’t want to disturb people using the stations.
The paper tells you to take and eat a Jelly baby, and pray for children who suffer hurt and abuse. The bits of paper have words on them that describe what hurts these children. (Disappointment, Fatherless, Abuse etc)

Sunday morning saw one of our colleagues – Monica Cook, talking about her experiences in various countries. She inspires and amazes every one with what she does, but is so humble about it. Much of what she has done in the past is quite sensitive, so we can’t go into detail!
We had the pleasure of leading communion for the delegates – and share a little of what is on our hearts for children. We’ll probably share that in a separate blog entry later.
In an hour we will be off to a Spring Harvest meeting to look at the teaching for next year – exciting!

2007-10-06T16:47:00.000+01:00

Day 2 of the children’s worker’s training retreat is in full swing. The photos were taken at breakfast and are the views from the dining room – beautiful isn’t it? (The last taken just out side the dining room!)

Graham Reed spoke this morning on “What is your treasure?” and challenged us about our vision, and our hopes and dreams. He went through what he called “the Vision Killers” – there were far too many nods as he went through the list!

Kay did her bit in the session on special needs – challenging the carefully held views of what children can and cannot do. She said that “we happily agree that the deaf can hear the voice of God, the Blind can see what God has done, the person in a wheel chair can dance with praise – but do we believe that the child with learning difficulties can think with the mind of Christ? When we get that heart sink feeling as the boy with autism walks in – would it change the way we approach that child if we thought in those terms: This child can think with the mind of Christ? Do we take the child and try to make them fit into the mould we have created for our kids work (A square peg in a round hole) or do we find creative ways to make the children’s work fit the child?”

In half an hour, Steve will be taking a seminar called ‘XL in leadership’. I assume they mean excel and not extra large! If they mean extra large – Steve isn’t the man to do the seminar!!

2007-10-05T21:49:00.000+01:00

After a lovely time at Torch Trust's Holiday and Retreat Centre (Watch this space for more info later!) we finally arrived at Dalesdown.

The First evening has been great - and hopefully a glimpse of what the rest of the weekend will be.
We were given the job of leading some worship - with some fun bits thrown in.....the photo is of Steve fulfilling this request!
John O'brian spoke from 2 Timothy 1:14, but also....as John does.....talked of what God is showing him. He inspired everyone to offer the Kingdom of God to the children: "We give them biscuits and squash, but do we offer them the way to the Kingdom?"
Last night myself and Steve were saying something very similar to each other ....maybe God's saying something........?!

We're off again!

2007-10-04T21:59:00.000+01:00

We're off to Dalesdown very early tomorrow morning, but on the way we will be calling in at the Torch Trust holiday and retreat centre to have a look round.
At Dalesdown we will be taking part in the annual training retreat, leading some of the worship, taking a couple of seminars and generally just being there for people. I'll see if I can get a few photos for our report back....watch this space!
On Monday evening we will be at Kings Lodge, Nuneaton having the first part of a Spring Harvest meeting....followed by part two on Tuesday morning. We then stay on at the Lodge for the National Children's Minister's retreat - finishing on Wednesday. (We have opted to commute each day - it's not too far away, and we've spent far too long away from our comfy bed recently!!!)

The Holiday!

2007-09-26T11:29:00.000+01:00

As promised - an update from our holiday. The photo is of Steve being very silly with a neck rest pillow! I think he looks like a character from a Dr Who programme!
Anyway - the island of Alonissos was lovely. Apparently a lot of famous people go there.....although we didn't see any of them. The beaches were great, the views amazing, and the people lovely. We had almost wall to wall sunshine, but it wasn't too hot which was great.
The apartment however, didn't live up to the blurb on the web - a total of five days without hot water, and lots of things that didn't work, open, close or switch on. It's a good job we have a good sense of humour!
Rather than boring you with tons of photos, we've put a lot of them on facebook - search for Morgan-Gurr....there should only be one to choose from!

We're back!

2007-09-24T20:13:00.000+01:00

We're back from our holiday, and our diary has been updated! Just click on:
http://www.morgan-gurr.co.uk/news/diary.html
More about the holiday later (When I've made the photos smaller on memory!!!!!)
As you will see, October is manically busy.....we need prayer!

Thanks for Asking

2007-09-04T16:57:00.000+01:00

Thanks to those of you who have emailed to ask how the hospital appointment went.
The answer is - it went! It actually took longer waiting for the tablets the doctor prescribed than it did to see the doctor. (1 hour and 5 minutes to be exact!)
In a nutshell, he agreed with the initial diagnosis, acknowledged that Kay knew how to deal with it, (agreeing with her "just keep going" method of treatment) and suggested some tablets to take. These tablets have a huge list of side effects (Some conflicting ones, and some are what the tablets are supposed to cure - how silly is that!)
Because of the side effects, Kay has to start taking them at a low dose, and then put them up after 4 weeks until they either work, or it's obvious they won't work. (It could take up to 6 weeks to see any improvement) At that point the doctor suggests another review of her eyes to see if there is another problem or damage to the muscles there. I think that sums it up!
With our holiday imminent, and the nurse in Kay knowing that air travel can accent some of the side effects of these sorts of tablets, she is hoping they don't send her a bit "doo-lally" on the plane! Steve thinks it might be fun if they do!!!

Paying for a wise doctor!

2007-09-03T12:37:00.000+01:00

Kay has a hospital appointment today - and she hates hospitals (even with having worked in one for a number of years!)
They have a specialist in Fibromyalgia and Myofascial Pain Syndrome, (They didn't have one when she was first diagnosed) and her GP thought it would be good to have a review.
She's praying they don't want to re-do all the tests as she hasn't got time for them.....and they hurt!
Her dream outcome would be a lessening in pain, the ability to walk smoothly in a straight line, and to be able to read without her eyes hurting! The constant nagging pain has been quite draining for her this year - it's like a permanent electrical buzzing that doesn't let up!
There are new treatments out there apparently - please pray for a good outcome of a treatment with no side-affects!

We Made It!

2007-08-26T18:37:00.000+01:00

We made it through one of our busiest summers ever!
It's been tough - one of the things not released on the blog for various reasons was the fact my dad was taken seriously ill on the first day of the Hungarton camp. During that first week we didn't think he would make it to the end of the week, but amazingly he survived. He is now at home, but still very poorly. We await a final diagnosis when he has his next hospital visit (We are still waiting for the appointment to come through)
Do pray for my mum, as she has to care for him. It was (and still is) very tough on her - she wanted myself and Steve to carry on with our work and not let people down, but I know that was a costly decision for her.
On all but one of the camps and events we did this summer it was amazing to see young people I have seen grow up, leading various tents, activities and groups - it's good to see the work is going to be in safe hands in the future! It was a privilege to see two "children" I remember being in groups I led years ago actually leading one of the age groups at Cheltenham Bible Festival - Becca - you make me feel old!
When we got to Cefn Lea, we heard the words "we saw you at Cheltenham....where's the rabbit?!" We weren't expecting that! The children who said it reported how they had enjoyed the event and loved their programmes. Brilliant!
The blog may be a bit quiet now - other than the occasional update on how dad is and how our 10 day wind down is going before our holiday in Greece (A remote Greek Island away from the fires)

Star Quality Team at Hungarton

2007-08-26T18:26:00.000+01:00

One of the daily videos done on week 2 at Hungarton Camp - all of them can be found on YouTube!

Enjoy! (If the video doesn't appear the first time - click refresh and will miraculously appear!)

More from Cefn Lea

2007-08-21T13:00:00.001+01:00

Today was our third session with the children. We have prayer wall for the children to write prayers in response to the teaching.

On the prayer wall this morning was the following prayer:

"Dear God, please help me to draw nearer to You and help me to show how fabulous your love is. I want you to let the Holy spirit run right into my heart, so I truly know you and take my tears away of everything that's wrong. Amen"

And there are many more expressing very clearly what they have been learning!

Thanks for praying!

The final camp of the summer!

2007-08-19T16:56:00.001+01:00

We have now left Dalesdown camp and have arrived safely at Cefn Lea in Wales!

We are with Tonbridge Baptist Church for their church holiday, doing one session for the children for an hour and a half a day......it feels quite lazy after so many camps! We have 26 children, who are lovely - some lively too, but no problems at all.

If you know Cefn Lea, we are in one of the 3 bedroom cabins with two other couples.

The showers are "interesting" as they switch off automatically after 10 seconds!! Neither the loo or the shower have locks - just an "occupied" notice. When you consider there are 15 beds in this cabin and one loo and shower (behind one door - not separate)......I can understand the 10 second shower thing - but it's still a little annoying trying to find the button to make it start again when you have soap in your eyes!

It actually makes Dalesdown look like a 5 star hotel....we spoil our kids on the camps there.

Dalesdown Kids Camp

2007-08-15T16:44:00.000+01:00

Ok, so I didn't manage to get photos from Cheltenham, but I have got photos from camp here!!
I can't show you photos of the children (Not a wise thing to do) but I can show you the state of the bedrooms here....especially the boy's bedrooms. Never go in without a peg on your nose and shoes on your feet!
Half of the children are in dormitories, and the other half in tents, and yesterday, all day, we had rain driven by a very strong wind. We ended up having to move one of the girls tents inside - into the prayer room (Rapidly changed back into a dorm by a great team of leaders!) and had the meeting room set up with mattresses and sleeping bags just in case we had to evacuate another tent in the night.
This morning at breakfast, one of the girls prayed for sunshine.....but didn't mention anything about the wind dying down....we now have sunshine and a very strong wind and have just had to stop one of the tents flying out to sea!
Steve is currently having a sleep, having been in casualty with one of our leaders until half past midnight last night. (And yes - the leaders is ok....it was a left over injury from Hungarton camp!)
More later.....

Cheltenham Bible Festival - a great start

2007-08-09T20:27:00.000+01:00

Well, the first day has come and gone, and for a first day of a first event, the children's work was incredibly smooth. We had a couple of technical hitches like the toys being locked away and not being able to retrieve them until the Creche had been open for 10 minutes!
The whole site is buzzing!
Steve did his entertainment slot this afternoon (With a little help from Kay) and we had more in there than the youth band did later!!!
Tomorrow, as well as the kids work, Steve has another entertainment slot (I'll try to get photographic evidence!) and then we are doing a seminar on puppetry at 8pm
More tomorrow.........!

An Eventful Journey to Cheltenham!

2007-08-07T22:54:00.001+01:00

This afternoon on the way to Cheltenham, the tyre on the caravan blew.....big style! But it blew on one of the narrowest parts of the A46, so we caused quite a traffic jam! (Apologies if you were one of those stuck in the tailbacks!)

It was the right hand tyre so it meant lying in the road to change it - with big lorries going past. I was terrified for Steve.

Then....the jack slipped, and the back stay on the van gave way making it impossible to put the spare tyre on. The jolting from the tyre blowing caused the main battery to fall out, getting smashed to pieces in the process.

The police came (And got an exuberant welcome from me!) but couldn't help apart from directing traffic around us. Thankfully we are signed up to direct line recovery and they had some one come out within the hour. But our real angel in disguise was a gentleman who stopped and attempted to help (Getting his own jack stuck in the process). After the recovery people came and made the caravan safe to tow, he led us to the nearest repair place. What made it funny was the fact that this lovely guy who was crawling under our very unsafe caravan worked for the health and safety people!

Those stuck in the jam, when they went past were very nice - no one was rude to us, and many slowed to ask if we needed anything.

It wasn't until after everything was sorted that it really sunk in how bad it could have been - the policeman seemed pretty surprised we got off so lightly.

Well, we are now here - the back of the van jacked up on lumps of wood, but safe.

Steve is quite stiff from trying to sort everything out, and like me, still shaking from the experience.

I have done my first walk down to the festival office - and it's a long walk from the caravan site...... that's going to be fun then.....I'm back on crutches!

Back from Hungarton

2007-08-05T18:31:00.000+01:00

Sorry we haven't updated recently, but the mobile internet account we use when away from home decided to class our blog as an over 18 site and wouldn't let me in!

Anyway - all sorted now, and we are back from Hungarton - which just like week one, was great.

We also had a great time at the holiday club in Thurnby. The photo is steve wearing one of the craft activities - to make a coat of many colours! Steve is wearing the one from the youngest team.

The children were very responsive - listened well to everything, and showed just the right amount of amazement at Steve's tricks!!!

On Tuesday we will be off to Cheltenham Bible Festival, where we will be (amongst other things) managing the children and youth work. Please pray for us - this is a huge responsibility that is weighing on us very heavily. We need bucket loads of wisdom and strength!

One camp ends and another begins!

2007-07-29T21:43:00.001+01:00

Last week's camp ended in sunshine, but rain meant that one boys tent had to go back into the stables. But that didn't affect the camp at all - the kids had a great time! As I was sorting lost property today I did notice that amongst the very wet clothes were some very DRY flannels!!!

The children listened so well to all the talks - and the comments from some of them showed that they understood as well.
The second week of camp has begun....in brilliant sunshine! There is a lovely atmosphere and the kids are having a great time already. At the moment the children are off on a night walk, and hopefully they will arrive back very tired!!

We will be on camp, but will also be running a holiday club in Thurnby - just down the road from camp - on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.
Please pray for energy and strength for both of us...we need it!

We had a dry day yesterday!

2007-07-25T16:01:00.001+01:00

Well this looks neat doesn't it - very unusual for a boys group - but then they had just been inspected. This was taken just minutes before we moved the boys back into the tents! But the fact that the boots and shoes were lined up there shows how nice the weather was. Today we are back to cold wet and windy!

The next photo is what the stables looked like with the boys still using them - actually very cosy! But - very near our caravan, so the

lack of boys voices was very appreciated last night!

The meetings are going very well - ours in the morning are being well received, discussed by the campers and acted upon by quite a few - really encouraging!

More updates later!

Camping and rain don't mix!

2007-07-22T08:44:00.000+01:00

Genesis 8:11 This time the dove returned to him in the evening with a fresh olive leaf in its beak. Then Noah knew that the flood waters were almost gone......
That's how it feels!
The tents may be up - but the field is very wet and horrible.....so .....looking on the bright side, (Some other camps across the country have it much worse!) this is what we are going to do:
Two of the girls tents are Ok - the other 4 tents of girls are going in the porta cabins we usually use for craft and storage.
The boys are going into the stables - cleaned and disinfected yesterday, and being carpeted today (!) The stable cubicles are actually slightly bigger and certainly brighter than tents...they'll love it!
This has caused a large headache in sorting it out, especially with the health and safety implications (Which have been sorted and everything is now safe) - please pray for the leaders as this makes the camp much harder - we can't use the field for games until it dries up.
Many, many thanks to those who have tirelessly cleaned, swept, cleared porta cabins and generally been fantastic in helping us keep the camp running.
And us - we have the caravan, but rather than going on the field, we will be setting up on the hard standing at the back of the barn....very close to the stables!

And the tents went up!

2007-07-18T21:25:00.001+01:00

I thought it was amazing - considering all the rain we have had in the past few days, but the tents have gone up ready for Hungarton camp!
Week one of camp starts on Sunday - and once again the forcast isn't too good. It would be great of the campers could at least arrive in the dry, and even better, be able to do their late night walk in the dry too!
The marquee went up reasonably well - much more smoothly than usual, but not without some technical problems. (It wouldn't be camp with out those would it!)

I was wandering around doing the final risk assessments, when I heard a scream - and this is the reason why! Actually there were five of them - gorgeous baby mice! They had made their home in the craft cupboard, and mum had muched her way through quite a lot of the craft supplies from last year!!!

All the photos were taken on my phone - so excuse the grainy look!

An update of the last few days....

2007-07-17T00:16:00.000+01:00

Last Saturday was Dave and Christie's Wedding! Dave is a member of Children Worldwide, and has served on the Whizz Kids team at Spring Harvest for longer than we have! The wedding was in London (Not Kay's favourite place on the planet!) and was lovely. The happy couple walked out to zipedy do da. Why are we not surprised!!!

Today has been a travelling to meetings day....all the way to Dalesdown to see Joolz and discuss camps, then onto an FFT directors meeting...then back home. At least we didn't get stuck in traffic this time!

We have so much to fit in this week - final planning for all the events we have this summer - but final preparation for Cheltenham Bible festival seems to be taking precedence over all other preparation at the moment. Please pray for us as we try to finalise everything and get everything done before going off to Hungarton on Sunday morning.

New additions to the Morgan-Gurr Family

2007-07-12T13:40:00.001+01:00

Introducing......Granddad Gurr, an ancient relative of Steve's. You have to admit - the likeness is uncanny!

And then there's Dilbert, who is aged 9 with plenty of attitude!

Want to see the website of those who made them? check out: www.magiclightpuppets.com

Hungarton Camps

2007-07-09T19:22:00.000+01:00

It's nearly time for the camps to begin!
And that means........rain.... and more rain.
Hungarton camp starts on Sunday 22nd June, but we will be pitching tents on the Wednesday before. All this sounds very nice until you realise that due to the rain the grass is waist height and still growing - it's been too wet to cut it!
Please pray that the weather would be just right in the next week to allow grass cutting and successful tent pitching!

And now for a fun memory from last year.....Andy is our pastor and leads the camp on the first week. Someone put his car on the bouncy castle! The castle was fully inflated with the car on it - I just couldn't get to my camera in time!
I wonder what the leaders will come up with this year to make Andy's life interesting..........?
Hopefully something I can post photos of!

Assembly day

2007-07-09T19:10:00.000+01:00

We did two assemblies today - one at St. Lukes School in Thurnby and one at Fernvale - also in Thurnby! These were preparation assemblies to promote the holiday club we will be doing there in a few weeks.

The children were very enthusiastic and took fliers home with them.

We may be asked back to St.Lukes school in the futue!

If you like the poster......we didn't design it! That is down to the talented people at St. Lukes church (I think the lovely people at Soar Valley Press had something to do with it!) - good isn't it?!

It's 1.30 in the morning.....

2007-07-03T01:30:00.000+01:00

Hello from the M1 where we have been creeping along at a couple of miles an hour for ages. (That's when we're not at a standstill!) The overhead signs say we can go at 40 miles an hour....more of an aspiration than a speed limit!!
We have had 3 meetings today - we left home at 7am ready for our first meeting in Fleet at 10.30 where we were discussing their holiday club in the October half term.
Then it was onto Worthing to meet with our wonderful administrator - Peter. Although this was officially business....It's always a pleasure to meet with him (and his lovely family!) After that it was onto Littlehampton for a Dalesdown camps planning meeting - starting with a lovely meal. (How are we supposed to stay awake after a lovely meal like that Pete + Jan?)
Anyway the meeting went really well and the camps look exciting and full of activities.
And now back to the traffic report - we have hit that aspirational speed of 40 miles an hour....whoopi-do!

Two Kids Clubs in Two days

2007-06-27T19:57:00.000+01:00

Yesterday we were at Camp Hill Primary School for an after school club called "J team"
There were about 15 children there - two of whom hadn't been for a while, so it was lovely they stayed when they saw the giant rabbit had come!
We frightened the head and deputy head when we walked in, because we often do assemblies for the school, and as it was also assembly time, they thought they had forgotten us! One quick explanation, and a check on how they were after the death of one of their pupils (Mentioned in a previous blog) and we moved on to the other side of the school to set up ready for the children. We had a great time with this lively bunch of children, talking about making the right choices. One hour, 3 tricks, 3 puppet sketches, one story and three songs later we said goodbye and packed up the car to come home again! Thanks to Wendy for inviting us - the kids are great....and so are you!

Tonight was KKC (Knighton Kids Club) at our home church in Leicester. What a lively group of children they are! And what patient and caring leaders!!!! It is such a huge encouragement seeing some of our young people throwing themselves into the work there and getting alongside the children with such ease. With games and craft, the kids are never still - and each leader knows exactly what they are to do next! Our brief was "puppets". With the help of Albert, Juan, Starsky and the story of Jonah we had great fun talking about going the way God wants us to go, or going in the wrong direction. Thanks to all the leaders there....you have our respect.....big time!

The Spirituality of a Two Year Old....

2007-06-25T22:14:00.000+01:00

Here's a little tale about our lovely two year old God daughter Caitlin (Actually we're her prayer parents.....but it's easier to explain a God parent!) Caitlin is into counting everything at the moment, and yesterday she was sitting in her car seat trying to count her hair!!!. Her mum told her that she had too much hair to count and that only God knew how much hair she had. Her answer..."I ask God!!!!" She's catching on fast!

After School Club On Tuesday - A Prayer Request.

2007-06-24T22:45:00.000+01:00

We are at Camp Hill Primary School doing an after school club on Tuesday.
Last week one of their pupils drowned in a tragic accident. Please pray for wisdom for us and comfort for those struggling with the loss. The school have been badly shaken by this - we need wise words!
We will be doing the story of Jonah - making the right choices and going in the right direction. It will have quite a gospel edge, but we are both acutely aware that we don't want to take advantage of raw emotions.
We will let you know how we get on.

A Day of Being Spoilt!

2007-06-24T22:21:00.000+01:00

Sorry for the delay in updates....Kay wasn't very well on Friday/Saturday....but feeling a little better today! That means you have three updates in a day:

We had a lovely day at the Mill (Green Hill Centre) in Shipston on Stour last Thursday.
This lovely retreat is run by Green Hill Outreach - every few months they run a retreat for children's leaders and their spouses (Steve and myself take it in turns to be the kids worker or the spouse!!!) They also do retreats for Ministers and their spouses. There is a leader for the day, and someone to lead worship. There is also an amazing lunch provided.....you are well and truly spoilt for the day! If you fit into either category of children's worker or minister, why not email Fran on GreenHillCentre@aol.com
You'll love it!

Best Assembly

2007-06-24T22:20:00.000+01:00

I sometimes wish the last assembly could be the first....the last of the assembly run is always the best! Usually because we have done it 10 times by the end of the run! This terms run was Peter walking on Water, with Starsky helping us to summarise whilst wearing Steve's snorkel and goggles (!)
So our assemblies at St.Johns in Leicester on Wednesday ended up being the best ones of the term....especially the junior assembly!
The next assembly at Glenmere Primary School has to be the first of a new run though....they have managed to sneak in an extra assembly this term!

June Diary

2007-06-20T15:36:00.000+01:00

June
8th – 10th: St. Luke’s Weekend away – Kids work at Hothorpe Hall
11th: FFT Board Meeting at Dalesdown (Nr Horsham)
12th: Children Worldwide Management Meeting in Ringwood.
13th: Assembly – Hope Hamilton School in Leicester
14th: Future Builders - Training at Birmingham Christian College
15th – 17th: St John & St Philip, The Hague. Church W/E in the Netherlands
20th: Am: Assembly – St John’s in Leicester
Pm: Council of reference meeting in Wigston
21st: Retreat for children’s leaders (take in day!!) in Shipston on Stour
26th: J-team after school club in Nuneaton
27th: Knighton Kids Club in Leicester
28th: Assembly – Glemere Primary School in Wigston

Back from the Netherlands!

2007-06-19T10:43:00.000+01:00

What a weekend!

We were working with St.John and St.Philip church in the Hague, who were having their church weekend away at a conference centre called Mennorode in the Hoge Veluwe area of Holland.

We were expecting 9 children aged 5 - 9 and actually had 15 aged 4 to 10! For some of the children English was their second language, but for all of them, jumping between languages seemed second nature!

We had to adopt a slightly different approach to teaching them as the range of personalities and styles of learning were huge.

But the sense that we had built relationship with them and taught them a little of God's love for them was clear by the end of the weekend.

All Over the Place

2007-06-14T19:05:00.000+01:00

This week has been a busy week - on Monday we went to Worthing for an FFT Board meeting - and then stayed with our good friends Mike and Judy overnight before driving to Ringwood for a Children Worldwide management group meeting on Tuesday! Both meetings went really well. (We also rushed back on Tuesday evening to make sure we didn't miss our home group meeting....mad or what!)

On Wednesday we did an assembly at Hope Hamilton in Leciester, where we told the story of David when he was chosen to be King. Stilton also made an appearance (A very large rat for those of you who don't know!) and made the children laugh as he helped us explain the story. Then we had the pleasure of lunch with one of our colleagues, followed by final preparation for the next day, and a preparation meeting for the Hungarton camps in the evening. I'll do a separate blog on the camps next week....watch this space!

Today we have been "lecturing" the Future Builders at Birmingham Christian College - always a pleasure! I was lecturing on positive discipline, and Steve was teaching solo puppetry and ventriloquism. (He always gets the fun ones!)

Now onto tomorrow........We're off to the Hague! The taxi is picking us up at 4.30 am, so I'm off to bed soon. We will be working with 9 children aged 5 - 9 at a church weekend for an English speaking church over there. It makes a lovely change to work with a small group.....we actually get to talk to them!

We'll let you know how we get on next week.

Have a good weekend.....we will!

At Hothorpe Hall

2007-06-09T22:52:00.000+01:00

We are curently at Hothorpe hall in Leicestershire, with St.Lukes church from Thurnby (Also in Leicestershire!)
We've been having a great time with the children - aged 3 up to 9, learning about King David.
The kids here are great fun, lots of chat - no cheek, and all such great friends with each other.
Tomorrow we will be learning about Jonah....and a very large fish!
On Monday we drive down to Worthing for a Trustees meeting at Dalesdown...staying overnight, ready for a Children Worldwide managemnet meeting in Ringwood (Also in the South!)

We've had a short break!

2007-06-04T20:20:00.000+01:00

We have been away for a few days! We needed a rest before we hit a very busy summer, so we went to Wales. It was great, and all too short!
The photos are either from a butterfly farm, or from the garden of the lovely home we stayed in! (Kay likes taking photos!)

Latvia 2007

2007-05-27T16:04:00.000+01:00

At the begining of May, we were in Latvia again, training children's leaders. It was great!

It was a very full programme, lots of sessions, lots of time for prayer, and lots of time to drink tea!

Iveta (Children Worldwide Director in Latvia) had booked a Pentecostal pastor for the studies. We managed to get over the culture shock of an Indian Pastor (Sam)....in Latvia....speaking English (with an indian/american accent)....interspersed with a little latvian, and who shouted....a lot! (So loud, I could go and have rest and still hear the sermon whilst lying on my bed!) We loved his ministry. He was quite a shock for some of the delegates, but even the ones who did struggle loved him by the end of the weekend.....but they also enjoyed our more gentle approach to teaching! When Sam did a session - it could start at 10pm, and not end until 1.15 am! (And apparently that's short !)
So…..we have come back a little tired, but all the richer for meeting such wonderful people.

Steve Speaking about children and prayer, being translated by Alesja.

And Kay teaching about being enthusiastic about the Bible! (I think the potographer slipped!)

How Many Jobs Can Two People Do?

2007-05-25T17:16:00.000+01:00

Yes - we are General Directors of Children Worldwide, but we also work as itinerant children's workers.

Along side these two busy roles, we have other ones:

Children Worldwide is the ministry arm of the charity 'Family Foundations Trust'. We are two of the 11 trustees on the board of FFT. Dalesdown is also part of this charity - a delightful conference centre in the west sussex countryside. Check out the web site on http://www.dalesdown.org.uk/.

We are managing the youth and Children's work for the Cheltenham Bible Festival - not doing any, just making sure it happens! Check out the web site on http://www.biblefestival.com/

You may have heard of Whizz Kids at Spring Harvest. We have the privilege of running this 5 - 7's work for Spring Harvest. This will be our 9th year of leading Whizz Kids!

(Whizz Kids is the large event name for Children Worldwide)

2007-05-25T14:56:00.000+01:00

This is us! Steve, (Albert) and Kay.

And this is Steve With Starsky