3Generate Review

On Friday 22nd of November 2019, 23 Children and 9 adults left Harlow for the 3Generate Children and Youth Assembly held at Pontins in Southport. Our journey was long but made enjoyable by Hannah entertaining us with games and songs along the way. We arrived around midnight and got settled into our rooms as quickly as possible – the children had to make up their own beds!

On Saturday morning we started our adventure by having breakfast together while listening to the Methodist Brass Band who are a group of young Christians who got together in 1987. We then went and did some physical activities which included rock climbing, tricky bikes and swimming.

Following these activities we went into age appropriate groups and attended different activities to connect with and learn about God in individual ways. Some groups went to the Creative Zone where the children could make their own bandanas, for example.

We all met up to see the multi-award winning rap artist from London, Guvna B (Isaac Borquaye) who is a MOBO Award winning rapper and author. I'm not quite sure whether it was the adults or children that enjoyed this the most. We saw quite a few good moves by all.

Following this we needed a bit of a rest, therefore the younger members went to ' Our Space' and
listened to the gospel according to Disney.This was a sing along to some of our favourite Disney songs, and to find out how they tell the story of God. We then finished off our evening together at the late night communion service hosted by the team from Cliff College, at ' The Den'.

Sunday morning came very quickly and we all had breakfast together – picnic style – sitting on the floor listening to the wonderful brass band again.

This time, the older children attended the creative zone and had a busy morning making campfire tea lights, wooden crosses and going on the go karts, whilst the younger members were enjoying themselves at Captain Croes soft play.

Because of St Andrew's high number of adult volunteers, the children also had the chance to say which part of the programme they would like to see, without having to convince all the others. In that way, two of us were able to listen to an interesting presentation from a few young Russian Methodists, talking about their Christian life.

We all met up to attend the closing worship where we heard the IDMC Gospel Choir who had a lot of energy and a strong message of love, hope, joy and peace for everyone, before returning to our rooms to finalise our packing and return back home on the coach.

Finally, we arrived back in Harlow, very tired but filled with great memories and experiences.
The parents were waiting for their children to tell them everything about the exciting weekend.
We all had a great time together as a church family, but we also had our personal favourite moments to learn, grow and enjoy.

Helen Edwards & Hannah Meyer – St Andrew's Youth Team

From our young people...

• The thing I enjoyed the most was on Saturday evening when we went to see the rapper and it was like a concert.

• The best thing was learning about God in fun ways and playing with my friends. I love 3Generate!

• I enjoyed the different types of songs that were sung en masse.

• I want to go in 2020!

• I really enjoyed the fun worship!

• I liked 3Generate because we all spent time together as God's family...