The Big Weekend is such an incredible event with so many highlights, special moments, stories and testimonies that a simple report back cannot give the weekend the justice it deserves – so here is the attempt.

A team of children’s church leaders from across the sites began dreaming and praying six months ago for the Big Weekend 2017. Planning, dreaming, Pintresting, creating and teamwork all came together to result in the theme of Diving Deep to discover Jesus. We felt God’s desire to call our children and those from the community to search for Him as the greatest treasure with the promise that if you draw near to Him, He will draw near to us. So we created a weekend to help the children discover our incredible Jesus.

The result of our preparation and prayer saw 150 leaders lead and serve 450 children from all across the city. Six groups (Wahoo, Flier, Finback, Sailfish, Seawolf and Snapper) worked together to have fun but ultimately learn more about Jesus. From fighting off sharks with a memory verse, being rolled around in Zorb balls, sliding down giant slides, to jumping off a base onto a soft landing, our children had the chance to build friendships, have fun and discover Jesus. The children passionately worshipped Jesus through song and dance. A great sign was 50 children spontaneously running onto the stage on Saturday night to lead the worship.

We taught on God’s grace, the greatness of God, what it means to search for Him with all of your heart and Jesus being the greatest treasure we can find. We know that there was revelation and truth that some of our children heard for the first time. And there was response too. Our children responded to Jesus. They asked questions, they spoke to Him, they met their King and they loved it all.

Our prayer now is to see the fruit of this weekend. We believe that this weekend will be used by God to affect our city in many ways. So although the weekend is over, what God is doing through the weekend is only beginning.

We will send the links to the songs we sang for those who would like them and share some the pictures soon.

We are off to Lesotho in September for a Big Weekend and begin dreaming for Big Weekend 2018 soon. Thank you for all involved either by sponsoring, praying or physically leading.

– The Children’s Church Team