Dozens of Brisbane school-aged kids were “powering up” with the Holy Trinity at a three-day Encounter Catholic Kids program at Twelve Apostles Church, Darra, last week. Source: The Catholic Leader.
The school holiday program led by Evangelisation Brisbane’s children and families team was designed to connect children with the Church in meaningful and fun ways.
Children and families associate director Chantale Wilson said the program was an amazing experience.
“We’ve seen how deep we can explore our faith with the kids when we build relationships over several days,” she said.
“Their responses were beautiful, sharing their own faith and talking about it with each other at their level.”
She said Encounter Catholic Kids was full of activities children would be familiar with from other holiday programs like games, music presentations, and rotational crafts and sports.
There were also activities aimed to deepen the children’s understanding of their faith, she said, specifically focused on the Holy Trinity at this program.
She said the children created calico prayer bags, decorated crosses, took part in interactive prayer experiences and a child-friendly adoration before the Blessed Sacrament.
Ms Wilson said for parishes looking to engage children more, the best advice she had was “start small”.
She said little things like training parish greeters to say hello to the children had a big effect.
She said a lot of times children just wanted to be seen, recognised and feel like welcomed members of the community.
Following the success at the program, Encounter Catholic Kids is set to run again at Our Lady of the Angels in Chermside West this week.
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Encounter Catholic Kids is bringing children closer to God with holiday program (The Catholic Leader)
