Going Bananas 2007

Earlier this year Colin Forster and his wife, Pauline, visited the church and at the morning service told us what they hoped would happen at the Summer Mission which would take place in Old & St Andrew’s in the first week of July. They would be accompanied by an enthusiastic team of young volunteers from iMPACT Scotland which is part of the work of the Council of Mission and Discipleship of the Church of Scotland. 

The majority of iMPACT work involves running missions during the summer. Each iMPACT team will run a mission for a week in partnership with a local Church of Scotland. The partnership is designed to last for three or four summers, during which time the congregation can gain experience and confidence in mission. In this way it is hoped that mission activities can be sustainable so that the team can move on to work with a new church location, whilst the host church can continue with it's own mission activities. This may sound rather scary and daunting but nothing was farther from the truth. 

Elaine Allan and Aileen Scott gathered a group of willing helpers to cope with all sorts of logistical needs ranging from providing the team with showers in the morning, feeding hungry helpers, providing teas for parents who might watch from the Tom Long gallery and generally seeing to the smooth running of the week’s activities. Those of us who were involved thoroughly enjoyed the buzz and excitement generated by everyone’s enthusiasm and look forward to more fun next year. 

www.impactscotland.org.uk for more details about the work of iMPACT

Each day began with the children ‘checking in’ at the check-in desks then joining their groups until their ‘departure’ to Banana Island. They ‘flew’ (below left) round the hall to the front where they met two inhabitants Ripe and Rotten (below middle) who led everyone in lively action songs. In no time at all children and adults were singing with huge smiles! These most enjoyable songs were preparing the children for the ‘main event’ of each day – the appearance of a Biblical character who would arrive from ancient times by means of the ‘Time Shed’ (left). The Time Shed was a magnificent replica of Dr Who’s Tardis which, when the blue light was flashing, the smoke was billowing and the music was playing, dramatically added to the children’s anticipation of that day’s time traveller’s arrival. Five members of the church played the Bible characters.