Date posted:
On Saturday 19 March 2016, 193 people (including Sonya and her sons) came to Elevation, the annual training day for children's, youth and family ministry run by Lutheran Youth of Queensland. Each participant attended four sessions of their choice from the 31 available electives.
The LLL sponsors travel subsidies for as many as 25 people who without this assistance would not be able to attend the day. The following is a story from Sonya Doecke, originally published in the LLL's publication Together In Mission 2016. The 2017 booklet will be released in October. Please email promotions@lll.org.au to pre-order your copy.
"As this was my first time at Elevation, I wasn't quite sure what to expect. But I came home with so many good ideas. Just waiting for me to implement them now!
The four electives I chose were:
- The Great Young Adult Challenge
- Creative Ways to Pray the Bible
- Resourcing and Reflecting! Children's ministry ideas, resources, tools
- Activity Toolbox.
My topics were mixed as I'm not only involved with teaching Sunday School at our church (St Mark’s in Dalby), but my husband John and I also run the Christian Young Adult Dances three times a year in Toowoomba (Masquerade Ball, Bush Dance and Spring Ball).
As each event has a game, I thought I might get some more inspirational ideas from doing the elective on the Activity Toolbox. It was a lot of fun and very active! Even two of my three sons, who attended Elevation, were in the same elective with me! Great minds think alike!
The second elective I really loved - practical with great ideas for reaching out to primary aged children - story shoe boxes, band aid prayers, finger prayers, rainbow strips of paper becoming rainbows and Pentecost doves…
The only thing I didn't like about Elevation was it was over before I was ready to go home!!
The food was great, the participants fun to interact with, and the electives fantastic. I really think it should either be made into a whole weekend so we can have the chance to get to more electives as so many sounded so good, although we could only pick four, or else have more than one Elevation training day through the year.
I also really appreciated the subsidy we could claim coming from Dalby to Brisbane. Without it I wouldn’t have been able to attend, so thankyou."
Together in Mission is LLL's annual publication showcasing the work the LLL supports within the Lutheran Church of Australia and its communities. The 2017 booklet will be available in October. To pre-order your copy / copies, please email promotions@lll.org.au
