Friday evening is Kids' Club - and tonight was, so we discovered, the antepenultimate meeting for this club which will close after at least 15 years.  Tonight we had 13 children, all aged 11, and all with that odd prepubescent mixture of feigned sophistication and childlike need.  As we played various games and I ended up playing a from of badminton with the person no one wanted in their team, I reflected on the 30+ years (since I was a child myself!) that I have been fulfilling that specific role.

Next week is the school leavers' ball (if they get a ball at 11 what will they want when they are 16 or 18?) so we don't meet and then we have one more normal evening and the last ever last night before the club closes.

I am sad that there is no one in the church willing or able to take on this work, but the reality is that this season is now over.  We will become an adults only church with a round zero to appear in our annual returns to replace the 16 or so children connected to church we've had for the last decade.

So, I am now trying to think how I can contribute to a 'good ending' not only for the children but also for the leaders who've run it for a generation and the two deacons who've helped ensure it was able to run for the last six months when it would otherwise have had to close mid year.

We will mark this ending in a Sunday service, and the children will get a good send off.  It would nice to hope that some new work might arise from the ashes so that this fellowship might reach a new generation...

To every time there is a season - and now this season is over, and we lay down this work, trusting that through it, God's love has reached many, many lives.