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Jake is Sarah’s eldest child. I saw Sarah on the first Sunday after she dropped Jake off at University for his first term. She said to me, “It’s pathetic. I want to get into the car and drive four hours to take him to church! There’s a good local church so close to him. He needs to walk out of his d…

‘That worked really well, Mum’ was the feedback from my daughter after I’d tried something different in Sunday School for the first time. This was not in line with her usual, occasionally indifferent, often critical, always brutally honest critique. I’m not sure how others measure what a good sess…

When my son signed up for French in high school, I tried to convince him to take Spanish instead. Our community in America included many Spanish speakers and our church often organised mission trips to Spanish speaking countries. “When would you use French?” I challenged. Still, he wanted to take Fr…

Video games are a large part of the lives of children, but as parents we can feel on the back foot. It can be hard to know how to use them positively. By knowing more about gaming we can make informed choices about how best to guide our children in this area. What are video games? While video games…

Have you ever spent Christmas at your cousins' house? It’s still Christmas; the tree is decorated, the table set with food, but everything feels different. Askew. It’s not the same as Christmas at home. This year is our fourth Christmas with the cousins – our cousins across the pon…

In Uganda, for Christmas, most city dwellers head to the countryside where their families live. Once they arrive, families sit together and tell their stories; laughing, eating and celebrating. We heard about a Ugandan Christmas on our recent Faith in Parents podcast, "Christmas elsewhere." What str…

It was like a wrapping paper blizzard. It already covered the floor. It didn’t stop. Tearing, ripping, throwing and moving on. In that moment I knew our family Christmas had taken a wrong turn. It felt like we were ripping through each present without gratitude or any sense that someone had ge…

We live in an area that loves Halloween. Each year hundreds of kids get dressed up and walk around the street trick or treating. Families decorate their gardens and really embrace this event. Until this year we’ve done the complete opposite. We’ve closed our curtains; told our girls we don’t get inv…

Kids, parents, grandparents, churches, ministers, streets, communities – we’re going on a Christmas adventure and we want you to join us! Our belly-busting Christmas menu of resources is being prepared and there’s something for everyone. So, get out your diary right now and make a …

“Saving Lives at Sea” is one of our family’s favourite TV programmes. It shows remarkable rescues performed by the volunteer crews of the RNLI. It’s extraordinary how quickly a lifeboat crew can respond to an emergency call, but even if they run to the lifeboat, launch immedi…