Catholic Kids encounter fun, faith and friends

Encounter Catholic Kids Caloundra’s one-day school holiday program was full of fun and heartwarming moments as more than 36 primary school aged children filled the school/parish playground with resounding laughter and joy on Friday 14 April.

Our Lady of the Rosary Catholic Parish’s first-ever Encounter Catholic Kids event, hosted together with Evangelisation Brisbane, inspired children with fun playground games and engaging craft activities as part of an immersive play experience designed to give kids the chance to encounter the Catholic faith and lead them to their best friendship yet with Jesus!

Chantale Wilson, Associate Director Children and Families from Evangelisation Brisbane, said that the kids joined in with so much enthusiasm!

“This is the third event we have hosted across the Archdiocese of Brisbane and it was a great turn out at Caloundra.”

The theme of today’s event was ‘Great, Big and Wonderful – God’s Big Love’, based on the scripture from Psalm 139.

Encounter Catholic Kids is an initiative of the Children and families team of Evangelisation Brisbane, designed for primary aged kids to encounter Jesus through age-appropriate fun, games and prayer.

Nattasha Mierendorf, Project Officer of the Children and Families Evangelisation Brisbane, said that the team at Caloundra are in a great place to build and grow children’s ministry here on the Sunshine Coast.

Julie Gerhardt, Children and Family’s Ministry Leader at Our Lady of the Rosary Catholic Parish said that “encounter days” like today reflect the core of our parish’s mission statement, “creating a sense of welcome for children and families no matter how messy or noisy.”

“It’s been a fun-filled day which has really reflected our mission statement being noisy, messy and lively!” said Julie.

Felicity and Verity from the OLR youth team, together with Carrolyn Watt and Bernadette Baillie from the Stella Maris Catholic parish, who were also on-hand to assist, highlighted the importance of building relationships with Kids to help them along their journey to encounter Jesus Christ.