Julie Swann

Julie is working with families and children within the church and community, focussing particularly on the areas of Gornal Wood and Lower Gornal. She is married to Steve and they have a son and daughter. Julie grew up in the East Midlands before moving to Blackpool in 1997. Since then the family lived in Coventry and Bognor Regis before moving to Birmingham where Steve is now a student minister. Julie has been involved in family and children's work for many years and is really enjoying working in Gornal and all the exciting opportunities and activities that are happening. Julie's favourite things are chocolate, card making and her four cats!

XLR8 . . .

XLR8 is an exciting monthly group for children aged 7 - 11 years. Meeting at Zoar Methodist Church from 10.00am - 12.00noon on the first Saturday of each month, the programme includes games, competitions, songs with live band, discussions, exploring the bible, quizzes and crafts. It's a morning of fun, activity and prizes. Entry is free so iIf you're in school years 3 - 6 why not come along and find out more = we'd really love to see you. Next group meets at the end of half term week - Saturday 5th June when we'll be looking at "How do we know the bible is true?". Contact Julie our Children & Family Worker on or email us on our very own We look forward to seeing you soon

Open the Book

Our Open the Book teams have been having an amazing time bringing bible stories to life in our local schools, re-enacting the stories of Moses and the Burning Bush, the Wise and Foolish Builders, the adventures of Jeremiah, the Crucifixion the Resurrection appearances of Jesus and many more. It's great fun and has enabled everyone who watches and take part to enter into the stories in a new way - helping us to experience some of what it might have been like to be there and be part of these events. We're always looking for volunteers who can join our team - so if you can read with expression, be part of the dramatisation team (no great Shakespearean talent required - just a desire to creatively present the stories - you don't even need to learn lines most of the time!), if you could help to make costumes or cut out and paint scenery and props to create even more impact please get in touch with Julie, Family and Children's Worker on . For more information on Open the Book go to www.openthebook.net. Children are really enjoying these stories and come and tell us about them so why not join us - we can promise you'll have lots of fun - and be sharing the message of God's love in our local community.

Some interesting links to other sites.

Open the book