The Trip Book...

All through the year there are various activities that will include a trip of some sort for our kids at church.  It might be a Bible Quizzing meet, it might be Church Camp, it could be a retreat of some sort or any number of other activities.  It’s easy for those things to run together.  And we don’t want to lose the memories associated with those trips.  To help with that, at our church, we have instituted a “Trip Book.” 

The “Trip Book” is simply a notebook (preferably hardback so that it lasts a while) that we take on our special trips.  At the beginning of each trip we put the following information:

Date:

Trip Name: (Bible Quiz Meet, Retreat, etc)

Who is on the trip:

Then throughout the trip, we write down anything we want to remember.  It could be something serious (like how God talked to the kids or an important event that happened), or something funny.  Sometimes pictures are drawn or favorite songs are listed.  I let the kids decide what goes in the book.  It is their way to record memories for those who didn’t get to go as well as help those that went remember what we did.   The same book accompanies all the trips until the book is full and then another book is started.  

This is a simple and inexpensive (the only cost is the price of the notebook) way to help children connect with each other as well as take note of what is going on around them.  Just recently, we took several preteens to an event that only one had attended before.  She immediately got out the "Trip Book" and showed all the others what had happened on the last trip.  It was fun for her to remember and gave the other preteens exciting things to look forward to.  I highly recommend you try out a “Trip Book” with your group and see what they decide to record on your next trip.

Until next week!