Theme Thursday - World of Friends Africa - Amazing Race

Girls’ Brigade Africa Amazing Race

Week 3:

• Get girls back into teams from previous week
• Explain rules of the game

1. No running
2. Work as a team
3. No put down comments
4. Detour – choose between 2 activities (do only 1)
5. Roadblock – only one person from team does activity, different person from the team each week.
6. Idea of the game is to make it to the end, not about winning prizes.

Burkina Faso

• Tongue Twister Telephone
• In a circle in teams
• Give girls tongue twisters; to be passed onto next girl like Chinese whispers. Last girl to receive has to say to leader, if they get it right they get a point.
• Super snakes sneak silently searching supper.
• Every elephant eats eggplant each evening.
• Warthogs walk with worms without whispering.
• Six slippery snails, slid slowly seaward.
• How much wood could a wood chuck; chuck if a wood chuck could chuck wood.
• These thousand tricky tongue twisters trip off the tongue.
• Team with most points gets their BENIN – DETOUR clue.

Benin

• All members in team travel to Benin in a line and walking as if on a tightrope.
• Detour – choose between word unscramble or canoe races.
• Word Unscrammble – girls to spell out words from facts off sheet using letters; there will be no spare letters once completed.
• Canoe races – girls to make 1 canoe each, add some tape to the bottom of the canoe. Each canoe to get across the water without sinking. Girls have to blow; no hands.
• Once complete give GUINEA – ROADBLOCK clue

Guinea

• Skip backwards to Guinea
• One person is to find the ‘bug’ inside the bowl of pudding
• They are only allowed to use their mouth to get it out.
• The bug has their next clue on it; DEVOTION clue

Devotions

• As a team jump holding hands to find the cross.
• Complete the activity using the instructions on the sheet
• Give AFRICA clue

Africa

• Girls are to keep together as a team and find 15 Africa facts, these are located all around the building.
• Once complete, team can go to the pitstop.

PIT STOP!

Wednesday's Word of the Week - God is Enough

Let’s face it–anxiety or worry have no advantages! They ruin our health, rob us of joy, and change nothing! Our day stands no chance against the terrorists of the Land of Anxiety.

But Christ offers a worry-bazooka. Remember how He taught us to pray? “Give us this day our daily bread. Matthew 6:11” This simple sentence unveils God’s provision plan: live one day at a time.

Worry gives small problems big shadows. Corrie ten Boom said, “Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrows; it empties today of its strength.” And Romans 8:28 affirms: “Every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good.”

Most anxiety stems, not from what we need, but from what we want. Philippians 4:4 says, “delight yourselves in the Lord, yes, find your joy in Him at all times!”

If God is enough, you’ll always have enough!

From Great Day Every Day by Max Lucado

Toolbox Tuesday - Guest Speaker

9. Be a Guest Speaker

Without a doubt, the best way to engage people in your organisation is to speak to the face-to-face. Regardless of who the audience is, being a guest speaker allows people to see, hear and feel the passion you have for your organisation. That excitement and commitment helps build excitement and commitment in them.

To achieve the most impact in your talk, make sure you tell real stories about how your organisation has benefited the community. Make it personal and focus on the stories, not the statistics. By all means use power point as a tool, but avoid simply reading screens of information – it’s boring and forgettable.

Local service groups such as Lions and Rotary are always on the look out for interesting speakers. You can find your local clubs by visiting the following websites:

Lions Clubs
Rotary
Round Table New Zealand
Zonta New Zealand
Kiwanis International

Theme Thursday - World of Friends Africa - Amazing Race

Girls’ Brigade Africa Amazing Race

Week 2:

• Get girls back into teams from previous week 
• Explain rules of the game 

1. No running 
2. Work as a team 
3. No put down comments 
4. Detour – choose between 2 activities (do only 1) 
5. Roadblock – only one person from team does activity, different person from the team each week. 
6. Idea of the game is to make it to the end, not about winning prizes. 

Africa

• ‘Water’ Relays 
• Line up in teams 
• First relay – bucket balance, girls balance bucket on head to chair and back again 
• Second relay – Camel relay race, girls on all fours with upside down bucket on their back, balance bucket on back to chair and back. 
• Team with most points gets their TANZANIA – DETOUR clue. 

Tanzania

• All members in team travel to Tanzania leap frog style 
• Detour – choose between cooking or singing 
• Cooking – girls to cook Tanzanian Baked Bananas, and eat 
• Singing – girls to learn words to Toto off by heart and sing 
• Once complete give NIGERIA clue 

Nigeria

• Travel as a human knot to Nigeria 
• One person is chosen to have their face painted, another person is the painter 
• The rest of the team is to tell the painter how to paint the persons face 
• Once finished, give DEVOTION clue 

Devotions

• Find the cross 
• Complete the activity using the instructions on the sheet 
• Give KENYA clue 

Kenya

• Girls to travel acting and sounding like monkeys to Kenya 
• Girls to make one bracelet each using beads. 
• Once complete, team can go to the pitstop. 

PIT STOP!

Wednesday's Word of the Week - The Secret of Success

An accomplished Ironman triathlete told me the secret of his success. He said, “You last the long race by running short ones.” Don’t swim 2.4 miles; just swim to the next buoy. Rather than bike 112 miles, ride 10, take a break, and bike 10 more. Never tackle more than the challenge ahead.

Didn’t Jesus offer the same counsel? He said in Matthew 6:34, “So don’t ever worry about tomorrow. After all, tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”

When asked how he managed to write so many books, the author explained that he’d never written a book. All he did was write one page a day.

Face challenges in stages. You can’t control your temper forever, but you can control it for the next hour.

Remember, you last the long race by running the short ones!

From Great Day Every Day by Max Lucado

Toolbox Tuesday - Online Social Networking

8. Use Online Social Networking

If you are not using online social media yet, chances are it’s for one of two reasons – either you don’t know how to or you don’t understand why you should bother. Trust me – it’s worth overcoming them both.

Social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn allow you to keep in touch with lots of people all at once. You can keep clients, supporters, sponsors and volunteers up to date with what you’re up to, all while marketing to new stakeholders at the same time. Just like ‘real-life’ networking, social media provides an opportunity to make new contacts, share resources and develop working relationships with people you may not otherwise have the chance to meet.

How to Get Started with Twitter

1. Go to www.twitter.com and click the ‘Get Started’ button. Simply follow the instructions to ‘sign up’.
2. Add a photograph or a logo, so that people know your Twitter account is for real. People want to know the conversation is genuine.
3. Make sure you fill in the one line bio, so that people can instantly tell if they want to ‘follow’ your conversation. If you don’t fill in the bio, you’ll get ignored like a wallflower at a party.
4. Search for people you would like to have a conversation with. Use key words that relate to your area of interest eg. autism, schools, social services, New Zealand. When you find people of interest click ‘follow’.
5. Write an update. To start with your updates may be simple things like ‘Learning to use Twitter. Any tips appreciated’. As you learn more, you will use your updates to have more meaningful conversations.
6. Search for Kerri Tilby and then follow. You’ll be able to follow her conversations, and get some ideas for making the most of your own Twitter account.

Once you’ve started ‘Twittering’ there are some things you will want to know…

Yes, you do only have 140 characters per update (or ‘tweet’ as they are known.) You can get around this by pasting in a link to your website or blog, so that people can click through for more information. It is a great way to drive traffic to your website.

If you want to reply to somebody’s ‘tweet’, simply hover your mouse over the right hand side of their update, and a reply button will appear. Click on reply, and then type your update as usual. Your update will appear in your own profile, as well as in the ‘@ tab’ on the other persons page.

If you are following heaps of people, it’s easy to miss comments that have been directed at you. Click on the @ tab on the right hand side of your home page, and you’ll see any ‘tweets’ that have been made with your name in it. Always acknowledge the writer – this is their way of trying to start a conversation with you.

If there is a particular ‘tweet’ you want to refer back to, click the star button and it will automatically save it into your Twitter favourites.

A ‘tweet’ with RT and then @someone is known as a ‘re-tweet’. That means the person tweeting the information is simply repeating something that someone else has said. If you provide meaningful content in your ‘tweets’, they will often be ‘re-tweeted’. It is a great way to be introduced to ‘followers’ outside of your existing circle.

Theme Thursday - World of Friends Africa - Amazing Race

Girls Brigade Africa Amazing Race

Week 1:

• Line up oldest to youngest and number off to form teams of 4/5 girls.
• 5 minutes to choose team name and write it down.
• Explain rules of the game / get girls to suggest rules

1. No running
2. Work as a team
3. No put down comments
4. Detour – choose between 2 activities (do only 1)
5. Roadblock – only one person from team does activity, different person from the team each week.
6. Idea of the game is to make it to the end, not about winning prizes.

Africa

• Animal Alphabet game
• Give each team plenty of letters of the alphabet.
• Leader calls out the name of an animal and each team must spell the animals name and put their hands up when completed.
• Soccer relay – with balloons
• Team with most points gets their KENYA – DETOUR clue.

Kenya

• All members in team to crawl to Kenya
• Detour – choose between words or wisdom
• Words – find all animals in word search (must work as a team)
• Wisdom – work out the animals in the crossword (must work as a team)
• Put team name on sheets when finished, give SOUTH AFRICA – ROAD BLOCK clue

South Africa

• Travel blind holding hands, one person in team leading the way to the kitchen.
• Team to make maize meal and a cup of tea.
• One person to eat maize meal and drink tea.
• Once finished, give BOTSWANA clue

Botswana

• Hope holding hands to Botswana
• Using 1 sheet of sand paper each and crayons, each team member to make a rock cave painting, stick on the walls.
• Give CREATION DEVOTION clue

Creation

• Find the cross
• Look up and read together as a team Genesis chapter 1:1 – chapter 2:3
• Use template to create origami

PIT STOP!

Wednesday's Word of the Week - He Is Able

If your Father is God and you have a problem on your hands, what do you do? Scripture tells us what to do.

Is your problem too large? Ephesians 3:20 says, “God is able to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.”

Is your need too great? 2 Corinthians 9:8 reminds us, “God is able to provide you with every blessing in abundance.”

Is your temptation too severe? Hebrews 2:18 says, “God is able to help us when we are being tested.”

Is your future too frightening? Jude 24 tells us, “God is able to keep you from falling away and will bring you with great joy into his glorious presence without a single fault.”

Make these verses part of your daily diet. God is able to accomplish, provide, help, save, keep, subdue. He is able to do what you can’t. Go to Him!

From Great Day Every Day by Max Lucado

Toolbox Tuesday - Donation Boxes

7. Put Donation Boxes in Local Shops

Donation boxes are not just about raising money, they are about raising profile as well. A simple information card on top of the box helps spread the word about your organisation, programmes and projects. Even if people don’t make a donation there and then, they still become aware of who you are and what you do.

Motivation Monday - Attitude

The longer I live, the more I realise the impact of attitude of life.  Attitude to me, is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think or say or do.

It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skills.  It will make or break a company... a church... a home.

The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day.  We cannot change our past, we cannot change the fact that people act in a certain way.  We cannot change the inevitable.  The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our Attitude.

I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it.
And so it is with you... we are in charge of our Attitudes.

Charles Swindoll

Wednesday's Word of the Week - Seeing You

Why does God love you so much?

For the same reason the artist loves his paintings. You are His idea!

Ephesians 2:10 confirms that we are “God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.”

In the movie Hook, Peter Pan had become old and looked nothing like the Peter the lost boys knew. In the midst of the boys shouting that this was NOT Peter, one of the smallest boys pulled him down to his level. He places his hands on Peter’s face, moved the skin around and reshaped his face. The boy looked into Peter’s eyes and said, “There you are, Peter!”

Shh. Listen. Do you hear?

God is saying the same words to you. There you are! There you are!

He’s seeing you and loving the you he sees.

From Fearless by Max Lucado

Toolbox Tuesday - Join a Business Networking Group

6. Join a Business Networking Group

If you want to meet potential sponsors, you need to go where potential sponsors hang out. A business networking group allows you to meet face-to-face with potential supporters, and gives you the opportunity to develop a relationship with them before you ask for support. It’s much harder for potential sponsors to say NO to a friend – and a business networking group is where friendships are made.

There are plenty of business networking groups to choose from, but a good place to start is by phoning your local Chamber of Commerce.

Motivation Monday - In Honour of our Olympic Athletes

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better.  The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly.  So that his place shall never be with cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.

Theodore Roosevelt

Wednesday's Word of the Week - Vanderlei de Lima (2004 Olympics Athens)

At five feet, five inches, Vanderlei de Lima is shorter than some fifth graders. Don’t let his size fool you. The body may be small, but the heart is bigger than the Olympic Stadium in Athens. That’s where he received the 2004 bronze medal for the marathon.

He should’ve won the gold. He was leading when a deranged protester hurled himself into the runner–forcing him off course. De Lima resumed the race. But in the process he lost his rhythm, precious seconds, and his position. But he entered the stadium punching the air with his fists, both arms extended, weaving for joy!

I’m taking notes on this guy! He reminds me of another runner. Paul, the imprisoned apostle. His chains never come off. The guards never leave. He may appear to be bumped off track, but he’s actually right on target. Christ is preached. The mission is being accomplished.

Run the race!

Paul said, “I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings. Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. I Corinthians 9:23-24”

From Great Day Every Day by Max Lucado