HOPE MELBOURNE - BORN TO FLY CHILDREN PROGRAM

Hi! “Born to Fly” Kids Holiday Program is a multi-day community event designed especially for primary school children. The event is FREE for all primary school children to attend and is organised by Hands of Hope, the community arm of Hope Christian Church Melbourne. The aim of 'Born to Fly' is to build self-esteem and leadership character qualities in children, and to inspire them to develop to their full potential. This year, Born to Fly Kids Holiday Program had another overwhelming response; over 300 children attended the three-day activity and over 250 parents turned up for the celebration of the program.

We at Hope Christian Church Melbourne believe that the Children of Character Today make Soaring Leaders of Tomorrow. Therefore, we hope that the characteristics and values we encourage throughout our program will make a positive impact on their futures. Born to Fly encourages positive characteristics by emphasising their importance through a variety of creative activities; including puppetry, songs, arts and crafts, skits, games and creative performances!

Of course, every event faces challenges. This year, the committee faced a couple of major hurdles: limited sponsorship and a lower number of volunteers. By prayer and the grace of God, we managed to pull through together. Praise the Lord! In fact, we received great feedback from parents and children who attended the program.

Praise God for His wonderful deeds. We saw a number of children who were shy and quiet on the first day leave with big smiles and excitement for the next two days. Since the beginning of Born to Fly in 2005, we have had children returning year after year with an expressed desire to see Born To Fly become a weekly event! In addition to this, our homegrown songs drew a round of applause from the crowd and many CDs were sold.

One of the major highlights was that the Deputy Mayor of Monash City Council, Cr Micaela Drieberg attended to help present prizes and certificates to our little participants. Ziggy (our Mascot) was also on hand to announce the names of all the outstanding children that performed well in learning and displaying the character qualities as they received their awards from Ps Ian. Sincerity and tolerance were the character traits taught this year. The Deputy Mayor was encouraged by the multicultural nature of the event and offered to help with Born to Fly 2012. It is very encouraging news for the committee.

We had a BBQ on the last day of the program and the weather was awesome. We thank God that His hand was on the weather and that the Weather Bureau was wrong as it forecasted it to be cloudy and showers throughout the day. Our God is an amazing God who has done it again! He answered the prayers of His people who fasted and prayed together.

Last but not least, we would like to also offer our deepest gratitude to all our major sponsors: Hope Christian Church Melbourne, Brandon Park Community Centre, Dr Sze Lee, Nandos and all other sponsors for their in- kind donations and anonymous cheques we received; it was just enough to get the program to run smoothly and feed the hungry kids.

We are very thankful to all our volunteers who gave their time and effort cheerfully to make this event so awesome for the children and for making a difference in the community! Well done to all the participants of Born to Fly Kids 2011 for flying with us, we hope to see you soon again. This is your captain speaking, Elena over and out.