Pastor Andy Wilcock of Hampden View Church, Sheffield, is a great enthusiast of Brain & Soul Boosting (BSB).  People come from nearby churches to join the sessions run by him and his wife Anne-Marie, and they leave feeling their brains have been boosted and their spirits strengthened.  BSB’s gentle drawing out of people taking part means that those who are normally shy and withdrawn can share their unique lives and find they are listened to and appreciated.  It makes them more confident and they share more easily in other activities, like Bible studies.  They also create new themes, but stick to the structure of each session so it works amazingly well!  Recently, Anne-Marie led a session on the rainbow in the story of Noah.  This is how it went –
1)  Welcome and Prayer
2)  A Bible reading, Genesis 9:8-17
3)  Singing the hymn ‘For the Beauty of the Earth’
4)  Sharing Memories of spectacular rains we’ve seen, and how they made us feel
5)  Looking at significant colours in the Bible:  red (scarlet) of the thread over Jericho city’s wall, the blue and purple of the drapes in the Tabernacle, and the clothes of the High Priest
6)  Then the group split into teams, and using a board game called ‘Colour Brain’, answered questions, using the cards to answer. For example, Question 1 (2 cards),  two colours that represent being in credit or debit (red or black).  Question 2 (4 cards) the four colours of the Teletubbies, and Question 3 (7 cards), the colours of the streets on a Monopoly Board.
7)  The Wordless Book –  Explaining the message of the ‘book’ and how you can now get wristbands with the colours – Green, for creation, black, the fall and sin, Red, Christ’s death, White, forgiveness, Gold, heaven, Green gr owth as a Christian.
8)  Anne-Marie read from Glen Scrivener’s book, ;Reading Between the Lines’, of how the rainbow can be likened to a bow and arrow aimed at God for our wrong doing. When t he arrow was fired, it struck Jesus instead of us.  He took the deadly shot, and that is why the rainbow is such a powerful message of hope.
9) We closed with a prayer, coffee, tea, and lots of cake.  Anne Marie had made the group Rainbow cakes.
Brain & Soul Boosting Workbook
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You can find other versions of the BSB workbooks on our website, including one with contributions from  Users Sally Trigg and Jo Dunne of Northampton Baptist Church that you can download free of charge, here:
https://www.pilgrimsfriend.org.uk/resources/brain-and-soul-boosting-for-seniors-additional-session-resources.
Any queries email [email protected]

Louise Morse

Louise Morse MA (CBT) is media and external relations manager for the Pilgrims’ Friend Society. She is a writer and speaker, and author of books on issues of old age, including dementia, published by Lion Monarch and SPCK. She is a cognitive behavioural therapist, and her Masters’ dissertation examined the effects of caring for a loved one with dementia on close relatives.

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