On Monday 14th August, we ran a Nature Detectives Day as a free holiday activity for local families. The event attracted 48 children to make nature masks and crowns, to enjoy the fun of face-painting and even to go on a hunt for bugs. Participants could also discover the abundance of nature to be seen in South Hill’s churchyard, with the help of their St Sampson’s Explorers packs, which offer ideas for fruitful family fun for all visitors to the church and include a guide to activities, a certificate, wooden medal, magnifying glass, pencil, paper and QR codes linking to further information about the living churchyard on the Benefice’s website.The initiative was supported by the National Grid’s Community Matters Fund, and was led by Katie Stevenson, the Callington Cluster’s Pioneer Family worker, and Judith Ayers, Reader in the  Callington Cluster Benefice.“We woke up to torrential rain and so based ourselves in church rather than the planned outside,” Judith says. “However the rain stopped and we were able to have a bug hunt, cardboard bugs to find and also real ones – a spider, butterfly and worm were amongst the finds! The children were keen to explore and asked many questions. If we didn’t know the answer, we looked it up!”Judith stresses the importance of such activities in the life of the parish.“These sorts of events are great for engaging families and children with church,” she says. “Children are very eco-minded and this is a fantastic way to introduce the God of Creation into their lives engaging them with their natural curiosity and care for nature. It is a fantastic way of building relationships with families and creates many opportunities for conversations. It shows the church as relevant and active in its care of the planet.”