DEATHWATCH beetles were munching away at the roof timbers of St Oswald's, Finningley, in Sheffield diocese, when the children of the Sunday Club decided to help raise the money to deal with them. "We have an amazing group of young people in our congregation, and they are always keen to get involved or help out," the Rector of Finningley with Auckley, the Revd Neil Redeyoff, says.

So 14 young people between the ages of six and 13 (plus seven dedicated leaders) joined in a sponsored sleepover in the church. Arriving at 7.30 p.m., they claimed their sleeping spot for the evening, and then took part in a riotous treasure hunt that kept them busy for well over an hour before they settled down for some supper.

Then to bed, although it was 12.30 a.m. before there was "a chorus of snores echoing round the dark church building - more from the adults than the children", Hannah Redeyoff says. She was thankful that her husband did not carry out his threat to don his surplice and waft past the windows in the dark.

The children must have been tired out by the treasure hunt, she says, because they were hard to wake up in the morning, to be given breakfast before going home; but together they had raised more than £1000 towards the £2700 needed to investigate those beetles.