DECEMBER 2014
By the time you read this Christmas will probably seem a long time ago but on a cold mid-December afternoon all of us at Messy Church were full of anticipation for all the joys ahead. The church rang with the sound of Christmas music and children's excited voices, the Christmas tree sparkled and the craft tables awaited busy hands.
Before long, the Star Hunt was underway. A few clues had to be given to find some of the more elusive stars, the hardest one seemed to be the star hidden cunningly in the Christmas tree. Our Messy kids were able to make a beautiful gold crown which they decorated with jewels to remember the coming of the Three Kings. One activity ingeniously made Christmas cards from shiny sweet wrappers! The banner, displayed as usual in Church, told the story of the Nativity and the children made cut out gifts to form a border around the edge. Puzzles are always popular and a Christmas Puzzle Book was compiled for the children to take away and enjoy at home.
As ever, the food activity attracted would be chefs and they busily decorated biscuits with stars and Christmas trees and of course the toddlers were kept entertained with all sorts of toys, goo and seasonal sparkly snow. It was then time for us to sit and listen to Lynn telling the wonderful age old story of the birth of Jesus and watch an enchanting short film. Following this the youngsters settled down to enjoy the picnic tea whilst the oldies relaxed with a very welcome hot drink and chat. The time had then come to wave everyone goodbye and wish them all a very Merry Christmas.
OCTOBER 2014
On a blustery Autumn afternoon we held October's Messy Church and the theme was the Bible which gave us plenty of scope for a wide range of activities. The helpers set up then various craft tables and the children began to arrive, looking forward to the afternoon ahead.
To demonstrate the Ten Commandments written on tablets of stone, they decorated tiles inscribing each one with a particular Commandment, these could then be used as coasters. On another craft table they were able to do their own flower arrangement and flower pots were adorned to display them, this depicted the Creation. In the Hunt, the children scoured the Church to find the 7 hidden objects, all items that are mentioned in the Bible. Some were harder to find than others and required a little help but all succeeded in the end! As we all know, God welcomes each and everyone of us and so a "Welcome" banner was made and the children made cut-out people to stick on the banner which was hung in Church. One of our volunteers showed them how to make and decorate a Reward Chart which they could display at home and then chart their progress throughout the week, reminding them to help one another. A useful Bookmark was also available to make and take home. Mums and Dads kept the toddlers happy in the Toddler Corner while their older brothers and sisters got on with the serious business of cutting, pasting and creating.
We then all moved into the Chancel and Lynn showed a delightful animated film of The Lord's Prayer and led everyone in some action songs which the children sang with enthusiasm. Following all this they sat and shared together in the picnic while we were able to relax with a very welcome cup of tea and cake before the great clear up began.
The next Messy Church theme will be 'CHRISTMAS' and we would love to see you all there to share in the telling of the Christmas story and enjoy all the Christmas crafts.
If you would like any more information please call Lynn on 670739 or Marion on 682701.
JUNE 2014
Our June Messy Church was held on a lovely summer afternoon and was based on the Miracles of Jesus. Our children arrived full of expectation for a fun filled afternoon ahead, we welcomed our regulars and were thrilled to see some new faces.
The first miracle that Jesus performed was turning water into wine. This activity involved a cut out water jug attached to a paper plate which when turned gave the appearance of the blue liquid (water) changing into a red liquid (wine). Magic eh! To represent the miracle of Jesus calming the storm, our children made a brightly coloured Wind Sock to hang in the garden with ribbons or feathers dangling which flutter when the wind blows. The hunt as ever, provided much puzzlement and frantic searching of the church and occasionally some clues had to be given in order for all the hidden letters to be found. When all were collected they had to be arranged in the correct order to spell out the miracle of 'Healing’. The food activity always attracts our members (adults as well as children) and I am sure it has nothing to do with all the munchable goodies used to decorate the shortbread fish shaped biscuits. This represented Jesus filling the sea with fish for the disciples to catch when they had caught nothing after fishing all night. A stand-up figure of Jesus walking on the water was made and also a banner with all the miracles listed on it and decorated with the children's hand prints which was displayed in church. A book of miracles with stories, puzzles and colouring was compiled for them to take and enjoy at home. Because of the lovely weather the Toddler activities were placed in the Church grounds where they could enjoy all the toys and of course, the ever popular gloopy stuff. At times, the sun also attracted a lot of the older children out to join them and so there was a lot of toing and froing between church and garden.
After all this activity we all moved into the chancel to hear Lynn tell the story of Jesus healing the paralysed man. She explained that when the man's friends, who had brought him to Jesus, could not reach him through the crowd they made a hole in the roof to lower the paralysed man down to Jesus. One little boy, who was listening most intently, was very concerned about this as he thought that the falling debris from the hole in the roof would damage the television and I-pad! We finished our time of worship with the Messy Grace and our children then sat to have their picnic and the adults enjoyed a very welcome cup of tea and cake and another successful Messy Church drew to a close.
It is always wonderful to see how much our children enjoy Messy Church and great to welcome new faces. If you would like to know more about it then please contact Lynn on 01543 670739 or Marion on 01543 682701, we would love to welcome you.
FEBRUARY 2014
February's Messy Church was about the story of Jonah and as the doors opened we were overwhelmed and overjoyed to see the amount of children and adults who came to join in the fun. We welcomed many new faces and were very pleased to see the return of our regulars.
The children learned about the adventures of Jonah and the Whale as they took part in all the theme based activities and were able to explore an underwater cave complete with sea creatures and plant life. They scoured the church searching for the eight hidden whales, made sea life plant pots and decorated glittery fish to adorn a beautiful banner. Happy and sad faces were made to show our responses to following God's will (happy when we do and sad when we don't) and various dried food and sweets were used to make a whale collage. Sea life pictures were coloured and whale models made.
The children then crammed into the chancel to share in the worship and watch a DVD of the story of Jonah after which they learned a new song with some of them giving musical accompaniment to Lynn who was on the guitar. They raised the rafters with their singing and were encouraged to attend the Family Service the following week in order to give another rendition to the congregation there.
The picnic tea followed and fortunately there was enough for everyone as our catering team had made an emergency dash to the shops once they realised how many children had joined us. The adults then relaxed with a very welcome cup of tea/coffee before we bade fond farewell to all our children and looked forward to welcoming them again in April.
As previously mentioned, we were thrilled to have a record number of children attending this Messy Church as word has spread of the fun in learning of the various Bible characters and Bible message. If your child has not yet sampled Messy Church and you would like to know more about it then please contact Lynn (670739) or Marion (682701) We would love to see you.