Messy Church

Messy Church is a form of church for children and adults at all stages of their faith journey.

Each session has a Biblical theme which is explored through craft activities, games, puppets, story, prayer, song and ends with a sit-down meal together.

We meet on the 2^nd Sunday of each month (apart from August) from 3 – 5pm.

Messy Church dates for 2021 / 2022

September   12th
October         10th
November 14th
December    12th
January 9th
February      13th
March           13th
April              10th
May 8th
June              12th
July               10th

All are welcome to join us as a family for these sessions.

Messy Church Gallery

We all fit together!!

April

Theme – The Easter Story

We were thinking about why Easter is a time of celebration.

How Jesus gave everything up for love.

He says to us – “I will be with you always”

Palm Sunday spinner

Hosanna Banner

Rolling Easter egg paintings

Crown of thorns

Resurrection rolls

Thank you Eira –

for everything you have done for Messy Church!

Prayer

Dear God,

Thank you for the new life we celebrate at Easter.

Thank you for our friends and family and for all the love and good things in life.

Amen

March

Theme – Celebrating small

We listened to the story of the ‘Parable of the Mustard seed

The parable of the mustard seed is a lesson to us

that huge things happen as the result of a very small thing.

There were only a very few believers in the beginning

but the number of people who followed Jesus grew and grew.

That is only because those first few told a few.

Then they told a few. Then those told some more . . . .

Break the code

Mustard seed cakes

Seed tree

Popcorn making

In to the microwave

Listening to the corn popping!!

Snack time – Enjoying the popcorn!!

Sequencing seed to sunflower

Prayer

Dear God,

Thank you that nothing is too small or unimportant to you.

You care about the tiniest details of our life.

Though we are small and the world is so big,

Help us to make a difference to all who we meet

Amen

February

Theme – Justice

We listened to the story of ‘King Ahab tries to steal Naboth’s Vineyard’

and then answered these questions.

Snake Grapes

Grape craft activity

Dancing Grapes experiment

We watched a video – ‘What is Fair?’

(To listen again type in ‘What is fair? BBC Teach’ and then press search)

Wants and Need activity

Prayer

Dear God,

Thank you that you are a giving, sharing God.
Thank you for all the gifts you give to us.
Please help us to share them fairly with others.
Help us all to think of others…
To treat them fairly…
And to help when we see them treated unfairly.
Amen

January meeting

Theme – The Lost Coin

Find me Game

All about me

God made me special

Aba shared her lovely artwork, which we all admired.

Time for Reflection

If I lose something that doesn’t matter to me –
an old leaflet, a broken pencil, a toy I don’t play with any more,
if I lose something that doesn’t matter to me,
it doesn’t bother me much at all.
If I lose something that does matter to me –
some money, my lunch, my favourite toy,
if I lose something that does matter to me,
I search and search and don’t stop until I find it,
or until I know it’s really lost.

Jesus said that God looks for me like that:
searching high and low
never letting go
making sure I know
that I’m so
very, very special.

Prayer

Dear God,

You know all about me;

you know how I feel, when I’m happy or sad;

you know what I say, when I’m kind or rude;

you know what I do, when I’m good or bad.

Dear God,

thank you for knowing all about me

and still loving me

Amen

October

Theme – Bartimaeus, a story of perseverance, compassion and new beginnings

We listened to the story together.

Sunglasses

We used card and pipe-cleaners to make a pair of sunglasses.

This was so that we could all practice not being able to see.

After we talked about why we need our eyes

Finding out what it it is like not to be able to see

Reading by touch

We each had a ‘Braille alphabet’ to look at and

used ‘wiggly eyes’ to write our name and words in Braille.

Some of us made a ‘raised picture’ using jewelled stickers

Persistence pays off – game

Using a straw and a pom-pom,

Can you blow the pom-pom along the lines from start to finish?!!

Prayer

Dear God,

Thank you for your gift of caring and your gift of giving.

Thank you that you care for us.

Help us to care more for one another.

Amen

September – Outdoor meeting

Theme – Noah’s Ark,

God is sending us on a journey and will always be with us.

Origami boats

Rainbow clouds

We cut out paper cloud shapes and then stuck strips of coloured ribbon to come down from the cloud. We chose and wrote a word, that we think about when we see a Rainbow, in the middle of our cloud –

hope, promise, beauty, happiness

Scratch art / Rainbow paper

We enjoyed making pictures and patterns on our Scratch art paper.

Prayer

Dear God,

Thank you for being with us no matter what is happening,

through the good times and the bad.

Thank you for your love and care of us.

Help us to remember, when we see a rainbow,

that you have promised to care for us,

and that we must care for others, too.

Amen

July – Family Picnic

A wonderful chance to be together, despite the rain!

Nature collages

We found and brought objects with us to make our own collages.

Parent / Child Wrapping (making ‘Mummies’)

Fun with bubbles!!

Picnic time

Never mind the weather!!!

Dear God,

Thank you for our Messy Church friends –

for their love and laughter and all the fun we have together.

Help us always to care for each other as you care for us.

Amen

June meeting

Theme – Trusting in God

Amelie read us a poem –

Paul and the shipwreck

Paul was sailing through a storm;

Strong winds blew the ship all around.

Clouds hid the sun and all the stars;

Big waves tossed the ship up and down.

An angel told Paul, “Don’t be afraid;

Everyone on board will be saved!”

“Keep up your courage!” Paul told the crew.

“God will save us, if with the ship we stay.”

After many days the storm calmed down.

The crew then saw some land.

When the ship wrecked on their way to shore,

God brought them safely to the sand

Albert, Dylan and their teacher joined us.

Dylan and his sister had been scared during a storm.

Albert wanted to help make Dylan feel better.

Their teacher told them the story of Paul and the shipwreck

and how Paul had believed the message from

the angel that God was watching over them.

God saved everyone on the ship.

God watches over us all –

so when we feel in danger we need to remember to

‘Keep up our courage’

We played a ‘Freeze / Dance’ game

Each time the music stopped we made one of these expressions –

feelings that Paul must have felt during the storm.

We did a Wordsearch and a Maze together

Whiteboard

We wrote messages to each other and drew ‘feelings’ emojis

Sompa read our closing prayer

Dear God,

Thank You for giving Paul courage and for saving him.

I know that sometimes we are afraid,

but that you are also there to help us when we need it.

Please give us courage so that we can help others.

Amen.

We held our own Junior Church.

It was about God’s love and loving one another.

Do you like our ‘Paper chains?’

It looks like a lot of thought, concentration and hard work

has gone in to making your attractive paper chains – well done!!

May meeting

Theme – Looking after God’s World

Grandad and Albert joined us.

Grandad helped Albert to understand that

using up all the world’s resources of energy, and

not caring what happens to all the rubbish we create

is a bit like trashing God’s beautiful world.

Recycling is one small way we can make a difference

as well as being careful with the resources we have.

We did an ‘Earth Day’ Alphabet challenge together

In addition to the words that were written or typed on to the sheet

the following words were shared –

E nergy G rass I nsect friendly

W ater W ind

Five ways I can help the World

We thought about this statement before our Zoom session.

Then we showed our worksheet or talked about our ideas –

We ended with Diane leading a reflection and prayer

Dear God,
Thank you for the wonderful world we live in.
Thank you for all the wonderful plants and animals that we share the world with.
We are sorry that human beings have not always treated this world with the respect that it deserves.
Help us to be good custodians of the planet and work together with others to keep your planet a safe home for generations to come.
Amen.

April meeting

Theme – Doubting Thomas

We talked about how it can be really hard to believe things that we haven’t seen.

We had fun playing a game – ‘Believe or Doubt??’

I am going to tell you some things and

if you believe what I am saying, give me a thumbs up or go to ‘reactions’ at bottom right of your screen and press raise hand
but if you doubt what I am saying and think it might not be true, then give me a thumbs down.

Did you know…..

Penguins can smell toothpaste from several miles away?
Do you believe it? Or do you doubt it?
2 believed and 4 doubted
(false)

Did you know….

In Tokyo, Japan a bicycle is faster than a car for trips of less than 50 minutes?
Do you believe it? Or do you doubt it?
9 believed and 1 doubted
(true)

Did you know…

Every day, on average, 20 banks are robbed?
Do you believe it? Or do you doubt it?
2 believed and 6 doubted
(true)

Did you know…

50 years ago, M & Ms were candy-coated peas during a chocolate shortage?
Do you believe it? Or do you doubt it?
2 believed and 6 doubted
(false)

Did you know…

You are more likely to be stung by a bee in windy weather?
Do you believe it? Or do you doubt it?
6 believed and 2 doubted
(false)

6. Did you know….

The Irish like Thomas the Tank Engine so much that they have put faces on all their trains?
Do you believe it? Or do you doubt it?
2 believed and 6 doubted
(false)

7. Did you know…