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!!

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.

1. 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)

2. 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)

3. 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)

4. 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)

5. 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…

• They have square watermelons in Japan because they stack better?
• Do you believe it? Or do you doubt it?
• 3 believed and 6 doubted
• (true)

Izzy, Sacha, Jess and Roy read a poem together – 

Doubting Thomas

Thomas was a follower who saw the Lord Jesus die.

One day, others told him, “We’ve seen the Lord!” they cried!

“Unless I see Him,” Thomas said, “I will not believe.”

Thomas told the others, “I, myself, must see.”

Later they were in the house; all the doors were locked.

Jesus came into the room, and everyone was shocked.

“Peace be with you,” Jesus said. “Thomas, come and see.” 

“Come and touch My hands and side. Stop doubting and believe.”

 He touched the parts on Jesus that were hurt upon the cross.

Then Thomas said, “My Lord and my God!”

and

Albert, Dylan and their teacher helped us to understand that

Jesus wasn’t mad with Thomas for not believing and understood his feelings.

They reminded us that Jesus loves us and will help us to believe in Him.

During our meeting we helped each other to learn how to ‘annotate’.

This meant we were able to do a Word search and a maze together.

We drew and wrote together on the whiteboard

Sompa read our closing prayer

Dear God,

Please help us to understand that you showed yourself to a number of people

after you had risen.

Give us faith to believe in you and all the love you show

for each and every one of us every day.

Help us to feel, listen and talk with you.

Amen

Messy and Junior Church Easter Display – 

‘Holy Week in Handprints’

Thank you for all your beautiful art work and poetry,

They have made a wonderful display at the front of the church.

Your Display has received some lovely comments from people who have 

taken part in the Church ‘Easter Walk’.

Happy mother’s Day!

Happy to be returning to school after ‘Lockdown’

Hapus Dydd Gwyl Dewi!

Happy St. David’s Day!

You look lovely and very happy in your Welsh lady costumes!!

February meeting

Theme – Temptation

We looked at the story of how Jesus was tempted in the desert,

but did not sin.

Izzy read a poem – The Voice

There is a voice inside of you

That whispers all day long,

“I feel that this is right for me,

I know that this is wrong.”

No teacher, preacher, parent, friend

Or wise man can decide

What’s right for you – just listen to

The voice that speaks inside

Amelie read a poem – Three Choices

For any one problem

Three choices are clear – –

Make it worse.

Make it better.

Leave it the same.

Again and again

We are faced with

These three.

Learning to live

Is like playing a game.

Albert, Dylan and Mr. Jones joined  us and performed –

‘Standing up for what is right’

They reminded us to always do the right thing.

We played a game together – What will you do? scenarios

Q – Your mum made only enough cup cakes for your brother’s birthday party.

She tells the family not to eat any. You really want a cup cake, so you decide to take one.

Mum notices a cup cake is gone. What will you do?
Answers – ‘blame someone else’; ‘make another one’;

                     ‘tell the truth’; ‘say daddy ate it’

Q – Pretend you’re playing with another child who is younger than you.

That child has a toy you want to play with. You could just take the toy if you wanted to.

You could switch it with the toy you have.

The other child might cry, but maybe you won’t get in trouble

if you pretend you didn’t do anything.

No one is looking now. What will you do?
Answers – ‘Run away’; ‘wouldn’t take it in the first place’; ‘would play together’

We ended with a prayer – 

Dear God,

Thank you for helping Jesus to overcome the temptations that were put in his way.

Please help us to be strong like Jesus was.

Amen.

January meeting

Theme – Epiphany

The Wisemen followed a star to find baby Jesus.

Here are stars that we created using different art and craft materials – 

The Wisemen brought gifts for baby Jesus –

Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh.

Show and tell –

We each showed a Christmas present that we really liked

They included – 

Liverpool training kit; football kit bag, dinosaur teeth; baking set;

paint your own dolls; Karaoke set; bracelet; headphone set;

shirt; slippers; socks; selection box; flower seeds

Albert and Dylan joined us and performed –

‘A birthday without presents’

They reminded us that Jesus doesn’t want a  present from us.

All He wants is us to give Him our hearts and live our lives for Him.

We ended with a prayer – 

Dear God,

Thank you that you wanted both rich and poor to see baby Jesus.

Thank you that as we think about Epiphany,

we are reminded that every person is important to you.

Please help us to use all the gifts that you have given to us.

Thank you for all the good things that you give.

Amen

December  meeting

Getting in to the Christmas spirit – Ho, Ho, Ho!!!

Nativity artwork – created using hand, finger and foot prints

What splendid pictures!!

Some of our art and craft work for our Brownie and craft badge

We enjoy reading!

  November meeting

                   Our theme was

Remembrance   and          Peace

  We had our first Messy Church ‘Zoom meeting’ in October.

We talked about Autumn changes and things we are thankful for.

Below is a photo of our activities –

Happy to be starting and going back to school!!!

I have learned to come down a BIG slide, go fast on my scooter

and eaten my first ice-cream since I last saw you all.

Love to all in Messy Church

Watching the fish and turtles is thirsty work!!

Can you see my reflection in the glass?

We are enjoying our holiday ice-cream!

We had lots of fun on our family holiday in Tenby

We think you have ‘green fingers’!!

I think eating my cakes will be just as much fun

as baking and decorating them!!

WOW – that is good swinging!!

We had a great holiday staying on a farm in Anglesey.

Summer holiday fun – baking, mask making and outdoor fun!!

Ho, Ho Ho!!!

Photos that have been rediscovered during ‘Lockdown’

All dressed up and ready for our Christmas Nativity performance.

“You are looking very splendid and happy”

Nearly our turn to delight the congregation!

Enjoying an especially delicious dinner which includes

potatoes that we have grown and harvested – yum, yum!!

We had fun on the beach at Burnham on sea

when we visited Nanny Christine and Grandad.

Do you like my first finished piece of cross stitch??

“WOW!!  it is lovely.

A lot of hard work and patience has gone in to creating this.

Are you going to frame it?”

We had a great time tree climbing!!

I love my new trike and have great fun riding it!!

I haven’t worked out, YET, how to get mummy to let me sleep in it!!

  Money Tree

When mummy and I saw the ‘Messy Money’ session with the ‘Money tree’ activity it made us remember this Money tree we saw in Pembrokeshire, earlier in the year, and thought you would all like to see our photos.

We loved jumping over and running around

the sprinkler in Nana’s garden.

Out and about, exploring on a sunny day.

Mud + messy play = Great fun!!!

Guide Camp (at home!).

We have enjoyed camping out, toasting marshmallows,

going on a nature hunt  and litter picking amongst other things . . . . .

We made an ‘Ascending Jesus’

Ice-cream and ice lollies in the sun – yummy!!

    Look at our fun craft work.

  Happy Birthday Daddy!!!

Mummy and I missed coming to Messy Church last Sunday,

BUT –  we are still ‘getting messy’!!!

We have been on a walk, near our house, looking out for ‘Fairy Doors’

Can you see the egg in the Swans nest?

Can you see the baby Coot to the right of its mum?

Brotherly distraction from ‘Home schooling’

A welcome break!!

We read and learnt about the story of the Good Samaritan.

I then chose to make a card for my brother.

I drew a picture I knew he would like and then wrote a message to him

that would make him feel happy and know how much I care for him.

Colourful artwork to support the NHS

We have been making our very own Wildlife garden.

Mum and Dad’s ‘little helpers’ – great painting!!

I have been practising baking all by myself, it is great fun!

‘

‘Social distancing’ while preparing our Allotment for planting,

followed by a hard earned rest!!

                   Goslings and Ducklings at Roath Park lake

I hope you enjoy watching this short video of the Heron catching food (taken by my Godson)

Martin has been busy tending to his Easter Garden!

Look at all our Easter art and craft.

The Easter Bunny visited us!!!

Decorating our Simnel cake with marzipan was great fun and it tasted yummy!!

I had lots of fun over the Easter weekend, making my Easter Garden.

Togetherness in Lockdown, walking and having fun!!

We made Palm crosses and donkeys to celebrate Palm Sunday.

I have drawn this rainbow and put my family in the middle.

Many people are putting rainbows in their windows

as a sign of solidarity with the NHS and Key Workers

We are doing mini Junior Church on Sundays.

This week we read ‘Jesus and the miraculous catch of fish’

and then made these pretty fish.

Sadly we won’t be meeting for a while due to the ‘Covid D virus’

                                Take care and stay safe!

(April 2020)

Lockdown Gallery!!

Hope you enjoy!!

March 20

Hope and Love suncatcher

Together we made this lovely suncatcher – lots of concentration and a great result, well done all of you!

We talked about how God loves us all and wants us to have a future of hope.

January 20

Theme – Faithful Sheep

Sharing Slime

We talked about a time when we shared something that helped someone else.

Paper-plate sheep’s head

We thought about a time when we have seen someone being like a sheep and shared what they did that would have pleased God.

Edible sheep

We talked about the things we need to do each day to please God.

Dog pull toys

We talked about how it is good to find ways to make things which help other creatures / people.

The finished Dog pull toys were taken to a Dogs Home for Rescue dogs.

Separating the sheep from the goats game

We talked about how Jesus wants us to look out and do things for other people and our planet rather than just think about ourselves.

Being kind and thoughtful will make Jesus Happy.

December 19

Nativity service photos

God loves a cheerful giver

Following our September session we decided to see if between us we could raise £60 so that a new toilet could be built

When we met again in October we counted the money we had raised.

We found that, together, we had raised a fabulous £102.98!!

As a result we have gone ahead and Twinned 2 toilets at a cost of £120.

We are waiting for a certificate but know that we are twinned with a latrine in – 

•  Kabindi, North Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo, Africa   

• Bangui District, central African Republic, Africa