| | | Messy Church - 1 February 2015 |
Report and photos - Jim Paterson
Setting up the meal after the fun, story and song
The
first Messy
Church for 2015 attracted many children with their mum's dad's and
in some cases grandparents on Sunday 1st Feb, to experience fun,
crafts, food, bible stories and song. The February
theme was based on the story of the Pharisee and the tax collector (Luke
18, 9-14), where Jesus explained the importance of praying for the
right reasons, warns us against showing off/thinking we are better than
others, and brings hope that no one is beyond the reach of God's love
and forgiveness.
We
were thinking about how God loves hearing our prayers, no matter what
we have done. Jesus teaches us that prayer is a quiet conversation
between us and God.
Sheila
Anderson brought the puppets along and some of the senior girls
rehearsed the presentation they would perform for the church time later
in the afternoon. Ann and Andrew Dunsire helped with the crafts, as did
Elaine Jacobs, Bill and Margaret Webster, Paul and Mo Hayes.
The range of themed crafts to support the story included;
 Disappearing writing
- reminding us how God's forgiveness acts like water to wash away our
sin when we say sorry. Neil Cape had made strips of paper that the
children wrote on some of the things they do wrong that they would like
to be forgiven. We were thinking about how God loves hearing our
prayers, no matter what we have done. Jesus teaches us that prayer is a
quiet conversation between us and God. Dipping the strip in a
bowl of water caused the words to wash away, like God forgiving our
sins..
Prayer weaving - Prayer requests were joined together to make a sort of 'prayer mat' as a beautiful gift for God.
Prayer tassels - Labels with a prayer request were decorated with prayer tassels made of lengths of wool,  giving
thanks to God, especially for His word, the Bible. We thought about
how the tassels help us remember to pray and to read
the bible.
Messy sorry prayers - This was an
opportunity to say sorry and get sticky fingers by placing pictures of
things we should not do, like shouting at friends, showing off and the
like, in a bowl of green gunky gloop.
 Low obstacle course
- How low can you go? Using a tunnel to crawl through, and a limbo bar
to get under without falling, gives a feeling of being humble, like the
tax collector.
Sweet treat
- This one was just for fun, finding out who could keep a sweet in
their mouth the longest without swallowing it, or eating a piece
of doughnut without getting any sugar on your lips. Do we ask God
to help us when we have to do something we find difficult, like
remembering to pray?
God's world - God's love is for
everyone, everywhere. Who do you think needs our prayers. The world map
had links from many countries to a prayer post.
Noughts and Crosses - Another just for fun activity, while remembering why the cross is so important.
 Sheila Anderson led
our time in church, covering the backgound to prayer tassels using
the prayer shawl, or tallit, a Jewish prayer shawl, worn over the
outer clothes during the morning prayers The tallit has special twined
and knotted fringes, similar to our prayer tassels on labels that we
made earlier, attached to its four corners. We also saw the Tefillin,
which looked like an unusual hat, but is in fact a set of small black
leather boxes containing scrolls of parchment inscribed with verses
from the Torah, which are worn by observant Jews during weekday morning
prayers.
 Sheila, with the aid of the puppets told a story of
how the pharisee (Tom in our case) liked to be seen praying but
was more interested in being 'seen to be good', rather than praying to
God, while the tax collector (Fred) did pray solemnly to God,
knowing his job, though necessary, was often despised. We then listened
to the song 'You made a perfect world in Love', and carried out actions to the chorus 'Thank you for your grace' before finishing with a prayer and returning to the hall for our meal.
Joan
Cape, Bill and Margaret Webster,Rae Hunter and others had been busy in
the kitchen, the last function to use it before it is refurbished. Andy
Turnbull said a prayer of grace before we sat down to a hearty
meal of pasta with a bolognese sauce, with plenty of juice or
water to wash it down, followed by a sponge or doughnut pudding with
custard. Much talk over what we had done and seen and
learned during the afternoon was heard at the tables.
Messy
church returns on Sunday 1sy March when the theme will be 'Healing
Bartimaeus', and again on Sunday 31st March, with the theme 'Loving
Easter'.
For more information on Messy Church contact Katrina McDonald 07872 996906, or Lynne Turnbull 07812 648924.
Janis serves the pasta meal
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