Craft time activity
Pregnant Mary and other edible goodies
 Making the donkeys
Decorated star
Donkey ready to race
Wreaths decorate the church
Puppets in the Hall
Children gather for the story
More decoration in the church
Helpers ready to serve
The Christmas Tree
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| | | Messy Church - 1 December 2013 |
Report and photos by Jim Paterson
Messy
Church on Sunday 1st December had a very Christmas advent theme
with crafts and stories of the lead up to the birth of Jesus in
Bethlehem.
Some
120 children, parents and helpers filled St. Mungo's hall, making this
event one of the best supported Messy Church of the year, and
surpassing last years Christmas event.
All busy working on the craft tables
A wide range of
crafts started the afternoon, with the pregnant Mary biscuit being a
favourite. A gingerbread biscuit with a marshmallow for a 'bump' all
covered in blue icing dress, which was then decorated. The best bit of
course was you could eat it when finished, though many kept it to
take home later.
Camels carried the three wise men and we made
camel cupcakes. Making gift boxes, brightly decorated, containing gold
coin (chocolate coins in our case), could be a special present for
someone, Cotton bud sheep reminded us of the flocks that the
shepherds tended.
Mary and Joseph traveled by donkey to
Bethlehem and making a hobby donkey from pipe insulation and a paper
bag head, decorated with eyes, made a great donkey and could be raced
round the hall as well, to see who could get to Bethlehem first!.
Of
course we needed a star and sparkling pipe cleaners, decorated with
coloured beads made a great guiding light. Wreaths were also made
to decorate the church for our celebration.
 The prayer sand
tray saw the children draw round their foot and put the cut out into
the sand we thought about the wise men's journey, and thanking god
for always being with us on our journey.
While we were all busy
'crafting' the puppets were on stage entertaining us dressed as angels
and telling us the Christmas story. Once again the senior girls
were operating the puppets behind the screen. A great way to learn the
art of story telling.
Our celebration in the church took on a
different style this month, starting with a video of Son of God sung by
Michael W Smith, to set the scene. This was followed by question
time competition. The large gathering of children formed into three
teams of about 30 each. Each team had a dad as team leader,Andy
Turnbull, Chris Wilkinson, and Alistair Hind who then sat at front. For each
question the teams got wrong, the team leader had to take a forfeit.
 Graham McDonald acted as question master and
started with 'Which prophet foretold the birth of Jesus with the
following words "Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign,
Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name
Immanuel"?' The choices wee Jeremiah, Isaiah or Ezekiel. If your
struggling, it was Isaiah. How about.. 'In which two gospels does the
nativity appear? 'Matthew and Mark, Matthew and Luke, Matthew and John,
or Mark and John? Did you choose Matthew and Luke?
Not
all questions were pure biblical, with 'Name all the reindeer'?
Of course we all know they are Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen,
Comet, Cupid, Donner, Blitzen,and Rudolph.
The team leaders
of the teams who got questions wrong. undertook consequences such
as having ice cubes dropped down the back of their shirt Brrrrrr,
eating a sachet of 'pot noodle' sauce (chili of course), drinking a
can of coke through a sock (clean one of course),and eating a mouthful
of crackers while singing 'we wish you a merry Christmas'
We
then sang 'Silent Night' named as the country's favourite
Christmas carol of all time. It was first performed by organist Franz
Gruber during midnight mass at the church of St. Nicola in Oberndorf,
Austria on Christmas Eve 1818. Translated into more than 300 languages
and dialects around the world since then, it will be sung by more than
two billion people this Christmas. Graham then led a closing prayer
before we headed back to the hall for a meal.
The helpers had
been very busy while we were in the Church. Every table we had in the
hall was set with Christmas crackers, ready for a traditional Christmas
meal of chicken, sausages and the trimmings. With plenty juice to wash
it down in time for jelly and ice cream.
Christmas meal time gets everyone talking, and reflecting on their 'Messy' afternoon
With families from
all the Penicuik churches and many who don't attend any church,
makes Messy Church an important activity in reaching out the word of God
to young and not so young in our community.
Look out for the next
Messy Church Service on 22 December at 4.00pm in St. Mungo's Church for a short Christmas service (half an hour).
There is no Messy Church in January but look out for the return 2nd February 2014.
For more information on Messy Church contact Katrina McDonald 07872 996906, or Lynne Turnbull 07812 648924.
Like ‘Messy Church Penicuik’ on Facebook and be kept up to date with everything that’s happening.
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