  Egg with a message
 Prayer Passport
Junk Wall
 Prayer Star
Making a Prayer Diary
Prayer Lava Lamp
Sheila tells the story
Asking Granny
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| | | Messy Church - 26 May 2019 |
 The theme for Sunday 28th Messy Church was 'Try Praying'
Do
not worry about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and
petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.
Philippians 4:6 (NIV)
We all need to be challenged to pray
more, to try out different ways of praying and to explore ways of
praying that have been helpful for other Christians over the centuries.
As
we serve God in our work, at home and at church, we have ample
opportunity to worry – or to practice passing everything to him
in prayer and cultivating an attitude of
thankfulness. Just as Jesus
prayed to his loving Father both in the quiet, peaceful, happy times
and in the desperate, painful times, both in cities and in the
countryside, both with formal words and with spontaneous outbursts, so
we can listen to God and speak to God everywhere.
If we are in
the habit of prayer only when we’re in a particular mood or
place, this passage challenges us to an adventure in prayer wherever we
are and whatever frame of mind we’re in. Whether we are Messy
families trying out Christian practices for the first time or old hands
who have been praying for years, there’s always another step to
take to come closer to God and to make a difference in the places we
find ourselves. More than anything, we need to demonstrate in our own
lives what praying people are, do and say. This will help others have
the confidence to pray or pray more.
Our crafts included -
PRAYER PASSPORTS - We
took an A4 piece of card, drawing round both our hands with all
ten fingers,. drawing in the fingernails on each finger. We folded
the card in
two to make a prayer passport. For each activity we took part in we decorated the nail of one finger.
We
talked about how we use our hands when we pray. Some people put
their hands together to help them concentrate, some lift them up
to God; some lie with their hands flat on the floor; some use beads.
How could people use their feet in prayer? How do you like to pray?
PRAYER STARS
- We cut out a star. then wrote a prayer in the centre.Then we folded
 each point of the star over the centre with a good sharp crease. With
the person in our thoughts, we placed the folded star gently on
the surface of a bowl full of water and watch quietly as the
star’s points opened up. It’s as if that person is opening
up to
Jesus through our prayer. We talked about prayer being
God’s way of changing people’s lives for the better.
JUNK WALL - Lots
of old cardboard boxes; and bean bags for this one. We made a wall
of boxes as high as we could. Use the bean bags we knocked down the
wall. If it didn't work straight away, we persisted until it did.
We talked about the way some situations feel like walls or prisons that
close in on us. But praying – sometimes praying for days, weeks,
months or years – can break down those situations.
 THANXIOUS NOT ANXIOUS - Neil
Cape used his science background, taking a shallow bowl, filled
with full-fat milk; dropping some food colouring into the centre of the
milk. This stood for something we were worried about that sits
there right at the centre of our life.
 We
then dropped three drops of washing-up liquid into the centre of
the colouring, and watched as the red colouring raced to the sides of
the bowl. Praying
can put Jesus back at the centre and move the worries out to the edges:
try thinking of three. We thought of three things we were thankful for
and thanking God for them.
Paul wrote: ‘Do not be anxious
about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with
thanksgiving, present your requests to God’ (Philippians 4:6).
 CELEBRATION TIME - Sheila
Anderson and Margaret Webster led our celebration time in the church,
where
we learned about friendship and prayer through song and story, led by our friendly puppets.
Helpers
came to the front to tell Margaret what they had prayed for. not
everything would be answered by God. The machine gun was a definite NO,
whilst a motorbike for a 4 year old is likely to be a 'Not just Yet'. A
big hug from granny was a definite Yes. God always listens to our
prayers but may not answer, or the answer may not be what we were
hoping for.
We introduced one of the activities into the celebration time
 POPCORN PRAYERS
- Using a popcorn maker we watched as bowlfuls of popcorn appeared from
small corn. Like prayers, some are very carefully worked out and
beautifully worded, but some just pop out of our hearts like popped
corn out of the machine. The transformation of the hard kernel to
fluffy popped corn is a little bit like prayer changing situations or
hard hearts. Very sudden prayers, just popping out one word can be
enough! We thought about what was in our heart at this moment.
Some
dancing and moving around helped work up an appetite too, which was
great as we headed back to the hall for our meal together.
 Mealtime to eat and chat
The next Messy Church will be Sunday 30 June
Published - 27 May 201 | |
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