| | | Messy Church 'Two Charcoal Fires' - 29 April |
Report and photos - Jim Paterson
'Two
Charcoal Fires' was the the theme for the April Messy Church on Sunday
29th. The reference to the two fires appears only twice in the
Bible, John 18, 15-15 and John 21. The first fire was built
by the enemies of Christ (18:18), and the second was built by Jesus
Himself (21:9).
In the first He was on trial for His life (John
18:27; cf. Luke 22:61), when Peter denied the Lord three times,
just as Jesus had predicted (18:17,25,26), and fell into sin. In the
second Jesus has conquered death (21:1), and Peter affirmed his
love for the Lord three times, and was reinstated (21: 15,16,17).
 The
resurrected Christ forgives and feeds. Our responsibility is to be
forgiven, to be fed, and then to forgive and feed. What can we do when
we have doubts ourselves?
How can we support the folks who come
along who have doubts about Jesus and what he offers? and how can we
help them grow in understanding?
Our activities included
Make a fire - The children took
an upside down plastic cup, covering it with crumpled
tissue to resemble a fire. We used a battery powered night light on the
base, to look like “fire” We talked about how often do
we get drawn into a conversation, or even just watching something,
because we are curious? Some people in the bible story had no love of
Jesus, and were hoping that he would be punished for, as they saw it,
stirring up trouble.
 Folded Card Cockerel
- We made a cockerel shape, and talked about what Jesus had told Peter
what would happen and Peter didn’t believe him – how did we
think Peter felt when the cock crowed? Did we think God forgave him?
Wounded hands - We
cut out and coloured the hands then stuck them to another sheet of
card, along with the “Stop doubting” strip. We talked about
Thomas needing to see the wounds. Is it easy for us to believe
difficult things, to take things on trust? How do we know we can trust
Jesus? Do we understand we can always trust him, or is that still too
hard?
 Fishing boats -
This was a good one that we carried out in the garden under the
sunshine. We made fishing boats from foam tubing, and sails from card.
We blew into the sails to propel the boats across the water. We
talked about how the fishermen knew all about boats – did our
boat sail well, if at all? They knew all about fishing –
and they knew that sometimes you try really hard and don’t catch
anything. What did we think they felt like when Jesus told them
they were to go and catch men?
Large poster/collage -
We coloured and decorated a large poster of Jesus on the shore
with fishing net, talking about what the disciples might have felt like
when Jesus appeared on the shore.
Invitation cards -
As we had been thinking about being fishers of men, and going out to
bring in more people, it would be good if people took away some
invitation cards. We made cards to give to someone who
might come along to Messy Church next time. We talked about who
they might invite, and why, whether that’s easy or scary, and how
we can help them with that.
 Celebration Time in the church was led by Rev Andrew Don and Sheila Anderson recalling the story of Peter and doubting Thomas, using the large poster of Jesus on the shore next to the charcoal fire to illustrate their talk.
We finished with a prayer before returning for a meal with all the families and talking of what we had learned today.
Next March Messy
church will be on Sunday 27th May
Published - 30 April 2018
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