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Water chase

Margaret keeping the scores

Going going -  gone

Welly in flight

Tower builders

skiing in summer

country dancing practice

Anna makes some moves

No Legs!

Neil and Iain making BBQ smoke

Messy Church Sports Day - 28 August 2016 



Celebration Time in the Marquee
The new Messy Church season after the summer break on 28 August remembered the recent Rio Olympics with sporting action taking centre stage for an afternoon of fun and enjoyment for the children, and their parents. It all happened at the playing fields on Bog Road in Penicuik. Sheila and Iain Anderson had brought along their Marquee party tent which was quickly erected. Thankfully Sheila and Iain have done this many times and kept the rest of us straight.

With the earlier football and rugby teams having finished the 'Messy' team setup a range of sporting events, designed by Joan and Neil Cape, some seen in Rio, but many just a bit of fun. These included dribbling a ball through a course of cones in the fastest time, Throwing balls into a bucket of water, and water carrying, without dropping any into a bucket at the end of the course. Just to make this one tricky the carry cups had holes in them!!!

A favourite was 'welly throwing'. Here the objective was to throw a welly boot the farthest. The experts soon discovered that the best way to get the most momentum was to heave the welly boot over the shoulder, looking as if you were throwing it backwards. Amazing what a difference that makes. Once seen the others soon caught on.

We had French bowls (Petanque), swingball competition (remember that when you were young?), and sailing. Where is there a sailing pond in Penicuik? Well this was a bit different. Here the pond was a basin full of water, and the sailing boats were made of tin foil. The objective was to load each sailing boat with as many glass marbles as possible before the boat sank. Quite a feat with one or two making the 40 mark, before the inevitable happened. I can vouch that the basin was full of cold, very cold, water as recovering the marbles from the bottom left my hands numb as if I had been making snowballs.

Talking of cold winters, we also had family skiing. Now snow in Penicuik in August I can believe, but not this time. We were on grass. Now I have seen this done before and I can vouch it is not easy. Each set of skis have four ropes to allow 4 people to stand on them at one time. The trick is to move forward, or for the experts, backwards too, in unison. Getting everyone in step, is the trick,
literally, and a drummer keeping the beat would have been a good idea, if we only had one.

Those leaning to more craft exercising rather than running and jumping, or just stopping to catch their breath, could try building a marshmallow tower. Made of spaghetti, uncooked, and marshmallows these had the advantage that they were light enough to reach a good height and good enough to eat if it fell down, the marshmallows that is, or you just got bored, and knocked the tower down anyway :-)

Puppeteers while Sophie makes the moves
Celebration time had a novel twist. We gathered in the tent and Sheila presented a story with the aid of the puppets and some of the girls to operate them. Some of us had to act out movements to go with the puppets actions and many of the children came out to the front to add to the selection of actions. Finally Sheila heard from 'Magnus', one of the puppets, telling her he loved sports but couldn't do them.  'Why not'? asked Sheila. 'I have no legs' replied Magnus. Being a hand puppet that was clear for all to see. Sheila did respond that sports is not just for able bodied, and we talked of the forthcoming Paralympics in Rio. God loves all his people able bodied and those not quite so able.

Soon it was time to eat, and Neil Cape and Iain Anderson had been busy on the BBQ grilling a great selection of burgers, sausages, and veggie burgers too. A queue quickly formed to grab a burger or sausage in a roll, spicing them up from a great selection of sauces and relishes. We ate under a warm sun filled sky, though there were some darker clouds not far away. Every dark cloud has a silver lining and in our case we were gifted with a wonderful rainbow appearing to the east of Penicuik.

A wonderful start to the new Messy Church season, and we look forward to seeing all the children next month for something new and different again, to hear about the love and good work of Jesus and God, while having some fun at the same time.      
   
The next Messy Church will be on Sunday September 25th 
4.00 to 6.00pm



For more information on Messy Church

                                                 Rainbow appears

Contact: Joan Cape 674276 capefamily@talktalk.net
              Katrina McDonald  kmcd11@yahoo.co.uk



Penicuik: St. Mungo's Parish Church (Church of Scotland). Scottish Charity No SC005838