Messy Church takes over your life!

Or at least it takes over the living room.  We have so much stuff, all essential and no-where to store it in church so it stays here at the vicarage.

April 17th                   Theme.....Prayer

I plan for a dozen or so children and find by 3.45pm we have 27 children and 18 adults!  I have to go home for more jelly beans and we use up all the colouring sheets from Good Friday...thank goodness there were lots left over.

Snack this week....... hot dogs and ketchup....very popular.

Crafts..... cotton bud painting for tinies and water colours for older children.
Printing to decorate the Jelly Bean Prayer sheet
Puzzle sheets and colouring/drawing.
Books for a quiet read.

Service a bit noisy...the Easter Garden cuts down the space where the children can sit down but we had the story of the Importunate Widow, the Lord's prayer, singing and percussion and finished with quiet hymns.

I need to make more of the laminated hymn sheets with the qiet hymns on.

I stagger off with all the cover-up shirts to wash...how does little M get paint up the sleeves to the very top?

April 24th                Theme.... I am The Bread of Life

Crafts....making bread, I make the dough at home and we all shape a bread bun, after playing with it.  Thank goodness they are cooked before eating!

Playdough with rolling pins and shape cutters... this is rather sticky so lots of flour is employed and much fun (and mess) is had by all.  Much to my surprise the bigger children head for this table as well as the tinies.
Cotton bud painting and brush painting for the older ones

Puzzle and colouring sheets.  And plain paper added to this table by popular request.

We have sandwiches as the snack this week because we need the oven to cook the bread buns.

There are at least as many as last week.....J is trying to keep a register.

Fr D tells the story of Feeding the 5,000 and illustrates by sharing one of the very bread buns we have just baked.  Everyone is most impressed!

We need to keep the service part VERY short because some of the children have incredibly short attention spans.

Messy Church 3

I've been so busy I missed posting the last 2 weeks of Messy Church.  Tuesday of Holy Week saw a predictable absence of folk.  I don't understand why folk think that Church Services stop for the school holidays.  Messy Church/Family Service is NOT a playgroup or club.  It's a Church Service and so runs every week, just as Sunday Services run every week.  We'll just have to educate them I suppose!

Holy Week.....weather too cold for the Easter Egg Hunt and we only had 2 folk so we made cards and ate pizza and had a lovely time.

Easter Week... I sent round a text so folk realised we were 'on' and we had much better attendance.  Once everyone had arrived and was busy with stencils and pictures I went round the Church garden gaily dropping Easter Eggs and then realised that anyone passing could come in and take them all so I dashed back in, gathered the children, showed them my empty basket and they were off.  Soon my basket was full again and much fun was had by all. They fell on the pizza and garlic bread with relish! and then went back to finish off their art work whilst I bagged up the little chocolate eggs and chicks.

Our service:  we had lots of little ones so we did the 'where is ...., there she is...' song (See and Know) adapting it to 'come to messy church' rather than 'see and know'.  Then we had the Easter story whilst sitting round the Easter Garden, a percussion accompanied song and quiet prayers.  D blessed the eggs and we all went home clutching works of art and bags of goodies.

Wednesday I spent the whole day preparing the next 2 months Messy Church activities.  It took the whole day but by teatime I had a shopping list and 9 week's activities planned.  This is especially important because we are away for 4 of those weeks and our helpers need plenty of notice of what they will be doing.

Messy Church 2

Messy Church

Week 2....what to expect?

Numbers are down...naturally. It is a beautiful day and many will have headed for the local park; some will have assumed last week was a one-off; some may not have enjoyed it; the bug may have got others.

Anyway, in they come and head for planting seeds, stencils, pipe cleaner flowers. 

K makes ham and cheese sandwiches, which the youngsters fall on as if they haven't eaten since last week. Peace descends.

Our keyboard player arrives and sets up.

Suddenly it's 4.30pm and I'm still rubber stamping with a small group.

Leap into action, ringing bells wildly and gradually everyone gets into the sanctuary. We have a couple of short hymns then it's story time. I have plastic eggs with fluffy chicks inside as an illustration of 'New Life'. Mayhem ensues but I get them all back eventually.

A percussion accompaniment hymn next then quiet time for prayers.

Our going home hymns follow and then everyone collects their works of art/ seed pots and heads off home.

clip art from clip art guide

 

Week 3 HOLY WEEK

In spite of the fact that we stress that Messy Church happens EVERY week, bar Christmas week and August, by 3.40pm no-one has arrived so I start to pack away the craft stuff. I have severe doubts about the Easter egg hunt anyway; it's turned very cols today and is trying to rain. The best laid plans...........

3.45pm L arrives with her Mum, M, and we have a great time making cards and finger puppets. K has made pizzas today and we share them.

K and M ask about tomorrow's Passover and book in with their children.

As we finish up M arrives to help set up Passover.

Guardian Angels

The Pink Dress

There was this little girl sitting by herself in the park. Everyone passed by her and never stopped to see why she looked so sad. Dressed in a worn pink dress, barefoot and dirty, the girl just sat and watched the people go by. She never tried to speak. She never said a word.

Many people passed by her, but no one would stop.

The next day I decided to go back to the park in curiosity to see if the little girl would still be there. Yes, she was there, right in the very spot where she was yesterday, and still with the same sad look in her eyes

Today I was to make my own move and walk over to the little girl.

For as we all know, a park full of strange people is not a place for young children to play alone.

As I got closer I could see the back of the little girl's dress. It was grotesquely shaped. I figured that was the reason people just passed by and made no effort to speak to her.

Deformities are a low blow to our society and, heaven forbid if you make a step toward assisting someone who is different.

As I got closer, the little girl lowered her eyes slightly to avoid my intent stare. As I approached her, I could see the shape of her back more clearly. She was grotesquely shaped in a humped over form.

I smiled to let her know it was OK; I was there to help, to talk.

I sat down beside her and opened with a simple, 'Hello'.

The little girl acted shocked, and stammered a 'Hi '; after a long stare into my eyes. 

I smiled and she shyly smiled back.

We talked until darkness fell and the park was completely empty.

I asked the girl why she was so sad. The little girl looked at me with a sad face said, 'Because, I'm different...'

I immediately said, 'That you are!' and smiled.

The little girl acted even sadder and said, 'I know.'

'Little girl,' I said, 'you remind me of an angel, sweet and innocent.'

She looked at me and smiled, then slowly she got to her feet and said, 'Really?'

'Yes, you're like a little Guardian Angel sent to watch over all the people walking by.'

She nodded her head yes, and smiled. With that she opened the back of her pink dress and allowed her wings to spread, then she said 'I am.'

'I'm your Guardian Angel,' with a twinkle in her eye.

I was speechless -- sure I was seeing things.

She said, 'For once you thought of someone other than yourself.  My job here is done'.

I got to my feet and said, 'Wait, why did no one stop to help an Angel?'

She looked at me, smiled, and said, 'You're the only one that could see me,' and then she was gone.

And with that, my life was changed dramatically.

So, when you think you're all you have, remember, your angel is always watching over you.

Like the story says, we all need someone...

And, every one of your friends is an Angel in their own way.

The value of a friend is measured in the heart.

I hope your Guardian Angel watches over you always.

Don't you love this story?  It's one of many going the rounds on the internet.  Image from Faith Clipart