The children, together with parents, numbered over 50, with 4 new families registering. Tina, the team and helpers welcomed everyone with tea and biscuits. After a short opening prayer and a rousing performance of “He’s got the whole world in His hands”, Jan Winslade told the story of Jesus being tempted on the mountain by the Devil. Parents and children then came into their own, building 15ft mountains out of cardboard boxes with a paper and card ‘Jesus’ at the top. The fathers also had a great time building with a garden Jenga – The hall rang with love and laughter when the last wooden brick was pulled and all the other bricks came thundering down with alarming noise… A great favourite activity table was making bread, with the dough being banged and moulded in to twists, to be carefully taken in bags to be baked at home. Other activities (Sweet Temptation on the ‘Throne’ of Temptation, including sugar-coated doughnuts; World Globe – favourite places in the world – God’s World) were supported well, if noisily.
Silence was soon restored when everyone shared hot-dogs and fish-fingers rolls, jellies and fancy biscuits. When the time arrived to go home, very tired children and their equally tired parents, dispersed after a short prayer and the thought in their minds of the Great Temptation that Jesus had resisted – and for us to resist, if possible, the things that tempt us in our lives today with a resounding ‘NO’.
The next Messy Church is on 22nd March at 4:00 pm in St Francis School. REMEMBER: – ‘Love one another as Jesus loves us’/
This report compiled by Monica Hearley – Messy Church Team
