As All Saints Church building was unavailable due to building work, we held the January Messy Church in the old school, and what fun we had! Six families attended including one new one, as well as the wonderful band of helpers.
We started with breakfast, this time with lovely warm porridge on such a cold day, as well as the usual toast and cereals.
The theme for January was “Listening to God”, and the activities included decorating cardboard megaphones to remind us how megaphones make peoples’ voices easier to hear, and we talked about how we could make God’s voice easier to hear. We played Jenga where you have to be persistent even when things get more difficult.
We had a picture of a large ear on which we attached our prayers asking God to guide us, and we made a temple out of cardboard big enough to sleep in, which we used during our Messy Reflection when Geoffrey told us the story of the boy Samuel hearing God’s voice in the temple. We had Samuel sleeping in his bed, and we used our megaphones to call him. Eli and his sons were asleep in the temple, and Samuel woke them three times before Eli realised that it was God who was calling him. Eli then told him to answer God’s call which he did.
We sang some noisy songs before we finished with prayer at 11 o’clock. 
Dear Lord, help us to make time to listen to you. We would like to hear your voice more clearly, so we say “Speak Lord, we are your servants, ready to listen.” Amen.
The next Messy Church will be back in All Saints Church on February 11th. We look forward to seeing you there.
Jan Winslade