Messy Church Courageous Love

Messy Church Courageous Love

On Thursday 4th April we had a Messy Church with the Methodist Youth President, Jasmine Yeboah, whose theme for her visit to Halmer End was Courageous Love.

Our activities, arranged and led by leaders of the Guides, Brownies and Rainbows showed different aspects of the courageous love that Jasmine talked about.

We had the story of Mary Jones, the 15 year old Welsh girl, who walked across the mountains to Bala because she had heard that a man in Bala had some Bibles for sale. She had been just 9 years old when she decided that she would like to have a Bible of her own, in her own language, and it took her 6 years to save enough money before walking the 25 miles to buy one.

In one activity the children were making a small replica of a Bible, and they had different versions of the Bible around them for comparison.

Another activity was making footprints to remind us of the 25 mile walk that Mary did across the mountains.

A further activity, based on the story of the Rainbow Fish, had a photo booth in which the children could have their photos taken with different identities to remind us all that however we look, God still loves us and we should love each other no matter what we look like.

The children had great fun with a Courageous Love Shooter in which they had a competition to see how far they could shoot a rolled up piece of tissue paper from a plastic cup to which a balloon was attached. It was surprising how far they could shoot – all done to remind us that we need to reach out far and wide with the love of God.

After activities we had a time of worship when Jasmine shared something of her faith journey with us. Jasmine challenged everyone to show God's love to others in a brave and practical way. God showed love for us by sending Jesus to die and be resurrected for us, so that we can have new life; the story of Jesus at Easter.

We finished the evening off with a meal and then the Guides spent time with Jasmine sharing experiences of life and learning about Jasmine's journey as a Christian.