  Stone angels curly wurly ladder giant ladder to heaven
Sheila explains the 'signing'
Jake after he ate his ladder
Awesome story
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| | | Messy Church - 28 January 2018 |
Report and photos - Jim Paterson
Mealtime for the group
The
first Messy
Church for 2018 took the theme 'Stairway to Heaven', based on
Jacob's dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its
top reaching to heaven,  and
the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. Jacob had left
Beersheba to set out for Harran, stopping for the night because
the sun had set.
Above the 'stairway' stood the Lord, and he
said: ‘I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God
of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you
are lying. Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you
will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the
south. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your
offspring. I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I
will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have
done what I have promised you.’
Jacob was on a long
journey, running away because he and his mother deceived Isaac, his
father, into giving him a blessing that was rightfully due to his
brother Esau. This is a story of forgiveness.
Our craft activities included
 A Rock or a Pillow
We
placed some large rocks and some soft cushions on the floor. The
children tried laying their heads on the rocks and on the
cushions, telling us
the differences. ‘The hard rock had sharp bits that dug
into my head' was typical response. Whereas ‘I liked the pillow.
It reminded me of my comfy bed at home' .
We talked about how,
in the story, Jacob is in the desert and when he goes to bed he uses a
stone as a pillow. We wondered what it’s like only to have that
as your bed. What about homeless people who have to live with this
every day?
Ladder Hopscotch
A
ladder was marked out on the floor and we threw a beanbag 'up' the
rungs of the ladder. Hopping up the ladder to reach the beanbag
we repeated the throw until we reached the top. If the beanbag
fell off to one side is wa slike snakes and ladders, back to the
start.
We talked about how Jacob had a dream
where he saw a ladder going all the way up to heaven with angels going
up and down it. What did we think that meant?
Angels
We made angels using card, feathers, paper and glue. When they were dry they were ready to 'fly' to the Giant Ladder.
 Giant Ladder
Staying
with the 'ladder' theme a group built a ladders from cardboard rolls
and we slung it over a rafter in the hall. It was very high, and we
pinned some Angels to the rungs, some going up, others coming down.
We
thought about how big the ladder Jacob saw would have to be, to go all
the way from heaven to earth. Then asked ourselves which person in the
Bible is the clearest ‘ladder’ between heaven and earth?
Changing People
Using
paper people cutouts we decorated one person as a happy person, and the
other as a sad, mean one. Sticking them back-to-back on a stick we
turned them round as we told the story of Jacob.
We talked
about how, at the beginning of his story, Jacob wasn’t a very
nice man. He lied, cheated, and tricked people. But as God changed
his heart with a dream, he turned his life around to be how God wanted
him to be. Was there anything in our lives we needed to change to
be how God wants us to be?
Curly Wurly Ladder
We
must have a craft that can be eaten at the end. We used a 'Curly
wurly' chocolate bar stuck into a 'fairy cake', trying to make th
echocolate 'ladder' stand up). Put candy floss at the top to create
clouds. Either wet the back of the jelly baby ‘angels’, or
spread some icing on them, to stick them to the ladders as if
they’re moving up and down between heaven and earth.
We
talked about how, in Jacob’s dream, there was a constant
flow of angels going up and down between heaven and earth. This
wasn’t a physical ladder – Jacob didn’t see it while
he was awake, but God showed him something he would understand. How
would we describe angels coming and going between earth and heaven
today? Maybe a lift? Maybe an escalator?
 Sheila
Anderson led the celebration time in the church, with Neil Cape
playing the part of Jacob, complete with stone pillow (ouch! that looks
sore for his head). With the help of song and actions we got involved
with the whole story.
After
a closing prayer we headed back to the church hall for a meal of
meatballs, chips and vegetables, followed by cake and juice. A great
time for families to chat amongst themselves swapping their experiences
of Messy Church.
March Messy
church will be on Sunday 25th February
Published - 30 January 2018
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