 Water chase
Margaret keeping the scores Going going - gone
Welly in flight
Tower builders
skiing in summer
 country dancing practice
Anna makes some moves
No Legs!
 Neil and Iain making BBQ smoke |
| | | Messy Church Sports Day - 28 August 2016 |
Celebration Time in the Marquee
The
new Messy Church season after the summer break on 28 August remembered
the recent Rio Olympics with sporting action taking centre stage for an
afternoon of fun and enjoyment for the children, and their parents. It
all happened at the playing fields on Bog Road in Penicuik. Sheila
and Iain Anderson had brought along their Marquee party tent which was
quickly erected. Thankfully Sheila and Iain have done this many times
and kept the rest of us straight.
 With
the earlier football and rugby teams having finished the 'Messy' team
setup a range of sporting events, designed by Joan and Neil Cape, some
seen in Rio, but many just a bit of fun. These included dribbling a
ball through a course of cones in the fastest time, Throwing balls into
a bucket of water, and water carrying, without dropping any into a
bucket at the end of the course. Just to make this one tricky the carry
cups had holes in them!!!
A favourite was 'welly throwing'. Here
the objective was to throw a welly boot the farthest. The experts soon
discovered that the best way to get the most momentum was to heave the
welly boot over the shoulder, looking as if you were throwing it
backwards. Amazing what a difference that makes. Once seen the others
soon caught on.
We had French bowls (Petanque), swingball
competition (remember that when you were young?), and sailing. Where is
there a sailing pond in Penicuik? Well this was a bit different. Here
the pond was a basin full of water, and the sailing boats were made of
tin foil. The objective was to load each sailing boat with as many
glass marbles as possible before the boat sank. Quite a feat with one
or two making the 40 mark, before the inevitable happened. I can vouch
that the basin was full of cold, very cold, water as recovering the
marbles from the bottom left my hands numb as if I had been making
snowballs.
 Talking
of cold winters, we also had family skiing. Now snow in Penicuik in
August I can believe, but not this time. We were on grass. Now I have
seen this done before and I can vouch it is not easy. Each set of skis
have four ropes to allow 4 people to stand on them at one time. The
trick is to move forward, or for the experts, backwards too, in unison.
Getting everyone in step, is the trick, literally, and a drummer keeping the beat would have been a good idea, if we only had one.
 Those
leaning to more craft exercising rather than running and jumping, or
just stopping to catch their breath, could try building a
marshmallow tower. Made of spaghetti, uncooked, and marshmallows
these had the advantage that they were light enough to reach a good
height and good enough to eat if it fell down, the marshmallows that
is, or you just got bored, and knocked the tower down anyway :-)
Puppeteers while Sophie makes the moves
Celebration
time had a novel twist. We gathered in the tent and Sheila presented a
story with the aid of the puppets and some of the girls to operate
them. Some of us had to act out movements to go with the puppets
actions and many of the children came out to the front to add to the
selection of actions. Finally Sheila heard from 'Magnus', one of the
puppets, telling her he loved sports but couldn't do them.
'Why not'? asked Sheila. 'I have no legs' replied Magnus. Being a hand
puppet that was clear for all to see. Sheila did respond that sports is
not just for able bodied, and we talked of the forthcoming Paralympics
in Rio. God loves all his people able bodied and those not quite so
able.
Soon
it was time to eat, and Neil Cape and Iain Anderson had been busy on
the BBQ grilling a great selection of burgers, sausages, and veggie
burgers too. A queue quickly formed to grab a burger or sausage in a
roll, spicing them up from a great selection of sauces and relishes. We
ate under a warm sun filled sky, though there were some darker clouds
not far away. Every dark cloud has a silver lining and in our case we
were gifted with a wonderful rainbow appearing to the east of Penicuik.
 A
wonderful start to the new Messy Church season, and we look forward to
seeing all the children next month for something new and different
again, to hear about the love and good work of Jesus and God, while
having some fun at the same time.
The next Messy Church will be on Sunday September 25th
4.00 to 6.00pm
For more information on Messy Church
Rainbow appears
Contact: Joan Cape 674276 capefamily@talktalk.net
Katrina McDonald kmcd11@yahoo.co.uk
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