Pray, Pray, Pray was the theme of Messy church in may and we looked at what it means to talk and listen to God.  We have decided to stick with the new format with the activities as people arrive and the celebration time at the end.  There was lots to explore this month including,

• Planting a sunflower, we thought about how when we pray we don’t
  see immediate results.  We have to
  wait for God to answer just as we have to wait for the sunflower to grow.
• Marble run with water beads, when the beads started at the top we
  weren’t sure which direction they would go in.  Just like when we pray God doesn’t
  always answer the way we expect.
• Completing a challenge, a Rubix cube, steady hand game, ball in a
  cup, tying a bow and juggling. 
  Sometimes we can’t complete the challenge on the first
  attempt.  When we pray we have to be
  persistent and keep asking God for what we need.
• Prayer snacks, we decorated biscuits with the letters A.S.K and
  thought about the different things that we can ask God for.
• Speaking and listening game where you make a pattern on paper from
  post-it notes and have to describe what you have done to your partner so
  they can create the same picture without seeing it.  We thought about how prayer is about
  speaking and listening to God.
• Emoji prayers, we matched different emojis with different things
  we can pray about.  We made posters
  that we can use when we don’t know what to pray abut.

We then came together and san about how God can do Anything.  Audrey then told us the story of the
persistent widow.  She kept going to the
judge and eventually he gave in and gave her what she needs but God is a fair
judge and will always hear our prayers. 
Bridget the got the children to create the letters A.S.K. By lying on
the floor and making human sculptures. 
We then prayed with A for ask, S for seek and K for knock.  It was then dinnertime and we enjoyed
shepherds pie cooked by Louise followed by ice cream.

Thanks go to everyone involved in preparing and helping on the day
for a great Messy Church this month.