North Mull Parish has a small Messy Church congregation which usually alternates between Tobermory Church and Salen Church, roughly once a month. Numbers can vary between 15 and 50, depending on what else is happening locally, and even depending on the weather. During term time, Messy Church meets after school, from 4pm, and finishes with a shared dinner, but as Scottish schools are in summer holidays, now, we decided to try something different, and move outdoors for a Messy Church Goes Wild session.
Aros Park is a Forestry Park near Tobermory, and a favourite place for families to visit. With permission from the Forestry Commission, Messy Church went wild and met in the late morning for some outdoor fun. The theme was ‘The wise man and the foolish man.’ There was a mud painting station (with water to wash away the mud), some rock building and rock painting tables, sticks to build a house, blankets to build a den and a scavenger hunt! At every Messy Church session, the LEGO table is always a huge hit, so it wasn’t to be missed even when we went outdoors! A big tuff spot with a blanket underneath to catch any stray pieces made a perfect LEGO table, which is popular with all ages!
It was a very hot day, so most of the activities were limited to the shaded areas, and after an hour and fifteen minutes, everyone gathered together in a circle to talk about the different activities and learn the parable of the Wise man and the Foolish man, and what it means for us today. Everyone joined in enthusiastically with the song and actions, too. During the chat about the activities, we asked whether anyone had found Jesus in the scavenger hunt and everyone gravely nodded and when asked where He was, one replied “Jesus is all around us!” They were very surprised to find that they were supposed to find a toy Jesus that had been hidden in the trees, so after the song they all ran off together to look for Jesus, shouting “Jesus… where ARE you?!” until they found him!
After Jesus had been successfully found, everyone came back together and joined in a picnic. The food had been prepared by volunteers in the kitchen at the church and delivered to the park in time for a shared lunch.
Messy Church North Mull has a wonderful wee group of volunteers, who willingly give their time to help the little congregation as they come to know Jesus and discover their own faith – without the volunteers it would not be possible, and everyone is very grateful for their commitment.
Donna Dugdale
Want to take your Messy Church outside?
Check out the Messy Adventures, a resource consisting of twelve units of materials to give the most unconfident leader the tools and confidence to take their Messy Church outdoors. Each unit includes fun activities with a strong scientific focus, questions to discuss, ‘Big Thinking’ provided by scientific experts and suggestions for creative ways of responding in Christian worship with awe, wonder and celebration.
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