The Greatest Story We Get to Tell

Sunday wrapped up our last Messy Church of the school year - and we couldn't have ended the year with a better story! We're a little ahead of Holy Week this year, but Holy Week and spring break always seem to interfere with one another. As much as I wish that spring break travels didn't interfere with Holy Week worship services, they do. So part of our job is to make sure that our families experience the drama of Holy Week - even if it is a week early!
Messy Church this time was all about Holy Week - from Palm Sunday through Good Friday. We had fewer activities - only four - so we could spend more time on the story. The kids were able to craft palm branches which will be incorporated into our Palm Sunday worship service this coming Sunday. For the Last Supper, we focused on Jesus washing his disciples feet. (In October for World Communion Sunday our whole Messy Church will be about Communion - so we saved that part of the story for later!) We also had an activity related to prayer and Jesus praying in the Garden of Gethsemane. The kids made pretzels out of modeling clay with a card that explained how pretzels came about and how they remind us

all to pray. This was our messiest craft for sure. I would have loved to have been able to actually make pretzels the kids could eat, but time didn't allow for that. They did get to eat some pretzels for their snack!

And finally, the kids made "stained glass" crosses using contact paper and tissue paper. An easy craft - but they turned into very beautiful crosses. We'll be displaying these crosses in either the Commons or the Sanctuary during Holy Week.

For our story time, we had some great youth who helped tell the story of Jesus' last week. Hopefully the story will stay with our kids as they celebrate Palm Sunday, Holy Week, and Easter.