We had a fab Messy Church at Hanwell Carnival for our June event, and hundreds of families passed through our tent from 12 noon till 6pm. It was a beautiful sunny day so families stayed around to picnic and enjoy the day. A special treat for us was that Lucy Bridges who, with her sister Amy was baptized by full immersion in the car-park at Messy Church last September, was a Carnival Princess.
Our theme was Noah’s Ark and our tent was decorated with a large rainbow and rainbow coloured streamers and we entered through a gangplank type roped off area. Our Messy Church Banner fronted the tent and we gave away handouts with St Mary’s and Messy Church information inside.
Inside the tent we painted a large cardboard model of the Ark- such a wonderful sludgy mess with rollers and brushes and plenty of gloopy paint. We made doves with cut-out handprints for wings and tails and many different types of animal face masks. We told the story as the children worked and gave everyone a colourful story handout with a colouring picture on the back.
This wasn’t just about being Messy Church at the Carnival or selling Messy Church; it was about being in the midst of the community as believing, serving followers of Jesus- and what a joy it was!
