Messy Moments
One-a-day ideas from the Christchurch Messy Church Team
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| Date | Title | Activity | Related links |
| Sunday 24th May | A song for Sunday | The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace. Amen. |
The Lord bless you and keep you |
| Saturday 23rd May | Long Jump | See how far you can jump! Use tape or sticks to mark increasing distances and jump to them. After each jump, stop and think about who you can reach out to today. | |
| Friday 22nd May | Dirty Hands | Find some things that make your hands dirty – soil, teabags, paint, leaves, food preparation – anything safe! Wash your own or each others’ hands. As you do, think about people who have got their hands dirty for you – say thank you. Consider whether God is asking you to get your hands dirty for someone else. | |
| Thursday 21st May | Stay Outside | Take a step outside onto your doorstep. Stop and think about how you can step outside of your world today and reach out to someone else. | |
| Wednesday 20th May | Pata Pata all over the world | Watch the film and remind yourself that you are part of one big human family! | Pata Pata |
| Tuesday 19th May | Mirror Play | Find a mirror and use it to make light dance on the walls. When people help us it can feel like light is dancing in us. Who has helped you? Who can you help today? | |
| Monday 18th May | Helping Pots | Get a jam jar or similar and some lolly sticks or pieces of card. Write on the lolly sticks or card some names of people who you can help this week – it might be by phoning them, writing to them, giving money, shopping for them or praying for them. Decorate your jar if you like. Make a point of looking at one of your sticks each day to remind yourself to help others. | |
| Sunday 17th May | A Song for Sunday | Listen to the song and think about what it means to belong to God’s family and be safe in His care. | Song for Sunday |
| Saturday 16th May | Breathe Your Circle | Take a slow, deep breath. As you breathe in think of one member of your family or friendship circle. As you breathe out say their name. Repeat this with as many people as you like. | |
| Friday 15th May | Making Your Mark | Find as many mark makers as you can – pens, pencils, crayons, paints, chalk, glue, water, mud, ketchup; be creative! Make lots of different marks on paper. Talk about where you make your mark in the groups you belong to. | |
| Thursday 14th May | Home Prayers | As you go into each room in your house pray: In the bedroom: for people working hard to make sure everyone has a bed to sleep in In the kitchen: For everyone working hard to provide food In the bathroom: For those working hard for a cure for a virus In your living area: For those who are struggling to find the safe space that they need |
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| Wednesday 13th May | Stick People | Find some sticks to represent all the people you are connected with. Pray for each person as you hold the sticks. You may wish to decorate the sticks with bits of fabric, wool or other accessories. Put the sticks in a jar and keep them as a reminder of the communities you belong to. | |
| Tuesday 12th May | Honey Bees | Honey bees dance to tell the other bees where the flower source is located, as shown in the film. Think about communities that you are in and how you need each other; pray that you can find positive ways to connect while away from each other. | Bees |
| Monday 11th May | Prayer Plaits | Cut three equal lengths of wool in the colours of your choice. One colour represents yourself, one represents God and one represents other people you are connected with. Knot them together at one end.
As you reflect on your relationship with God and with others plait the wool. Knot the end when you finish and, as you do so, say a prayer commending yourself and those you have thought about, to God’s love. |
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| Sunday 10th May | A Song for Sunday | Jesus be the leader | |
| Saturday 9th May | Sky Watching | Lie down somewhere that you can see the sky. Stay there and watch carefully. What can you see? Look for shapes and movements. Notice that the clouds move slowly. Think about your creator and ask him to lead you and help you follow. | |
| Friday 8th May | Sheep Herding | Watch this short film of an Ariel view of sheep herding Jesus said he was the good shepherd. Thank him that we can trust him to lead us to good places. |
Sheep Herding |
| Thursday 7th May | Footstep Prayers | Walk together slowly, placing your feet carefully one in front of the other. If possible do this somewhere that you can see your footprint – you can even use paint if you’re feeling adventurous! For each footprint pray for one thing. For example: People who help us People who lead us People who are lonely People who are scared Our family Our friends Our school |
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| Wednesday 6th May | Paper Sheep Craft | Make a sheep out of paper – use black paper (or colour in white) for the face and fold strips of white paper to make the curly hair around the face. Stick your sheep onto a lolly stick, or other long item.
Talk about sheep – they know their leader and they follow them. Jesus said he is the good shepherd. What does it mean to follow him? |
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| Tuesday 5th May | Play Simon Says | Choose who will take the role of Simon. Next, Simon stands in front of the player(s) and issues instructions for physical actions and shows how to do them. The instructions should be followed only if prefaced with the phrase “Simon says”. Players should only follow an instruction that is preceded by the phrase “Simon says”. The ability to distinguish fake commands is what matters in this fun game. Talk about: Who do we follow? Who tries to lead us down the wrong path? Ask God to help you follow and lead well. |
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| Monday 4th May | Food Trails | Use your food today to make trails on the plate with a spoon or your finger. Think about the journeys that you go on. Talk about what your journey is now and who is leading you. | |
| Sunday 3rd May | A Song for Sunday | Shine from the Inside Out | Shine |
| Saturday 2nd May | Make Paper Lanterns | Paper Lantern instructions  |
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| Friday 1st May | Red Light, Green Light | One person is chosen to be ‘It’ and he/she stands a good distance away from the other players with his/her back to them. The other players stand in a line facing It. When It calls ‘Green Light,’ the other players move towards him until he spins around, calling ‘Red Light.’ When they hear the red light command the other players must freeze on the spot. Any player seen moving must return to the starting line. The players must remain frozen until the next ‘Green Light’ command is given. Talk about what things are green lights and red lights for you – things that make you want to get going and things that make you want to stop and be still. Thank God for them all. |
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| Thursday 30th April | Blindfold Game | Take it in turns to wear a blindfold. Pass an object to the person wearing the blind-fold, can they work out what it is without being able to see it? You could think about how the object feels, how it smells, if it makes a sound. Maybe you will find out new things about the objects that you hadn’t noticed before. Talk about what new things you are seeing during lockdown that you didn’t see be-fore. |
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| Wednesday 29th April | Light Connections | Watch the film clip of 10 countries at night from space. Think about our human connections all over the world and the God who watches over us all. |
Space Lights |
| Tuesday 28th April | Traffic Lights | Take some traffic light moments together today if one of you feels angry or sad: RED is STOP. Together, pause and notice your body’s sensations, what you’re thinking, what you’re feeling. AMBER is CHANGE. Think about something positive or calming. GREEN is GO. Jump around and shake out the anger or sadness. |
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| Monday 27th April | Lights of Hope | Find some tealights or candles, one for each member of the family. Cut a circular piece of cardboard, eg from a cardboard box, one for each member of the family, and decorate it with anything you have. Light the candles together and pray for people who need hope in their lives right now. | |
| Sunday 26th April | A song for Sunday | Watch the film of “This is Amazing Grace”. God is good! | This is Amazing Grace |
| Saturday 25th April | Hand Prayers | Make hand prayers by drawing round and cutting out two hand shapes, and writ-ing or drawing things you’d like to pray for on small pieces of paper of card. Place the two hands on either side of your prayers and attach with an elastic band or treasury tag. Your prayers are in God’s hand! Printables |  |
| Friday 24th April | Peace Doves | Make an origami peace dove – or just cut out some paper in the shape of a dove. Peace dove instructions Ask God to bring you peace and ask for peace for our world |
Peace dove instructions |
| Thursday 23rd April | Larder Prayers | Find some different items from your food cupbard to use for prayers. For example different shaped pasta, cereal, rice, biscuits. Put them in a bowl and have a good rummage around. Find something hard – pray for people having hard times. Find something with a hole in – pray for people who are missing their friends and family. Find something round and think about the people who are part of your own community. Find something that can easily be crushed and pray for people who are ill or vulnerable. Think of your own prayers for the items in your bowl. |
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| Wednesday 22nd April | Sleepy Animals | Watch the film about the ten animals with interesting sleep habits Sleepy Animals video Talk about how sleep helps you and be thankful. Ask God to help you know his peace and rest. |
Sleepy Animals video |
| Tuesday 21st April | Peace Moments | Take a moment today as a family to stop where you are – it could be anywhere that you are together. Say the following together and finish off the sentence: Right now I see Right now I hear Right now I am touching Right now I feel |
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| Monday 20th April | Together Nests | Make a nest together. You can use anything at all – twigs and branches, pens and pen-cils, pieces of card, boxes and bottles, wool and fabric. As you choose what to use, take a moment to ask God to help you choose only habits and practices that make you stronger. | N/A |
| Sunday 19th April | A Song for Sunday | Sing and do some actions for I can Wriggle Like a Worm. Have some fun being lively! | I Can Wriggle Like a Worm |
| Saturday 18th April | Finger Labyrinth | Make a finger labyrinth – you can draw it, make it with sticks or leaves, play dough, sand, soil – whatever you like! Trace your finger through the labyrinth to the centre and think about the journey you are on. Find God in the centre. |  |
| Thursday 16th April | Growth in Slow Motion | Watch the film of seeds growing. Think about your own life and where there are seeds – seeds of hope, seed of growth. What kind of growth do you think God likes to see? | Growing Seeds Video |
| Wednesday 15th April | Quick Safari | Today, on your walk or in your home, pick up a stone and see what life there is beneath it. Think about all the life that is beneath just one stone. How many living things can you find underneath things? Consider how much life there is among us – even when we are in isolation – ask God to help you to see it when it’s hard. | N/A |
| Tuesday 14th April | Breath Prayers | Breath Prayers. Think of a short phrase that is meaningful to you – it could be Give me Peace, Hold me Up, Be with us – something that can be repeated in one simple breath. As you breath out, say your phrase – do this as a family on on your own. |  |
| Monday 13th April | Colour Spinner | Make a colourful spinner out of card circles and string, using felt pens for your design. For more information check out Colour Spinner. When you spin it, watch the colours and think of signs of life all around you. Say thank you to God. | Colour Spinner  |
| Easter Sunday 12th April | He is Alive! | Look for as many things as you can find that are alive. This is why we celebrate Easter – it’s so much more about life than death. Make butterflies with your two hands and say thank you for the life that you have and for life all around you. | N/A |
| Saturday 11th April | Easter Eggs | Did you know that we have eggs at easter to remind us of the empty tomb after Jesus came back to life? Hold an egg, or something a similar shape in your hand, and think about what this means for you and for other people. If you want you could do this experiment with eggs. You’ll need one hard boiled egg and one uncooked one. Mark the eggs 1 & 2 with a marker. Weigh them. Is one heavier? Put both eggs in water. Do they float or sink? Do you notice any difference in how they sit in water? While they are in water, try and spin them. Do they have differently? Take them out of water an place them on a smooth surface, Spin each of them and then stop them with your finger. How do they behave? Decide which you think is hard boiled then crack it on your head!! Whether hard boiled or raw the eggs should weigh about the same. They should both sink in water but the hard boiled one lies on its side. This is because the small amount of air inside the egg is free to move around in the raw egg so goes to the top. The raw egg does not spin as easily under water. On a smooth surface both eggs spin easily but the hard boiled egg will stop when it is touched. The difference is that one is a solid while one is a fluid. When the raw egg spins, only the shell stops, not the egg inside. |
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| Friday 10th April | Good Friday | Jesus died on the cross the curtain in the temple tore in two. This was predicted in the Bible and showed everyone that something great and new had happened. Take some pieces of paper, kitchen roll, or fabric, and tear them up. As you do this, think about things that you have lost, disappointments, and things that have made you sad. If you have some string or ribbon, wrap each piece of paper or fabric around the string, equally spaced apart. You can then hang the string up in your home or hold it when you want to pray or just be still. | N/A |
| (Maundy) Thursday 9th April | Last Supper | Today we think about Jesus’ last supper, when he took bread and broke it, and wine and drank it, and asked us to do this in his remembrance. When was the last time you truly paid attention to what you were eating — when you truly savoured the experience of food? Often, we eat on autopilot, chowing down a meal while our attention is on the TV or the screen of our devices or a book or a daydream. Choose one meal today where you are sitting with others to think about what you eat. You could choose a meal with bread and grape juice or wine – or just what you are having. You could do this by video link if you live alone. Describe the taste, feel the texture. What do you smell? Think about where the food came from, who worked to get to to your plate. Be mindful of the water, soil, and other elements that were part of its creation as you sit down to eat whatever you are eating. You can reflect on the cultural traditions that brought you this food, the recipes generously shared from friends, or brought from a distant place and time to be a handed down in the family. When we pause to consider all of the people involved in the meal that has arrived on your plate, from the loved ones (and yourself) who prepared it, to those who stocked the shelves, to those who planted and harvested the raw ingredients, to those who supported them, it is hard to not feel both grateful and interconnected. | N/A |
| Wednesday 8th April | Easter Cross | Find two sticks and place them together at right angles to make a cross shape. Tie it together if you like so that it holds. Touch each corner of the cross in turn. As you touch each of the four corners, say: 1. I am loved 2. I am held 3. I belong 4. I am strong |
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| Tuesday 7th April | Easter Gardens | Over the years, we have made our own Easter gardens to remind of of everything that Easter is to us. Today, when you are outside, have a conscious look for some things that might belong in an Easter garden. You could make a garden on a plate (as in the picture), in your garden or just in your imagination. You could find flowers, moss, sticks and soil to represent the garden of Gethsemane, sand or gravel to represent the path that Jesus took, wood to represent the cross, a stone to represent the stone that rolled the tomb away, something empty to represent the empty tomb, white cloth to represent the cloth that was left in the tomb. What is Easter to you? |   |
| Monday 6th April | Easter Reminders | Can you find the following reminders of the Easter story around your home? When you have found them put them somewhere in your home where you’ll see them often. Bread, cup, something red, a nail or pin, 2 sticks, perfume, spices, something empty, a torn fabric, something dead, something alive, something spherical, white cloth, something new. | N/A |
| Sunday 5th April | Song for Sunday | Let’s have some fun today by watching the film for the song Fun. What is the fun and joy in your life? | Fun |
| Saturday 4th April | Treasure in cups | Get 3 cups and put them face down onto the table. Take turns to choose a small object which is precious to you – this could be an item of jewellery, a toy, a piece of food, a coin, a photo etc. Put the item under one of the cups. The person who has chosen the cups shuts his/her eyes while the other players move the cups around. The person then must guess which cup it is under. Every member of the family should have a turn. Give thanks for precious things. |
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| Friday 3rd April | Colour magic | Watch Release your Imagination and pause it. Talk about what the colour did to the people in the film. Think about what colours you have in your new daily life – what things you see more often now than you used to and what colour they are, how they make you feel. | Release Your Imagination | Thursday 2nd April | Power duvets | Lie down together under a duvet. Imagine you are hiding under it – stay really still for as long as you can. Think about things that make you sad or things you have lost. Then, on the count of 1…2…3 suddenly throw it off and jump up in the air for longer than you were still. Think of things that make you happy. Repeat several times. | N/A |
| Wednesday 1st April | Rainbow remembering | Hunt around the house or garden for items the following colours. Put them in a rainbow shape and remember the following people for each colour:
Red – people who love us |
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| Tuesday 31st March | Water works | See what shapes you can make in the water today – it could be in the sink, bath or a bucket of water. Watch as the shapes disappear quickly. Make shape after shape and watch them come and go. Think about things you have lost and things you have found – say thank you for them all. | Water wall |
| Monday 30th March | I spy feelings | Today let’s think about our different feelings. Play the game I Spy but focus on things you can see around you that make you feel… happy? excited? sad? lonely? comforted? warm? scared? hopeful? | N/A |