Family Service

The first Sunday of the month is always the Family Service at our church. There's no KatCh group, and everyone stays together for a fun, family friendly service. And today's service was just great!

The main theme was Jesus feeding the five thousand, as seen through the eyes of a female baker called Hulda, who had baked the loaves of bread and had packed them in a lunch box for her son, who was the boy who provided the five loaves and two fish for Jesus to use.

We kicked the service off with some great worship songs, including this one ...


Blessed Is The Name Of The Lord

And then the two service leaders started off the service by giving out a little paper bag to each person with a gift inside, but we weren't allowed to open it yet. They also asked us to provide the sound effects for the story which was about to be acted out. Those sitting on the right side of the church had to 'gobble' quietly, those in the middle had to 'gobble' louder, and those on the left side of the church had to 'gobble' as loud as they could, and then one lady who was particularly talented at burping on demand, had to burp right at the end. And so every time the word gobble/ed/ing was mentioned, we had to do the gobbles, getting louder from right to left, with the burp at the end! Hehe!

And then the story began, and out came Hulda, to be introduced to the congregation. And oh my, Hulda had five o'clock shadow, thick black eyebrows, and a very masculine-looking watch and wedding ring on 'her' left hand! It was just like panto! The 'dame' in question didn't half get into his character though, camping it up and flouncing about in his dress with his handbag on his arm and a bright pink wig, and he had the congregation in stitches!

So, we were told that Hulda was by far the best baker in the whole of Bethseda, and that she made her loaves of bread with a special secret recipe. When she had finished her work for the day, she walked home and hiked up the hill to find Jesus preaching to the five thousand at the top. Another church member was dressed as Jesus, and there were more church members dressed as members of the crowd of people listening to him.

As far as I remember, I think the story then paused for a while, to talk about how baking was Hulda's talent, and that God gives each of us a special talent to use. We all had to think of our talent, and then shout them out all together. Seren shouted out 'Reading', and I shouted out 'Playing the Clarinet'. We were then allowed to open our gift bags, to find a fish symbol drawn on a piece of paper, and a pen, and a piece of flapjack.

We were asked to write our special talent on the fish, put it back in the bag, get up and walk around the church and swap paper bags with everyone, saying "Here is my special talent; God gave it to me, and to thank God, I am giving it to you."

So we did!

When we had all settled back down, we heard/saw the rest of Hulda's story. As was narrated and acted out, Hulda's friends in the crowd around Jesus kept telling her all about this fabulous bread they were eating, that was even better than hers, and she got very upset. She kept asking everyone who had made the bread, and in the end, they told her to ask the boy near Jesus, her own son.

So she found her son (who was acted by a man taller than Hulda the dame!) who told her all about how one of Jesus's disciples had asked him to donate the contents of his lunchbox to the crowd, and that Jesus performed a miracle and turned the bread into enough food to feed all of the hungry people. When Hulda realised that it was in fact her own bread that was so good, she was very happy!

We then sang some more fabulous worship songs, including this one, which is now Seren's new favourite worship song ...


Lord I Lift Your Name On High

After the service was over, we went through to the hall for a hot drink and a chat with various church members, and it was there that I was asked to join the next local House Group meeting! The church has various House Groups spread around the town, and it just so happened that I was speaking to the lady who runs the House Group in my area of town. They meet on a Tuesday night, twice a month, for a bible study session and a chat, and they've invited me to come along to their next meeting, which happens to be this Tuesday coming.

I was a little nervous to say yes at first, because obviously I probably won't know very many people there at first, but God wouldn't have placed the opportunity so firmly in my lap if He didn't want me to take that opportunity; so I said that I'd check with Adrian that he was happy to babysit, and that I was hopeful that I'd be able to attend. Yay!

Things seem to be moving so fast now, what with the Alpha Course starting after half term, and these House Group meetings twice a month, reading my Bible every night before I go to sleep, reading other Christian books, church every Sunday ... God is well and truly taking over my life ... And I love it!

And so does Seren. She is really embracing Christianity like I've never seen her do before, and she's loving every second of it. :o)

I'll leave you with this week's Text of the Week from the church pamphlet, and a prayer request.

"He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, "He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust." Psalm 91 v 1-2

And the prayer request is for a teenaged boy named Matthew in our congregation. He has cystic fibrosis and is currently in hospital on IVs, so any prayers for a swift recovery for him would be appreciated.

Thank you xx