Messy Church started its Spring term on January 14th at Orsett School.
The theme this time was looking at Passover and how every year Jesus would go from Nazareth to Jerusalem with his parents for Passover.
When Jesus was 12 years old, the family, which would have been the whole family and neighbours, went as usual. When Joseph and Mary finished their worship in the temple, they left Jerusalem, but Jesus had stayed behind, but they didn’t know Jesus wasn’t with them!. When they couldn’t find him, after a day of travelling, Mary and Joseph started looking for Jesus. When they couldn’t find him in the travelling party they went back to Jerusalem to look for him and after 3 days of searching they found Jesus in the temple! He was sitting with the teachers and was asking questions and listening to their answers. When they asked Jesus why he had done this, Jesus answered them saying ‘Why are you looking for Me? Don’t you know that I would be doing My Father’s business? They didn’t really understand the answer, but as Jesus grew up, Mary remembered it.
During Messy Church the children looked at the food eaten during Passover and how special plates with 6 ‘holes’ are used. They also looked at places and things that are special to them, in the same way the Temple was special to Jesus. The children had a map and put the places that are important to them and made heraldic shields with the things they had picked as important to them.
The session finished with a shared meal.
