Australia

First confirmed sightings of a Messy Church starting up in Australia! I’m very excited. Jane and I met Karen Mitchell-Lambert back in the summer in a series of coffee shops on the Strand (unintentionally – the one we planned online to meet at had no seats, so Spooks-like, armed with mobile phones, we bolted from cafe to cafe in search of each other).
Karen and her colleague Ingrid were over in the UK on a sabbatical Fresh Expressions discovery trip, and I think went home with many ideas, including messy ones. It’s really good to think of these personal links on the other side of the world. Karen wrote from Sydney today (or would that be tomorrow with the time difference?):
‘Well, we had our first Messy Church tonight.
‘We used the Christmas theme and invited all our baptismal and edge families and a lot of them turned up. (Very exciting and surprising!!) We think we had 40 – 50 people all up.
‘We even had a family turn up who usually send their kids but don’t come.
‘We made angels, stars, lanterns, sheep and had a shed-building exercise for those inclined! We also offered the music and drama option. For some of the drama we conned some of the parents to help out and they got so into it!! It was great!!!
‘We also had a couple of adult questions on a sheet that adults could do or talk about. Most skimmed over it.
‘The feedback was really positive!!
The plan is for next year we will do four and the year after we are aiming for once a month. Let’s hope it can happen.’
And she added in a PS:
Hi Messy Bloggers,Just wanted to thanks to all of you for your encouragement support and prayers when we were over in August, it was such a blessing to ooze around such a creative bunch..Your prayers have paid off and we are on our way!!May your Christmas be richly blessed and your ministry continue to grow!.Lots of love..Karen