Go M.A.D. (Make And Do)
was a children's craft and activity
workshop (for 5-11 year olds) organised by the Circuit Youth Team of the Poole
& Swanage Methodist Churches which ran on Sunday 24th November
from 3—7:30 pm at Upton Methodist Church.
65 Children from all over the area came on the
day, most of them from Upton itself (having come along to The
Light Factory that we did in the summer). We were really encouraged by
the attendance which was nearly double what we got last year at Hands
On Praise.
As you can see from the running order below the
programme was a mixture of craft projects, performance activities and
Christian songs which culminated, after a shared tea, in an act of
worship.
The craft projects were:
The children enjoyed a very lively praise session
led by yours truly (who probably enjoyed it as much as them!). We sang
some great modern action songs to backing tracks which we then repeated
later on in the worship.
When they registered for Go M.A.D. the children
opted to do creative music, dance or drama. As we had so many more
children this year it was always going to be fun trying to run these three
groups simultaneously. Somehow we pulled it off and Suzannah (creative
music), Martin (drama) and Anna (dance) all did a fantastic job of leading
the sessions.
After our shared tea, without too many spillages,
we went into our time of worship. As you can probably imagine with 65
children plus about 20 leaders and helpers the Church was looking pretty
full before anyone else had even arrived! Then came several parents with
brothers and sisters - then folk from the Church and from other churches
in the Circuit. Needless to say we were packed solid - it was a brilliant
sight!
The worship included all the songs we'd been
singing and the performances of the three workshops. It also featured the
finals of the Craziest Costume Competition and Maddest Hatter Parade. The
six finalists in each category modelled their creation and the winner was
judged by the volume of the cheers from the congregation!
The worship finished with a quick quiz and a
comment by myself based on 1 Corinthians 1: 21b:
'So God chose to use the message that sounds foolish to save those
who believe.'
Although being a Christian can sound to some like a mad crazy idea -
it's actually most most sensible thing anyone can do!
All in all I think the day was a great success.
Parents were very positive and above all the children really enjoyed themselves.
I certainly went home feeling satisfied - albeit exhausted! We did what we
set out to do.
Do have a look at some photos of Go M.A.D. in the
Go M.A.D. Gallery!!!
