Last Sunday afternoon, families at St John’s Church in Chilcompton had a whale of a time learning about Jonah and the Whale together.

Children and their families took part in eight exciting activities, discovering for

themselves how dark, wet and smelly it was inside the whale as they plunged their hands into buckets of gunge hunting for Jonah. Squeals of laughter were heard from those in another corner who were trying to throw bean bags, representing food, into the whale’s mouth. Other activities included making boats from junk, making a throw and catch Jonah game and making a whale that spewed Jonah from his mouth.

The older children learnt how to be creative in worship with flags and showed the rest of us what they had be learning during worship and story time. A tea of fish fingers, jacket potatoes and baked beans was enjoyed by all who attended, finished off with whale biscuits that the children had decorated earlier and a Jelly full of goodies that made it look like the contents of a whale’s stomach. One mother of two said: “It was a great place for families to spend some quality time together on a Sunday afternoon and our kids really enjoyed it.”

Messy Church takes place at St John’s Church in Chilcompton each month. It is the ideal place for children and their families to enjoy different crafts, learn about the Bible and share food together.

The next Messy event will be Messy Easter on Sunday, 2nd April at 3 p.m.

Tina Collins