2019 Christingle comes to MYB2

The magic of Christingle never fails, especially when all the Christingles are lit – this year we sang ‘Shine, Jesus, shine’.  Lovely to have some new families this year. And the ‘Happy Birthday’ slot had us all collapsing in laughter as Ruth tried so hard to get the names of the four birthday people in order of their birthday. After four goes, we gave up! See all the photos

2019 November Noah and the great flood

Everything had gone wrong in the wonderful world that God had created. People were doing bad things and not listening to God. So he decided to start again and wash everything away. Only Noah and his family were to be saved -and a pair of every living animal too. Noah had always obeyed God.

So God told Noah to build a big boat (ark) and keep his family safe on it before he flooded the earth. With the help of two lolly sticks each, we managed to re create the noise of tapping as the ark was built. The children helped Pat to fill the ark with the animals and she continued with the story of how they all stayed on board while it rained and waters rose. Only when they knew it was safe to leave did they come out. And God had put a rainbow in the sky which was his promise he would never again flood the earth – and we can rely on God to keep his promises.

We made rainbow crosses and tied our prayer to them, iced animal biscuits, and made hanging rainbows to remind that ‘God keeps his promises’!

Wonderful photos

2019 October A wonderful Baptism

No, not a baptism in the Bible but a real baptism of our youngest member, little Teddy Relf, who behaved impeccably all the way through. What a joy to see his brothers – young as they are – blessing him by drawing a cross on his forehead. Just a few photos.

2019 September Back to the beginning…

No MYB2 in the holiday month of August but back to the beginning with Creation in September.

Julie on duty for the story of Creation and especially mankind in the form of Adam and Eve. Julie enlisted Stuart and Georgia to be Adam and Eve.

And the children had great fun bringing up the animals they had brought from home. The innocent little apple gets a lot of blame in this story, but we wrote our prayers on apple shapes and pinned them to a tree.

As for the story, well, God gave Adam and Eve everything they could possibly need to live well – with one thing they could not do – and that was not to eat the fruit on just one tree in the garden. The snake, representing evil, persuaded Eve that it was nonsense and of course she could eat it. Which she did, and gave some to Adam. God found out and banished them from the garden. All they had to do was do what God said. And that is still true today.

We made our own trees and decorated them with leaves. Then we made a snake and draped it over the tree. We decorated apple shape biscuits with snakes. A very busy morning. Take a look.

 2019 July A little girl helps

This month’s Bible hero is a little girl!

General Naaman was an amazing commander of the army of Aram. But he was poorly. No one could help him. He looked TERRIBLE. He had leprosy which meant his skin was covered in nasty lumps and bumps and parts of his body started to go numb. His wife’s slave girl (captured from Israel) knew all about God and what he could  do. She told her mistress that the General should go to see God’s prophet in Samaria. “He will cure him”, she said.

So Naaman’s boss, the KIng of Aram sent with a letter with Naaman, to the King of Israel asking him to make Naaman better. The poor King was speechless – he couldn’t heal people and he tore all his robes in frustration. Now the prophet Elisha heard all about this and told the King to send Naaman to him. He sent his servant to tell Naaman to dip himself  in the river Jordan seven times and he would be healed. Naaman was offended. “TI thought he would have come to speak to me at least! And wash in that muddy old river! No way – I shall go home.” 

His servant persuaded him to think again and so he did as he was told – and after the seventh time, he emerged good as new! You see God doesn’t have to make grand gestures or use important people to achieve what he wants. We just have to obey!

Photos here.

2019  June 2nd – Daniel in the Lions’ Den

2019 May The Fiery Furnace

King Nebuchadnezzar made a rule that all his people had to bow down in front of a huge gold statue made in his image every time  the heralds blew their instruments. Anyone who didn’t obey would be thrown into a fiery furnace! Now, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego preferred to bow down to their God and were not going to do what the King said. So there were indeed thrown into the furnace – but a fourth figure was seen in there with them! It was an angel who saved them from the flames. Even the King was impressed by the power of the God they trusted!

Julie on story had everyone playing their instruments every time she mentioned it – what a  noise! Our prayers were suitably on musical instrument shapes. We had gingerbread versions of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego to decorate, a fiery furnace to put the figures and a spinner to show them in the flames.

The important lesson was that we can trust God to help us in any situation. (Not gold statues.)

Check photos here.

2019 April Palm Sunday

Well, was actually April 14th, but we pre-empted it at MYB2 on April 7th with our own version of Palm Sunday, in which we paraded around the church, waving the traditional palms and  shaking the not so traditional maracas and bells to the very traditional song ‘Make Way’ as we re-enacted the entering of Jerusalem.

More singing, praising and hosannnas followed inside church. What a treat to make a very, loud and joyful noise to the Lord!

Jesus had such a welcome. But it all turned sour as we know and the The ‘crowd’ welcomed Jesus as their King, watched in amazement as he got very angry and cleared the temple of the traders, and cheered when he healed people who were lame and blind. Yes, the people loved Jesus, but the leaders did not like what he was doing at all and plotted to kill him. And so we left the story there—to be continued on Easter weekend.

Check photos here.

2019 March 3rd Jesus clears the temple

2019 February 3rd a Journey down to Egypt

Me, you and Breakfast 2 on February 3rd took place on a freezing cold day, hence some of the big jumpers! But the atmosphere was warm. The story was about the journey Mary and Joseph took with the young Jesus down to Egypt to be safe from the murderous King Herod. An angel had warned Joseph in a dream. The prayers were written on dream shapes, there were Pharaoh masks to represent Egypt and cakes and balloons for MYB2’s 7th birthday. Photos here.

2019 January 6th Following the star

The first MYB2 of the new year and it is of course Epiphany! Not that the children understand what Epiphany is yet, but they do know that the ‘kings’ were not present in the Christmas Nativity. So today we journeyed with the Kings to the stable.

The children wore plain crowns and journeyed round the church behind Joe, carrying the star, returning to the story area where the kings were added to the stable. The Kings/Wise Men took every expensive gifts to the new born king as befits the special King he was and is. We couldn’t afford to do that, but we wrote promises on star shapes that we thought would make Jesus very happy. Then we decorated our crowns, iced star biscuits and made gift boxes, which were filled with sweets to take home.

Photos here. 

2018 December 2nd Christingle comes to MYB2!

Me, You and Breakfast 2 falls on the first Sunday; the first Sunday in December is traditionally a Christingle service. So, we did a mash-up of both to quote modern music parlance! We sat in pews, like a service, but there was lots of movement around church. Ruth talked us through the meaning of the Christingle, then we all moved to the craft tables to make our own. We came back to sing the Christingle song with a veritable orchestra of percussion instruments. Back to the tables to write prayers on Christingle shapes, thinking about on who or where we would like Jesus’ light to shine. Then we carefully lit our Christingles and had another jolly good sing! Refreshments went down well with doughnuts (round like the Christingle, with red (jam) in the middle like the blood shed by Jesus), choc chip brioche and Christmas cup cakes. See how it went! Photos

2018 November 4th Mary has a surprise visitor

The Angel Gabriel visited a very young Mary to tell her something very special, which was a huge surprise to her. She was to have a baby who would be the Son of God. That was a surprise, but even more surprising was that she said ’Yes’! We made cribs from craft sticks, angel biscuits, cute angel figures which lit up – and wrote our prayers on a scroll, which was a bit like the sort of thing the angel might have read from. We wondered, too, if we always say ‘Yes’ when God asks us to do something? Photos here.

2018 October 7th The Lost Son

The October Me, You and Breakfast 2 was very hectic. Almost everyone who could have been there, was!

We tackled the story of the Lost Son, who asked for his inheritance early and went off into the world to have lots of fun. Well, he did have lots of fun – until his money ran out. He had to take a job looking after pigs, sleeping out in the open. He even resorted to eating the pig swill because he was so hungry.

One morning he though to himself, “ Back in my father’s house they have plenty of food and I would be warm again!” So he came to his senses and went home. Would his father take him back and forgive him? His father saw him coming and ran to met him, gave him a huge welcome home hug and threw a big party for him!

Which of course is just a picture of what God does if we want to say sorry and go back to him.

We made Welcome home hugs, pig masks and even made our very own pigswill (which tasted a whole lot better than the pig swill of biblical times!) And Pat made not one, but two cakes so we could pretend we were at the welcome home party. Photos here

2018 September 2nd How to be a good neighbour

2018 August 5th

It was a holiday month so we met on Drinkstone’s playing field for a picnic breakfast. It was so hot, we had to camp under the trees.

2018 July 1st Blind Bartimaeus is given his sight back

2018 June 3rd Pentecost – the church’s birthday

Ruth gave us a recap of when Jesus returned to heaven after promising he would send a helper to be with the disciples (and all future disciples!) for ever. A few weeks later, all the disciples were gathered together when there came a sound like a rushing wind, and what seemed to be flames resting on their heads, and they were all given the ability to speak to other people in their own language. This amazing happeneing was the cause of many many people wanting to join these disciples, who clearly had something special going for them! We now know this was the Holy Spirit arriving to be with us for ever, living in us, making us aware of God and his love for us. He gave the disciples great boldness and we can have that too! On that day, the Christian Church was born.

So we had lots of wind and flame activities, plus a dove (the symbol for the Holy Spirit when Jesus was baptised) and cakes to celebrate the church’s birthday – and that of Sue and Julie as well. Lots of photos here.

2018 May 6th Jesus goes back to heaven

After that wonderful time when Jesus came back from the dead, his disciples were in for another shock when he left them again, but this time to go back to heaven, disappearing through the clouds—right in front of their eyes. We had fun with prayers on fluffy clouds, plus an edible ascending Jesus and a mechanical ascending Jesus, which somehow didn’t make it onto the photos unfortunately. We wanted to help everyone remember that although Jesus had gone back to heaven, he would still be around as our friend and helper. And so, despite it being May, we made snowflakes to stick onto this poem:

This is my snowflake, I made it myself
If it were real, it would quickly melt.
It wouldn’t be around for ever and ever.
But there is one thing that won’t leave us, no, never.
it is God’s love for each of us all.
He will never leave us, he’s there when we call
So if I feel sad, or just need a friend,
I can always turn to God, on him I can depend.

Check out the photos here

2018 April MYB2 was combined with a wonderful church celebration for Easter. Read about it here. You may need to scroll down to 2108 Easter Celebration.

2018 March MYB2 was cancelled because of snow. 

2018 February 4th Jesus gets lost (well that’s what his parents thought!)
This day was special – it was the sixth birthday for MYB2. So we were always going to have birthday cake and some silliness! But we had to have a story – so we thought about a time when Jesus was really growing up – he was about 12. And he went on a five day journey from Nazareth to Jerusalem with his parents, family and friends. They were going for a very special occasion, the Passover feast, which also included a special celebration in the temple.

After it was all over, they set off home again. Shortly, Mary and Joseph realised Jesus was not with them! So they set off back again to look for him. They eventually found him in the temple, listening to and learning from the teachers there as they taught all the stories from their Bible. (Just like we do at MYB2!). They had been so worried! But Jesus said, ” You should have known I would be here learning my Father’s business”. He meant his heavenly Father of course.

Our activities included decorating a birthday prayer card, making a collage of Jesus in the temple and decorating a birthday cupcake,with the obligatory candle, which were later made into a cake tower and the candles lit. Just as Mary and Joseph had looked everywhere for Jesus, the children had to lok everywhere for their birthday good bags. Take a look at our Photos.

January 7th The Journey of the Wise Men (Epiphany)

We had such fun at Me, You and breakfast 2 on Sunday! Thinking about the story of the Wise Men’s journey, following a new star in the sky to find the new king they had heard would be born. Off they went across the desert on their camels, bearing expensive gifts for the new king. Plenty of scope for activities then! Star shaped biscuits to ice and decorate, a crown fit for a king to make, gift boxes to make containing a picture of the gift we would like to give to Jesus. Singing of course, but using instruments that William’s Mum and Dad had brought along, closing with a hilarious ‘pin the tail on the camel’! It left us all thinking – what gift should we give to Jesus? After all, he deserves the very best we have to offer. Here’s some photos.

2017 (Earlier events use side menu 'Archive of Events')

December 3rd 'Christingle Sunday'

Me, You and Breakfast 2 in December was all about Christingle. Ruth talked us through the meaning of the Christingle, then we all made our own. We wrote prayers on Christingle shapes, carefully lit our Christingles and had a jolly good sing! No breakfast this month but we made up for it with doughnuts (round like the Christingle, with red (jam) in the middle like the blood shed by Jesus), choc chip brioche and loads of different cakes. See how it went! Photos

November 5th ‘Jesus walks on water Me, You and Breakfast 2 in November was all about the story of Jesus walking on water. Jesus was able to walk on water (after all, he is a miracle worker!) and invited Peter to join him. All was well until Peter noticed the wind and the waves and took his attention off Jesus. The message was simple – keep your eyes fixed on Jesus and he will keep you safe. Now, what activities could we do to match that? We wrote prayers asking for Jesus’  help in various situations. We made a collage which enabled Jesus to be moved so he ‘walked’ on water, which went down well. Then we did actually try to ‘walk on water’. Well, it was a thick cornflour mixture which moved and felt liquid when you put your hands in it, but when you stamped on it, it went solid and supported you! Great fun, if a bit messy…. It was also Bonfire Night so as a nod to that, we made bonfire cakes. Check out our photos.

October 1st ‘Feeding of the 5,000’

The most recent Me, You and Breakfast 2 coincided with Harvest Festival – cue tractors and autumnal leaves! Our story was that of the ‘Feeding of the 5,000’ when everyone had lunch because one little boy was generous enough to share his lunch of five loaves and two fishes, with which Jesus miraculously enabled the feeding of everyone – with many baskets left over. Harvest shows us God’s generosity to us and reminds us to share what we have with those who have little, just as the little boy in the Bible story did. We had great fun assembling a tractor jigsaw on which we wrote or drew what we could share with others, followed by leaf collages which we turned into table mats with the help of a laminating machine. And probably the children’s favourite – biscuits shaped like fish, which had to be covered in chocolate scales… See the photos.

September 3rd ‘The calming of the Storm’

After our August break, Me, You and Breakfast 2 was back today, thinking about another miracle Jesus did. Jesus and his disciples were having a well earned day off. They went out  onto Lake Galilee in their fishing boat. Lake Galilee, it must be said, is more of a sea than a lake, and is subject to sudden storms! Jesus was so tired, he fell fast asleep.  It had started out as a lovely day, but a huge storm came out of nowhere, with raging winds and heavy seas, with waves that threatened to capsize the boat. The disciples were terrified and thought they would drown. They woke Jesus up, saying, “Don’t you care about this?” Immediately, Jesus told the winds and waves to be calm and they did.
Of course, the disciples were amazed at what Jesus could do, but he said “You shouldn’t have been afraid. You should trust God to look after you.”
The children wrote prayers on clouds for people going through a bit of a storm themselves, had great fun decorating cakes with crashing waves, making cork boats that really did sail and making  a ship in a bottle, in which the ship never sank however much of a storm you made while shaking the bottle. The new song we learned summed it up really: “With Jesus in the boat, we can smile at the storm, and go sailing home.” See our photos.

July 2nd ‘The Wedding in Cana’

The photos on this month may need some explanation as to why Julie is telling the story apparently drinking wine, surrounded by empty wine bottles! Of course, the story was the Wedding in Cana, where they ran out of wine. Jesus was one of the guests and to save embarrassment for the host, he turned the water in the large stone jars into wine – wine that was even better than the original stuff! He did this to show his power, but it also shows his love – and how EVERYTHING gets better when Jesus is around.
We couldn’t perform a miracle – only Jesus can do that – but we did turn boring old lemonade into a pink fizzy drink! On the theme of love, we made spiral heart mobiles and heart shaped biscuits.
For a change there was only one birthday this month and Isla got ‘Happy Birthday to you’ all to herself! See the photos.

June 4th ‘A special Baptism service’

Me, You and Breakfast 2 on June 4th saw the christening of two of our lovely girls, Abby and Caroline, and a blessing for Caroline’s older sister, Lorelai, who didn’t remember her christening! We sang songs, decorated doves to remind us that the Holy Spirit came down in the form of a dove when Jesus was baptised, and all the children wrote a prayer for each of Abby and Caroline to go in their own special box. There were also three birthdays to celebrate which called for a lot of singing and plenty of cake. It was a very joyful, special and most of all, meaningful occasion. With grateful thanks to Ruth for producing such a wonderful service, to all those who came to support the girls on their special day, served breakfast, helped with the activities, clear up, eat cakes and celebrate everything that is good about Me, You and Breakfast 2. Check out the photos.

May 7th ‘Breakfast in the Beach’

Pat was on story today and roped the children in to help her make a collage of a fishing trip Jesus’ disciples went on after Jesus had been killed on the cross and come back to life again. They weren’t sure what to do now that Jesus wasn’t around every day like before. So they went fishing. They fished all night and caught nothing. Next morning they saw a man on the shore, who told them to lower their nets on the other side of the boat. So they did – and they caught a huge quantity of fish. Well, it was Jesus of course. With Jesus on their side, they could do anything – and so it is for us.

Our children embarked on writing prayers on fish shaped cards, beautifully decorated by Sue – but first they had to ‘catch’ their fish with a fishing rod with a magnet on the end. After learning a new song (‘Our God is a great big God’), more fishy activities ensued – chocolate cupcakes decorated to look like fish – and then we made woven rainbow fish. We finished by singing ‘Happy Birthday’ to no less than five people in the room, all with May birthdays. See the photos here.

April 2nd Why do we have eggs at Easter?

Fantastic  ‘Me, You and Breakfast 2’ today – it took us all by surprise when the number of children and families doubled. and our usual 8 to 10 children plus parents became 19 children plus parents – and a couple of grandparents and one great grandma. What a joy though! Easter story this month trying to explain why we have chocolate eggs at Easter. No eggs, or chocolate or Easter bunnies in the Bible! But eggs hatch to a new life and that’s what Jesus brought when he rose from the dead – for everyone who wants it. Photos.

March 5th Jonah and the Whale
Jonah and the Whale at Me today. Lots of whale activities, of course – icing whale biscuits, throwing ‘Jonah’ into the fantastic whale Sue made, and then blowing Jonah out again by means of Pippa’s creativity! The serious message was that God sent Jonah to tell the people to start behaving. Jonah didn’t want to do that – he reckoned they were bad people and didn’t deserve God’s love! He ran away from God on a ship; a huge storm arose. Jonah thought it was his fault because he had run away and he told the sailors to throw him overboard as a punishment. But God saved him by sending a whale in which Jonah spent three days before getting back on dry land. (Echoes of Easter story here…) God loves everyone – even the ones we think are beyond the pale.  Jesus died at Easter for ALL those people, and rose again three days later to show life with him is a brand new life – forever. Photos.

February 5th David and Goliath
Today’s story from the Bible was the very well known story of David and Goliath. Julie really brought it to life with terrific audience participation e.g. David was a shepherd who looked after his sheep (cue loud baa-Ing). But the main point was  that David might have been small, and Goliath ENORMOUS, but as David trusted God to keep him and his sheep safe for wild animals, he also trusted him to keep him safe from Goliath. Loads of photos here.