A DIFFERENT HARVEST FESTIVAL - ALL AGE SERVICE

I decided not to go to church this morning, because I didn’t feel 100%, so Mr HCB went off on his own and I stayed at home and watched online.

It was an “all age service” - and it worked very well.  All the children seem to enjoy it, especially decorating a potato - don’t ask - but the team “Potato Patata” won!

Laura and Jess did really well singing – and Noah was excellent on the drums as usual.

Laura and Peter, both read beautifully, and then Mark, who was leading the service, spoke about showing Jesus’ love in action.

He reminded us that:

1.  Our relationship with God is important

2.  Our relationships with our family are also important

3.  We need to look out for those who have less than we have.

We need to make provision for those in need and we must not let the good things get wasted. He said we must use what God has given us to bless others and we do this at Gorse Hill Baptist Church in many ways:

The Community Fridge and Café

Language lessons

Cooking lessons

Boxes of Hope

He then asked if we are doing all we can in our relationships?

Are we serving and seeking to serve those who need it most?

Mark reminded us that in the reading it said “When we harvest, we should always keep something for the poor among us.”  He also said it’s not just a good idea for some and not others - we all need to be doing it.

He then encouraged people to go forward and either write or draw a picture of their favourite food - lots of children did this - but many of the adults were rather reticent!  When he read out the favourite foods a bit later, pizza was top of the list with chocolate appearing too!

There were lots of different logos for the children and adults to guess, including MacDonalds, Apple, Adidas, Liverpool (on the collage), Rover and several others. 

Everyone was encouraged to go forward and to write or draw a picture on a leaf of a word or something that had meant something to them in the service.

Obviously, I wasn’t there, but something that spoke to me was the at the bottom right of my collage - “We must use what God has given us to bless others.”

Mark then prayed using the words on the leaves - he said he had prayed for some strange things in his time, but never for “Harry Kane”, which was the name on one of the leaves - I wondered if Mr. HCB wrote that one, but he said he didn’t - however, I have no doubt he will be wishing Harry Kane was playing this afternoon, but as he says “He’s not so we have to get on without him!”

All in all a good service and I enjoyed seeing the children taking part.  I have asked permission from their parents for their photographs to be in my collage. 

As with a lot of churches, we no longer have a huge Harvest display, but instead, as Mei reminded us, our Harvest donations will go to Operation Agri for the work they do in Tanzania to help farmers there.

Have a great week and many thanks for your continued comments, stars and hearts, which are all much appreciated.