Just a reminder

We had a lovely afternoon in the chapel yesterday: we had been going to have a concert with a terribly good organist, but he was unable to play our rather basic electronic organ, being used to the likes of Westminster Abbey's pipe organ.  So a change of plan was on the cards....

A "God-breeze" [as someone calls them, but my apologies - I can't remember whose phrase that is!] came to me last week and I slowly pulled things together.  A letter sent out to families through the school, and posters put up around the village.  A Facebook announcement, and some chatting with older people.  

And it all came together.  "An Afternoon of Christmas Family Fun" at the chapel yesterday afternoon. We had lots of people there, of all ages, with children and without.  We sang carols, listened to the Christmas Story in four installments from a children's bible, and had breakout sessions where the folk went and decorated biscuits, coloured pictures and cards, tried to answer some quiz questions, played with a Lego set or a woollen set of Nativity figures, had a go at "sticking the star on the stable" in lieu of the "tail on the donkey" and generally had fun.  Older folk enjoyed interacting with the children, and participated in the activities as well.

We had tea afterwards, and some folk seemed reluctant to leave, they were enjoying being with us so much!  More people turned up than I had really expected, and some of the children even dressed up as their favourite Nativity character, as I had suggested that they might in the letter and the poster.  We didn't have the full complement, but we did have Mary and a King - you've got to start somewhere!

It brought some new families in to the chapel, and a lot of people did some simple things to bring Christ back into their Christmas, which was my aim.  

I'm linking to Ang's blog for A Pause in Advent with this post.

(Image from angalmond.blogspot.co.uk)