Children

Moortots and our Oasis café are for everyone: that’s babes in arms, big brothers (either with or without their little sisters), toddlers, parents, child-minders, carers, grandmas, granddads… I think that covers just about everyone! 

Both are great fun and whilst there are differences they both always offer some fantastic craft activities, role play, sand and play dough etc. They’re also planned to give each of our young visitors the chance to play with or on a range of age-appropriate puzzles, toys, bikes and cars.

On Thursdays our Moortots sessions always rounds off with singing time but before that we provide light refreshments, birthday cards, craft materials and at Christmas there’s never a year goes by without a visit from you know who always arrives weighed down with gifts.

If you’re still a bit confused as to what’s the difference is between Moortots and Oasis let Shelley Dring our Children and Families Lead explain: “Oasis is a toddler friendly café that runs from 9.15am till 11.45am on Tuesdays during term time.  It takes place in our church’s large sanctuary space which means that adults are free to sit back, relax and chat whilst their children play safely within view. At MBC we believe that those caring for young children need a bit of time for themselves, so Oasis café is a place where they know they will be listened to, cared for and encouraged. Moortots, meanwhile, is perhaps how you would imaging a more traditional toddler club to be”.

As for cost, well, Oasis (that’s Tuesday mornings between 9.15am and 11.45am) costs £1 for an adult and 50p a child whereas Moortots (Thursdays, between 9.45am until 11.30) costs £1.00 for the first child and 50p for subsequent children. Both of course include coffee, juice and refreshments.

Right now our Friday Moortots is on hold.  However, if anyone is interested in coming along and/or helping could you get in touch with me, that’s Shelley Dring, Children and Families Lead, Moortown Baptist Church, 0113 269 3750. Email shelley.dring.mbc@btconnect.com

There’s a gallery of pictures we took recently at Moortots and Oasis here. If you would like to see a larger version of any of them simply click on the image.

Safeguarding Level 2 Training

 Margaret Brownlee is running TWO training sessions on Saturday 26^th January and Saturday 2^nd February at MBC (you only need to attend ONE of these).

Each sessions run from 9.30am to 12pm (latest). If you volunteer with any of the children’s groups in church (including Rewind) or if you are thinking about getting involved with any of the groups in the future, please see Kate ASAP as all our volunteers are required to be trained to Level 2 every three years, as per our Safeguarding Policy. 

You will receive a certificate on the day and refreshments will be served.

Over the years Diane Towns and her Moortots team have earned something of a reputation in regard to their nativities. Admittedly Jesus, Mary and Joseph plus of course any number of shepherds, angels and kings are a constant. However, quite how they have got away with introducing to the plot numerous  Santa’s, a scruffy life sized dog, an incredibly grumpy innkeeper, Whoopsy Daisy, a hapless angel complete with fairy lights, halo and a tutu and most recently a Super Hero who even the most benevolent of souls would have described as well past his sell by we’ll never know. 

But you’ll be pleased to hear that this year is definitely no exception. 

As I write, rehearsals – yes believe it or not they do rehearse are under way and from what I’ve already glimpsed this Sunday’s offering promises to be one of the best.

Without giving too much away this year’s innkeepers have a prankster son whose antics (and lines) would earn any self respecting sitcom writer the sack. Of course in the end he comes good when he tidies out a stable and invites a young couple to stay the night. The rest of course is history but this doesn’t prevent mum and dad ruing on Shakespeare’s famous line from King Lear that “jesters do oft prove prophets.” 

However, in addition to the promise of witnessing some world class drama Sunday’s Service will also be special for another reason; it will be our Toddler Worker Diane Towns and her “right hand man” Pauline Bridle’s final Moortots session. 

Even if you’ve never been part of Moortots please, please come along for 3pm and make this Sunday really special because as the search now begins for their permanent successors it would be great to give these two truly great stars a fantastic send off. 

Over recent years Diane Towns and Pauline Bridle have built up something of a reputation for their end of term parties. Indeed, few who saw them will ever forget productions starring Woopsie Daisy the hapless angel or Scruffy the rag-tag dog. Their latest blockbuster, however, reached new heights when they brought together Flash, Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Iron Man and a whole load of other super heroes in a play which (eventually) brought us round to the notion that for all their incredible powers it wasn’t someone thrust upon us by Hollywood but Jesus who should really be our hero. 

On Diane’s behalf may I thank all the volunteers who make up the Moortots teams and of course all the mums, dads, grannies, granddads, carers plus uncle Tom Cobbly and all who join them week by week. 

Below is a gallery of pictures taken at the Thursday morning party (simply click on the image to see a larger version) and if you think your’e strong enough there’s also a link HERE that you can click on to watch our Youtube video.

Last Saturday was a long day for some of us!!

After a lovely church day out walking on the Otley Chevin, 8 from our Inters Group(9-11’s) that meet on a Sunday morning came together to sleep over in church.

The evening began with pizza making, the children were competing for best looking pizza and best tasting pizza.  Val Boyd took her time deliberating as she assessed and tasted each one.  She finally decided on giving Francesca Best Looking Pizza for her four season pizza with different toppings in each quarter. The taste test took yet more time but eventually Val declared Mary the winner.  After all that we all enjoyed eating the pizza and talking about our exciting weeks at school.

This was followed by some sweet games.  The chocolate game was my personal highlight, six was the number to roll and the elation at throwing a 6 was palpable.  The key was getting on the very difficult ski gloves as quickly as possible and trying to get as much chocolate in your mouth before someone else threw a 6.  Fun was had by all although some got more chocolate than others!!!

Finally, it was time to sit down and watch ‘Soul Surfer’, a real life film about a girl who struggles with a challenging life experience only to see how God uses the situation to give her a platform for sharing his love. 

This film has many different teaching points but this year I choose to follow it by reinforcing the prayer element.  Each child received a ‘Prayer Experiment Notebook’ to encourage them in their own prayer lives.

Eventually it was time for a game of ‘Sardines’ (hide and seek but one person hides and everyone else has to find them) in the dark.  Everyone had a turn at hiding, some finding very obscure places to cram into and then it was bedtime. The children were all eventually asleep by 12:15am.

The next morning we were up by 7am, eating our breakfast followed by a game of picture scavenger hunt. The morning finished with bacon butties and some chill time before church.

Thanks to Val, Ian and Claire for all their help, I hope they enjoyed it as much as the children and I did….  I guess when you get asked ‘can we do this again?’ you know the children have had a good time…  Maybe at Christmas?

Parents: Our Pulse groups on Sunday mornings are going really well, and we would love to help you engage as a family. To this end you can download a free app called parent cue which will keep you up to date with everything your children are learning about and experiencing.   

Likewise for leaders: Thank you to all the leaders and helpers that make Pulse happen. To help you there is also a free app, this one is called lead small  from which you can download all the small group material direct to your mobile phone.

To help you to download either of these apps simply click on the relevant link above or visit the websites listed below.

http://theparentcue.org/app/

 http://leadsmall.org/app/

Today (Sunday January 28th) we closed our morning Service by welcoming three of our children’s groups back into church to share with us what they had been learning about throughout January. 

Collectively Faithbuilders, Inters and Excavate, that’s all our children aged between 5 and 11 operate under the name PULSE. And based on a passage of scripture from 1 Timothy chapter 4 verse 8: “Training the body has some value. But being godly has value in every way. It promises help for the life you are now living and the life to come” they have been working their way through a programme that combines tough physical exercise with four equally  challenging tasks namely: practicing hearing about God, practicing praying to God, practicing talking about God and finally practicing living for God. 

The project is so designed that what ever is being discussed on a Sunday can also be talked about at home throughout the week; with both the children and their families being encouraged to fill in and return their own, personalised log books.  

Below is a short video which leads you through January and which shows you step by step each of the four different exercises. 

Today’s Service finished with the church praying for the children and then the children praying for the church; hardly rocket science but a rare and most welcome two way engagement.  

In February PULSE moves on to engage with what the bible in general and what Jesus in particular has to say about Kindness. If the commitment the children have shown to Commitment is anything to go by I can safely predict that from here on in not only will Moortown Baptist Church itself be awash with it but so too will lots and lots of local homes. 

https://youtu.be/4cyfXvRcWCg

Our first new style Messy Church – Messy Social is at 3pm this coming Sunday, 28th January. This will be an opportunity to hang out, play pool, table tennis, football, board games etc. All that and a hot meal!

As you would expect we are always glad of more help so if anyone would like to get involved in our  Messy Church team please see Cas or Graham.

As we reported in an earlier post our Childerns’ Worker Cas Stoodley and her Sunday morning team have just launched a new programme which will integrate the teaching for three of our groups (that’s Faithbuilders, Excavate and Inters) as never before. 

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