If you think that having 120 ten-year-olds in church getting hyped up for Christmas with a lot of sugar sounds pretty chaotic then you would be absolutely correct. If you also think it would be a whole lot of fun then you would also be correct. This week we’ve had groups of between 30 and 120 year 5 and 6 children from five different schools coming to St Mary’s for our annual ‘Christmas Unwrapped’ event. This involves quizzes, word searches, rapping, making mince pies, and (most importantly!) teaching kids about the true Christmas story from the Bible.
The children have the opportunity to read the Biblical account for themselves and to ask any question they might have to our very own Nutty Professor (Nick McDonald’s alter ego). These questions ranged from ‘Why do we have Christmas trees?’ to ‘How can Jesus be both God and God’s Son?’ and ‘Why did Jesus die for us?’. It was fantastic to see the children unashamedly ask such profound questions about Jesus and the Christmas story, and to hear clear and engaging answers from Nick (I mean Nutty!).
There was plenty of fun and silliness to be had outside of the more sincere moments of teaching. The kids were thrilled to make their ‘mince pie showstopper toppers’ and to subsequently consume said mince pies on their way out. One child exclaimed ‘Get in!’ when I told him that he was allowed to take his mince pie home. Despite my best efforts, no children made their topper into a portrait of me, but I suppose it was for the best that they generally made them into more Christmassy designs like snowmen and reindeer (and the occasional Christmas pig or squirrel!).
We rounded off the sessions with a Christmas rap performed by our in-house rapper MC Nick and eight selected dancers from the schools. There was plenty of stamping and clapping and the kids were delighted to join in on the refrain:
Check it out, huh! See what it’s worth,
Whatcha gonna do about the miracle birth!
Overall, it’s been a greatly encouraging week of excitement and Christmas joy. Christmas Unwrapped is an amazing opportunity for outreach in our community, teaching the true meaning of Christmas to the children and staff of schools in the area. We can see the ways in which God has worked in sustaining us this week and in the engagement and sincere questions from the children.
Thank you to all the volunteers who came to help with mince pie making, AV, and teaching, and to all those who have prayed for us. We hope that you will continue to pray for the children and staff who came this week and that the seeds planted would grow on good soil.