Other craft activities included colouring in names of God to make place mats:

We also had face-painting:

Interestingly, not all the craft-building led to towers! We also had butterflies:

… and spaceships:

… and a nod to the World Cup:

In everything, however, there were evident signs of fun and creativity. God is a creative God who created all things for His pleasure. People today enjoyed a taste of that pleasure and had a lot of fun.

Deut 32:3-4 says ‘I will proclaim the name of the Lord.Oh, praise the greatness of our God!He is the Rock, his works are perfect,and all his ways are just. A faithful God who does no wrong,upright and just is he.’ One of the craft activities explored this theme through painting rocks:

The winner of the rock competition was this one:

(My verse for this one would be ‘God is a fierce rock’!)

The craft activities involved a number of different ways of building strong (or not so strong…) towers:

With dominoes:

With straws:

With tubes and card:

The creativity of helpers, children and adults is to be wondered at! Looks like they had a great time.

The Big Birthday Bash is now officially underway!

From 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. we have been celebrating God’s faithfulness through a range of activities. First of all, we enjoyed a trip down memory lane, looking at old photos of Goldthorpe, from the time when the church was in Beever Street to the present day:

We are grateful to all who donated or loaned photos of old Goldthorpe. Did you know that there used to be trams in Goldthorpe? Or that the market has been trading since 1910?

We remembered the first wedding at Beever Street (Ralph and Letty Fletcher in 1993):

We also enjoyed seeing how hairstyles and fashions have changed over the years!

Some photos celebrated all that has happened since the church’s move to Market Street: family services, Christmas celebrations, coffee mornings, prayer walks, working with different churches and refurbishing the building:

To remember is to acknowledge all that God has done in the past and to look forward to all He has still to do.

One of the main themes of the Big Birthday Bash craft activities is to look at the different names of God. He is so amazing that each name gives us a glimpse into His character: thus, He is our Rock, our Fortress, our Saviour, the Beginning and the End, the Good Shepherd and the Resurrection and the Life, to name just a few!

Ali Thomas, the art teacher at Hope House School, kindly made us a tower to remind us of the fact that God is a strong tower (see Prov 18:10, Ps 61:3), decorated with lyrics from Rend Collective’s song ‘Strength of My Heart’ which looks at some of the names of God:

‘Jesus, my soul is fearless
For You are with us
Fighting for us.
In the valley of shadows
You are still with us
Fighting for us.

My Defender,
You are invincible.
My Strong Tower,
You are unshakeable.
Mighty Saviour,
Your love’s unbreakable.

You’re the strength of my heart
You’re the strength of my heart
You’re the strength of my heart
You’re the strength of my heart

Stronger than any weakness
You are my fortress
You are for us.
Yes, You’re reigning forever
Ruling in power
You are for us,
You are for us.

Your love is holding on;
Your love is holding on.
Through every valley
When life has failed me
You hold on.’ (‘Strength of My Heart’, Rend Collective)

Tonight a group of volunteers from church came to clean, tidy and set up for the Big Birthday Bash tomorrow.

Preparing craft activities:

The Sunday School children have prepared favour boxes to give out to people:

The worship room was cleaned and the photo displays set up:

Tomorrow will be an ideal opportunity to give suggestions for future improvements:

So we are all set to celebrate and to focus on all that God has done! Thanks to all who helped with all the preparations both during the week and tonight. We are so grateful for your help and your ongoing love and support. Come along tomorrow and enjoy!