The Sunday School lesson today was about Paul and Silas on their missionary journey to Macedonia etc. Part of the emphasis was about being together as a church and how we can do more if we are together and God works in us.
Visual aid - plastic model of a volcano, some vinegar, and some bicarbonate of soda. This was such fun we did it four times!
Basic equipment
Put a teaspoonful of bicarb in the top, then spoon vinegar onto that
The bicarb represents the Christians meeting together, and the vinegar represents God pouring his Holy Spirit on us. When these mix, there is a reaction.
So God fills us with love and enthusiasm and we spill out of church and spread God's love all around.
On another note...
After church, we have coffee - served in mugs like this
We have about a hundred mugs, a parting gift from our former student pastor, Dave, and his wife Lesley.
They are ideal for after church coffee when you are walking around chatting to people [no saucer to worry about]
But for other events [like the Ladies' Fellowship] we use the older Woods Ware green Beryl cups and saucers like this [mostly green but we have a few random blue 'Iris', and yellow 'Jasmine' ones too] The saucer gives somewhere to rest a teaspoon, and a biscuit!
It is my belief that there must be hundreds of these in church cupboards up and down the land.When I go and speak at Ladies meetings, my tea usually arrives in one of these cups.
And isn't it fascinating that many China-Search sites list them for sale at around £2 an item, as "Retro, 1940s vintage crockery"!! It appears, my friends, that they are coming back into fashion again.
I found this on one site
Woods discontinued the production of the Beryl range in recent years. Beryl had been manufactured for many years and is often recognised in television period dramas set in the 1960's and 70's. Items have now become quite difficult to find it good condition (perhaps the TV companies have got them all). Purchase your missing Beryl items** while we still have some in stock.
The person who wrote that obviously hasn't been to church in a while! Do you have green Beryl cups at your church, I wonder?
[**That company wanted ELEVEN POUNDS for a cup and saucer. Maybe we should increase the church contents insurance!]
Every Methodist church I went to in England had the Beryl china(mainly the green, as you say). But up in Cumbria, there was also some very impressive blue and white transfer china with the initials of the chapel on it. I wasn't sure how old it was, but probably quite a lot older than the Beryl...
ReplyDeleteWe had a temperance quilt too - wonderful stuff.