The message of Daniel in the Lion's Den proved popular for young and old last Saturday as almost 100 children, young people and adults joined together in the largest Messy Church to date!

A total of 98 people gathered in the St Barnabas Hall including 47 young people and children under 16 and 25 helpers. 80 sat down to a delicious meal and enjoyed friendship, fellowship and 'table talk' - guided questions that helped everyone to continue to engage with the day's lesson.

Through crafts, music, experiments, activities and puppets we learned about the story of Daniel from the Old Testament. Daniel had been taken to Babylon as a young Jewish boy and trained in the king's court. He'd risen to a position of responsibility because of his wisdom and integrity. His enemies however plotted his downfall by tricking the king into passing an edict that banned prayer to any god except the king for 30 days.

As was his habit however, Daniel continued to pray three times a day facing Jerusalem and as a result was accused of breaking the law and cast into a den of lions. However an angel of the Lord shut the mouths of the lions and he emerged the next morning unscathed having trusted in God.

Children, youth and adults learned about God's protection in challenging times and how we can pray for God's help - and pray for others who need help. We used an experiment with a mandarin to learn about how prayer covered and protected Daniel and we need to put this 'prayer suit' on daily ourselves.

Daniel was brave and bold and trusted in God to help him. God used his leadership to encourage others to worship God.

The St Barnabas Messy Church has grown over the years and continues to be Church for a wide variety of people - many of whom may not want to or think to attend a traditional church service on a Sunday.

Many thanks for the hard work and creativity offered by the Messy Church team which consists of Angela Brown, Helen Wakefield, Christine Fokkens, Rebecca Latimer and Hanan and Florence Fokkens. Greg Brown and his team of helpers provided a meal for 80 people!