The story of Noah is a familiar one to us… all the animals marching 2×2 into the huge ark where they were safe from the flood that would destroy the earth.. But I wonder does it make you think of it as a wake up call, a chance for us to take better care of the amazing world God created. It might feel very overwhelming – but then Noah knew nothing about building boats… but with God’s help he build ‘an ocean liner!’ With God’s help we can achieve anything.
This months Messy Church we’re looking at the story of Noah but also some ideas on how we can take better care of God’s world. I wonder what you could do to help God’s planet.
Incase you’ve not heard the story of Noah…
There are lots of ideas of things to do together to explore the story of Noah and help you think about ways you can help God’s planet.
Some Experiments:
1: Shaving Foam rain-clouds
You will need shaving foam, glass or jam jar, blue food colouring
Fill the glass or jam jar 3/4 full with water. Spray about 2cm of foam on top. Drip blue food colouring onto the foam. After a while it will soak through and star to ‘rain’ beneath the ‘clouds’.
I wonder how Noah felt when the rain finally stopped and the sun came out.
2: Surprise Rainbows
Click on the pictures for instructions
Things to help our planet
Bee/bug hotel
T-shirt bags:
Turn old T-shirts into bags. Cut out the neckline, making a deep U-shape. Cut off the sleeves just below the seam. Lay the T-shirt down and cut 10cm strips up from the bottom of the T-shirt, about 1cm wide. Tie a top strip to a bottom stip. Repeat all the way along. Then tie neighbouring strips together to reduce holes.
There are lots of videos on Youtube if you want to watch how it’s done.
Mini Noah’s ark with a peg!
A spinning Noah’s ark!
Paper Giraffes
I wonder is there anything you would like to do differently – it could be to help God’s planet..waste less, recycle, reuse, clear cutter or maybe just something you’d like to do – give more smiles, drink more water, get more sleep. Is there something you could do together as a family?
God gave Noah a new start, we can start afresh too. God will not store up things we have done wrong. He forgives us, which wipes the slate clean, so we can start again.
You could pray this prayer or pray your own prayer and wait and see how God answers your prayer.
Father, thank you so much for giving us this beautiful planet and all the amazing animals. Sorry that we are messing it up, and not treating it as well as we could. Show us a way we can help make the world a better place. Amen.