BUNYAN BAPTIST CHURCH
Stevenage

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SATURDAY CHURCH.

Saturday Church is a monthly get-together at 10-11.30am designed for families with young (ish!) children, and open to everyone.


The whole gathering is based around an indoor picnic (food and blankets provided), with some craft activities and games beforehand

Alongside the food and games, there’ll be a chance to engage with some Christian stories and activities, and meet some new people.


Scroll through our events gallery to see some pics of what we get up to!

It’s all free, but donations are welcome (there's an offering box in the entrance). No booking needed - just turn up on the day!


The next Saturday Church services are on:


21st July 

18th August

15th September 

20th October 

17th November 

22nd December

 

 

Q & A from our APRIL SATURDAY CHURCH.

Today in the UK, people tend not to fuss too much about the meaning of names… but when Jesus was born, the meaning of names was a really big deal, especially as Mary and Joseph (Jesus’ mum and dad) didn’t get to pick his name; they were told his name by an angel! The Christmas story in the Bible has an angel saying to Joseph: “[Mary] will have a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”

In the Hebrew language, “Jesus” is the same as Yeshua, Joshua or Jeshua – they all mean the same thing: “The Lord saves.”

There’s lots of way to help to people: the key is to look. Sometimes, when we see difficult things, we want to look away, or cross the road to avoid the difficult things… if we want to help people, one of the best things we can do is ask “are you ok?”, or “how can I help?”.

As we go along, we can pray as well, and ask God to show us where we can help – you’ll find all sorts of ideas start popping up as God whispers suggestions! 

There are quite a few good reasons to pray -but first among all of them is because God is already talking to us! God has been talking to people through the Bible, through people who believe in him, and by his Spirit since forever! When you get a pang in your tummy that something isn’t right, or when you feel angry at injustice, or when you feel a swell of love family, friends or whoever – that’s all God’s language – that’s God telling you how he feels and what he sees in that moment, opening the door for you to speak back, either out loud in with a quiet voice on the inside.

Yes, but not at the same time! I prefer my feathers to be on birds, or in pillows, or sometimes in a hat if I’m feeling jaunty.

Donuts… we probably need to be specific… top of list would be Krispy Kreme Donuts- original glazed. I quite like those donuts from the pink van in town, but only ever the first 3 or 4… the next 6 or 7 are generally entirely unnecessary. 

God makes us the same way we make precious things that we love: by hand! The first people were formed with his own hands, and filled with his own breath to give us life. We were made to be like him – loving, kind, thoughtful… and God is still making us know. Whether it’s helping tiny baby grow, or older people change, God is involved every step of the way giving us the strength and love to keep growing.

I couldn’t speak for all of them, cause there are over 5000 species of ladybirds, but yes – most of them hibernate. It’s quite sweet really: they like to hibernate in groups! You can get a whole family, or even hundreds of ladybirds tucking up together to hide from winter!

And the difference between sleep and hibernation: body temperature! If you switch your body off so it goes cold and really shuts down then its hibernation… if it’s just a long nap then maybe you’re working and playing too hard! 

I had to get some help with this one… according to NASA:

Blue light is scattered in all directions by the tiny molecules of air in Earth's atmosphere. Blue is scattered more than other colours because it travels as shorter, smaller waves. This is why we see a blue sky most of the time.

Sometimes people talk about God living up in the sky… and whilst that’s kind of true; he is up there… it’s not the whole truth! He’s also here with us – which is why we can talk to him!

Me too! That’s so great – thank you so much for sharing that!

One of my favourite verses in the Bible is about love. It say this (written be a fella called John, who was one of Jesus’ friends):

We love each other because he loved us first.

Love was God’s idea! He invented love, and has been loving us since before we were born – and he keeps on loving us into eternity! 

Thanks Nicole! Apple trees start growing as soon as the seed splits open… they’re in the ground, it’s all invisible, and you’d have no idea anything was growing! Then it takes several weeks before anything sticks out the ground… but once it’s got going, apple trees don’t stop growing! It gets to a stage where they get eaten as quickly as they grow by all the creatures living in them, so they don’t get larger, but they keep growing.

Our friendship with Jesus is the same… it can start really small, and pretty much invisible – but gradually it gets bigger and bigger – until like an apple tree, there is “fruit” – there is a result, that is good for other people. Just like we enjoy apples from the tree, so our friends can enjoy us being kind, caring and loving, because of our friendship with Jesus.

“Growing” can mean lots of different things! In the physical sense: our body takes in food, it keeps the best bits (like calcium) and sticks it somewhere important (like on a bone) and gets rid of the rest. Gradually by keeping all those bits we grow.

Growing in our mind and spirit is the same. We have to keep the important bits, and get rid of the rest! Paul (one of the people who wrote bits of the Bible), puts it like this:

“Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honourable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.”

By filling our heads and hearts with good stuff – like stories about Jesus, time with the people who we love, and who love us, we’ll grow in our kindness, and our spirit. 

I think that says “why are my children growing up?”

I suppose there are some wonderful bits and hard bits there…

Growing up is important. It’s hard to be a child: lots of things don’t make sense, and people make decisions for you…

But we don’t want to be too grown up! Jesus tells us that the little children can get it right more than the grownups! They see what’s really important, they get less confused about right and wrong… maybe we should all grow up a bit less.

Cancer is horrible. I wish there wasn’t cancer. Cancer is when cells (the tiny living bricks that make up our bodies) start misfiring – rather than growing like a normal cell, they go mad and grow really really fast and start effecting the other things around them. There’s lots of different types of cancer, which can start in different ways. Sometimes it’s because the cells have got old and started to malfunction. Sometimes there are things around them that break the cells and stop them working properly, or sometimes our bodies just get it wrong. Cancer can be really scary. As we go through life, we have to face “worst case scenarios” – the unthinkable horrible things, like cancer, happen. God promises us that especially in those moments, he comes along side us, and he can help make us strong and brave.

Rabbits hide in their burrows! They dig tunnels and make little rooms underground when they sit together to sleep and rest, before coming out to eat and play. If a fox or something scary comes along, they jump back in their burrows… which is why they never wander too far away. I suppose we can learn from them in that. When I get scared, I run to God, and to safe people who I love. Maybe I should never get too far away from them, in case I struggle to get back in a hurry when I need to.

We need sleep to give our brains and bodies a chance to turn off! If we left our toys on all the time, the batteries would run out – and we’re the same! By having a rest, we last longer!

But also, when we rest, our brains and bodies do a different type of work: they repair and catch up! Like we tidy up after guests have gone, so our body and brain “tidies up”, fixing bits that are broken, and relaxing bits that got tense. Jesus managed to fall asleep in a boat, on a lake, in a storm… that tells me it’s always a good time for a nap! 

I defo say the chicken! In the Bible, we hear the story of how God made everything, including animals like chickens.

That said, chickens don’t all look the same – some are big and fluffy, some and small and scrawny… those changes happen egg by egg, gradually over generations of chickens… but it all started with a chicken.

Mmmmh… chicken…. (off to Nandos - BRB)
Trees have big deep roots that reach far into the ground. When the sun shines on the top of the trees, it dries them out, then water gets sucked up from the roots into trees (like when we suck a straw), and the water brings with it all the nutrients that are in the soil… kind of like drinking soup. The “earth soup” goes into the leaves, the sun shines on it and breaks it down into tree food…. which builds up trees. There’s quite a few times that trees get mentioned in the bible – one author even talks about the trees waving their arms and clapping their hands as a way of praising God! Do you see that?

I shouldn’t really have left this one here…this was my attempt to write with my toes. It was hot, I was wearing flip-flops… I think it went pretty well.

I think that says “why did people kill you?”, which is a hugenormous question, if you’re asking it about Jesus!

People killed him because he was revolutionary! He was upsetting all the systems that protected the wealth and privilege or the few, because he wanted everyone to be free: to know they are loved by God, to be free to choose to love him back, and to be free in their body, mind and spirit.

But also, he was killed because he let people kill him. He chose to die, offering to take the blame and punishment for any bad things any person has ever done wrong, so that we are set free to live with God forever! 

This is a really deep question! Jehovah means “I am”. God uses the phrase which we translate as “I am” as his name. It forever holds true in that nothing could ever or would ever stop God existing. He is and always has been complete, perfect and present: “I am”. But that’s a pretty tricky idea, and I certainly get confused when I try to find exactly what that means – which is why Jesus is so amazing! Jesus is the image of the “I am” – of Jehovah - of God as seen in the Old Testament. He is made of the same stuff, but in skin being a human.

Birds pretty much go where ever they want! Some birds fly around to find warm places, others like it cold so they fly to cold places!

My favourite verse in the Bible is about birds flying:

But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles…

Eagles don’t flap, they get lifted by thermals – hot air rising – and God wants to lift us up in the same way. It’s up to us to trust him – to follow his teachings, and value the relationship with him – and wait to feel that lift! 

It seems to me that really, the only cause of war, is greed. Some people want more stuff – more land, money, power – than anyone else.

They pretend it’s about other stuff – often religion – but it generally comes down to greed. That’s how it starts… then someone retaliates, or tried to defend the people who are getting hurt, then everyone gets their friends involved… it can get out of hand really quickly.

It takes real courage to stop a war: to go first in saying sorry, to work for peace, to choose to forgive, to let someone else be better off because people’s lives matter more than things or money. It can be hard, but God calls those people who make peace his children… like they’re in God’s family business of bring peace. 

And he loves you too! I love Saturday Church where we get to share in all this love!

He loves us, we love him – we love other people and we are loved by them too! It’s wonderful!

I’d say “hold on to that!” Love is a choice, not just a feeling. We can choose to love people even when we’re not feeling lovely. Let’s choose love – that’s enough to change the world for the better!