St John’s church Halesowen welcomed over 90 people on Saturday 15 November for a special Messy Church, which also included hot drinks, crafts and a film-showing of 'The Snowman' by candlelight, bringing the whole community together! 
NWC Co-ordinator Claire Biggs said:
“As it was the Christmas Lights switch-on in the town centre, we made this an extra-special Messy Church and our main attraction was showing the film ‘The Snowman’ by candlelight, while one of our young people (Bella from Donut Club) played the soundtrack on piano. We also offered hot chocolate, made marshmallow snowmen, enjoyed cookies and snuggled down with a blanket in the pews to watch as a family.”
“We reflected on the moments of temporary joy that we experience and how to hold on to those moments as well as accepting that it’s okay to feel sad for loss at Christmas. We prayed together before opening our doors as the bells rang out across our town and the lights were switched on. It really 
was a magical moment.”
Claire added:
“This has been a vision of mine for a long time. I have noticed that families seem too separated in their viewing habits now, and finding myself sat alone watching a film, I reflected on the rest of family just doing their own thing - screens in bedrooms and computers, pulling away from family viewing. So, we brought it back into our community! So many lovely comments have followed and there have been requests for it to happen again - I am thrilled that such a simple idea had such a big impact and really showed God at work in the simplest form - bringing community together!”
