Harvest Festival 2024

"From one small pip"

St Mark’s Church

Rev Phil warmly welcomed us for this year's Harvest celebration focused on apples. Each class took a different apple themed part to share with a packed church the joy of apples during harvest. Ruby Class began the service with a gorgeous song all about different types of apples. They sung to the familiar tune of "Twinkle, twinkle little star whilst holding up large apple paintings.  Diamond Class told the story of how the Bramley apple got it's name and started the idea of from something very small great things can grow. Mary Brailsford took the tiny seeds from the apple tree in her garden and from these very small pips the great Bramley apple was born. The story illustrated the importance of small beginnings and the miracle of harvest. The fact that Mary’s tiny pip grew has meant fantastic crops of apples have been produced year after year and brought enjoyment to lots and lots of people.  Small beginnings can bear much fruit. Emerald Class then told the parable of the mustard seed from Matthew 13, using a little class poem as a reminder of the story:

Jesus said, God’s pattern for life is like this. 
Once a man sowed a tiny seed. ‘So small!’ 
It grew and grew into a large tree. ‘How tall!’ 
The tree became so large that lots of birds came to nest in its branches. ‘For all!’ 
Sapphire Class added to the celebration of apples by learning two beautiful poems which focused on the gift of apples and the beauty of harvest. The children sang a selection of harvest based hymns and choir performed “What we sow” with confidence. Each class wrote thoughtful prayers to show their understanding of harvest and our theme this year of small beginnings growing into great things.

St Mark’s displayed a huge selection of items for the Farnborough Food Bank which joins the donations from the church and will go towards supporting families in need across the Farnborough area. A huge thank you to everyone who so generously contributed to the food collection and to Mrs Bailey and Mrs Collison for taking it all to the church and creating such a beautiful display.