Britney Spears’ mystery trip to a San Fernando Valley, California church with paparazzi boyfriend ADNAN GHALIB has been explained - she wanted ministers to pray for the return of her kids.

The troubled pop star briefly visited the Little Brown Church after blowing off a crucial custody hearing in a downtown Los Angeles court.

But while snappers desperately tried to follow the singer into the tiny church, Spears and her lover quickly managed to scribble prayer notes and slip them into a spiritual suggestion box.

Ghalib was caught posting his note and he didn’t check to make sure it had gone all the way into box - allowing his former paparazzi colleagues to pull the paper out and read it.

It’s reported he wrote, "Dear God, please give Britney her kids back." Spears lost all custody to her two young sons following an apparent breakdown at her home on 03 January (08) after she refused to hand her youngest son, Jayden James, back to his father Kevin Federline’s minder after a visitation term had ended.

William Thomas Jr., a minister at the church, has revealed spirituality might pay off for Spears - he and his colleagues take the notes from the prayer box and ask God to hear them and act.