Well Thursday night was the youth group at St Pauls Church. We had pizza for dinner and then all the young people came in, started off playing pool, table tennis, football and buying vast quantities of E-Numbers. We then took the ‘God Slot’, performing The Watch, and i did the link after, got a bit of an interesting Creation vs Evolution conversation going, then we did HarryBow and Ollie did the link/testimony. All went really well and the kids were great! One girl, Gemma had the most amazing shoes ever, very brightly multicoloured. A New Look purchase apparently. After the group finished, we had a nose around their building, the church hall itself is stunning, kinda modern traditional. Then we had plum crumble and custard, cooked by Tim, which was yummy! We got home around 10pm and watched the end of The Holiday.

Friday we didn’t get up til late…like 8.30. Travelled to Aldershot and met Lindsay and Mike at Holy Trinity Church just after 10. Spent the next few hours unloading and setting up and eating sandwiches. Few technical hitches, saved by a trip to Argos, but generally all went fairly well! Then we walked to the Baptist Church for dinner (yummy lasagne and an amazing pudding: Fruit Salad, yoghurt and peanuts, yum!). More To Life was at 7.30pm, i think they were disappointed with numbers, but the performance went well. We packed down, loaded the van, drove back listening to Now 51, drinking coke and eating chocolate and got back to the office about 12.30, unloaded the van, got home about 1.30 and slept til about half 10!

Monday  20^th October

So we loaded up the van and set off for Camberley (via Billericay to pick up Ollie’s forgotten phone) about 4.15. Traffic wasn’t too bad, no queues until just before the M25/M3 junction so we got to our hosts about 6.45pm (Ruth and Revd David Hamblin, from a Methodist/URC church nearby). We had dinner straight away (a yummy lasagne and fruit strudel with lots of custard), sorted our stuff out in our rooms and had a chill out watching University Challenge (Rachel got 2 questions right!) and drinking tea! Then Day After Tomorrow came on but we only watched half of it because otherwise we would have been up far too late! Bedtime was about 10.30. Rachel and I share a room, I think the mattresses are orthopaedic ones, kinda hard but comfy!

Tuesday 21^st October

Alarm went off at 5.40am….ugh. Showered and dressed and shivered lots. Straightened my hair and put on my makeup. Rachel and I went down for breakfast (Special K and Toast) and then Berni (the organiser guy from Camberley Youth For Christ (CYFC)) came to meet us and we left for Frogmore College at 6.45am. We travelled to the college and were shown into their large drama studio to set up. Didn’t take too long and we had cups of tea to keep us going! We did three lessons of All About Abi and Trasha:

9.10-10.10: Year 10

10.25-11.25: Year 9

11.25-12.25: Year 11

All the classes seemed to start off quietly but warm up quite quickly! They went well with no major disasters. After we packed down and loaded the van, by which time it was lunchtime so we went to the canteen and were told we could have whatever we wanted! I had a tuna and cheese baguette and some watermelon! We then left and travelled back to our hosts and I spent the rest of the afternoon preparing for the evening and watching TV! We then went out to Frimley Baptist church for 6pm and met Rachel, Ruth and Stu the youth leaders and they kindly fed us amazing Jacket Potatoes, really crispy skins, yum! The youth group was aged 11-14 and there were about 15-20 of them. We performed The Watch (first time, went well!) and Harrybow which they seemed to enjoy and I did the link and a bit of testimony after Harrybow which I really enjoyed doing! The people that came were really cool and seemed to enjoy it, especially the game of football at the end with a ball of newspaper and tape! We got back just before 9 and took cups of tea upstairs, got ready for bed, washed my hair and watched the first half of The Holiday. Some Jude Law before bedtime isn’t such a bad thing!

Wednesday 22^nd October

Alarm went off at 5.40am. This was to be our crazy day. We left for Collingwood at 6.45, arrived and the caretaker wasn’t expecting us, but thought we possibly may be in the Hall so we decided to set up in there anyway. The stage was just fabulous, with stairs and a balcony and just millions of entrances and exits and passages! We had a quick nose around once we had set up! We were all set up and sound checked by 8.20 which was pretty good going and the head of RS brought us bacon rolls, croissants and orange juice so we were very happy! We did one lesson of Abi and Trasha to a whole hall full of year 7s. It was SO much fun!!! They just absolutely loved it and got really into it, so that meant we could have some fun with it too! The lesson finished at 10.10 and we had to quickly pack down and load and travel to Kings College by 11.25 as Rachel was doing a drama workshop at 11.25 and Ollie and Me were setting up for an afternoon lesson. We met the lovely Beth who is doing a degree in youthwork and worked with CYFC at Collingwood and she helped us and looked after us very well! The hall was in use when we got there which meant we had to wait a while so once we did get in we had half an hour before lunch which we managed to get most of it done, grabbed a sandwich and a yogurt and finished off just before 1pm. We then did All Abi and Trasha to the years 9s and 12s which we thought may be hard going, but they also really got into it which was great! Rachel gave me the word ‘pineapple’ to fit in somewhere so I gave her ‘Hippopotamus’. We both managed but it was really hard not to laugh! One of the Year 9s, a boy called Aaron who was sat on the front row gave me grief throughout all of Trasha, it was great! We then packed down and loaded up the van and left by 3pm, came back to our hosts but there was nowhere to park the van so we went to Tesco, a HUGE Tesco nearby with an even bigger Marks and Spencer which apparently there used to be coach trips to, from as far away as Ireland!!! We then got back and parked round the back somewhere and had about half an hour before going out again to a joint youth group where we set up to do All About Abi and Trasha again. They also fed us jacket potatoes! The group was age 11+ but most were yr 8/9, two of the boys, Jack and Zach were at Kings College so knew what to expect and laughed in all the right places! We chatted to the young people after whilst eating Custard Doughnuts and popcorn and I met a girl called Jessica who people were saying is just like Abi. Hmm..! I thought she was very nice! We packed down, loaded the van and got back about 10pm, and pretty much went straight to bed!

Thursday 23^rd October

Alarm went off at 7am….aahh bliss! We left at 8.15 to travel to Crawley Ridge Junior School where we performed Amazing But True in their assembly. We met Marie, Tim and Daniel who are youth workers who work in the school. The kids absolutely loved it and got incredibly excited! We also sang ‘Our God Is A Great Big God’, and we all had different actions! We then went over to St Pauls Church to a prayer meeting with all the youth workers we have met so far and it was incredible to hear all the clubs they have got going, and how much they are allowed to do in schools! Some really exciting stuff. We then had some free time so went into Camberley for a couple of hours. Spent some time in Primark I spent £4.50 and bought a jumper, some earrings and some slippers, bargain! We had hot chocolate in a little café and then met Berni and Beth for lunch at ‘So Asia’ which is a buffet Chinese/Thai/Indian restaurant and it was really nice! Got back to hosts about 2.30 and spent a couple of hours reading and preparing for the evening.

Rest to follow….

So, I didn’t win bowling. I came 2nd because Becky is too good. Although we were all pretty pathetic, Becky being the only person to get over 100 with 102!

But me and Lois did swap one bowling shoe each because we are super cool:

Anyway then I played Lois at Air Hockey, sorry BEAT Lois at Air Hockey 7-2. :p But it was her first time and she put up a very good fight! Then we thought we would go to Prezzo for dessert but it was ridiculously busy so Wendy and Lois went to Tesco to get dessert and me and Becky went to the video shop in Becky’s new very very shiny lovely blue mini. So we went back to the flat and watched ‘What Happens In Vegas’ whilst eating profiteroles, malteasers and ice cream….mmmmm…

So Sunday I woke up about 10.30 and got up about 11…we watched TV, ate some toast and watched the last two episodes in the Hollyoaks Omnibus…..OH MY GOODNESS!!!! I had my jumper round my face and Wendy was sat laughing at me, but it was so tense!! And so bad!! And now I won’t see it all week….how will I cope?! I’ve set up next weeks omnibus to record on Lewis/Wendy/Andy’s Sky Box so i can watch it next week. Phew!

We decided to get dressed about 4pm, and Wendy made Sweet and Sour Chicken and Noodles and we watched more Scrubs! Then Andy came back from the weekend away then Wendy had to go to church to do the desk, Andy went too and Lewis came back and told me about the escapades of the Church Weekend Away! Then Wendy and Andy came back from Church as did John Gillett….with short hair!!! It was really cool to see him and hear what he’s upto, and he invited Tom round too which was….nice…. :p (He says i sound very Essexy so he’s not in my good books!) Ended up staying up late and talking and laughing lots!

So this morning Lewis dropped me off at Witham Train Station and I travelled back to Billericay, got back about 10.30, had a quick shower and repacked for this week and Rachel and Ollie picked me up at 11.30. We’re now in the office, loading up the van at 2pm, leaving at 4pm to hopefully arrive in Camberley around 6/6.30pm. We’re doing schools lessons and youth groups Tues/Weds/Thurs and then travelling to Aldershot Fri Morn and setting up for More To Life in the evening. We’re due back early hours of Saturday morning!

So look out for my next post next weekend at some point!

Thursday was another day in the Office, doing office type stuff, sorting out my newsletter and then we had a meeting in the afternoon about next weeks More To Life. I was really tired by the evening so was in my PJs by 8.30 and asleep by 10pm. Lots of people went to a Delirious Concert and I was sad that i wasn’t there

Friday was in the office again but we painted some more flats and washed the van and hoovered it out which was much fun and we got wet! I had plastic bags over my feet to protect my nice trainers! Rachel, Lindsay, Kirsten and I went out for lunch at The Quays which was really nice and I had the yummiest Jacket Potato EVER with lots of chicken, bacon, BBQ sauce and cheese….mmmm…. and our conversation is entirely confidential! We left work about 4pm and I went straight to the train station and got the train back to Braintree. Got back in time for K4J and had lots of fun, was quite nice to be there as a helper and not a leader! Then we packed off the boys to the church weekend away and prepared for mine and wendy’s girly weekend

We had the biggest chinese ever and watched a film and general trashy friday night TV and went to bed about half 12!

This morning we got up about half 10 and watched TV and decided to have a fry up so I went down to the shop in yesterdays clothes and got some eggs and bacon and bread (to fry!) and pancakes and we dug out sausages and beans (thanks Lewis!) and made hash browns! It was so nice and unhealthy!

Showered and dressed about half one and went into town and got a few bits, then went to Sarahs and saw Maddie who dressed up as a bee and a ladybird which was very cute!!

Now I’m back at Wendy’s, eating malteasers and watching friends and being lazy before going Bowling tonight with Becky and Lois and I’m so gonna win!!!

Yesterday was Opti-Weds and Lindsay picked me, Kate and Ollie up and we went to the barn, slight skid on the way which stopped all of our hearts but we’re all fine

We had a chat and drank coffee and ate biscuits, then had 45mins personal time, then a great study of Finding Joy in all Situations, then lunch, then Lucy did a Worship Session…involving Robbie Williams! Then we had our Memory Verse Test (had three from last week and the one from the week before because I wasn’t there…phew!), then a time of sharing and praying (we did more sharing than praying this week and the other team thought we were being super spiritual because we took so long) and then we tidied up and were done by about 3pm.

Then some of us decided to go bowling in Hockley, so Jeni and lucy drove, the traffic was pretty horrendous and we got there about 4pm. It was a really cute little bowling alley and only £3.50 a game! So it was Jeni, Lucy and Me against Emma, Ami, Luke and Ollie. I got a strike and 4 spares…….and with 121 points at the end……I WON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I beat 2 boys!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But i didn’t make a thing out of it, i was very humble. Ahem.

Got home about 5.30pm and watched the end of Neighbours, had pasta for dinner and some yummy chocolate thing for pudding. Then did some bits and pieces, watched Supernanny, did some more newsletter, typed up and printed the memory verses and then went to bed!