I have a mean pinch by the way!!

Well today was training at the office, got in at 9 and had time to check my email before heading into the meeting room. We started by thinking about all the good things in our lives and how we can so often take things for granted and need to Thank God more for what we have!  We then had 40minutes personal time, reading the Bible, praying and listening to music. We then split into groups of 3 or 4 for share and pray time for an hour and when we finished, Beth came up to say hello, which was really lovely to see her She’s really enjoying Spurgeons which is fabulous! Then was lunchtime where I was able to upload my long Identity post, yay! Then this afternoon we had our scripture memorisation test (I got 10/10 for both of last week’s woo!!) and a discussion/study of Worship – what it is, different aspects of it, people’s opinions etc, which was really great, although straight after lunch requires some concentration!! We then had to come up with a mission statement for worship….really tough!!! Jeni’s, Keels’ and mine was something along the lines of ‘Worship is our response to God’s spirit meeting ours where we are resulting in a change in our day to day lives’. Any comments?!

Then after training finished we loaded the van and headed over to the Barn to set up for MTL/GY Technical Rehearsals tomorrow, which didn’t take too long. Then Rachel, Ollie and I headed over to the Honeypot to meet Taste for a meeting about Scotland (everytime Joy said the word ‘Scotland’ the taste boys had a swig of drink….hours (almost) of entertainment). I had a big burger with bacon and pineapple (Lewis: The beer battered onion rings were pretty good!!) which was yummy and no pudding because I was far too full. It was exciting talking about the Schools Work we will be doing in Scotland, although arriving at schools at 6.30am doesn’t sound too appealing!!

Have now come home and will probably go to bed soon!! I have updated my Fundraising and Pray pages so please take a look at those and keep checking them – especially the Pray page, I hope to keep this as uptodate (am i allowed that as all one word?) as possible, and the best thing you can do for me (as well as give me money ) is pray for me and the other guys!!!

Please keep me posted with your lives and whats going on, its nice to get comments and emails and hear about other people

Much love and hugs xxx

 

  

 

Lets talk about Identity! We loaded up the van and left about 3pm on Friday. Rachel, Ollie and I in Ivor and Joy, Andy, Claire, SammyJ, Sam La Roche, Matt and Keel in Linford. We were following them coz they had the Sat Nav! We were line running in our van and it was all sunny and nice! We stopped at Reading Services and then Claire came to join us and drive Ivor. We arrived at our Etap Hotel about 7.30 and put our stuff in our rooms then walked to the local harvester for dinner, all squashed around a table, was a nice meal all together! Got back about 10.30 and went straight to bed. I was staying in a room with Rachel – she slept in the double bed and I slept in the single bunk over the top. Scratchy walls, not much run when you roll over!

 

Saturday

Alarm went off at 6.50am and after hitting the snooze button a couple of times got up and showered. We went down and had breakfast and then left for the venue about 8.30. We arrived and Taste set up the hall while Rachel, Ollie and I helped set up the Arise (kids) venue, a huge echoey sports hall. Set up went pretty well, a few hiccups but nothing disastrous! We soundchecked which was fine, we use Britney style mics – so much fun, felt like a proper actress!! Had chips and pasties for lunch and then the girls started to arrive. (Identity is a Girls Brigade event for girls upto the age of 18).

 

The running order of the event is as shown below:

 

 

 

 

A mixture of songs, sketches, DVD clips, games, talks. The event lasted from 2pm-8pm and went really well. A couple of things that need tightening up for next time, my mic didn’t work properly which gave Keel a bit of a headache but apart from that it went well! The sketch we did called ‘College of Knowledge’ was interesting, having never done it in costume or with props before…the colander on my head was too big and at one point went flying across the stage…Quite funny for us though! I think people were slightly disappointed there weren’t more girls but nevermind! I really enjoyed the day and working with everyone and even had to sign autographs at the end!!!

 

We packed down and were out by 9.50pm. We drove back, again stopping at Reading for a large Hot Chocolate, change drivers and for Sam La Roche and Matt to come into our van. Us girls at the front were singing along to chick flick soundtracks at the top of our voices to stay awake and also discussing deep theological issues, which is interesting when you’re tired!!

 

 

 

Sunday

We got back to the office about 1.30am and with 6 people it didn’t take too long to unload. Got home just after 2am, was wide awake so unpacked and didn’t get to sleep til about 3am!

 

Woke up about 11.30am and had a nice hot bath and slowly got ready. It was nice and sunny so I decided to wear a dress! Lewis arrived about 2.15 and we went out for a late lunch and then out to a place called One Tree Hill, woods and nice walks with quite a nice view over Canvey Island!! Was nice to relax although I was quite tired by the end of the day!!

 

Monday

Today Lewis and I went to see my nan in Ongar. We took flowers and lunch and it was really lovely to see her and chat. After lunch we took her to Sainsbury to do some shopping and she very kindly bought us a big bag of malteasers each, yum!! We left her around 3.30pm and came back to Billericay, had a wander up and down the high street, bought a hair dye, got stopped by a lady from some newspaper supplement asking whether blondes have more fun…kinda funny as I’d just bought a blonde hair dye!! The photographer took a head shot photo, so watch this space!! Got out a film and bought some food from waitrose. Went back to my hosts house and had an evening of hairdying, eating food, burning popcorn and watching the film Awake, which was really good although the ending annoyed me!!! Lewis went back home about half 10 and I went to bed!

 

Tuesday

Well back to rehearsals today, this morning in the Barn blocking The Prodigal Daughter and rehearsing On The Shelf and More To Life for this weekend. Dave was around for a bit then left to go back to the office. Rachel and I had lunch and then went to the office and spent the afternoon stripping the flats and re-wallpapering them. One in hideous granny wallpaper (bad points: Lining up the pattern and it’s just gross, good points: can’t see the bubbles!!) and a plain greeny colour one (good points: No pattern to line up, Bad Points: Bubbles, lots of bubbles). So we’ll just have to see tomorrow how good a job we did. It was just like a comedy show, everything seemed to go wrong, but it was good fun!! I got falsely accused by Dan of breaking the microphones, I still stick that it had nothing to do with me. Read a couple of previous plays and then it was time to come back. Then this evening have been eating dinner, reading the paper and the M&S Catalogue, watching Holby City (HOW much longer can they drag out the separation of the twin’s storyline?! And I’m going to miss the second part tomorrow, grr) and have spoken to my mummy and my sister. I’m now tired and going to bed!