So the past week has seen me going to the airport to meet Lois back from Peru (hurrah!!), buying a tent, putting up the tent, Maddie weeing in the tent, an incredible lunch at Joyce’s and much line learning and rehearsing with the legend that is Mr Andrew Dimon.

Today I met Lois in Chelmsford and we did a bit of shopping but mostly chatted which was so nice. I have missed our girly chats, laughs and our habit of thinking and saying exactly the same thing at the same time. It’s great to have you back Lois, you bring a smile to my face. And thanks for my birthday present and my hat!! Photos to come if you’re lucky.

Tonight has been packing. Packing for camping. Such a headache! I have now given up and will finish in the morning. So much stuff to think about and who knows what the weather will do. I’m not a camper. I like my luxuries. I’m kind of excited, kind of dreading it. I don’t like bugs and i absolutely hate getting wet. I’m really hoping it’s going to be better than i’m expecting. But all that will be far outweighed by the great time we’ll have getting to know the kids and seeing what God is going to do.

Off up north we go!

Tags: Camping, Chelmsford, Liv'It, Lois, Maddie, Packing, Peru, Tent

Friday

Solid is a youth festival held at Stubbers Activity Centre, South Ockenden. We headed over there in 2 vans at 9.30am on Friday. We were responsible for setting up visuals and the creative worship area in the main marquee. So we spent until about 5pm doing that, took forever to suspend 5 cargo nets in the creative worship area! We stopped briefly for pizza at lunchtime and then back to it! Youth groups started arriving from 5pm to set up tents. There were about 900 people on site over the weekend. There were several marquees set up as different venues, including The Fridge which held a few gigs over the weekend. My role for the weekend was selling the Check It Out resource and hosting the artists as well as a couple of performances. So I got to run around with a clipboard and radio looking official! Met Jahaziel and showed him around the site, taking him to the venue for soundcheck. We had a main worship session from 8pm-9.30pm with singing, a sketch from Dave and Rachel, a talk from Adrian Holloway (wrote an amazing book called The Shock of Your Life) and a time where a lot of kids responded. We then did a late night worship slot from 11pm-12midnight, different creative ways of exploring The Apostles Creed. This included me doing a monologue as Mary, the pregnant teenager. Keel had his first experience of using hair straighteners as I couldn’t see to do the back, and I’m sure Mary had perfectly straight hair! I performed it in front of a mirror and apart from microphone issues it went well. A lady came up to me on Saturday saying that her girls had been talking about it all day. Its really encouraging to hear how God can use me to speak to people. Got to bed about 1am in the lodge on site. Alarm set for 6.30am!

Saturday

Up nice and early to have breakfast and then be at the prayer meeting at 7.30am. Then meeting and soundchecking ready to start Solid Kickstart at 8.30am. Basically singing and a bit of a chat to get people going in the morning, including the infamous Mix Dance…see Facebook! Also we had croissants! Then 9.30am was Solid Deeper, teaching from Den which was really good! From 10.30 onwards we were getting things done, putting up the brand new Check it Out stand, chatting with the kids, the boys were running round playing football, rehearsing etc. I had some good conversations and sold a few Check It Out Resource packs. Was also running around with my Walkie Talkie looking official. I met Dweeb and The AFC, showed them the venue and took them to the lounge for a cuppa. Taste did an acoustic set in The Fridge venue and La Roche did a DJ workshop. Just time for dinner and then a meeting before the evening session at 7.30pm. Myself and Keel were interviewed about Optimum which was great, a few girls cheered when I mentioned Chelmsford County High! Envizage performed…well David with special guest Suzy Bower as Rachel was at a wedding. La Roche gave his testimony as part of the talk which was awesome, really moving. There were a few responses to Den’s message. Dweeb played a gig in The Fridge which I got to see the end of the sound was incredible and they did a fabulous cover of Destiny’s Child’s Independent Women. It was pouring with rain but the atmosphere was great. Then we did Late Night Worship session with reflections, David doing a monologue and ended in a bit of a praise party! Wanted to go and see The AFC (apparently they were really good) but my bed was too tempting!

Sunday

Up early again, except we thought the prayer meeting was at 7.30am but it wasn’t til was at 8, so we were ready early, and then couldn’t go anyway because we had to soundcheck! Solid Kickstart again at 8.30, with the amazingly improvised song ‘kick start in the morning’ by La Roche. More singing and croissants, and I had to take Keel’s place in the Mix Dance as he was too busy trying to fix the broken vision mixer. Then we had a meeting before the main marquee event which started at 10.30am. Envizage performed, I did my performance of Psalm 139, Rich gave his testimony and Den spoke and we all had communion.  It was all finished by 12.30, time to pack up the stage and creative arts area, have some lunch and then load the vans. Keel, Ollie and Dan stayed behind to do techie stuff for Junior Solid while the rest of us piled into the vans and drove back to the office – see Facebook for video of Matt and La Roche singing along to ‘It’s Raining Men’. By this point everyone is exhausted and everything descends into hilarity. We unloaded at the office using ourselves as a chain, and then headed back to Stubbers to wait for Junior Solid to finish. Then packed down visuals and The Hive venue, loaded the vans up again and headed back to the office for a final unload. Then off to The Honeypot for dinner. One of the most hilarious meals ever. If I tried to explain it wouldn’t do it justice, or probably be particularly funny. Just because we were so tired! Back home about half 9, straight into bed!

 

Highlights from the weekend

Seeing 800 young people excited about worshiping God
Seeing the faces of the young people, totally absorbed in the stories they heard of what God has done
A girl called Ashka who was at our schools week in Basildon back in June came along to Solid and became a Christian
A group of guys from Stratford becoming passionate after hearing La Roche’s testimony
Performing Psalm 139 – several people commented to me how much God had spoken to them through it

Playing on the Walkie Talkies…banter across the field with Tim and Rich
Selling Check It Out Resource Packs to people who knew nothing about it
The after festival meal…’sorry we’ve run out of…’…’do you want salt on that?’ ‘What shall we do with the change?’
La Roche putting the fridge in the cream.

For official photos and more information on Solid: www.solidnet.org.uk

Tags: Check It Out, Dweeb, Inspirations, Jahaziel, Mix Dance, Psalm 139, Solid, The AFC

We spent the morning in Kent at Ryan’s Church doing a worship thing called ‘Breathe’ which was quite interesting. 12 different activities to get you thinking about different things, instructions all given on an ipod. We then travelled back to the office where we left at 3pm for Watton. All squashed and hot in the back of the van, the smells of the boys don’t help either! Stopped off in Sudbury to collect Andy’s Aniiversary present from Joy, a shiny Rickenbacker Guitar (off Ebay!). We’re not allowed anywhere near it! Stopped again at a pub for a drink (lemonade!) before getting to Melissa’s house about half 6. This was where the boys were staying. The rest of us were collected by our hosts. I was staying with a lady called Martina who was German. We went to Claire’s hosts for dinner, a gorgeous lasagne! Stayed there chatting until about 10pm, then to Martina’s. She has a dog, 2 cats and 10chickens and lives in a cute little house. My room was off the staircase so had to remember that when I opened the door!

Thursday we were in the school for 7.15, setting up ready for 9am. A lot of the students were off at the Norfolk Show so we ended up having a lot of the same people in our lessons. Ended up doing 4 different lessons out of the 5. I introduced the lessons, brought back my Unique Link (hurrah!!), performed What’s It Worth with La Roche, co-hosted one of the games and generally did bits and pieces and it was so much fun! Loved being part of the team.  Then had to pack down as the hall was being used for an awards ceremony. Thursday evening was a BBQ with loads of people at a couple’s house. Great chance to just chill and chat and let off some steam! Lot of laughing and eating.

Friday we got to the school at 9am to set up, but found the hall was in use…so we set up outside under a fixed canopy. A ripple of excitement when an Air Ambulance landed on the school field – there had been an accident in the road involving one of the students and he was airlifted. We prayed for him, hoping it was just a precaution. We did a gig at breaktime and then another at lunchtime, where the band members were playing/singing whilst walking through the audience and jumping on picnic tables! Lots of fun. Then time to packdown, head over to the church and set up for the evening gig whilst listening to the Murray match! Pizza for dinner, and then the gig. Dan has joined us to set up lots of lights, although it wasn’t possible to blackout the church so it only reached it’s full amazingness during the last song! I had my first performances going solo of Colander and Lady Starburst (formerly Harrybow). I was quite nervous but all went well! Had about 35/40 young people and 5 signed up for more information which was brilliant! Then back home to try and wind down before bed!

Lay in on Saturday, hurrah! Picked up at half 11, headed over to the church to rehearse. Taste were rehearsing songs and I was working on my Psalm 139 presentation and writing a monologue. We did an afternoon gig, where we performed What’s It Worth (interesting beginning…a song was cut so I wasn’t ready and La Roche had to fill, then when I got on stage I couldn’t remember if I’d zipped up my dress or not so spent the whole sketch with my arm glued to my side!) and shared a bit of my story. Then we had a BBQ (Watton Pentecostal Church are good at food!) and back to Melissa’s for half an hour before heading into Dereham to go bowling! It was an open invitation and we filled 4 lanes with the team and people from the church. I was on a lane with Keel…he only beat me by one point! Then there was the entertainment of watching La Roche try and win something in the claw machines…Sammy J taking over and winning Leo first go! And the excitement of the ice cream vending machine.

Sunday morning we took the whole service. I co-hosted the generation game and then did a presentation of Psalm 139 v 1-18, performing The Message version. It went really well and got lots of positive comments after! We had lunch with the church (more food!) and then sadly it was time to packdown and go home. I was dropped off at my front door in Braintree which was great! The whole team got out to hug me goodbye.

Had such a brilliant time in Watton meeting wonderful people. Melissa, Richard, Taylor, Jesca, Martina, Roger, Tina, Josh, James to name a few! I pray that God will really use Watton Pentecostal Church to impact the community and do awesome things! See you soon guys xx

www.wattonchurch.org.uk