We arrived yesterday afternoon in time to watch the football…very exciting, stressful and disappointing couple of hours! We then had dinner and headed off to our hosts. Becca and I are staying in a gorgeous house with beautiful views and a lovely family so it’s all good!

7.30 this morning we were in St Cuthbert Mayne Roman Catholic and Anglican Church school for a speedy 1hr 25min set up and then a day of yr7 lessons looking at the value we have as people and the important issue of forgiveness. Today was a momentous occasion for me as I played Keel’s drums (in fact any drum kit at all!!) for the very first time, and in front of 30 students. Not very well of course, just very poor attempts and drum rolls…so just lots of random hitting of drums and cymbals!

The students responded very well and we had some good questions including ‘are any of you born again Christians?’ and ‘do you deeply believe in God?’ so fantastic opportunities to share personal stories. The staff seem very enthusiastic and welcoming which is brilliant.

Relaxing evening at hosts tonight, we had a BBQ and a nice time chatting. Earlyish night and then up ready to be in school at 8.15 for some Abi lessons tomorrow!

Thanks for your prayers!! Xx

Tags: BBQ, drums, st cuthbert mayne, torquay

Well after Germany we had a few days in the office and then a very nice 2 weeks holiday!

Now it’s back to work. Yesterday we had a retreat day with the staff, praying into the future of Viz-a-Viz Ministries. It was a really good time of being together and also encouraging each other with the awesome things that God has been doing. Den shared some of his heart and what he thinks God is saying for the future and the leadership team have an away day today to look at that more in depth. It threw some curve balls in for me too as I’m thinking about what happens next for me. Everybody and his dog seem to be asking me what my plans are, and no-one’s satisfied with ‘I don’t know!’. I’d appreciate your prayers for me in hearing God’s voice in it all. I don’t want to be so focussed on what’s next that I don’t give the best I can to what is happening now because this is the most exciting bit of the year for me!

Last night we had a creative planning meeting for SOLID 2010 where we are leading the late night creative worship slots. We ate pizza and wrote down lots of words and discussed ideas around the theme of ‘See I am doing a new thing’ (Isaiah 43) and I think it was fairly productive!

The next week or so is mostly in the office preparing and writing and training and things like that! Our next event is a weekend in Clacton and then we’re off to Torquay at the end of the month.

Finances… I still need to raise £1744 for this year and would really appreciate any support you can give me. You can support me financially in the following ways

• Donate online at www.justgiving.co.uk/laurabayliss
• Download a form: http://www.vizaviz.org/VAVsupport.htm
• Send a cheque payable to Viz-A-Viz Ministries to:
  Viz-A-Viz Ministries, Phoenix Court, Christopher Martin Road, Basildon, Essex, SS14 3EZ
  Please make some reference to the fact it is in support of me otherwise it will support Viz-A-Viz in general and not me specifically.

Thank you very much. I am more than happy to chat to you if you would like more details or to know where the money is going.

I really appreciate all those of you who are praying for me and asking after me, thank you!