Well it’s been a little while since my last post and feels like an age since my holiday! We had a really lovely time down in Lyme Regis with Andy’s family – lots of cuddles with the twins which we enjoyed very much. The weather was kind to us and even managed to get a bit of sunburn on the beach! The house we stayed in was very nice and we were able to have a good relax while we were there! Unfortunately my Dad had several trips to A&E with severe pain in his leg which left him unable to move, and after a stressful couple of days for him and my mum was admitted to hospital and eventually given an injection which seems to have worked. It was hard being away from home and just wanting to be there to see him. On the way back from Lyme Regis, Andy and I stopped in at my brother’s new house in Yeovil. It was great to see Russell, Becci, Chloe and Sam, spend some time with them and visit Yeovil Elim where Russell has just started as the Assistant Pastor.

The second week of Holiday was spent in Braintree with Mum and Dad, and we spent lots of time with Maddie, Emi and Billy and my sister! Our big trip out was to Legoland which was chaos but lots of fun – Maddie (4) and Emi (3) loved the rollercoasters! We also went on a Gruffalo trail in Thorndon Country Park – and we did see the Gruffalo!!

Now getting back in the swing of things back at work – had a very busy week last week which was good. We’re preparing for our ‘Just A ‘Child’?’ Equipping Events this October which is very exciting. See here for more details on ‘Just A ‘Child’?’. The weekend I had the priviledge of leading the Young At Heart service at Braintree Elim, the all age service. I really enjoyed the challenge of doing something I haven’t done by myself before. We looked at the theme of ‘an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth’ thinking about how we should respond in situations. We made traffic light fridge magnets to remind us to ‘Stop, Think and Go’ – think about our reactions before we act.

Tomorrow I’m off to a Bible In Literacy Seminar, Wednesday evening is a Creative Forum at Sawyers, Thursday Andy and I are doing a car boot sale in the morning, Friday I’m off to a service station in Bristol with Ed for a meeting about running a ‘Just A ‘Child’?’ event in Plymouth. Check my calendar for more of what I’m upto!

Newsletter will be coming out soon – watch this space!

I am off on Holiday!!! From the 19th-26th August Andy and I are in Lyme Regis with his family, stopping off at my brother’s new place in Yeovil on the way back and then spending a week in Essex with my family.

Looking forward to resting and recharging ready for September!

Last week I had lots of fun being ‘Laura The Lion Tamer’ at Kingswood Baptist‘s Holiday Club. Ed was running the ‘Knight’s Of Truth’ themed week and asked me to come along and help him present. This is the same theme that we did at the Baptist Assembly earlier on in the year so had some familiar set and activities. Andy came along to run tech and we were both made to feel very welcome by the Kingswood Baptist team.

The  club ran from 10-12 every morning and consisted of songs, drama, video clips, stories, crafts, games and challenges as we followed three knights on their quest to become ‘Knights Of Truth’. We were finding out about Jesus, helping the knights decode clues to give to the King on Sunday morning as we were invited to the King’s Castle at 10.30am! It was great fun working with a great team and spending time with around 65 kids, a proportion of whom were not known to the church already. The kids were fantastic; well behaved, enthusiatic and it was so exciting to see them understanding and applying the stories they had chatted about to the current riot situation, with no prompting from any of the grown ups!

This week I am in the office catching up on a few bits and pieces and tidying up ready to go on holiday at the end of the week! I’ve got that real end of term feeling!!

On Sunday we went to the church that Hans (one of the organisers) attends. We were welcomed by the minister from the front, although Hans got a few frowns as he did his best to quietly translate a complicated sermon for us! It was great to be at that church, fairly traditional, but most of the time I wasn’t really sure what was going on! There seemed to be a lot of liturgy responses which members of the congregation all knew off by heart, and not much instruction from the front but everyone knew when to stand, when to sit and when to sing! A couple of the sings were in English or had English words underneath the German ones so we could join in a bit! The last song was Shine Jesus Shine, much to our ‘enjoyment’!

After coffee and biscuits we headed to an italian restaurant. They boys all had pizzas of some description while I had a salad which was very nice until I got to the bottom which was full of balsamic vinegar….mmm soggy lettuce! We then headed back to The Lighthouse to set up for the evenings ‘Check It Out’ Service. The theme was ‘Pusteblume’ – literal translation is ‘blowflower’, but refers to Dandelions. The service was to do with spreading ‘seeds’ – telling people about Jesus. There was music from their ‘Check It Out’ band, acoustic songs from Taste, a hilarious sketch, a great talk and the blessing of various teams who are off on mission. I had Marco translating brilliantly for me so I knew when to play the videos and powerpoints! A lad who became a Christian last year at The Lighthouse Week we were at came back and was translating for Joy – it was really great to see him again! After the service we packed away and were treated to more sausages and soup before saying our goodbyes and heading back to the hotel.

Monday was the long trip home, we left at 9am and got to the office at 7pm! We were all on track for the earlier ferry but hit traffic just before Calais, very frustrating! We kept smiling and telling awful jokes despite being hot and uncomfortable! It was funny, as soon as we landed in England everyone got their phones out, turned back on the internet and got engrossed into Facebook and emails…!

It was a great weekend, mainly in preparation for events in October and November, which I’m not sure that I will be involved in but it was really nice to see everyone again, and be reminded that God is bigger than England!

Today I have been back in the office getting ready for Solid Youth Festival and Junior Solid this weekend!

http://solidessex.wordpress.com/

Well this year I crossed over to the other side and joined B:ace (Baptist Assembly Children’s Event), working with 70 5-11 year olds. After two crazy weeks of intense preparation (printing, cutting, sticking, laminating, building and painting fancy wooden structures…) we headed up to Blackpool and the Norbreck Castle Hotel where we had a marquee set up. Andy Keel came with Ed and I in the van (the second hire van – the first wasn’t big enough so we had to swap at 4pm on Wednesday afternoon!) to tech for us.

The weekend went something like this:

Thursday: Travel, unload, a bit of set up, find our B+B, head out for dinner.
Friday: Breakfast at 8 then to the hotel for a day of setting up (with well timed pauses to catch the important bits of the royal wedding!) – the first session from 7pm-9.30pm.
Saturday: Session from 9am-12.30pm, session from 7pm-9.30pm
Sunday: Session from 9am-12.30pm, Praise Party from 4pm-5pm, session from 7pm-9.30pm
Monday: Session from 9am-1.15pm, pack down and travel home.

We had a great team of people all volunteering to work with us and took over a local(ish) B+B so had time in the evenings to get to know each other a bit better. We were joined by some volunteers from BMS, Jack who became Fredrickson the Crocodile at key points over the weekend!

The theme for the weekend was ‘Your Kingdom Come’ and we had a Knightly Theme – each day following three Knights on the quest for the Ultimate Kingdom. There were crazy songs with Big Fish Little Fish, stories, news reels, weather reports, talks, leaders being pied (yes I did, and no I didn’t whinge…much!), letters from Fredrickson, crafts, games…you name it, we did it! We also had for the weekend a keypad system which meant at certain points each child was given a keypad and we asked questions and they selected their answer using the keypads (Who Wants To Be A Millionaire ask the audience styley!) which was brilliant. We asked them all manner of questions about God/Church/Prayer/Friendships, as well as using them for discussion times in smaller groups.

The weekend was exhausting but brilliant. It was so cool to see these kids engaging, having fun and chatting about God. We also filmed them answering questions like ‘What is Worship?’, ‘Is the Bible boring or exciting and why?’ and ‘Why do we go to Church?’ – some of the answers they came out with were fantastic – well thought through, or just spontaneous and enthusiastic. It was great to chat to the parents too and hear that the Children were so excited to come every morning and were loving it. The parents were really appreciative that we weren’t just babysitting the kids so that they could get some time off in the adult venue, but were actually giving them some good teaching.

Now it’s time to sort out the 20 something big plastic boxes full of stuff, remembering what happened over the weekend and praying that the children we met will have been really impacted by God and fired up to live their lives making a difference and helping see God’s Kingdom come on Earth.