Although I’m not touring with the Check It Out team, Liv’It Camp holds a special place in my heart and so Joy and Andy let me come with them this year! On paper it sounds like madness – camping for the best part of a week and being around 50 young people from 7.30am – midnight….but it’s great!!! Liv’It is held at Hollybush Farm, Northallerton, North Yorkshire and is a collection of churches from the Manchester Area that meet for their summer camp from Saturday to Thursday. We provide the morning and evening programme as well as other input throughout the day. The rough routine of the day is something like this: (this year we’ve been lucky to get half an hour extra in bed either end of the day!):

7am – Shower
8.30am – Breakfast
10am – Morning Session (Sung worship, games, talk and activities)
11.45 – Academies (Sport, Music, Craft, Drama)
1pm – Lunch
2pm – Q&A Panel/Time to chat to a leader
3.15pm – Some kind of wide game/sports tournament
5pm – Rehearsals
6pm – Dinner
7.30pm – Evening Session (Sung worship, games (including the legendary ‘Jammin’*)
10pm – Late night hilarity including Liv’Its Got Talent, Camp News, and leaders laying on skateboards and being
pushed into cardboard boxes
11.30pm- Bedtime!

*Jammin involves large and small plastic hula hoops strung across the room, young people  split into 2 teams (always the pants and the socks) chucking inflatable balls/hammers/chickens through the hoops – 1 point through a big hoop, 2 points through a small hoop. It’s chaos and everybody loves it!

On the Tuesday we went to the infamous LightWater Valley, and enjoy the delights of ‘The Ultimate’ (Click Here for La Roche and Rich filming their trip!)

The week was brilliant, as it always is. Quite a few new faces which was great, as well as some familiar friends. For me the highlight was seeing some of the young people warm over the time we had with them and being able to witness a change in opinion and view of God. As well as the fun and craziness we had some great times of worship, teaching, creative activities, and question and answer panels. The prayer is that the young people hold onto what they heard from God, and are empowered to make a difference as they go back to their situations.

For Andy and I it was also great to spend time with Paul and Hannah Schofield – a friendship which has developed over the past Liv’It Camps. We also managed to stitch Andy up in late night with ‘Tell us about the time you suggested Laura went on a diet…’ Ask me if you want the whole hilarious story!

After Liv’It, Andy and I spent a relaxing day and a half in Selby with his parents before I came back to Braintree for a few days to spend time catching up with my best friend Lois (Marley and Me should have a sadness rating on it!!) and seeing my lovely sister and my gorgeous nieces and nephew!

 

 

Next Up… ‘Over the (H)edge’.

Tags: Lightwater Valley, Liv'It Camp

Solid Festival 2011 – 8th-10th July.
‘For God called you to do good, even if it means suffering, just as Christ suffered for you. He is your example, and you must follow in his steps.‘ 1 Peter 2:21

Wow, this time last week it was pouring with rain and a very dedicated team of wonderful people were setting up for Solid Festival 2011! (I was sat in a marquee making lanyards – I wasn’t going to get wet!). The youth festival ran from Friday Night til Sunday Lunchtime, and Junior Solid (for school years 3-6) ran all day Sunday. I had my normal role at the youth festival of ‘hostess’ – meeting and greeting visiting speakers/bands to the site. Then Sunday was where I got really busy – co-presenting with Ed in ‘The Hive’ for four, hour long sessions (The children are split into four groups and rotate around 4 different sessions including crazy games and outdoor activities) about what it means to follow Jesus and rounding off the day all together in the Big Top with the Junior Solid Roadshow.

The weekend had it’s hiccups, with bad weather meaning marquees were a mission to get up, delivery drivers getting to the end of their shifts and so not delivering our much needed radios, a few power issues…but actually it was an awesome weekend! I didn’t see too much of the main sessions in the Big Top but from the buzz on site and feedback from various people know that God moved awesomely in the over 700 young people that were there. Mark Ritchie returned for a second year, his comic style mixed with powerful teaching made him very popular – as well a site wide trend on twitter about Angry Poos (no I don’t know either!!). Worship was led by Jimmy Orr from Church.co.uk (married to Kat Orr, a previous Optimum Volunteer) and was a great mix of old and new songs. I especially enjoyed the mash up of Matt Redman’s ‘You Never Let Go’ with Eminem’s ‘I’m not afraid’. There was a fantastic time on Saturday night of young people coming forward to really commit themselves to following Jesus and their youth leaders were encouraged to pray for them, which from feedback they really appreciated the opportunity to do that, allowing them to know what went on at Solid and follow up their own young people afterwards.

Sunday was my first experience of a whole day of Junior Solid, having previously taken part in the Roadshow, but this year being on management meant I was a lot more involved! Ed had done most of the preparations for the Hive as I had been busy preparing the Roadshow and so I just stepped in to help lead. Much to my delight the ‘hilarious’ joke Ed has prepared and repeated non stop for the previous 2 weeks was a complete flop (Now i’ll know if he reads this because if he does he will try and protest!!) but fortunately the rest of the material wasn’t! Through interactive activities, video clips and teaching we looked at the fact we are all invited to follow Jesus but all need to make that choice to follow him. We were also privileged to have Big Fish Little Fish joining us to lead some singing fun! The feedback we got was great and the kids really engaged with what we were doing, even in the last session when they were all exhausted!

Then at the end of the day it was off to the Roadshow and 400 hundred tired but excited children with their leaders. We looked at the messages of making Wise Choices and Jesus giving us Second Chances through more songs with Big Fish Little Fish, some drama, video testimonies, teaching and a live interview testimony with Rosie, an 11 year old with an incredible passion for sharing Jesus with the people around her. It was sad when it was all over and exhausted we (well not me!) packed everything away, finally getting home at 9pm. Monday I was pretty dopey all day having suffered from a severe lack of sleep!!

So many people worked so incredibly hard during and leading up to Solid, Karen and Claire are definitely top of the list!! My Andy is also at the top, as co technical manager he started work at 7am and finished at 1pm, constantly on call and the first on and last off site. Well done you, I’m so proud!!

Despite the tiredness and occasional grouchiness, it was all so worth it, seeing young people and children connect with and worship God – such a great thing and a privilege to be involved with. Please join me and the rest of the team in praying for all who were there, that the buzz of Solid won’t be just that, but that they will be encouraged and inspired to make a difference and share Jesus with those around them.

 

 

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Next up: Liv’It Camp starts 23rd July so am preparing a talk for that. Also busy emailing out publicity for ‘Just A Child?’ equipping conferences in Essex and Sussex in the Autumn – ask me if you want details!

Tags: Arise Ministries, Junior Solid, Solid, solid festival

Liv’It

Liv’It is an annual camp held at Hollybush Farm near Thirsk, North Yorkshire. Around about 80 young people from various youth groups in and around the Manchester Area. Ran from Sat night-Thurs Morning. Main co-ordinator is John Rothwell.

Camping

So my first true camping experience. I had a 4man tent, two bedrooms and a central area that was standing height. We were pitched on a slight hill and it was quite windy. I got a bit frustrated with the whole tent putting up process, wasn’t entirely sure what I was doing so in the end the boys took over for me! Apart from one day of heavy which ran into the central section of the tent and i got a puddle outside my bedroom door, it remained dry. None of my stuff got wet, I didn’t get wet so that kept me happy. A large number of spiders congragated in the roof of the central section and made those wispy webs from floor to ceiling. Not nice walking in at midnight to a faceful of web. Got the boys to clear it out a couple of times. Showers were ok, forgot my flip flops one day which was a major mistake. About 6 hours sleep a night…up at 6.20am. Slightly deflated airbed and a few mystery bruises appeared on my legs and arms but other than that survived pretty well I thought!

Mealtimes

Breakfast, lunch and dinner (well up north they call it tea…sillyness) were all together in the canteen. I made sure I got matching cup, bowl, plate and cutlery every day. One day SammyJ’s combination matched my dress…was a good day! We sang grace together, either ‘God Is Great’ or ‘O Fill My Cup’, the later becoming a tune to get well and truly stuck in your head late at night and incredibly annoying when trying to sleep! The food was good, especially porridge in the morning!

Morning Sessions

The morning sessions were at 9.30am for approx 1 1/2 hours. They consisted of The Mix Dance, GMLC (Good Morning Liv’It Camp, a largely improvised slot myself and Andrew as Jenny and Jerry. We did items of news (provided by the young people, for example James Benson does an amazing impression of a pig, It’s Andrew Cox’s Birthday and Josh sat on the Electric Fence), the weather (told by Matt’s hair), Today In History and Who’s Been a Naughty Leader. It was generally a bit of fun, and in the last session Jenny declared her undying love for Jerry who whisked her off the stage in his arms.), sung worship and a talk with group work. Myself and Keel had a small group called Millionaires (all the small groups were lion themed). We had some good conversations and times of prayer with the group and it was good getting to know them. Talks were on prayer, worship, and friendship.

Academies

11.30ish-1ish were the Academies. Options included Craft, Music, Sports, Technical and Drama. So three 1.5 hour sessions to create something wonderful. Myself and Andrew Dimon headed up the Drama Academy. We did some games and character related exercises then gave the group of 6 the task of creating a piece of Theatre In Education. The end result, performed in the Wednesday evening session was a piece on Peer Pressure and looked at the consequences of actions. Was very good!

Q&A

Each afternoon we split into younger/older groups for a Q&A session. Sunday’s was theological questions, Monday’s was Boy/Girl questions (split up into same sex groups) and Wednesday’s was general questions on being a Christian. There was a whole range of stuff including Why is the Bible so big, why do boys have big heads, do all Christians read the Bible and how old is God. Was a really good oppurtunity to chat and hear their opinions as well as share our views.

Evening Sessions

Evening sessions were from 7.30pm til 9.30pm ish. These included sung worship, small group games, Jammin’ (awesome games of throwing inflatables through hoops), a talk, response time and an episode of the Story of Daniel performed by myself, Andrew and various volunteers! (A fairly relaxed performance with the catchphrase ‘But you’re a girl’. Many a hilarious rehearsal and generally good fun to perform. A highlight would have to be slapping Andrew on the last one! Also managed to get in lots of bad jokes!) The evening sessions were fantastic, awesome times of worship, had the priviledge of praying with some girls and seeing one guy become a Christian. The themes we looked at were making a stand, miraculous intervention, rescue from difficult situations, humility and influence.

Liv’It Up L8

Liv’It Up L8 happened from around 10ish til 11ish…very flexible timing! First night was a Taste gig and then the next 3 nights a combination of silly games, Liv’It’s Got Talent, Lady Starburst and Dim’ll Fix It. Dim’ll Fix It is basically where the young people write in their wishes and Dim (Andrew), with his sidekick Miss Nabraincel (Me) tries to make their dreams come true. So we helped Jonny English fulfil his dream of catching a criminal by rescuing Miss Nabraincel from Him’ll Break It (La Roche) who had kidnapped her. Claire provided the special agent, and a stuffed toy the informant. We also helped Elliott achieve his dreams of being a ghost busting bunny rabbit by dressing him up and providing him with a voice activated hoover to get rid of the ghosts (voiced by Keel – La Roche, the phantom of the opera; SammyJ, the ghost of the car park and Claire, the headless ghost). Was all much fun! Then after Liv’It Up L8 we headed over to the Halo Bar for non alcoholic cocktails and chill and chat until midnight before bed!

Light Water Valley

Tuesday was Light Water Valley Theme Park Day. Claimed to be Yorkshire’s finest theme park, with Europe’s Longest Rollercoaster. It was a great day…though mainly for the company, not the quality of theme park! We were there from 11-4, spent most of the day wandering round, dodging the rain. My back was sore so decided not to go on any of the bigger rides. Did go on the dodgems however…never getting in a car with Keel driving! I got held hostage for 10seconds by a pirate, scary experience. The funniest thing was probably the conservation area which boasted over 20 bird boxes, 2 butterfly boxes and a hedgehog box. We saw one butterfly. And they had screwed speakers to the trees and were playing 80s music…to the plants!

Highlights

It was such a good week at Liv’It, i pretty much loved every minute! There were lots of laughs and fun times, bust most of all it was great to see the young people engaging with God. To watch them change over the week and to hear their questions and pray with them was such an honour. We won’t fully know the extent of God’s work in people’s lives but we have heard one story of a guy who God really spoke to and is planning to get baptised. Just so rewarding! In one word…Brilliant!!

Tags: Academies, Baptism, Brilliant, Camping, Christians, Dim'll Fix It, Dodgems, GMLC, Halo Bar, Hollybush Farm, Jammin, Lady Starbust, Light Water Valley, Liv'It, Millionaires, Mix Dance, Peer Pressure, Porridge, Rain, Spiders, Story of Daniel, Theology

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