Had an awesome time in Dover, my first Adult Mission. We travelled to Dover on Friday morning, arrived about 10.45 and were greeted by lots of lovely people who helped us unload. They had clearly put loads of effort into planning the event and had put up posters and balloons and pictures on the walls and bits and pieces in the foyer. We set up and at 12.30 were provided with a yummy ploughmans. We then spent the afternoon finishing set up, soundchecking (various funny things which we will hold against certain people involving mics being on mute and altered frequencies) and rehearsing. At 5pm we were treated to a 3 course meal: Mackeral and Salad; Chicken wrapped in bacon with potatoes, veg and mushroom sauce; and a fruit tart with cream; all of which was very nice!! Conversation wasn’t so pleasant, after discovering half a pigeon behind the van, and convinced Mike did it on purpose, there was many a squished animal story being told!! We had a prayer meeting before the event started and then it all kicked off around 7pm. The running order went something like this:
It was the first time we had performed Jessica’s Story and it went really well. I really enjoyed it and wasn’t too nervous which was great! I was a little nervous about the monologue at the end, not only was it emotional but i was carrying a candle and had to go down a step and then back up by only the light of this candle! All went well though and i didn’t feel nervous at all. It was good to chat to a couple of people afterwards too.
We went back to our hosts, I was staying with a lovely lady called Barbara who lives by herself in a 2-bed flat. She looked after me very well!!
Saturday was Golden Years (aimed at people 55+), we arrived about 10am (to hear stories of people’s mornings: Rachel having to force the bathroom door open at her host’s to rescue Joyce who was trapped inside, Dan almost getting into the wrong car….the kind of things that were brought up many a time over the weekend and will continue to be in jokes no doubt!) to change the staging slightly, soundcheck and rehearse. We then had a lovely lunch of soup and rolls and crisps and really good cookies! Conversation somehow got to our ideal houses and bouncy castle rooms, bubble wrap rooms, light rooms and LAN party rooms. Hmmm…. The event started at 2.30 and went something like this:
The sketch we did was as Bill and Ben, the flowerpot men and seemed to go down quite well! We’ve hardly ever got it right in rehearsals but managed on the stage! Rachel did a monologue which was brilliant and I read the poem Footprints. After a slight struggle with getting soundcues right in rehearsals, it was spot on in the event, and sounded great!!
We had sandwiches and cakes and tea after and then set up for the sunday service. Got back to Barbara’s about 6pm, and she had made a pork casserole with carrots, sprouts and mash and nectarines for afters. We then chatted for a couple of hours and she told me lots of interesting things! I went to bed fairly early as the day seemed to take it out of me!
Got to the church about 9.30am and soundchecked and made sure everything was ready for the service. We prayed before hand and then the service started at 10.30. We caused slight controversay by holding the service in the hall not the church building itself, but this meant we could have all of our equipment and we didn’t have to pack down and re set up! The service went something like this: 
The sketch we did was a modern day Prodigal Son, where I played Suzie the girl who left home and got into bad company and returned home thinking her parents wouldn’t want to have anything to do with her. For this part I had really messy hair, thick smudged black eyeliner and smudged lips – great fun! Apparently I looked quite rough, I got offended saying I always have my makeup like that! After that I had about 6mins to clean off my makeup, get changed, do my hair and re-mic before being back on stage looking respectable for the Bible reading!! Anyway all went well and people seemed to enjoy the service and the whole weekend. The food afterwards was amazing!!! That church definitely knows how to feed people well!
We started packdown at 1pm and by 2pm we were loaded and on our way. Until smoke started coming out of the speaker and we had to stop and Dan discovered the fuse for the heating had well and truly melted! Journey back was good, wet but good! We unloaded at the office and re-loaded for Wednesday and I was home about 4.30. Had a fairly lazy rest of the day and just about to plan Kids Club for Friday as I’m being dragged willingly back to lead it! Mum and Dad are coming to see me tomorrow so looking forward to that!
Tags: Dover, Golden Years, More To Life