Well having had a week off I’m supposedly all refreshed and ready for the chaos and fun which is the summer!

On Saturday we were at the ordination and induction of Beth Powney at Sandy Baptist Church. It was great to be involved by providing technical support but also to be there on such a special occasion. I stayed with Beth for 3 weeks right at the beginning of my time with Viz-A-Viz Ministries and with her being Rich Powney’s Mum and Ed’s Mother-In-Law and previous Viz-A-Viz staff member our paths keep colliding which is great!

Back at my desk this week with the noticeable absence of Simon Petherick (Viz-A-Viz designer for many years has now gone freelance) and Rich Powney (unless God intervenes is off to London School Of Theology in September to study straight theology) – although Rich will be helping at some of the festivals this summer so will be seeing him then. It’s very quiet!!

Today I have been catching up on emails and preparing for a meeting tonight about Junior Solid. Tomorrow I have some admin bits and pieces to catch up on and then the afternoon/evening is Andy’s Early 21st Birthday Surprise (I’m very excited!!). Wednesday I’m doing some preparation for a Church Weekend Away with Dan and Jen Wicks, Thursday off to Basingstoke to view and exhibition with Ed and possibly Alan Cass and Den Pethers. Friday last minute preparations for the equipping session Arise are running at Earl’s Hall Baptist Church, Westcliff on Saturday. All very busy and spending lots of time trying to manage my time and be as time effective as possible…is that good use of my time?! Whilst keeping Germany, Liv’It and Leading Edge on the radar as they creep up very quickly with very little preparation time between events!! I’d appreciate your prayers, especially for my health – yesterday I slept most of the day and today have been having dizzy spells. Then if it’s not that I suffer with stomach aches – not fun and definitely not helpful!!

So the events that are upcoming are:

June
11th: ‘Just A Child’ Training at Earl’s Hall Baptist, Westcliff
17th-19th: Church Weekend Away with Dan and Jen Wicks
21st: Andy’s 21st birthday!!
29th-4th: Joining the ‘Check It Out Team’ in Herne, Germany

July
8th-10th: SOLID Festival + Junior SOLID (10th), Upminster
22nd-28th: Liv’It Youth Camp, Northallerton

August
1st-8th: Children’s Venue at Leading Edge, Warwick
22nd-4th: Holiday!

I will try and keep updates coming – please forgive me if I slack slightly!

Tags: Arise Ministries, Junior Solid, Leading Edge, Liv'It, Sandy Baptist, Solid, Viz-A-Viz Ministries

Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog!

I’m Laura, I’m 23 years old and live in Billericay, Essex.

I work full time for Arise Ministries as the operations assistant – involved in lots of things from administration to event planning and delivering. I am currently self-funded, for details on this visit my support page. Arise Ministries is all about helping churches pioneer new outreach to the children in their communities.

My home church is Braintree Elim which I love going back to as and when I can. My church family are lovely and very supportive of me and what I do. Whilst here in Billericay I attend Sawyers Church, occasionally helping out in the youth group and operating visuals when I’m around.

My parents and my dog live in Braintree, as does my sister Sarah and her husband Matt, my two beautiful nieces Maddie (5) and Emi (3) and my littlest nephew Billy (1). My brother Russell and his wife Becci live in Yeovil with my gorgeous niece and nephew, Chloe (13) and Sam (10).

Previous to this I was part of a touring youth team with Viz-A-Viz Ministries and before that I was a fitness instructor at Complete Fitness 

I have wanted to do what I am doing now since I was 14. I can remember sitting in a really boring school cathedral service and feeling really angry. Angry that there were almost 1000 girls in the service and for many of them this was their only experience of God and Church and it was so dull! I knew that being a Christian is not dull and knew I wanted to do something with my life to share this. The phrase going round in my head was ‘Make Church Fun’. I knew I wanted to go out to meet people where there are, share my experiences with them and hopefully challenge people on their view of God, Church and Christians.

I absolutely love what I do, it’s intense work but so rewarding. I have had so many fantastic experiences and look forward to many more!

I’m trusting God to provide my needs and guide my future.

Contact me on laurabayliss@ariseministries.org.uk

Tags: Braintree, Braintree Elim, Check It Out, Chelmsford County High School, Complete Fitness, Essex, Leading Edge, Liv'It, Make Church Fun, Schools Week, Solid, Spring Harvest, Taste, Viz-A-Viz, Wickford