Lay in today!!!! But i was awake at 6.38…doh! Rachel picked me up at 8.55am and we picked up Ollie from his house and Ami from the station. Off we went to the Barn. Yes this truly is an amazing place in amazing grounds with lots of random statues. Inside are lots of very random and distracting pictures!

So there are 3 retreat days in a year where all of the Viz-a-Viz Ministries people meet. So this was the first time I met the 2nd years and the church based people. We started off with some Worship and then a kind of introduction to all the various ministries of Viz-A-Viz which was realy interesting, they do so much!! Found out plans for a youth event INSIDE chelmsford cathedral involving skate ramps! We had a time of prayer in twos, and later on walking around praying for all the various ministries and people. Lunch was at 1pm by which time everyone was starving and our stomachs were rumbling loudly, especially during the quiet times! Then the afternoon was a little education on ‘More To Life’, and we discussed a question, well I wrote all the notes while everyone else watched and talked about other things! We had a time of worship and communion and then Kathryn (who has done 2 years with Optimum, and is about to go off to Spurgeons college to train to be a baptist minister) spoke which was really good. The chairs were really squeaky which was especially awkward/amusing when everyone sat down ‘remaining in a state of worship’ *SQUEAK, SHUFFLE, CREAK*

Then a group of us (La Roche – Taste’s DJ, Matt – Taste’s Drummer, SammyJ (Gammy) – Taste’s Bassist, Keel – Taste’s Techie, Claire – Taste’s lead vocals, Rachel, Ollie, Ami and Jenni (second year optimum students), Dan – techie, Paul (not sure who he was!) and me) went bowling. It was fabulous fun, involved me getting laughed at, ridiculed and entirely surrounded by the taste boys who thought it was hilarious! Randomly you only give one shoe in when you get your bowling shoes…so of course there would be one who lost their one shoe they had to look after…Dan! I got two strikes in a row – my moment of glory but then it kinda went downhill, though i beat a few boys first time round

Came home and had chilli and rice. Settled down to watch Hollyoaks on E4+1…steph, what were you thinking?!?! Watched ‘Lost in Austen’ on ITV1 which was actually pretty good!

Bedtime now….

*1 Corinthians 3:5-9 ‘What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe—as the Lord has assigned to each his task. I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labor. For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building.’*

Tags: 1 Corinthians 3:5-9, Bowling, Lost In Austen, More To Life, Retreat, The Barn