Apologies for lack of posting, WordPress went down for a bit so I wasn’t able to do anything!!

Unlock The Power of the Church – 18th September
We were on the road at 5.30am, munching pain au chocolat and drinking cartons of orange juice. We gradually woke up and by 7am we were at the church in Streathamunloading. I sustained my second worst set up injury, scraping large chunks of skin off 2 of my fingers, lots of bleeding, but obviously, being a girl I didn’t complain and carried on! We were on a pretty tight time schedule and with a few technical hitches were ready minutes before the doors opened! The day went really well with about 100 people attending. The day consisted of worship from Luke Hamlyn, drama by Envizage Theatre Company and speaking from Den Pethers. It was an inspiring day and brilliant to see people engaging and getting passionate about sharing their faith back in their Churches. We had some interest in our Christmas Event, More Than A Story, which we are currently planning and taking bookings for. Packed down and back home in time for X Factor!

Taste Gig: Westcliffe – 25th September
Keel was drafted in to drum at a ‘best of’ collaboration for Westcliffe Free Church’s Centenary Celebrations. The and consisted of Claire Parry (Vocals), Jo Hobson(Keys and Vocals), Andy Clark (Guitar), Sammy J (Bass) and Keel (Drums). I offered to help Joy on Visuals and Dan came to operate lighting. We arrived at 10.30am and had a long, leisurely and fun set up. We were provided withwonderful food, though I wasn’t able to take full advantage as I was starting to come down withsome lurgy. The gig was half Taste songs and half worship, witha member of the Church sharing his story. We recognised quite a few faces and had a great time. Packed down and Claire drove home with Magic FM blaring loudly to keep us awake!

Keel and I headed up to his parents in Selby for his driving experience on Monday 27th at Elvington Airfield where he drove a Lamborghini and loved it!!

We then headed back down as far as Arlesey in Bedfordshire where we met Rich and La Roche and spent Weds, Thurs and Friday on retreat. We were in a house very generously given to us by some people Rich’s parents know and spent the time relaxing, praying, doing some Bible study and just spending time together having some fun! We went to the cinema to see The Other Guys (not too bad, ending was a bit silly), we set up a projector in the lounge and watched 2012 (rubbish storyline, special effects brilliant!!), we went to the RSPB place in Sandy for some fresh air and also enjoyed dinner at Beth and Stephen’s (Rich’s parents) on Friday night. It was a really good time to spend together and good for me as I wasn’t feeling well with some Cold/Flu combination so I got time to rest!

The weekend was spent half in Braintree and half on my sofa in Billericay. Went to the cinema with Emi and Maddie on Saturday morning to see Marmaduke (pretty rubbish, but not the worst kids film I’ve ever seen! Best line: ‘Marmaduke, or should I say Marmafake’ – i think probably you had to hear it, but it still makes me laugh!) and the girls just munched popcorn continually and fidgeted and changed laps a lot! Emi kept asking what was happening, why it was dark and how did they get the man out of the water?! The rest of the day I was wiped out so watched Hollyoaks omnibus and X Factor in the evening. Went back to Billericay in the evening. Sunday was a long lie in and on the sofa refusing to move in the hope that enforced rest would make me better! Caught up on Waterloo Road and Holby City. Keel came round to look after me and watch X Factor (I got far too into it and was gutted that Paige and Gamu went out!!).

Today is Monday 4th October and the new Taste Guys have started – Andrew Kidby, Tom Tonks and Jonny English. More on them and their roles a little bit later. This week is very busy - have a look at my calendar! Lots to do, and right now i’m off to PC World to look at Laptops and hopefully get myself a new one!!!

Please keep praying for me!

Tags: Envizage Theatre Company, Holby City, Hollyoaks, Lamborghini, Luke Hamlyn, Marmaduke, More Than A Story, Retreat, Taste, Unlock The Power of the Church, Waterloo Road, Westcliffe

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