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!

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!

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

So over the past two years as I have been part of the Optimum Gap Year Programme at Viz-A-Viz Ministries.

I have had a fantastic time; I have been challenged and stretched, learnt so much about myself and about God and had some awesome experiences. I’m sure you have noticed a change in me! I have been privileged to be part of so many young people’s journey in faith, helping them to come to realise just how incredible they are and how much God loves them.

Over the past months I have been praying about the future and seeking God for what to do next. Ever since I joined Viz-A-Viz Ministries in September 2008 I felt like more than a gap year student and have been excited about the future of the charity and I guess I have always wanted to be a part of that. After several conversations and lots of prayer I feel it is right to stay on with Viz-A Viz Ministries for at least the next year.

My actual job description is still in the creating process which is very exciting! I will still be taking an active part in on-the-road touring with the Check It Out team as well as having creative input into events and clubs run by the children’s team Arise.  I will also spend some of my time at the ministry centre helping with some administration tasks and the preparation and delivering of Summer Festivals. I really want to continue to use drama where it will enhance the content of various events that Viz-A-Viz Ministries are involved in.

I’m moving in with Claire and Karen (both who are involved in Viz-A-Viz Ministries and SOLID) in Billericay which I’m very excited about! Next week involves painting my new room and furniture and moving in on September 4th.

I have a meeting with the leadership at Viz-A-Viz Ministries on Friday 3rd September at 12noon to discuss things in more detail, so please pray for me then. Currently there is no salary and so I am totally trusting God to provide my every need which is a huge, exciting, scary step!

I would really appreciate your prayers at this time, especially in regard to my finances. I will be updating with more details as soon as I have them!!

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