Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog!

I’m Laura, I’m 22 years old and live in Billericay, Essex although my home is in Braintree.

For the past 2 years I  have been an actress in Diversion Drama Team as part of Viz-A-Viz Ministries’ Check It Out Team. The Check It Out team also consists of a band called Taste. They travel the country delivering schools weeks which consist of lessons looking at Christian values and beliefs, culminating in a gig at the end of the week. Lessons are interactive and feature Taste songs, drama, games and media. The team don’t preach or force their views on students, the aim is to encourage them to think and feel free to ask questions about the team’s beliefs without feeling pressured. Viz-A-Viz Ministries also work with a number of organisations to deliver sessions and programmes as part of many Christian events and festivals including Spring Harvest, Leading Edge, Solid and Liv’It.

This year I will be working as a volunteer for Viz-A-Viz Ministries. The actual job description is currently a bit vague but I will be working for all three ministries; Arise, Check It Out and More To Life. I will be based more in the ministry centre doing administration and other such helpful things as well as some touring and events.

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.

My parents and my dog live in Braintree, as does my sister Sarah and her husband Matt, my two beautiful nieces Maddie and Emi and my littlest nephew Billy. My brother Russell and his wife Becci live in Malvern with my gorgeous niece and nephew, Chloe and Sam.

I went to Chelmsford County High School and did A-Levels in Geography, Physics and Theatre Studies. I then worked for 18months as a receptionist and fitness instructor at Complete Fitness before joining Viz-A-Viz Ministries.

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.

Tags: Ashford, 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

This week we are in the office preparing for some of the events that are coming up:

21st March: Strictly Come Praying, Grangemouth
8th-13th April: Spring Harvest, Minehead Week 2
16th-18th April: The Mix, Norwich
29th-3rd May: Baptist Assembly, Plymouth

There are others in between but these are what we are focussing on! A meeting about each to plan and prepare, as well as rehearsals, stock checks and other admin type stuff! We had an office prayer time this morning, its great to catch up with the people who work in the office, day in and day out keeping everything going and doing the really important stuff that keeps us going on the road! A chance to find out how the other ministries are going and what God’s doing. We’re going out for a meal on Thursday lunchtime, sort of a leaving do for Clive but he can’t make it…so we’ll still go anyway! Any excuse to go out! Also this week is a chance to meet with Andy and Joy and chat about how everything is going and what’s happening next year…I have no idea what God’s plans are for me for September so your prayers would be much appreciated!

Currently preparing part of a seminar for Strictly Come Praying. It’s on ‘How does God speak to us?’. Myself, Keel and La Roche are running it and have chosen the 3 topics of through The Bible, Sung Worship and People & Circumstances. We’re doing 5min chat and 5min practical activity for each. I’m doing Sung Worship so if anyone has any thoughts they would be much appreciated!

On a non-work level…It’s nice to be ‘home’ (Mum gets upset if I call Wickford home so hence the ”!) for a week, a chance to catch up on washing, hang clothes up and have a bit of a tidy up! Very much looking forward to watching Holby City at 8pm tonight, rather than on iPlayer a few days later! Saw Maddie, Emi and Billy at the weekend – we went to the park and got really muddy and it was great fun! I fell over so had to change into my pjs when I got back to Sarah’s and put my jeans in the wash! Watched a film called ‘Fish Tank’ in the evening and it was really good! I recommend for anyone who likes real life films. Had Billy laying on my tummy for a couple of hours, all snuggly and warm! I miss them so much when I don’t see them! 

I bought the Florence + The Machine album and have been listening to it for the past couple of days. I like it a lot!

Tags: Baptist Assembly, Billy, Emi, Fish Tank, Florence + The Machine, How does God speak to us?, Maddie, Mud, Office, Spring Harvest, Strictly Come Praying, The Mix

We have just come back from a weekend in Becca’s home town of Crowthorne (near Wokingham)! We travelled across over lunchtime on Friday and arrived at St John The Baptist Churchat 2pm to be met by the Ceaser family. We cleared out some of the pews, unloaded in the rain and set up in the beautiful but rather cold church! Excited to have the space to rear project so suspended the screen, with black either side…it looked really nice when all done! Battered sausage and chips for dinner followed by a meeting where everyone was in a slightly silly mood! Gig was 7.30pm-9.30pm and 100+ people came which we and the local churches were delighted with! We changed the plan slightly to accomodate the higher numbers of non-church young people than had been expected…what a great problem to have! Packed down and loaded the van and dispersed to our hosts. I was staying with a couple called Ian and Sue who looked after me very well! In bed just after half 11!

Saturday we went to Crowthorne Baptist Church, Becca’s home church where her Dad is the minister. They had shifted the orientation of the chairs to give us maximum space to set up in. We worked out logistics and started unloading whilst Andy and I blacked out the back. We started a relaxed set up and then had to leave to go to Finchampstead for a meeting at 1pm about Spring Harvest(we are part of the Distinctive 11-14s venue at Minehead Week 2). We met at a gorgeous house and had lunch and then spent the afternoon discussing ideas! Then back to the church to finish setting up, then round to Becca’s for dinner and relax in front of the Wii! Back to hosts for a fairly early night.

Sunday we were at church for 9.30 to soundcheck and prepare for the service…we were told we could do what we liked so had to warn everyone it might be a little different to their normal Sunday service! We had some worship songs, performed ‘What’s It Worth’, Becca shared her testimony and Joy took the congregation through the story of Zaccheus…literally everyone involved acting the story out and being given Chewits by Zaccheus! Tea and coffee after the service, pack down and then dinner in the back hall: Chicken Stew and Profiteroles! Everyone helped us load and we left just after 2pm, leaving Ben, Jack and Becca behind, they are staying for the next couple of days and coming back to Essex on Tuesday. So we had lots of room in the back of the van and travelled almost comfortably!

Got 2 days off now and need to recharge the batteries a bit! Have been feeling quite tired this weekend so need to take it a bit easy. Will be going to see Billy though!!

Tags: Crowthorne, Spring Harvest