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.

So the holidays are over and it’s back into the office!

It was really nice to have a break and switch off, but I did start to get a bit restless towards the end. Three weeks is quite a long time, and it makes it harder to get back into it! One of the highlights of the holiday was Dan and Jeni’s wedding in Lowestoft on the 2nd January. It was beautiful and a perfect day! The church looked incredible, with 5000 fairy lights hung on the back wall, with blue voile draped over the top. Jeni looked absolutely stunning, though how she didn’t freeze I have no idea! It was great to be back with the guys from last year as well, miss them all very much!

Now back in the office for 3 days rehearsing for Solid Remix on Friday and then up to Scotland for 2weeks on Saturday. Taste are rehearsing worship songs in the studio while I write material, do stock checks, write emails, print things and other such officey stuff that I love doing!

I’m currently living in wellies as they are the only footwear I have that don’t let in the snow! I’ve also borrowed Mum’s electric blanket from home…now nice and snuggley when I go to bed!

We did an alternative Halloween event at Gorleston Baptist Church working with Unite Norfolk. The wonderful Matt Williamson of last year’s Taste fame was part of the organisation of it…really good to see him, although still doesn’t look right without the hair! We set up one end of the hall and Unite set up the other end, hanging black material around the entire room – looked quite good!!
The evening consisted of extreme games run by Unite, 2 sets from Taste and Diversion running a game and performing ‘What’s It Worth’.
The games that Unite did were horrendous!! One involved a paddling pool filled with porridge, pieces of carrot and sweets and the kids had to get the carrot and sweets out with their mouths – that one was called Vomit Spit. Another was a large sheet of plastic on the floor covered in ketchup, mustard, mushy peas and relish and the kids had to push a fish across it using only their nose. They had protective suits on, but the zip didn’t work and the ketchup etc soaked through onto their clothes. The smell of the fish was disgusting and that and a combination of eating far too many sweets meant I felt very sick!! I was almost speechless as I was trying to present!
It was a good night, lots of fun although didn’t get home til 2.30am!

We spent a week in Hawkwell Baptist Church running an activities week for age 11-18yr olds. Most of them were young people from the church and their friends. We had about 25 for the week. We spent the mornings split into Songwriting and Drama streams and then the afternoons chilling out playing pool, air hockey, guitar hero and chatting. Taste had 16 people in their Songwriting stream and spent the week writing and recording a track called ‘Face to Face’. Diversion had 7 girls: Becky, Becca, Jessie, Bailie, Grace, Dani and Chloe. I was initially a bit worried about a group of girls (having been at an all girls school, i know the arguments that occur!!) but they were amazing! The brief I gave them was to come up with a piece of Theatre In Education to perform to their friends on the Friday night. So we spent the first 3 days establishing the theme, message, plot, characters and technical stuff. We workshopped ideas and techniques and played games on creating stories and impovisation. The girls worked so well together and were really focussed and enthusiastic. The final piece was brilliant!!! The Drama Team names was ‘Herd Wot?’ (Anagram of ‘The Word’, the name of their youh group), with the tagline ‘The Word In Disguise’. The piece was called ‘Do you know who you are talking to?’ and was on the dangers of social networking – meeting people online. It included a news report with CCTV footage – filmed and edited during the week, and an MSN conversation on the big screen. I was SO impressed with the quality of the piece and the performance gave me goosebumps! On the Friday night we put on an event which including Taste songs, Street Tuff from Diversion and the two performances from the young people. It was a really great night, with lots of people and lots of positive comments!

We have since heard that 2 of the young people, previously not part of the church have expressed interest as a direct result of the activities week which is fantastic. I really hope and pray that the relationships built up and conversations had have a lasting impact on the young people and really enthuse them to get stuck in with God.

The gig was awesome!!!

We had about 150 young people, which meant the church was packed out, so the atmosphere was brilliant…as well as very hot! Taste were fantastic, you could just see how much they loved performing, and their fans certainly enjoyed it! We performed Street Tuff which went well (always get so nervous about that one!). Andy gave a message which is always a challenge as the audience is so hyped up and noisy! The response seemed very positive though and we gave away a lot of Check It Out tracts. Sales of CDs were good and we had lots of requests to sign things and have photos taken!

Pack down was good and Keel did an awesome job of a rather difficult load! He went straight back to Selby and Jack to Sheringham, leaving us with more space in the van! Back to Essex…I was in bed just before 2am!

I have loved the past 2 weeks, its so much fun and so rewarding. Answering questions such as ‘Who made God?’, ‘What does God think of climate change?’, ‘Why doesn’t God come to Earth?’ and to be able to share the amazing difference Jesus has made in our lives…there is no better feeling. It’s so easy though to get caught up in the planning, the busyness, the fact you are exhausted, the ‘celebrity’ status (autographing flyers, having your photo taken), the buzz of a gig, the manic-ness of packing down…but why actually do we do it? We say the measure of a successful week is if just one person slightly alters their perception of a Christian in a positive way. We really want to make a difference in these kids lives. We don’t want to be the hype of the week and then they forget about us, well it’s not about us it’s about God. I really believe that God will have made an impact on these young people’s lives and I just hope and pray that they act on it.

Because that’s what all this is about.