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!

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 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.