August 26, 2007 at 6:37 pm
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We made it through one of our busiest summers ever! It’s been tough – one of the things not released on the blog for various reasons was the fact my dad was taken seriously ill on the first day of the Hungarton camp. During that first week we didn’t think he would make it to the end of the week, but amazingly he survived. He is now at home, but still very poorly. We await a final diagnosis when he has his next hospital visit (We are still waiting for the appointment to come through) Do pray for my mum, as she has to care for him. It was (and still is) very tough on her – she wanted myself and Steve to carry on with our work and not let people down, but I know that was a costly decision for her. On all but one of the camps and events we did this summer it was amazing to see young people I have seen grow up, leading various tents, activities and groups – it’s good to see the work is going to be in safe hands in the future! It was a privilege to see two “children” I remember being in groups I led years ago actually leading one of the age groups at Cheltenham Bible Festival – Becca – you make me feel old! When we got to Cefn Lea, we heard the words “we saw you at Cheltenham….where’s the rabbit?!” We weren’t expecting that! The children who said it reported how they had enjoyed the event and loved their programmes. Brilliant! The blog may be a bit quiet now – other than the occasional update on how dad is and how our 10 day wind down is going before our holiday in Greece (A remote Greek Island away from the fires)
August 21, 2007 at 1:00 pm
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Today was our third session with the children. We have prayer wall for the children to write prayers in response to the teaching.
On the prayer wall this morning was the following prayer:
"Dear God, please help me to draw nearer to You and help me to show how fabulous your love is. I want you to let the Holy spirit run right into my heart, so I truly know you and take my tears away of everything that's wrong. Amen"
And there are many more expressing very clearly what they have been learning!
August 19, 2007 at 4:56 pm
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We have now left Dalesdown camp and have arrived safely at Cefn Lea in Wales!
We are with Tonbridge Baptist Church for their church holiday, doing one session for the children for an hour and a half a day……it feels quite lazy after so many camps! We have 26 children, who are lovely – some lively too, but no problems at all.
If you know Cefn Lea, we are in one of the 3 bedroom cabins with two other couples.
The showers are "interesting" as they switch off automatically after 10 seconds!! Neither the loo or the shower have locks – just an "occupied" notice. When you consider there are 15 beds in this cabin and one loo and shower (behind one door – not separate)……I can understand the 10 second shower thing – but it's still a little annoying trying to find the button to make it start again when you have soap in your eyes!
It actually makes Dalesdown look like a 5 star hotel….we spoil our kids on the camps there.
August 15, 2007 at 4:44 pm
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Ok, so I didn’t manage to get photos from Cheltenham, but I have got photos from camp here!! I can’t show you photos of the children (Not a wise thing to do) but I can show you the state of the bedrooms here….especially the boy’s bedrooms. Never go in without a peg on your nose and shoes on your feet! Half of the children are in dormitories, and the other half in tents, and yesterday, all day, we had rain driven by a very strong wind. We ended up having to move one of the girls tents inside – into the prayer room (Rapidly changed back into a dorm by a great team of leaders!) and had the meeting room set up with mattresses and sleeping bags just in case we had to evacuate another tent in the night. This morning at breakfast, one of the girls prayed for sunshine…..but didn’t mention anything about the wind dying down….we now have sunshine and a very strong wind and have just had to stop one of the tents flying out to sea! Steve is currently having a sleep, having been in casualty with one of our leaders until half past midnight last night. (And yes – the leaders is ok….it was a left over injury from Hungarton camp!) More later…..
August 9, 2007 at 8:27 pm
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Well, the first day has come and gone, and for a first day of a first event, the children’s work was incredibly smooth. We had a couple of technical hitches like the toys being locked away and not being able to retrieve them until the Creche had been open for 10 minutes! The whole site is buzzing! Steve did his entertainment slot this afternoon (With a little help from Kay) and we had more in there than the youth band did later!!! Tomorrow, as well as the kids work, Steve has another entertainment slot (I’ll try to get photographic evidence!) and then we are doing a seminar on puppetry at 8pm More tomorrow………!
August 7, 2007 at 10:54 pm
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This afternoon on the way to Cheltenham, the tyre on the caravan blew…..big style! But it blew on one of the narrowest parts of the A46, so we caused quite a traffic jam! (Apologies if you were one of those stuck in the tailbacks!)
It was the right hand tyre so it meant lying in the road to change it – with big lorries going past. I was terrified for Steve.
Then….the jack slipped, and the back stay on the van gave way making it impossible to put the spare tyre on. The jolting from the tyre blowing caused the main battery to fall out, getting smashed to pieces in the process.
The police came (And got an exuberant welcome from me!) but couldn't help apart from directing traffic around us. Thankfully we are signed up to direct line recovery and they had some one come out within the hour. But our real angel in disguise was a gentleman who stopped and attempted to help (Getting his own jack stuck in the process). After the recovery people came and made the caravan safe to tow, he led us to the nearest repair place. What made it funny was the fact that this lovely guy who was crawling under our very unsafe caravan worked for the health and safety people!
Those stuck in the jam, when they went past were very nice – no one was rude to us, and many slowed to ask if we needed anything.
It wasn't until after everything was sorted that it really sunk in how bad it could have been – the policeman seemed pretty surprised we got off so lightly.
Well, we are now here – the back of the van jacked up on lumps of wood, but safe.
Steve is quite stiff from trying to sort everything out, and like me, still shaking from the experience.
I have done my first walk down to the festival office – and it's a long walk from the caravan site…… that's going to be fun then…..I'm back on crutches!
August 5, 2007 at 6:31 pm
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Sorry we haven’t updated recently, but the mobile internet account we use when away from home decided to class our blog as an over 18 site and wouldn’t let me in!
Anyway – all sorted now, and we are back from Hungarton – which just like week one, was great.
We also had a great time at the holiday club in Thurnby. The photo is steve wearing one of the craft activities – to make a coat of many colours! Steve is wearing the one from the youngest team.
The children were very responsive – listened well to everything, and showed just the right amount of amazement at Steve’s tricks!!!
On Tuesday we will be off to Cheltenham Bible Festival, where we will be (amongst other things) managing the children and youth work. Please pray for us – this is a huge responsibility that is weighing on us very heavily. We need bucket loads of wisdom and strength!
