The Morgan-Gurrs

Well, we’re back from Spring Harvest! We did three Spring Harvest weeks -  that’s 16 event days.

Including both sites on each week, there were 1,500 team members and 25,000 guests… plus day visitors.

The theme title was “Church Actually” – hence the title of this post!

Once again, we have enjoyed the privilege of serving both Spring Harvest and the guests there. It was a three weeks filled with many blessings, good relationships, friendships renewed and new friendships made. It was very cold almost all the time (Kay had to buy an extra coat!) and the seagulls were the loudest we’d ever heard them – but these are things we can cope with, especially when we’ve been sucked in and welcomed into the Spring Harvest family

There was a great atmosphere on site that we have both summed up as gentleness and togetherness. A real sense of family!

On weeks one and two, Kay was the on site disability/additional needs consultant and part of the Event Leadership Team. As usual, the consultant role was a very varied one, and very busy, but Kay thrives on being busy and being challenged in her role. Steve was a huge help – enabling Kay to give the appearance of omni-presence (Something she was often accused off by others in the event leadership team!)

On week three, Steve was deputy coordinator for Whizz Kids – and had a wonderful time! It was very strange for him to be working without Kay, but he and Paul Willmott worked very well together on stage, and the whole of the Whizz Kids leadership – headed by Sarah Covington, were an awesome team!  It was a real blessing and a delight for Kay to see Steve working as a kids worker in his own right – she was one very proud wife! The children really grasped the teaching about church and being church. Steve’s new puppet, Rufus, had his debut and became a firm favourite with the children (and team) instantly.

On Day four, Steve did a family matinee – ably assisted by Paul Willmott and Kay. A great time was had by all as we explored ‘making good choices’.

Kay’s role was quite varied on week 3 – not as quiet as she had hoped, but that was probably a good thing as she adjusted to not being a Whizz Kid! The week started with her taking an OFSTED inspector around all of the under 11’s children’s work on site – a routine, but unannounced spot check. The inspector was very pleased with what she saw – and Kay was more than happy to have the pleasure of showing off the amazing work the three inspected age groups do. As well as this, Kay was also mentoring and training a new on site disability consultant – who did a really good job. With so many children and adults on site with disabilities and additional needs that week, it needed two of them to make sure each need was catered for where possible.

Now we’re home, all we have to do now is write various event reports and catch up with paperwork, before heading into another busy season – nothing new there then!

Many thanks for all your prayers.

Well, we have the house sitters sorted – and they’re thankful to be sitting for longer than a weekend this time – It’ll be 17 days in all – three Spring Harvest Weeks!

This is What we will be doing on site this year:

We drive down on Fri 30^th March

Week 1: 30^st  March – 5^th  April:
Kay is the Site Special Needs/Disability Consultant (Kids and Adults) and part of the event leadership team. Steve is a VIP guest, helping Kay 

Week 2: 5^th – 10^th April: (Easter Sunday is 8^th April)
Kay is the Site Special Needs/Disability Consultant (Kids and Adults) and part of the event leadership team. Steve is a VIP guest, helping Kay

Week 3: 10^th – 15^th April
Steve is deputy to Sarah Covington, co-leading Whizz Kids. He’s also doing a family matinee on Day 4 (Fri 13th) with the help of another team member (And Kay).
Kay is officially mentoring and training a new special needs consultant – and unofficially looking forward to occasionally making coffee for team in Whizz Kids as time allows!

Do pray for us – for safety, for rest, for wisdom….. and a cracking good time!

Look out for the twitter updates on the right of this page.

For those of you who prayed for Kay speaking at the Evangelical Alliance Council Meeting “It takes a Whole Church to Raise a Child”,  you can see the videos of all the speakers (Including Kay’s slot) here.

Kay was answering the question “Is Church Toxic to a Child’s Faith”. You can see more about the day on Kay’s personal blog  too.

Last weekend we had the privilege of serving St.Mary’s church Nantwich.
We worked with the children, helped with family workshops, and Kay even did a ‘bedtime story’.
As soon as we arrived at Cloverly hall, we we’re sucked into this wonderful church family – accepted and loved. The whole weekend revolved around church being family, and we loved it!
The children we’re delightful, and we enjoyed doing our sessions with them on “conversations with God”, talking to God about His protection, provision and peace.
With the theme for Spring Harvest this year in our mind – ‘Church Actually’, St.Mary’s, over this past weekend we’re a great example of the relationship side of church.
Many thanks to all involved, for your love and your care, and your acceptance.

Our annual team conference was fantastic – lovely people, great kids workers, good food and a wonderful speaker. The feedback from the team is still coming in, all appreciating the input and the time out from busy schedules.

As mentioned in our previous blog, we set the meeting room up as an underwater world, which was much appreciated by the team – especially the fact that we’d taken the time to think it through and as one member said: “…make such a wonderful, visual, adult space for us…” Many thanks to Judi and Mike for helping us. The photos really don’t do it justice!

A local garden centre (Old Barn) lent us two HUGE penguins to add to our watery world – photographed with Steve. They also attended our management meeting on the Friday morning……. (Well, we are children’s workers!)

We also had a radio controlled fish – also huge – who made a guest appearance in Kay’s rendition of the Jonah story…. expertly driven by our technical advisor, Pete Edley )

Ali Campbell’s talks were spot on – a real blessing. One member said “I’m still processing the last talk and it’s time to hear another one…!” Everyone found something to stretch them, encourage them and bless them.

Now to start thinking about next year!

After coming back we’ve been busy with various other things – Kay attending a Spring Harvest consultation meeting about the 2013 theme, in London. She was very grateful for a smooth and easy solo journey, and thoroughly enjoyed the process of thinking and debating the various ideas put in front of them. People forget that children’s workers enjoy debating theology too! On Thursday we were both with out Future Builder students, talking about Puppets, ventriloquism and tricks.

Thankfully we have a quieter week next week, ready for a full on week of assemblies and meetings the following week.

This weekend is our team conference! On facebook, many of our colleagues are making comments such as “5 more sleeps ’til conference” and “The Dalesdown challenge will be…..” and various other rather competitive team members are comparing skills for the unofficial wii challenge on Saturday night!

It’s always a lot of fun…..

This year’s theme is ‘Salmon or Jelly Fish’ and the Laing room (Meeting room!) will be set up like an under water world. The theme ties into the fact we are a bit of a Salmon type organisation – often going against the flow. We’d rather not be a Jelly fish organisation – going where the flow takes us.

Please pray for us – for the team, that it would be a refreshing and fun filled weekend, and for us – for strength and wisdom as we host it. Also pray for Ali Campbell, our speaker for the weekend – some one who like us, never seems to stop!

As if you didn’t know – Christmas is on its way! The preparations, decorations and hype seem to get earlier every year and the real meaning feels as though it’s slipping away.

Sounds a bit ‘bah – humbug’ doesn’t it?!

We’ve had a very busy couple of months, and have only just found time to start thinking about Christmas. But – the Christmas news letter has been written!

Leading up to this point, we have done many assemblies, including one new school. Delivered some training, including a full day’s training on children with special needs for London City Mission, two weekend events for One Way, and a couple of sessions for the Knowle Parish day of ‘inspiration and encouragement’ on leading small groups and positive discipline. Had meetings all over the place, planned future events, had management meetings for Children Worldwide etc, etc (You get the idea….!)

On November 20th we celebrated the 20th Birthday of Dalesdown. It was a great time, both looking back and being thankful for God’s faithfulness and blessing, and prayerfully looking forward to all the future holds. Our thanksgiving service was followed by a Ritz style tea party for all who came – the dining room was transformed amazingly, and got the comment “I’ve been to the Ritz, and this is far, far better!!” We also had prayer stations representing every aspect of the work of Family Foundations Trust (Including Dalesdown and Children Worldwide)

During December, as well as a few bookings and  quite a few meetings we hope to get some writing done and take some time to reclaim our house from the ravages of children’s work and being too busy. Kay is hoping to find a desk and a floor in the office!

On the subject of writing, you may notice an extra page on the site: “Musings of a Kids’s Worker“. This is a link to Kay’s personal blog, but we hope to put the latest additions on this page too.

Meanwhile – have a blessed time in the busyness of the season.

We came back from our much needed holiday just over a week ago, but dropped straight back into work headfirst! Why do holidays always leave you with such a huge pile of work when you get back?
We took the twitter feed off the blog whilst we were away as a security measure (Just in case Kay was tempted to twitter whilst we were away…… which she wasn’t!) As you will see – it’s back on now, so you can continue to see what we are doing in real time, as well as enjoy some of our more off the wall thoughts!
It’s our council of reference meeting tonight – always a time of encouragement as we look forward, and thankfulness as we look back.

Well, the camps are over – not just the ones we were personally involved with, but also the Children Worldwide ones we have responsibility for.

All went well, Children and young people became Christians and many moved on in their faith – brilliant! There are many stories we are unable to tell you for reasons of confidentiality, but we can say that many hurting children learnt that there are some adults you can trust, others built up their self confidence, and others were able to be the children they are  - just for a little while.

We now move back into the world of assemblies, meetings, training days and preparation for the year ahead – the diary, once again, looks very busy!

Many thanks for all your prayers.

It’s Thursday afternoon of camp – and it’s been raining! The first significant period of rain for the two weeks of camps we’ve done.

This week is the camp for our youngest children, and it has been so much fun – the children have seemed very small compared to the previous camp, and much more willing to do things. The leaders have been great, and very willing to join in everything and be with the kids…..having fun!

We have been taking the morning teaching sessions, looking at Paul’s third journey and subsequent journey to Rome. One morning turned out to be interesting as the electricity dropped out just as we were starting! It took Kay back to her roots, as she carried on without anything technical and told the story straight. It may well have been one of the best morning meetings!

The evening meetings have been on significant encounters with Jesus, each session taken by a different person every night.

Each year on this camp we look at the biography of a well known Christian – and this year we were learning about Joni Eareckson Tada, someone who has been a huge help to many people over the years, including many on the camp.

Joni was kind enough to record a message for the campers, and we played it to them last night – the looks on their faces were amazing and the gasp audible as they realized Joni was speaking to THEM! But no where near as amazed as some of the leaders who were thrilled that Joni had taken the time to record the message. It was one of those precious memories to be stored away and appreciated for a long time to come.

We have one more day to go – the sun has come out again, and we’re hoping it will be dry enough for the bonfire tonight. We all go home tomorrow evening after a final day of learning, swimming, horse riding and much much more.