Torbay. Last schools week!

Monday to thursday we were in St Cuthbert Mayne High School, Torquay. During this week we showed our final performance of “Abi” the main play that we had (finally). The last ever performance was a good one to end it with and the class loved it, which leaves a good memory of the play. thankfully. It seems like ages ago we were rehearsing it and trying to come up with characters for the people Abi meets. It was ages ago. And naturally the various characters have evolved into what they were last week, due to the reaction given by audiences. My drama teacher Kevin Davey always taught that you would know when the audience got the scene. There would always be the desired reaction from the audience If they understood it. And so inflections were changed and actions too so to communicate the scene in a clearer way to the audience.

What was good about the play was that it had many different characters. This meant that it was versitile and easier to relate to by different types of people. As we toured around we met alot of different people, obviously really, and in some schools the classes enjoyed the character of Kevin (the school geek) and in other schools a tumble weed would have been fitting in those scenes, but in that same school they would have responded more to Darren (the school football player). The play is mainly very light hearted, with a few quieter moments in individual scenes, but the play ends very seriously, a stark contrast to the rest of the play and especially the scene previous to it. This seriousness was always met with a still audience, even in rowdy schools, which was a testiment to the effictiveness off the play. The play must have communicated its message clearly, which was that Abi was in trouble if she continued the way she had, ignoring help and not caring about anyone around her nor even herself.

The last schools week as a whole seemed to be a bit flat though. I dont know whether it was because we werent having a gig at the end of it, whether it was just the kids in the school or whether we were out of practise. In the end though, it isnt really down to us. Perhaps that was a lesson that i needed to be taught. It isnt how well we did or what responce we got to see. But it is between those kids and God.

And so, at the end of one stage, I can see why dicipleship is so important. Being an active adherent. Just growing.

　

　

　

　

Germany 6th – 17th May

Germany 6th – 17th May

Our Journey to reach Herne, a German town near Cologne, took us though France, Belgium and the Netherlands. Although that sounds as if it took a painfully long time to get there in a van limited to 56mph, it actually took us longer to drive to some parts of scotland!

We were in Germany because we had been invited to be the house band for “lighthouse Week” which was a mission week in Herne for young people aged 11-18. The first week we there we visited schools in the town to advertise the week (even more than they had done already – everywhere you went in the town there were posters and banners up for it! Money is obviously not an issue for these guys at the moment!) But we only spent one day in the schools, rather than a whole week and the exhausting day of set up, 5 lessons then immediate pack down was made do-able by the Germans sence of humour and unlimited strength. You pointed to a heavy object that needed moving, pointed to the area you wanted it to go and and a traditional two man job becomes one. Just because they were Germans.

The highlight of this tour was definately the Lighthouse Week because as well as being rediculasly fun, it really sent home some important messages to me. Firstly the language barrier. Ich Kann Kien Wort Deutch means I cant speak a word of German, and I had to learn this because I honestly couldnt speak a word of German. Luckily English is the third largest spoken langauge in the world so all Germans learn it in school which meant that some communication could occur, but before long we all were speaking very slowly and clearly using huge hand movements to illustrate what we were saying. After being in this “zone” and talking to Germans in a slow english way for a long time we even found ourselves talking to each other that way, which was very funny Anyway, I learnt that its less about what you say, and more about what you do that will communicate to people. Actions speak louder than words. This really hit home to me on the last day when we gave the kids an oppertunity to be prayed for if they wanted. After saying almost nothing about Jesus myself, there was a queue of kids in the corridor outside one of the rooms I was in who wanted me to pray for them. This was amazing, I saw just how much God had been using me to show other people his reality, his love and his passion for these young guys (and girls) to know and love him just by the things I did… So what did I do? Seriously I asked myself this because I hadnt “done” anything really. But when I thought about the young people who had wanted me to pray for them it all made sence. The guys who had come up were all the guys that I had seen everyday and sat with and talked to and laughed with and learnt and practised and forgot German with They were people who I had come to love as friends.

I dont quite understand how my relationship with them could make them want more of this God that others had been talking about that week. I dont understand how I had helped them “see God was real” as they said in the emails they sent me after we left. But I know that Jesus said, as recorded in John 13:34-35 : “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” And this in 1 Corinthians 13 from The Message: If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don’t love, I’m nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate.

So, If I had spoken fluent German and communicated that God was real in perfect langauage, but ignored the young people all together… then my words would have been nothing more than the “creaking of a rusty gate” haha, which I love because its quite funny, but also shows how annoying and pointless it is for other people to listen to. However, I have learnt that If we love each other people really will see that we are Jesus’s brothers and sisters; God’s children and by this, that he is out there and very much, down here.

Here is a link to the trailer for the week:

http://www.lighthouse-week.de/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=71&Itemid=76

Much Love, Ben

Baptist Assembly. Jammin and Amy Orr-Ewing. Sweet.

BA is held every year in various places around the UK. This year it was held in sunny Plymouth. As far as i know (not being a baptist myself) BA seems to be a place where mainly baptist leaders gather for training, teaching, drinking (baptists like thier drink) and general gathering. It was awesome. And similarly to Spring Harvest there was a children’s programme and a young people’s programme, Check It Out headed up the young people’s programme called “Innovation” with the help of three guys from BMS, the baptist missionary society… or something along those lines!

From friday night to monday morning we had 6 meetings overall,1 the first day, 2 the next 2 days and then 1 last session on the monday. I led a small group of 7 teenagers all around 15 years old, and i found that i got really close to them over the weekend as i got to know them. I was helped by one of the BMS guys, a girl called Ellaine (and i remembered her name thanks to Northen Exposure…) She was very on the ball and dealt well with leading by heself as i was mostly on stage or back stage or some other obscure place doing something for the programmes!

The theme for Innovation was “fit for life”, and every day there was a drama sketch where a personal trainer played by Laura named Tina, would help Steve, my character, train to run a marathon. The Sketches were improvised and usually to great comedic effect. haha in normal english they were hilarious. t turned out Steve was running a marathon to raise money for a pigeon life saving machine that Panasonic had recently released. He wanted to get one in his local vet… So we compared life to a marathon and had subsequent talks that reflected this theme. I did a talk on the saturday morning based on the title i was given “playing as a team”. I decided that i couldnt relate to running, but i could talk about working out in a gym, which had alot of parallels to running so i got away with it!

Proverbs 27 verse 17. That was my point. “as Iron sharpens Iron, so one man sharpens another”. I talked about how i would never have been able to do as much working out without my gym buddy, Simon there. I made three points.

He was my spotter – he made sure i wasnt hurting myself due to bad technique, then said how as a christian Simon would “spot” me, tell me where i was going wrong and hurting myself and others around me.

He was my encourager – if i failed a set he would take the weight so i could start again and not be crushed by the weights. As a christian Simon got me through tough situations by taking the weight of my failure and helping me to stat again.

He was my motivator. He made sure i got all 8 reps out everytime. When i felt as though i couldnt keep going he would push me to get another rep out, and then another and then another. As a christian he helped me on those days i didnt want to be a christian, he pushed me through the times when it hurt and i thought i couldnt go on.

I said to them that by yourself, you will find this race very hard to run. As iron sharpens iron, so one person will sharpen another. if you run with a friend, you will find it much easier, you can run faster and further.

Jammin: a game that involves 3-4 hoops on a line strung across a room, a team either side (one called pants, the other called socks) with everyone sitting with “both cheeks on the floor” and ALOT of inflatables. the objective is to get as many inflatables through the hoops in the given time. The game has an awesome soundtrack too. amazing!

So… amy who? you might ask. A few months ago now i brought up a question about the bible, and was asking around if anybody had any thoughts on the matter. It was when I asked Rich Powney ( a guy who works for More to Life, the adult ministry – very cool guy ) that he suggested I read “why trust the bible?” by Amy Orr-Ewing. So i did, and i absolutely loved her approach. The way she titled the book says it all really, why trust the bible… question mark. This is not a statement, why trust the bible. She acknowledges that this is a question that must be adressed in a credible way. And that is exactly what she does. The reason I love this approach is not because it proves anything, because it doesnt really, i was left with more questions than i had before i started the book! But it is brilliant because it states that this is something that can be discussed, grappled with and that before anybody says anything casually to undermine the bible… they should think very serioulsy about the reason behind the statement they are making.

Oh yea, and she was at this festival. I was VERY excited. and even better, she stayed in the same hotel as us! there she was having breakfast not 2 meters away from me haha. didnt get a chance to speak to her. But i did go to her lecture on New Atheism, which was cool. Anyway. yea. thats who Amy is, an awesome appologist.

Thats it folks

Ben

A bit about the songs, and bit about the drama

I have always mentioned the songs that we play and the drama piece that we have. And I have also always assumed that you know them all. Which is silly really. So here is a bit about the songs and the drama.

Songs: I will give you a few examples of songs we play.

Sitting On The Fence – I play lead guitar in this song, i just jam around the key of E and get to solo - which is alot of fun! This song is about those who havnt decided what they think about God, they dont know if he is real and they dont know if he isnt. They are in the middle, and the song encourages them to think about it.

Something Missing: I also play in this song, it is one we wrote at the start of the year and is frankly quite awesome. It talks about how in life people are always searching for something, and they will pursue relationships or money or fame or even drugs and alcohol to find it. Yet even when they have achieved what they set out to do they still feel empty inside, we belive this is because there is a God shaped whole in people which can only be filled by knowing God. And for people who dont know him, there is something missing.

Free Runner: I dont play in this song, though it is by far my favourite, and also everyones favourite. The last school we played in requested it at the end of each lesson! It talks about how in life obstacles get in our way, meaning the problems we have and face everyday, not buildings or walls. We believe that God makes us Free Runners in life so that whenever any obstacles come our way, which they will, He helps us to get over them… in a really cool way Free Runners for those who dont know are people who just run. and dont let anything get in thier way. They will jump over walls or roley poley under poles and do flips off things just to get over an obsticle to keep on running.  Very cool. Youtube them.

Drama:

One Sketch we do alot is called “Gnome” or “Whats it worth?”. In this short sketch i play the part of an auctioneer who is selling  “lot number 64, a traditional garden gnome… with a few minor bemishes”, the gnome is then revealed and is missing a leg with paint work scratched and a generaly broken battered look. The scene begins with Laura entering on the phone to her husband who is reminding her not to bid too much in the auction, and only on the Van Gough painting.  After reminding the audience how to bid, I take bids from them, all the while Laura is taking bids too. Laura then begins to talk to her husband again who is still on the phone and overhearing her bid for this gnome. As she explains to him that it is a cute little gnome i accidently take bids form her as the hand movements she is making are similar to bidding. Without realising she manages to bid £900 and then she says very loudly “darling its not like im biding £10000!” then I, only hearing £10000 mistake her for bidding that amount of money. So after quickly closing the bid i sell the gnome to the suprised lady for £10000.

Abi: This is our 20 minute play where Laura plays a girl named Abi and I play all the other characters in the story. We see a day in her life and she comes across her Dad, a shopkeeper, her teacher, her school mates, a careers officer and a guy she likes called Daron. In every scene the audience see’s Abi make bad choices about how she treats other people and even herself.  The message behind the piece is that she is making bad decisions and if she let God help her, she could change.

Its April… blimey

Hello reader…

  

Finally I have failed the blog. I kept up with it for 5 months, yet have not touched it in 3 months. Which suprises me really. Well. in a way it doesnt, I was never good at keeping a diary or… anything like that. So sorry. I have learnt though, that if anybody is reading this, which from the stats shows me not many people are ( I dont blame them ) Then you want to know what I am up to in detail, and the best way for me to fill you in properly i think, is by talking to you in person. There are however, some things that would be good to post such as an outline of what I actually do during a typical week with Check It Out. So, as follows you will find some of the basic information I, in my overwhelmed state, left out of my blogs at the start of the year. 

What we actually do: 

The “Check It Out” team consisting of Taste – the band, and Diversion – the theatre company, typically arrive at a school around 6:30am Monday morning. Ouch. You can imagine what time we have to be awake before showers and breakfast and driving there… The reason we arrive so early is because our equipment takes about an hour and a half to set up, usualy in the school hall (or other such spaces e.g drama studios and dance halls) After setting up it takes at least half an hour for everything to be tuned up, soundchecked and for us to be have our morning practise/warm up, meaning that we are ready to go by the first lesson or assembly of the day. So thats why monday mornings sting a little… We stay in the hall all week and every lesson (sometimes every ish lesson) a different class will make their way to see us and we will then use one of 5 lesson plans that we have, generally decided by what age group the class is in. 

lesson Plans: 

At the start of each lesson we introduce ourselves and what we do. Then stress that we are not there to force our beliefs on to anyone, only to provide them with an oportunity to “check it out” for themselves. The last 10 minutes of the lesson are set apart for a question and answer session, which is where the most exciting things happen because kids really do have the most amazing, tough, out of the box and completely genuine questions. 

Year 7 – Friends. This lesson looks at the importance of friends and the best ways to be friends with each other. Through a clip from “Friends” and a game we play, we highlight that nobody is perfect, and that if we want friendships to survive we need to be forgiving, otherwise every friendship would be ruined at some point. Throughout the lesson we refer to our relationship with God, in paticularly when introducing the songs, however the point is made at the end of the lesson that God has forgiven us for the stuff we have done, and if we want, we can start again with him. 

Year 8 – Values. This is my favourite lesson because it contains so much and makes a very powerful and relevant point to the kids. The lesson explores the value and worth of a human being. With a piece of drama where a broken, old garden gnome ends up being sold for £10,000, we ask the question “how much is the person sitting next to you?”. Humans are priceless, of course, which then raises the question if a person cant be bought by money, then how do we show value and worth to someone? We play a clip from “Armageddon” which shows one character basically giving up his life for another by choosing to blow himself up… long story – so ask me if you want a full synopsis of the film … We make the link that Jesus said “No one has greater love than this, that he gives his life fore his friends”, but whereas armageddon is just a film, we believe that Jesus actually went out and did it.  And thats why we give everything to God. 

Year 9 -Forgiveness. This lesson is similar to the friends lesson, though we play a game where we read out 3 scenarios with two sections to them. The first section is read out and we see whether they think the person in the scenario should forgive or not forgive another character. Then the second section is read out giving a larger picture to the situation which normally changes things quite a bit, and we ask them again to see who would forgive now, or still not forgive. Which leads to us making the point that God hs forgiven us no matter what we have done, this illustrated through a testimony given by one of us. 

year 10 + –  Abi Values/Choices. This lesson is similar to a Values lesson, though because we are working with older teenagers we can go into more depth. Abi is the name of the 20 minute play that Laura and I perform and it makes up the main bulk of this lesson. Within this play the audience see a day in the life of this girl named Abi and the choices she makes throughout the day. Basically she doesnt make very good choices and ends up affecting her Dad, school mates and peers, teachers, a shop keeper and her careers officer. It is apparant that she lacks little self respect, nor any kind of respect to other people. Though all the time we see the side of her that is battling with the choices she makes, there is a side to her that would rather not be doing the things she is doing. In responce we ask either whether anybody thinks she is worth much as a person, then say that we believe she has massive worth to God and if she let him, he could help her to change. Or if it is a choices lesson we ask if anybody thinks she is making good choices in her life, then say we believe that if she let God help her, she could start to make better choices for herself. 

… more to come, Under construction…, 

2010 Scotland – Peterhead Academy

After an epic drive north, we hit scotland. And then after another epic drive north of north we grasped Peterhead, the town in which our work was going to be that week. Arriving at Newhope Church we discovered that our accomodation was another porta cabin kind of building with waffer thin walls and ceilings. And on one hand this was far better than the car park submarine in Bradford, because we werent in the middle of Bradford, but on the other hand we were in scotland… so very very cold. We also discovered that the heaters in the building were all run on meters, which could only be topped up by the old 50 Pence coins, the big ones. So that was another interesting discovery! The next interesting discovery was that the showers ran on the old 10 pence coins… and hadnt been topped up in a while. So the first four people in the shower on Monday morning were incredibly blessed, whilst the rest of us had to make the decision whether it was worth having water cooled to outsides temperature cascading down us in order to smell nice.

Sunday night though hosted the opening service where we mainly led worship, but also explained who we were and what we were going to do in the following week in Peterhead Academy High School. This meant that we had to set up pretty much all of our equipment for the service so we didnt have to get in mega early on monday morning to set up, which was amazing. We set up in a theatre basically, with tiered seating with a 250 person capacity. The school is very lucky to have such a proffesional theatre at its disposal, with such a big and versitile stage.

This has been an interesting week because it has been unusual. Normally we get to hang out with kids at break and every available moment, but because we were on one side of the school rather than where we ususaly are in a central hall, we didnt see so many as they just dont hang out around in that kind of area, and at lunch we had a space allocated in the 6th form area, but all the 6th formers are on study leave so it was mostly empty. However, the lessons have all been hugely successful and the gig was brilliant – the seating didnt make it any less affective or entertaining (normally kids like to all stand at the front and get as close as they can) and on friday there was a group of about 6 kids from different years and friend groups etc who started chatting to La Roche during a two hour free we had – one of the only free’s we had all week, they are quite rare! I decided to come and sit next to him and see what was going on because I love to be able to answer questions that genuine kids want to hear, or just talk about things they find difficult etc, and it looked as though having another member of the band there might take the heat of him with 6 kids talking and asking questions. And it was amazing. really really amazing. we spent the next hour and a bit talking about God and Jesus and how all these things that some people think he is isnt true. And you could really tell that they wanted to be there by the way that they listened to us. One of the girls there called rachel said that this week was the first week she has ever considered God seriously because we werent ramming it down her throat, she had heard stuff before but did not want to listen to it because it was kind of forced on her. There were another two girls who were best mates who decided they wanted to be christians during the talk and were excited about going to church next sunday!!

We did the gig on the thursday night, which i think really works because the next day those who had seen the gig obviously had more questions now that we had told them the gospel more clearly because we held a question and answer session in the theatre at lunch. Over 100 people easily came to this, almost as many as the gig itself we think and it was incredible because they were asking questions like “Why cant we see God?” and “do you have to go to church to be a christian?”. It was awesome, and totally on there own ground and questions so they were genuinly interested in the answers. It was exciting stuff. So, one of my favourite weeks so far as it was the first time that people said to me that they wanted to become a christian!

God is a pretty awesome God.

Much love

 Ben

Thoughts…

Ok, I have a question which I don’t know the answer to. So as well as asking people face to face I think i will open it to all of my blog readers too…

 Did God plan for the poems and letters and songs etc to be included in the Bible… or did He use them to be in the Bible? now i understand and know that nobody knows this for sure. But i would be interested to hear people’s views…

much love

Hawick and Bradford

Hawick (aka Hoick)

- drive south, far away from sea this time. Living in a nice house with a dog called patch. whole level to ourselves! freezing. so turned heater on every morning

From Oban we hit the road and travelled south, far away from the sea this time, actually to the furthest inland point on the scottish boarders, to Hawick. It is a lovely place and stunning for different reasons to Oban, but still stunning. Joy, Andy, Jack and I stayed in a three story house in a small village called Denham which was about ten minutes drive from Hawick town. With a poplulation of 700 apparantly. The house faced the village green which had a massive war memorial plonked in the middle of it. In fact it seemed that most of the village surrounded this square green as it was so big! There was a very friendly dog named Patch, a springer spaniel, who lived in the house and always grabbed your shoe if you took it off and werent quick enough to pick it up when you came in. The house was FREEZING in the mornings. Like, Scotland Freezing, not south England freezing. So all the heaters went on in the morning straight away! and there was a heater that they had attached to the wall in the bathroom, and if you stood beneath it, it was hard to get away again because it was so niiiice. Stepping out the shower was the worst bit. but then you just stumbled as quick as you could to the heater and you found the will to live again.

The first sunday we were there we went to a little old lady church. Brilliant. To give you an idea, there was a sign saying “expect a miracle” as you walked in to the church building. After this service of “number 225 in the hymn books” there was another service, this time it was more of a family service so the age range was alot more broad. In this service there was alot of hype about the week to come working in the school. They told us that it was a miracle in itself that the school had invited us to come for the week, and some people had had visions of the school being a fortress and the drawbridge being let down for us to enter. except we werent just entering, visions had been had of us storming this castle. Another vision involved a map, and a spark being set off on the point of Hawick and something along the lines of “hawick will be the spark to set the boarders alight” being written across it. So. in this church i took everything with a pinch of salt… just because i am sceptical about things i dont understand, visions being one of them… but there was a general and undeniable hype that this week was going to be important in some way.

This week alot of things went wrong… there were two illnesses on different days so we had to make due without La Roche the first day, and without Keel another day, thankfully La Roche managed to take his place and drum all day, without any practise really! Being halfway through a three week tour didnt help much either, and i know for me there were times when i felt a bit overwhelemed with that amount we were undertaking, especially with the added feeling of knowing there was an entire week left after this one! So in many ways it did feel like we were under attack. But looking back on it, this is an encouragement because it must have meant that our presence in that school was doing something big. Someone didnt want us to be there, but God did. and it turned out to be a very good week. Unfortunately the gig on the thursday was canceled due to flash floods, however we managed to do a very similar concert the following morning in year 7 assembly, so in a way, we managed to communicate our message for the gig to perhaps more year 7′s than we would have done at the gig if it had gone ahead…

One of the best parts of this week was the Bean Scene. This was a bar, cafe, theate and cinema aswell i think all wrapped into one cool venue we managed to hang out in the bean scene after some of the days which was a great way to chill out and just relax, i also purchased the best roast hazelnut latte i have ever had in this cafe!

　

　

　

　

Bradford (with t’ bradfordians) … and risk

- Had a brilliant week from the start. had a quick stop off in manchester, and whereas i still didnt see sara as she was on the other side, we both decided it was nice that we were near each other! also, on sunday the church service was challenging and very helpfull. Very friendly people! Hugged before asking us our names!! haha now that is the way it should be!

- unloaded in the “car park submarine” temporary buildings placed together to creat a long corridor of rooms… could see all the way down therefore a submarine… in the carpark of the church, opposite the police station… was fine once i got my head round the fact that that was where i was!

- Church building was new and was called “church on the way”. which made me laugh because everyone around the area called it “church on T’ way”. There was a cafe built into it where people could hang out, mainly for the youth i think. This had wireless internet so we all hung out here most of the time. This is also where we staged our first game of risk!

- the church also had a kind of christian bookstore… so books and cd’s and cards and “encouragement book marks” along with the vital WWJD bands. It was cool though, and this is where they had thier tea and coffee bit after the service.

- also, people from this church had a handshake worthy of Donald Drew. Which made me feel a little more at home.

- the hall we set up in was more like a theatre than an assembly hall, because of the lighting rig and techy box on a balcony at the back, and we managed to use the lights on the schools lighting rig for both lessons during the week and the final gig on thursday night. We had the help of a year ten student who worked the school lights for the final gig – which was awesome because we even managed to follow becca with a spotlight as she entered down some stairs and onto the stage! very very rediculous. but very very brilliant! haha

　

　

　

　

　

　

Beginning of Scotland Tour – Oban (and first taste of Haggis)

Leaving late morning on saturday the 7th November I was not looking forward to the 56 MPH max drive up to scotland, which would eventually take up to about 12 hours in total. Thankfully, we had arranged to break the journey at Selby in York for the night, meaning only a 6 hour drive that day (still enough to make me dread the journey…) We stopped off at Selby because this is Keel’s home town, and his parents were prepared to host us for the night. They fed us really well, and provided a massive TV to watch X Factor and Strictly, so we were all happy haha. They also put on a firework display in thier back garden for us that night! Marked probably by the first sparkler i have held in years!!! I was very excited

The second day journey was more interesting to look out the window. We left england behind and started our winding journey through the highlands, which is beautiful! The last time i was here was in 2004, when i was on holiday in Appin, a small… er… town? Village? Hamlet? something. which is very close to Oban, where we were headed! So i got to see the islands in the loch that i had canoed in 5 years ago again, and they still took my breath away. The weather actually the entire week we were in Oban was very kind! So the tour we had on the first day which took us around Oban sight seeing was really really nice (makes Oban sound like a big place… its really not – which, im gonna add, makes it all the better!), and the travelling to Oban high school everyday was just as amazing!

Sunday night we arrived at The Well, which is the town’s youth centre run by the local churches. The well is a recently converted workshop that has been decorated and furnished with bean bags and leather sofas (really great to flop on after a day in school!) The well was heated by those heater light things, which were like sunbathing to stand under. So absolutely amazing. The organisation which run the youth centre are called H2O, which stands for Hope to Oban, and these are the guys that work in the schools too. We met Ewen, the main schools worker who would be working with us all week – he was a very animated scottish bloke who was very entertaining to watch, a really funny, intelligent guy who was a brilliant ambassador for God in the school. We also met Rachel, another H2O worker who was lovely and also quite funny. (she cooked the Haggis on one of the nights) We had Tea here in the Well.

So monday morning. The first time we had to perfrom was at about 10:45, for an assembly. This was a real blessing because normally we have to be ready for a 9:00 assembly – which means set up starts at around half 6. which means pick up is around quarter past 6. which means breakfast is at about 6. which means shower is at about quarter to 6. which means getting up at half 5! … you get the idea. So we had to get up at 7, which was a lie in for set up day! We set up this time in a medium sized school hall which had a decent sized stage at one end, which was fun actually, I think i prefer it when there is a raised stage to perform on…

 

 

The week was really good, the best tour we have had in my opinion and we met some really cool kids. A couple of college metalheads made quick friends with us, we were told its not every day that a rock band makes it this far up north, especially not one that will take the time to get to know the people in a school. These guys were awesome and made us laugh loads, they came and saw us every free period they had in thier time table, even when we doing lessons aimed at the youngest guys in the school. A teacher told us that these guys didnt want anything to do with a christian group coming into thier school, especially a christian band, and they assumed the God Squad were about to wack them over the head with our bibles and hyms… but when they had seen us play, as musicians themselves, we won thier respect and when they talked to us at lunch and other times they realised that we were all down to earth and “normal” to an extent.

 

The gig was also my favourite one so far, despite being superficially not as impressive as previous ones – as we didnt have lazers or smoke machines and the wall behind us wasnt blacked out… Still, it goes to show that a good gig doesnt have to be visually stunning. Although we still had the usual bi light and projector providing lighting and visuals. The music was awesome and I loved playing guitar. An impressive 17 kids put their names down on an email listing sheet to recieve info about follow up events etc, and a whole bunch of them raised thier hands to show that they had prayed along with Andy during his quick talk telling the guys about how Jesus died for them, so they could be free runners in life (as one of our songs says) allowing God in so he could lift us.

 

Was a really fun week, miss it loads. a beautiful part of the world with some great people. I am so glad i had the opertunity to go there and meet so many of its people. even gladder that i could go there to tell them about God, so that they had more of an understanding of His love which is definately at work today.

 

Much love

 

　

 

　

 

　

 

 

 

Gorleston – the land of the strange games

On the tail end of the the activities week in Hawkwell we were setting up again on the saturday, this time for an alternative halloween gig in Gorleston. The local youth group had invited us down …(or up to be more geographically correct) and had named the evening Treat with Taste. Much to annoyance of Laura and I as people always seem to forget about Diversion! The set up was joined by the set up of the youth group who began to black out the room with black material around the walls. This added a huge amount to the aesthetics of the room, however really frustrated me because it just got in my way when i was trying to set up! This did make it quite a stressful set up because i couldnt do things the way i wanted to in the order i wanted to, especially because the youth group borrowed our only ladder… oh dear. This gig was musically one of my favourites because there was a stage where the drums and decks were set up for Keel and Lar Roche, and the rest of us were on the floor which looked awesome. But the best bit about this set up was that my amp was behind my head on the stage, next to Keel. So not only could i hear myself better than i had ever done before in a gig because my ears were being blasted by my guitar, but i had the opertunity to improvise a little too because i could hear what i was doing properly The reason i cant normally hear myself as well as this is because i dont have a moniter that is specifically mine. Andy, Becca and Keel all have In Ear moniters, La Roche and Jack both have speaker moniters that face them on the floor. Which leaves me normally with just my amp and a bit of Jacks moniter because i stand near him. Laura and I performed our sketch Gnome, which i will describe in another blog post, which was marked by the fact that i correctly said “this is how we bid” rather than “this is how we vote” which is the mistake that i had always previously made! A readsim as my A level drama teacher would say This sketch is a short one, so Laura and I hosted the gig really and did all the crowd warming up and stuff, which is always really fun. We also hosted the games that were played, our “messy” one (proved very clean after some of the games that the youth group played) which is a race that basically involves a couple volunteers sticking an after 8 on thier forehead and then trying to get it in thier mouth without using thier hands. This gig we also played the conveyor belt game which involved the winner of the previous game staying up and having to remember 15 items modelled by the members of the band. This was funny to play, and Laura emerged afterwards with a choice of two prizes, a choclate box shaped prize wrapped up, or a splodge of a prize wrapped up badly with paper… the kid could then decide which one she wanted. The chocolate box one was empty and the contents were in the badly wrapped prize… the audience cottoned on to the fact that we were trying to trick her and so she went with the splodge of a prize. Just a little way of making the point of looks arnt everything. Bit of a silly game though! The Youth Group wanted to split our concert up with some of thier own games, that were traditionally messy and just a bit crazy… so i thought it would be rediculas to write an acount of what we did without mentioning these games. The kids there were split into 6 teams at the start of the night, and these teams were against each other in all the games. The first game involved one member from each team having peanut butter spread all over thier face and then the rest of the members of the team throwing marshmellows at thier faces to see if they would stick… the team with most marshmellows then won… I was like, ok… fair enough. in my innocence thinking that would be it… nope. pretty much took a turn for the worse after that with a game that involved spitting a peice of bannana across the room. Then spreading a plastic sheet out on the floor, covering it with mince sauce, tomato ketchup, mustard and other sauces and getting one team member to race another across it on thier bellies pushing a dead fish with thier noses… Im gonna let that one sink in abit… Do you see how it was messy?! Haha it smelled nasty and was very entertaining to watch The last game they played however really pushed the boat out. it even pushed the limits of basic human rights im sure. It was called Vomit Spit. Would you like me to go on? … ok. basically they had filled a paddling pool up with porridge and water and various bits and pieces to create a sick looking like mixture. and it did look exactly like that. At this point both becca and i had decided that games like this would never happen in the respectable Shires of the south!! The game was for one member of each team to dunk thier face in the mixture and collect as much as they could in thier mouth and then transfer it to a bucket by thier team by spitting it out again… the team with the most “vomit” in thier bucket at the end of the game won… oh boy. anyway. we were fed very well so was a good night out. Scotland next! Much love