To Resonate:

"To vibrate or sound, especially in response to another vibration; To have an effect or impact; to influence; to engender support"

I think this is what was happening in the last week. The leadership team responded to God's vibrations, and their vibrations lead to our vibrations and our vibrations helped the young people respond to God's vibrations which they may or may not have been hearing throughout the previous year. By the end of the first night, the young people were shining.

We had a lot of fun, some crazy days and some quieter days. But it was really lovely all the same. I made some new friends, and was really stretched by what God is doing with/for the young people. We have lots and lots to follow up.

We also had the weather on tap, the days where we wanted sun, we got sun. This was especially true of the obligatory water fight on the final afternoon. Lovely BBQ and some chucking water at each other. Good fun really.

An awesome week had by all and we raised some money for the persecuted church in China (to fit with the Olympic theme) by running 45 miles between the 150 of us.

Can't wait for the reunion in October/November time.

Good Morning Boys!

The M1 north of Luton is a funny place to be on a Monday morning, but that's where Chris and i found ourselves heading towards Alton Towers.

Was a very fun day, lots of rides and a walk around the towers withs it's dark scary rooms and lots of history. We went up to the roof to have a look around Staffordshire, it was windy and a bit cold.

Tuesday ended in the cinema watching Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging (or Full-frontal snogging, for the purists). Wasn't brilliant, much of the story had been changed to fit in with the movie style of doing things. Being 14 was never that fun, and I'm pretty sure Eastbourne's old people are glad to be rid of snogging teenagers. A bit of fun for an afternoon, but nothing more.

Wednesday we went to Chessington World of Adventure. It now has a Sea Life Centre, along with the theme park and the mini zoo. All good fun, especially when it torrentially pours on you when you are getting on your second ride of the day.

Today was Mamma Mia, not as good as the stage show, but again quite fun. Laughed mostly at the end credits and Julie Walters in general. Maybe that tells you something about the movie if you haven't slready seen it. So in two weeks I'm caught up on most of the summer blockbusters.

Dark Knight was pretty stunning last week. Quite brilliantly filmed and delivered. The only thing that's a real bug about it is Christian Bale's Batman accent, why, why, why? Some of the things he said needed subtitling, to have such a deep voice with a bit of a lisp doesn't really help.

Mini film reviews over with, I'll just carry one with life, it's the summer, so we have the complusory camping trip coming up. Yeay!!

Wall-e

Went to see Wall-e last night, I am not a film reviewer, but I really liked it. It was lovely and well animated. Scary to think about what state we might be in as a planet in 800 years or so. Did notice the lack of dialogue for the first 30 mintues or so, especially since there were some delightful children in the cinema.

You know your children watch too much telly when they can recall the lines in an advert, before the advert has even begun! "Last one in the sea is a great big loser"

Next week is the week of fun, I hope it's really sunny. Mostly so I won't sit inside and be addicted to the Olympics! I will be going to the sea, I will be going to theme parks. I will book a proper holiday later in the year when all the children go back to school...

So off we go, blogging only upon return.

La la la

I feel a little bit like I'm twiddling my thumbs until camp comes 'round.

Next week is a week off, so hopefully I will feel very recharged by the time I reach camp.

We walked along the Thames at Richmond at the weekend, at high tide, I nearly waded in the Thames, but no one else wanted to join me. It's been beautifully sunny here, and the rain has only come to clear the air.

Also watched/sang along to/drooled at John Mayer's new music DVD called "Where the light is". Mayer overload the last few weeks, but that's not a bad thing. He especially does a very good acoustic version of "Free Fallin' " by Tom Petty, and some old classics. There are some good distractions.

Pictures of the week off will be up once we've had some fun.