The Diary of a Day at Spring Harvest.

Week 4 Day 5.

8.15am

For various reasons we have been half-boarding this year, so the day starts with a full cooked breakfast. (Note to family: please don't expect this level of service when we get home.) Eleanor (aged 7) is less interested in eating and more interested in playing with the special friend she's made this week. Sophie (aged 12) is more focussed on the job in hand...

9.00am - The Big Start

Off to the Big Top for half an hour of All Age Worship which introduces today's theme - The Sovereign God. We sing, watch a drama, join in prayers and learn the final line in the Big Start Poem:

"One Big Creator God who made the things I see

One Universal God there is no God but he

One Humble Human God who loves to call us friends

One Mighty Sovereign God Whose Kingdom never ends".

We sit with Eleanor's new friend, and they go together to add their hand prints to a huge collection of prints representing the people in God's Kingdom.

9.30am

Eleanor sets off on her scooter (with Andy running behind!) for Whizz Kids, the 5-7 year olds programme. For the next 3 hours she will have great fun making things, listening to stories, singing, watching a puppet show (with Starsky - a huge white rabbit!), doing activities and talking in a small group about what they have learnt this morning. Sophie waves goodbye and goes to Distinctive, the 11-14s Youth programme, for teaching, small group work, games, prayer times, creative workshops and "really cool worship". 

10.00am - The Big Picture

Gerard Kelly explores a Bible passage relating to the day's theme; this morning it's Ephesians 6: 10-20 - The Armour of God. With much humour, many visual aids, music and several ‘disappearing off on tangents' it's amazing how quick the hour and a quarter goes - great stuff.

11.15am

Time for a quick coffee with Andy and some more of the group in the Skyline. Sophie comes to find us - unusual - but she just needs some more money! As Eleanor has pointed out, we've hardly seen Sophie this week, apart from at meal times. Although we've missed her, it's great for her to be able to have some freedom in a ‘safe' environment.

11.45am - The Big Conversation

An interactive seminar on how to apply the theme of the day in our own lives. Various different styles of seminar are available; main-stream, academic, leadership etc. This week I've chosen ‘Five Live - Opinionated, investigative, interactive, headline driven' and it's been one of the best seminar series I've attended at Spring Harvest. We discuss a variety of issues in small groups, the leaders provide some teaching, we give feedback either verbally or by text and we look at actions we could go away and put into practice.

1.00pm

Back to the chalet for a quick lunch. (Not as good as Day 4 when we had the customary annual faith lunch - a chance to catch up with everyone in a busy week. This is followed by The Annual Go-Kart Challenge, which brings out the boy-racer in all of us - even those who are not boys... This year it will be remembered for the eventful ending to the first race; one driver mistook the returning pit lane for just a detour on the circuit and accelerated into it. The resulting pile up was quite spectacular and we gave thanks that those involved avoided whiplash injuries!)

2.15 to 4.45pm - The Big Stretch

It's my turn this afternoon to go to two seminars which I particularly want to attend. (Andy has on previous days attended excellent seminars on Creation, Other Faiths, and The Trinity; and the girls and I went to an Art Workshop on Day 2.) The rest of the family head to the funfair as it's sunny; Sophie goes with friends and does Miami Wave and The Big Red Ride which turns you upside down and shakes you - makes me feel sick just looking at it! Andy and Eleanor do the "smaller rides", most of which you still wouldn't get me on!

The first seminar is on the work/ life balance and the second on conflict resolution. This especially is excellent and parts of it speak directly to me. At the end there is the opportunity to speak with the Pastoral Care team, and I feel led to approach one particular lady to speak about the issue which God has laid on my heart this week and told me I must address. It turns out she was the best person for me to speak with (God how do you do that?) and we talk and pray together. She gives me some practical advice also, and arranges to keep in touch.

5pm

Time for tea - this is where half-board is great, as it saves a lot of time at this time of the day. (The disadvantage is having to get up earlier for breakfast...)

6.45pm - The Big Encounter

Back to the Big Top for one of the best parts of the day, the Evening Celebration. We begin in worship, which has been one of the highlights of the week. A dramatized bible reading sets the scene, and then we have the talk by Jeff Lucas, one of the best Christian speakers today. We laugh throughout the talk (how does he make a sermon on Psalm 42 this funny!) then suddenly the serious message arrives and we are called to respond to it. More worship concludes the evening and sends us out ‘singing a glad song to the Lord'.

9.15pm

Various seminars are on offer, but it's time to chill with coffee and choccy biccies with some of the group; followed by some last minute shopping in the Skyline resource area - I'm pleased to find one of the books which the Pastoral Care lady recommended to me earlier. I also plan ahead and pick up 50 brochures for next year!

10.30pm - The Big Night Out

Time to Rock! I'm going to see Electralyte, an excellent new Christian rock group who I heard for the first time a few weeks ago. Sophie debates whether to come too (is it cool to go to a rock concert with your mother? - I promise to stand on the other side of the room if she wants me to) but in the end decides she's too tired. Well it is Day 5 after all. The band is excellent and suddenly I don't feel tired any more. After the concert they do a ‘meet and greet', so I buy Sophie their newly released 1^st CD and have it signed. (This is very well received the next morning - "Cool" - and hasn't left her CD player since.)

So that's another day at Spring Harvest over - and nearly another year as tomorrow we have one Final Celebration and then depart. Time to take home the Study Guide, the memories, the books and CDs we have bought, and the plans that God has for us, and apply it all in our lives - now that's the tricky bit. The Spring Harvest vision is "Equipping the Church for action" and that's what they try to do for each person who attends - give them the resources to learn and move onwards in their journey with God.

Time to go - I've got some homework to do...