Greenbelt - Saturday

I awoke (as I always do when camping) on the hour every hour but only left my tent at about 7 or 8am to what had to be the loveliest weather ever. In true camping style sausages and bacon were on the menu for breakfast, which seemed to last 2 or 3 hours.

Why is it bacon and sausage sarnies taste so much better when fried in the open air? Is it God teasing us saying - haha your clogging your body up with discusting unhealthy fat but im going to make it taste great!

anyways....

Eventually I left the camp site and went to see an ex vicar called Mark Townsend do a talk called "The gospel of falling down". He gave up the priesthood to do tricks of the mind for a living. He was great, exploring how God uses the pitfulls of life, the phrase that I remember most is how we need to get naked with God, completely strip ourselves of everything in order to have no secrets and be prepared for him to use us, whether we think the things we are going through are good or bad. (he was better at explaining things than me but thats the point that I picked up!)

Next it was time for liquid lunch, yes I did have a pint but thats not why I went, liquid lunch was a panel show where 3 people discussed what had happened in greenbelt so far and recomended future talks etc. One of the panel turned out to be my cousin, so was good to briefly catch up with him afterwards. Theres not much to report on this really, as it seems weird talking about a show which talks about other shows.

After this I arranged to meet a certain Zebedee, aka Martin and his lovely girlfriend Rachel and to watch Matt Redman on stage. Now Im not a huge redman fan, but if you imagion the sun blazing down on me, dressed in shorts and t-shirt, and me laying on the grass eyes shut just listening to worship songs. It was an amazing feeling. Martin and Rachel left because it was so hot but I really felt God stirring me. It was strange, the naked infront of God phrase from earlier stayed in my mind and God brought loads of stuff from my past to my mind. After a while it got to the stage I felt God saying "Go to spiritual direction" so I left Redman and made my way to the area where you could make appointments with the spiritual direction people.

I have got a video of Matt Redman but apparently its too big for youtube, but if you have my facebook you can see it on there.

When I went to the spiritual direction people I met with a guy and had half an hour to discuss anything I wanted to, and a problem occured, I didnt know what I wanted to talk about. It ended up being a pretty emotional half hour with lots of stuff coming to the surface, I must admit Ive pushed it back down again but some of it may have been dealt with.

Next up I had promised a friend called Grace that I would go see the play she was in, and so an hour early I made my way to the venue expecting to be able to get a pint before it started, but there was a huge line already and so I joined it and stood in the blazing heat for ages until they finally let us in.

The show was "Return to the Forbidden planet" and was performed by Faith Hope and Gaffetape, a youth drama group who meet up for a week every summer and do everything in the week, ending with a performance.

The play itself was, ummmm random, it was good, the people involved were really good actors and actressess and most coulod sing pretty well (Grace was amazing - both in terms of the way she looked in her very sexy costumne (cough cough) and the times she sang on her own). The problem was we were sat on the most uncomfortable floor, in a boiling hot tent and the story line was a little confusing. I had to leave before the end as I had arranged to meet my cousin at the Beer tent at 7pm (as I had assumed it would be over by then) so I missed the ending.

Next was the highlight of the weekend, BEER AND HYMNS! This video is taken from Sundays Beer and Hymns but shows what happens.



During this first one (not on video) I sat with my Cousin Murray and a few other people who I hadnt met before. We sang our hearts out and it was the way church should be. Everyone was relaxed (no not drunk) and were just singing their hearts out for the Lord. The best way I can explain what it felt like was like being in a crowd in a football match.

After a couple of pints and all the hymns I explored the stalls around and made my way to see a singer from the band who made my childhood, DC Talk. Kevin Max was amazing and heres 2 videos of him





the day ended at Last orders, a sort of comedy show with a few guests and video clips and it was great.

heres the best video clip from the show that they used, This contains 1 swear word (which was cut out during the show) so do not play those with a nervous disposition!




Overall Saturday was a day where God tried to get me to deal with a few things, and maybe I did, maybe I didnt, I guess we will have to wait and see.

Its a day where I felt challenged to be naked more (hmmmm please get that image out of your minds unless you are a good looking single female and find that image attractive in which case call me!)

Its a day where I was challenged to find someone to help deal with my emotions and get spiritual direction regulary in the future (but this wont happen lol)

and it was a day of worshipping the way it should be - with a beer in my hand!

more Greenbelt reports later but Ive put off work for long enough so bye for now!