Friday 28 March 2014

07-13 September 2013 Saints Alive week in Sidholme

In early September Roger, Mary, Tim, Lydia, Paul and Helen travelled to Sidholme Christian Guild Hotel in Sidmouth for a Saints Alive music week.  It was wonderful to be at Sidholme again - the facilities are wonderful, and the meeting room is quite special with a pipe organ, stage, massive feature staircase and a chandelier!

It was a fabulous week with a large number of guests.  Paul trained the choir, and Helen the orchestra.  It was lovely to have a good number of instrumentalists on a week out of school holidays.  For the performance there were two violins, a cello, a flute, a clarinet, a guitar, a bass guitar, a piano accordion, a French horn (playing the viola part!) and Paul on his keyboards.

It was great to have Bill and Margaret (with their friend Eric) among the guests.  Bill and Margaret used to live in Birmingham and attend Roger and Mary's church.  They did so much to support the ministry in years past, before moving to the south coast.  We were also joined once again by Marion, the wonderful Christian Guild host.  This time she was able to take part in the performance by narrating.









Thursday 27 March 2014

27 August - 01 September 2013 - Holiday club at Alvechurch

For the last week of the school holiday, Helen spent some time at Alvechurch Baptist helping with the music part of the kids club there.  The minister Fiona led the week, and the theme was Superheroes.  Helen knows a great song about superheroes...

Each day the kids arrived and spent some time in their groups, and then after a short video clip, a song all together and a talk, they divided up into three rooms - games, craft and music.  The aim was for Helen to teach each group a song for them to perform at the Sunday morning service.

It was an incredibly tiring week, but great fun, and it was wonderful to hear the kids going home singing the songs (even if their favourite one was one of the warm-ups).

CMM has had a connection with Alvechurch Baptist in the past, so it was great to renew the relationship.

Friday 14 March 2014

03-10 August 2013 Lee Abbey 2013

In August we spent a wet week at Lee Abbey for our annual music week there.  This time the musical and Biblical focus was Jairus' Daughter.  Roger took the themes of seek, serve and follow (The Girls' Brigade motto) to explore the Bible passage, which also gave an idea opportunity to look at issues such as grief and healing.

The Lee Abbey community did a wonderful job of looking after us again.  We had a great host team, many of whom joined in with the singing and the orchestra.  This year the choir was exceptional, and the orchestra was bigger than ever.  We were also blessed to include some children in the singing and Sally led a dance group.  Another highlight of the week was Karl's hip hop workshop - people came dressed appropriately!

Praise God for another week where the guests were really blessed, many were prayed for, and Jesus was lifted higher.














Thursday 13 March 2014

06 August 2013 A special event at Lee Abbey 2013

Lee Abbey 2013 saw an incredibly special event, so it has an entire blog post to itself!  Karl, husband of Sally and father of Molly, was baptised in the sea just off Lee Abbey beach.  Many of the guests at Lee Abbey came to witness.









Wednesday 12 March 2014

Devon in Devon!

In July a team travelled to Westward Ho! in Devon for a special weekend.  Roger, Devon, Helen and Caroline joined local soloist Bob and his choir for an evening with Devon.  It was a beautiful weekend to be in Devon, and we all had a really great time together.  Bob had been assisted in his organisation by Nick, and we were also blessed by the local tech team who did a wonderful job.

Devon sharing with the choir
The choir were excellent, and the rehearsal was good fun - Devon was able to share and minister during the afternoon rehearsal as well as in the performance as he sang his song 'God cares for you.'

In the evening, the audience was really good - a great turnout, and people seemed to really appreciate the music and all Devon had to say.  Caroline, Bob and Helen joined in as backing vocalists, and Roger accompanied on keyboard.

Worship at Appledore Baptist
The following morning the team travelled a few minutes up the road to Appledore Baptist Church to take part in the morning service there.  Roger preached, Bob led worship, and the whole team took part in what was a really special ministry time after the sermon.

We then went out for lunch at the Commodore on the other side of the estuary.  A massive treat.


Devon, Bob and Caroline in action

Devon and Helen in rehearsal

The team (minus Roger) after lunch at the Commodore

Monday 10 March 2014

Worship Day in Burton Latimer

Catherine at Burton Latimer
While Roger, Annie and Helen were busy writing Worship Works, there were a number of opportunities to try out the material on different churches.  One example was Burton Latimer Baptist Church, near Kettering, the home church of one of CMM's soloists, Catherine.

Roger took with him a great team consisting of Annie, Simon, Sarah, Marilyn, Ellen, and of course Catherine was there too.  The first half of the day was for the music group, choir and the minister and his wife.  It was great to have both the traditional and the modern sides of the church at the same meeting.

Annie kicked the day off with some worship, and then Roger led the opening session about praise in the local church, focusing on the praise block and how it might best be used in a normal church service setting.  Annie then led a session about running a music group.

In the afternoon there were some more general sessions - 'Being a worshipper' and 'Ways to Praise' which were open to everyone.

It was a lovely day - the team were really well looked after by Catherine's parents, and it was a joy to be working with the really key people within the church.