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A Wild trip to Spring Harvest!!
Cheryl Wild took Katie to Spring Harvest this year - this is her report:
By the time we arrived it was pouring down with rain and it took us 45 minutes to be directed to a parking space! I was overwhelmed by the amount of people! We checked in, bought the Study Guide and Programme of events, unloaded the car, eventually, in now torrential rain, and then raced over to the restaurant to have dinner. That evening I unpacked and settled Katie into bed and then settled down to sort out what we were doing the rest of the week. By Midnight I had it sorted!!
It did take a while to read everything and choose what you wanted to do, but that was part of the beauty of it that there was SO much choice! I attended a seminar on Marriage, one on Parenting, an overview of John's Gospel and a seminar on stirring up the local church to pray! I also went to a Foundations seminar for relatively new Christians and one of the morning Bible Foundations taken by R T Kendall which was held in the big top.
Katie went to 'Little Springers' one morning session and one afternoon session each day, we went swimming every day too! - that was apart from looking around all the book stalls, music stalls and free literature stalls, going to Toyland on the rides, and the evening family worship sessions - which were brilliant - and then catching some well earned rest! - we usually only had about half an hours sit down at lunchtime because we didn't want to miss anything!
It was such a lovely atmosphere, very relaxed and you knew that the vast majority of the 5 or 6,000 people were there for the same reason as you were - to get closer to God. It really was "A Royal Banquet", which was the theme for the three weeks. On the last morning in the big top they had the final celebration (one of the songs from there should be on the new CD) and communion. It was a fantastic experience to share communion with so many other Christians, a truly moving occasion. They announced there that the amount donated by Minehead visitors that last week alone had topped a quarter of a million pounds!
So it wasn't just a self indulgent week where you filled yourself up with the Spirit to continue your journey - although that obviously happened - but it was a way of giving to people who may never come close to being in our situation. A truly wonderful week which I would recommend to everyone to try - perhaps I'll bump into some of you next year!!!?
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