Family Gathering

It is a good thing with brothers and sisters in Christ come together to fellowship, worship and pray. And when you add the beauty of green fields, the aroma of good food, the laughter of children, and the adrenaline of games and jokes, you have the entire description of what a YWAM England Family Gathering is like!

On Tuesday, May 30th, we left our base in Harpenden to join with other England YWAMer's to celebrate this much anticipated annual event at The Kings Lodge, Watling St, Nuneaton. After signing in at Registration and for work duties, our first afternoon was spent visiting and setting up our tents. That evening we had our first meeting/worship session to kick off the Gathering. There were planned events, workshops, teaching, announcements, and a lot of worship time, but there were also hours of free time allowed for YWAMer's to spend time and visit with one another.

It was good to see several people again, who are now working in different locations, and to hear their stories of how they have been. I also met several people from the YWAM London Urban Key group, and was nearly moved to tears several times listening to all the stories of their street ministries and prayer groups. They have an intense heart for prayer because of all the drug addicts, alcoholics, sex workers, and abused women and children they minister too.

I made some good friends/contacts this weekend that I plan to visit their bases and the ministries they are doing. My SOMD Lecture Phase is drawing to a close in less than three weeks, and head off to Greece for a month in about 22 days. There will be a slight gap in between my return from Greece and my signing up to staff with YWAM Harpenden, so I am very grateful that I had this chance to connect with other bases and ministries. -Not because I am considering signing up somewhere else, but because it is good to get connected, and I love to try out different things and receive various training. It was also a good week for getting connected to some of my bases's residents. I had several deep and wonderful conversations, and I believe the Lord will grow those conversations into relationships.

My 34th birthday was this past Friday. It was the last day of the Gathering, and my SOMD group surprised me with a cake, embarrassed me with the HB song, and took turns giving me words of affirmation (which I realize I needed). The hugs and well-wishes in person and FB continued all day. After returning to the base I was ready to crash, but a friend came and made sure I ate dinner, and then she asked if we could have a meeting in the upstairs lounge. When I opened the door to the lounge, I didn't even see it coming:

"SURPRISE!!!" shouted by my several trainees from the English Culture Orientation school. They sang me HB in English, Portuguese, Spanish, French, Rwanda, and I don't remember what else! LOL! And there was more dessert that I honestly wish I could've eaten more of, but I was so full!

I laugh at myself because I was planning to go on a sugar fast this month, but I decided to wait until Monday (as I'm still getting birthday sweets this weekend)! I really should've thought about that.

It was a really good birthday.

Before I came into YWAM, I had really stopped celebrating my BD. Mostly, a group of my friends and I would gather for one dinner out to celebrate several of our birthdays together, but that's been about it. I confess that it has been a bit odd to be the complete center of attention these past few years. It's nice. Different. But nice.

Here's some pictures of the Gathering. Sorry, I don't have any of the birthday pictures handy. ;)

It's been a good week.