Weekend Away

A few weeks ago we went on a weekend away with our church, Trinity Bay, to Encounter Bay, about 45 minutes drive from where we are, and where my Mum's cousin Sue lives.

We weren't quite sure what to expect. St Margaret's weekends away back in England were always a rather laid back affair, with the emphasis very much on the fellowship side of things, which was great. The blokes would cook breakfast and there was a bit of a walk on the Saturday, with plenty of time for tea shops, laughing and joking and a few drinks. Sometimes more than a few. The only planned formal time of fellowship was on the Sunday morning.

So it was with some trepidation that I read on the program for Trinity Bay's weekend that there would be 4, yes, 4 talks/times of worship through the weekend. When would we have time for Singstar? And what's more, as the weekend would be held in a Salvation Army conference centre, there'd be no alcohol allowed. On the plus side, it was to be fully catered, Scripture Union were going to look after the children during the adults sessions and, as far as we knew, all water supplies, toilets and showers were fully functional, so there'd be no repeat of St Margaret's dirty weekend. I felt like I'd overdosed on Christian books and talks during my commuting leading up to the weekend, and honestly didn't feel like listening to another 4 talks, but, go with the flow I thought, and tried to go into the weekend deciding to enjoy it.
I didn't have to try very hard. The dorm we were given had the nostalgic smell, look and poor thermoregulation of a Butlins Spring Harvest chalet circa 1988, which with the spring air, made me feel like I was back in Skegness. The food was great, with Tea and Coffee (or 'Christian crack' as Dave from church called it) on tap. The boys had an ace time in their sessions, even if I did manage to spill their crystal making solution they'd made. The worship group (or 'Musos', as John, our Minister, refers to them) were really good. And those talks I'd been dreading were exactly the breath of fresh air I needed - really good, back to the heart of things stuff.

It was really nice just to hang out with people from church, too. In these post Madeline McCann days, I went to bed when the boys did, but Sharon stayed up late, teaching anyone who would listen how to cheat at cards. The boys played an awful lot of table tennis and could generally just run about the venue. I did a 6:30am run down to the bluff (not in the buff, to the bluff, a rocky prominence on the coastline) with one of the men in preparation for the city to bay 12km race I was doing the following weekend. I'd intended to do 1okm, but had to give up after 8km, unable to keep up with Paul's 1hour/12km pace. We saw a baby whale in the bay whilst we were out, this being a prime nursery site for whales coming up from the south pole. On the Saturday afternoon we did the modern form of treasure hunting: geocaching. More of that later.

All in all, we had a fantastic time that really boosted us all. Well done to the Young Adults Group who organised it all for us.