New Wine N&E 2008

I have recently returned from another enjoyable week at that Christian gathering, New Wine (North and East). It tickles me that they have added 'East' into the name this year, perhaps realising that it gives the name some credibility; Newark not really being in the north....

*Warning: this post has become excessively long!*

I have been working on Boulder Gang again this year, the children's group for 10-11 year olds. In the evening they join with Rock Solid (8-9s) for Dream:Factory which is entirely led from the front with silly games, praise and worship songs, a talk and response and the inevitable gunging. As last year I took on the role of 'Age Group Leader' again for the 10s. Even more so this year I felt like I got to know my team and really tried to own my role. It is difficult to get to know the children's names when you don't own just one group of 30+ but are general overseer of upwards of 100 10 year olds. I really made the effort this year to sit in with the groups in the evenings and to try to engage with the kids. I did, however, get asked on more than one occasion if I was a yellow... or if I was a red... or whose group I was supposed to be in? Explaining that you're in all groups is a bit tricky! The children are quick to pick up on a hierarchy that I was keen to avoid - my role really is a whole lot less important than the group leaders who are the ones building real relationships, praying for and encouraging their group of children.

On the first day as everyone started to arrive I was overjoyed to be walking through the site when one of the children, recognising me from previous years, waved enthusiastically at me! What a lift it gave me! As the week progressed I remembered why I take this bus man's holiday each year. Although exhausting, I am convinced that I learn an awful lot more about God and about myself from the children than I would if I were an adult delegate going to the main meetings and going to seminars. Each day begins at 7.45 with a team meeting and worship before the doors open at 8.45. The morning sessions consist of a short together time with the 10s and 11s then onto rotations which take up the majority of the morning. The rotations are sport, craft, floating activity (this just means that it is different everyday, for example one day it might be learning a dance and the next day it might be science etc) and finally application. Application is the teaching slot which links into the evening talk and gives the group leaders a chance to talk to the children about their responses and to pray in different ways for what has been brought up. Finally the morning ends with half an hour of together time for 10s and 11s, some action songs and some silly games, finishing at 12.30. I seem to spend the majority of the mornings taking groups of children on toilet runs!! I think that in the morning craft is a very important time, that is when the leaders really have a chance to sit down on a table with some of their group, get to know them and chat to them about things that matter to them. I am convinced that craft time is vastly underrated in its value.

In the afternoons team members can do things like go to seminars and such like. I do nothing. Last year Sarah and I decided that we would not try to do anything extra in the afternoons - the children's work is tiring enough without trying to overdo it! Fortunately we were blessed with good weather this year which is so so very important when you go as a single person... sounds daft I'm sure, but it's mightily difficult to be sociable with the rest of your church when it is raining and everyone is holed up in their tents or else out at seminars. When the weather is good everyone congregates outside and it's so much easier to go up and join a group. This year our housegroup were mostly camped together slightly apart from the rest of the church group (not because they are antisocial but because the area we had been given to camp on was considerably too small for the number of people and tents we had to camp on it!) and so afternoons were generally spent chatting and lazing about outside someone else's tent, housegroup or not.

Evenings start again for the worker at 5.45 with another team meeting and worship time followed by doors opening for Dream:Factory at 6.45. This year our evening themes followed the story of Peter. There was also somewhat of an emphasis on healing this year, which I can't say I was entirely comfortable with. It seemed a bit falsely hyped as a result of the Florida thing (I suspect) and I was uncomfortable with so much focus on physical healing when I would suggest that most children suffer more from emotional scars like family break ups, bullying and friendship problems and feelings of self worth more than with their eczema. I did have to eat my thoughts, however, when a child who had fallen earlier in the week and broken their arm, had been to hospital and had a temporary cast put on it then was prayed for one evening and when they went back to the hospital their arm was no longer broken and they did not need to put another cast on it! I agree that that is an amazing story of God's healing power. Though as with many I struggle with why God heals some people and not others... a struggle I doubt will ever get resolved!

I was forever blown away by the privilege it is to pray with children, something that has been a growth in me completely over the last few years. I don't remember much about New Wine in Harrogate, but I remember being completely paralysed with fear 3 years ago when group leaders were asked to come to the front to pray for the children that had come forward in response to something. Then I didn't move and hoped that no-one would notice that I, a group leader, was still sat down. This year I had no such inhibitions and relished the opportunity to pray encouragement and strength into a child's life.

By 10pm my team worker's day was done. Just enough time to spend a little while with church people in the 'wine tent' for a drink and nibble and then it was time to go to bed ready to do it all again the next day!

I'll be back again next year. For sure.