The daily laughter and joy, the glorious weather that seems to still be here today and all that we were blessed with. There was a Lot of work to do almost all the time, but it was worth it. Felt so much, learned new things, made friends, re-connected with a lot and remembered where a joy came from I lost so long ago.

For the past week I’ve been helping steward at Spring Harvest in skegness week one. It has been an awesome week with great people coming from all walks of life together to help people as one group. A mixture of IT, Actors, Students, Builders, Teachers, doctors and more – all working together as one body.

When something went wrong, people fell in place to fill the gaps – it was brilliant. We were all tired, somewhat exhausted, by mid to end of week but the joys, the happyness around surrounded us all.

I missed it as soon as I was driving back – so quiet – nice for a bit but no laughter, just a long drive back to the northeast.

Today has felt missing, although I rested well – A whole 6 hours longer than most of the week. No huge breakfast or lunch surrounded with friends, just back to normal – not sure I like normal anymore. Wondering what I’ve learned and what is still to come.

For the first time in a long time, I am looking forward to church and actually want to get more involved again – I’ve stood back for a while, to watch how everything goes but I dont want to watch anymore, I want an active part – some way to help and keep things going.

I hope I never forget my week, and sure I’ll be friends with many for a long time yet – The team worked – like a body of Christ in litteral meaning – we came, worked different parts and together helped.

I do not want to return to meaningless life – filling it up with technology to pass the time. It is a great connector of the world, and will help keeping connections with new friends but it also gets in the way. I hope thats not the way in the future.

Well, I’m still trying to work it out but will try to just tell the story I have in my head and see if that makes sense.

Spring harvest was over the easter week of 2009. It covered 3 weeks and I was helping on a stewarding team of week 2. There was meant to be around 60+ of us, there was around 48 I think.

We worked well as a team, aswell as our mini teams too.

I went to spring harvest with one thought: What next. I’ve been stuck in life for a while wondering of direction and how to “trust in God” as people put it. I’ve been stuck wondering what direction should I take and what are the options. I’ve not seen anything, and just accepted that this is life. This is where I am.

I drove down and got lost on the way, the sat nav was a little useful not so if you wanted it for directions thou – for some reason it never thought I was on the road – I was just beside the road running parallel. It liked to tell me to take the road on my left that I had just passed with no hope of turning round so easy to say I got lost easily.

I finally got to spring harvest – the weather was awsome on arrival – the drive althou getting lost a little of the time was still nice – a light breeze with a warm but not blinding sunlight. Great driving conditions.

I arrived, I didn’t know anyone and finally found the team lounge – collected a collection of keys and passes, IDs and papers and signed in.. What next – Chat to random people… What else was I to do – I came alone.

I am unlikely to be updating these pages for the next week as will be away to Spring Harvest to help with stewarding and don’t think i’ll have an internet connection.

IF I get a connection, then I’ll try and update the site with what is happening and what i’m up too.

I think its going to be a fun time, but a lot of hard work and energy used up. I’m really looking forward to it and hoping I have packed everything I need.

It will be different to other events i’ve helped with – a lot bigger, it will be nice to see how its done there.

I think it will be quite enjoyable. I’ve been to spring harvest once before – it was with the CU years ago. I remember going into the place and thinking “WOW” to the size of it and soon after wanting to help and see what happens in the background and how it all works together.

Its taken about 5 years to get around to the application and after around 7 months of waiting for things to process I got the email confirmation to say I’ve got through and clicked the confirm attendance link.

Something different to look forward to and only a few weeks to go.

Now i’m going to try for spring harvest that happens in different locations around the UK. Its over the easter break time so minimum time off work.

I am currently awaiting the application to be confirmed. I’m just awaiting on references now. Passed the other 8 parts of application including yet another CRB check. Now i’ve had 3 of these over the past few years – why they need new ones every time i’m not sure.

It should be very different as it won’t be just young people but a mixture of young people, kids, and adults as its not particularly age specific.

It will be a new challenge, another one for this year. I hope I get on the team and look forward to the event.

Link: Spring Harvest Website