25/09/2011 – As the day of rest I spent the morning sleeping and then went to church, as it is a Sunday. After church I had to go back to Argos as they had sold me a broken mirror. Tut tut Argos, you should know better. I don’t know why but you should. Because you are quite a big successful company that’s why. Anyway after that Rebs and I decided to not go to Audacious again but to have a girly night in, with facemasks, hot chocolate and marshmallows, and a bit of Gerard Butler :)
26/09/2011 – We heard the final six testimonies today, which were all interesting. After lunch we then planned a few things to do on the residential we are going on tomorrow, which is in North Wales. We split off into three teams, one on games, one on food, and one on worship sessions. As a worship student I opted for the worship team :P We were then given an option of various jobs to do around the message, to help tidy up etc. Initially I was on cleaning up random bits of rubbish, but then when that was done flitted around a bit, trying to find something to do and ended up washing 2 cars and a van. After our busy day of labour Rebs and I were invited around to Andrew and Natalie’s (church peeps) house for dinner, and got to meet their kids Emma and Amelia. Though remembering which child is which was interesting with such similar names.
27/09/2011 – Today we all set out for the residential trip to Quinta which is in North Wales. Once we’d arrived we were assigned our rooms, and chose our respective beds :P I was in a room with Heidi, Jess, Hege, Tiffany, and Gemma. We then began the fun with some games in the sports hall. We played a mini hockey tournament, and then several games of benchball. One of which resulted in me getting elbowed in the eye, which I wasn’t too impressed with :P We then had a talk from Jo, and did a little self-evaluation on our selves at the beginning of the course for us to keep and look back on. In the evening me and the rest of the team in charge of sorting out the worship sessions set out some prayer stations in the common room. The following worship session was a really powerful night for all of us I feel, and one of the first times we were able to get alongside each other, and support each other on a new level,which was pretty cool. We then finished the night off by splitting into teams and improvising our own fairytale, in the style of something we pulled out the hat. My group got the three little pigs in the style of a horror. And so we made good use of the left over spaghetti.
28/09/2011 – Second day of the residential and we may as well have slept on the ground. Those mattresses were, in my opinion, not mattresses. Had a nice morning which consisted of breakfast, hot chocolate, and a walk outside where there are TREES, a scarcity in Manchester/Salford. And also a little duck family, which was cute :P
Our main event for the day was a long walk through north Wales. It started off well, with us all having to jump over a steel gate, and then Beaver managed to scrape his arm as he climbed over, and so we had to wait until someone had gone back and got the first aid kit. We then proceeded to walk for a few hours, and I made my way around the group asking what animal they would be. At one point on our journey we had to walk through a pitch black canal tunnel, which went on for about 5 minutes at a slightly slower than average walking pace :P The idea was we weren’t allowed to talk to each other and we all had to hold hands, and try not to fall in the canal, as a kinda team building exercise. I quite enjoyed it, but Rebecca didn’t as she hates small spaces, and darkness is, in her words, too close. In the evening after our meal, the girls and boys split up, the boys had yet another walk, and the girls had a girly night
with facemasks and sweets. And then to finish the day off, we had a worship sesh outside. The theme for the evening was to remember the persecuted church around the world, and so we all walked out to the lake in silence, and held a candle each and said some prayers. The next hour or so was spent singing worship songs, under what was possibly the clearest night sky I’ve ever seen, it was beautiful. There’s something quite magical in singing God’s praises outside on a clear night with friends.
29/09/2011 – The last day of our residential trip, we started the day with a talk from Mat, and then began the scavenger hunt game, where we were given a list of things we had to find. Some of them were easy enough, like a feather, and a stick. However others required a bit more creativity such as a Duck’s fart and a fairy. By some strange miracle (and bribery in the form of a packet of frazzles) my team won! We followed lunch with some more games which included eating as many crackers as possible, and a very wet version of duck duck goose – drip drip drop. We then had a final photo and made our way back to Manchester. The Harpurhey house then had a bbq in the evening, which was a nice finish to the week.
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