I was delighted when I was asked if I would like to share my week at Spring Harvest. I discovered this year that spring Harvest has been going for 18 years; and I thought that I was a veteran on my 3^rd year. Spring Harvest takes place for 3 – 4 weeks after Easter at 2 or 3 of the Butlins holiday villages. This year at Skegness and Minehead last year at Skegness, Pwllheli and Weymouth. There are various price ranged accommodation self-catering or ½ board etc. The accommodation is excellent, Butlins are on a massive refurbishment programme and we were the 1^st to use the new accommodation.

The Spring Harvest timetable is a busy one, 2 morning sessions, 2 afternoon, an evening meeting and after hours entertainment are available as well as the usual Butlins fairground, swimming pools and such. There are crèches and babysitting also the evening meeting from the big top is televised to the chalets and children’s meetings are concurrent to the main seminars.

The teaching from the morning sessions this year was from Colossians; every year there is a manual to buy that you use in the sessions. It is planned that it can be used for bible study in house groups. There are 5 different styles of session to suit various needs. This year I went to emerging leaders run by Faith Foster, Phil Wall (Church Army) and Dave Richardson (Evangelical Alliance). They were an inspiring team; they made the sessions fun and easy to absorb. We worker inter-reactively in small groups which is awful at first but after a couple of times it is fun to meet others and work together. I took part in writing our own creed; a statement of things from the bible that we believed in, it was really fun to do.

The other morning seminar that I went to was called Xpression and was a chance to explore writing, dance, drama and creative art. Again it was awkward at first working with others but the result was a sense of achievement when we put together a dance or drama and performed it in front of each other in just 2 hours.

The afternoon sessions are nearly as varied as there are people. I went to one on single parenting, we discussed various issues and it was very helpful to have these real needs discussed and explained.

The night for me was comparatively quiet. I was very pleased to get the opportunity to see Rebecca St. James; she and her band are on tour for the 1^st time in the UK and it was a fantastic night out. I went along to the receiving from the Holy Spirit meetings and they were lovely. No live music, we sung unaccompanied which I love and sat quietly or went forwards to receive some of the love that God has for us. It was like being bathed in His tenderness and reassurance. It gave me the time and the place to take God into my deepest being again and I realised that I want to do that every day.

One more thing that I enjoyed being able to do and that was wave the flags that we made as part of our worship. The really nice thing this was year was being able to offer our collection of flags for other people to use and I was surprised at the number of men who borrowed flags and then enthused with me how they enjoyed it. There were of course a number of children glad to be able to express themselves.

All in all I had a lovely time at Spring Harvest. It is so good to be completely among Christians even for such a short time. The atmosphere is one of togetherness and trust, healing and inspiration, a sense of growing together. We are already looking forwards to next year and are planning a block booking to be able to go together.