A promise broken...

I know, I know ... I'm sorry! I promised to blog last night, but the day just ran away with me (see below) and I ended up falling asleep instead. So apologies ... but here's the weekend update, 24-hours late!

I'll start with Friday evening, which was our Mettle and RE:fresh social, a live bands night in the Old School Rooms. And it was great!

The best count suggests there were well over a hundred teenagers there, and the evening went off without any major incident (other than one guy knocking a tooth seriously loose during a very exuberent moshing session!). Everyone was really well behaved, there was no sign of any alcohol and they really restored my faith in the RE:fresh crowd.
As for the bands themselves, they were all tremendous! Chaos Remains (pictured) is a heavy rock band made up entirely of St Mikes Youth members, and they headlined with a tremendous, high energy, high talent set of about eight songs... all their own work. I've said before that I think these guys may have a future, but Friday night just convinced me even further!

Not to be outdone, Destructive Mind (the youngest band on show with four guys from Year 8), Cobweb in the Corner and Sloppy Joe all did themselves justice and added a lot of talent and showmanship to the evening.

On top of that, of course, was the debut of my own band, Autumn's Child (pictured). We were thrown together VERY recently and only had two proper practices before the event. On top of that, the music we played was very different to anything else on show, as it's mostly folk in it's approach (not really a surprise if you know me). So with those things considered, the fact that we had some really positive feedback is remarkable! We did two songs, "Polly" and "Iris" (must move away from girls' names at some point!) and were really well received. Our singer, Clare, was really nervous but sang beautifully, and Ruth (violin), Tom (bass) and Ali (drums) also did themselves proud. And I was so proud, too. I've vaguely been in bands in the past, but never performing the sort of music that I like. With a bit more practice, I think we could do some more stuff... nothing major like gigs, but we'll certainly be looking out for the next church talent show!

This sort of event always challenges my thinking, because it wasn't designed to be overtly evangelistic, or even Christian, in its approach. All I'm trying to do with stuff like this is let the young people have a good time courtesy of the church. I'm sure it works, giving them a good experience of church, and even though we may never see the results, who knows what seeds it sows for the future?

It took hours to clear up, but it was well worth all the effort and I'm already starting to think about the next one!

Saturday was almost entirely taken up by the wedding of Ben Slater and Wiz Sammons, one of the curates at church and a close colleague. I was in the band, so more guitar playing and literally bleeding fingers, but, considering I'm not a huge fan of weddings, I have to say it was a lovely day. Wiz looked glorious and it was a really nice day. Please do pray for them... I know from experience that balancing a marriage and a ministry can be a real challenge, and you can't have enough support! They're a lovely couple, and God has so clearly put them together. It's always a joy to be a part of something like that!

Tomorrow's a big day. A bank holiday (lovely) but featuring the biggest football match in Derby County FC's history... the play-off final against West Brom, with the winner taking their place in the Premiership next year. It's worth an estimated £60 million to the winners, and extreme heartbreak for the losers.

I'm very nervous, and have a bad feeling it may not be our day. If you don't understand football, I'm sorry. If you do, you'll know exactly what I'm going through...

This week is half-term, which I really need! It's the end of the notorious Term 5 (I've survived for another year) and I seriously need to recharge my metaphorical batteries. It looks quiet-ish... we're off to stay with Mum and Dad for a couple of days and then not much else. Please pray that it stays that way and that God gives Laura and I the rest that I believe we so richly deserve.

God bless x