New Wine

For a number of years, members of BEC have attended the New Wine summer conference. We have enjoyed camping together at the Bath  and West Showground at Shepton Mallet along with 11,000 other people for one of the two weeks. This Christian conference holiday is a wonderful way to relax, take time out and enjoy fellowship in a trans-denominational setting.

The worship and teaching once again provided an awesome experience of the power and presence of God and many have taken real steps forward in their life of faith. The seminar programme also  provided spiritual and very practical help on many contemporary issues around living out God’s kingdom values.

This summer, 2nd-8th August 2009, approximately 40 people from Blandford made the short trip to what is for us  a very local site. Camping is not everyone’s dream, yet the sense of fun and friendship is great and most years the weather is reasonable. This year we followed a very wet week A and so arrived to a very wet and muddy site. We were able to set up in the dry and in fact had some fairly good days of weather. There were two days and nights, though not consecutive, when the heavens opened. Despite leaking tents and muddy entrances to them, everyone’s spirits remained undaunted.

As always, activities for the children were excellent and they loved the freedom and opportunities for fun, as well as the experience of God’s presence in their own worship times.

Sitting in groups outside the tents and caravans late into the night, is a great way for the adults to build relationships together and enjoy fellowship. There was a lot of laughter this year!