Collective are a group of three Christian girls who spend a week in different secondary schools and share the gospel through various performing arts and activities. These weeks culmitate in a live concert for the School on the Friday night.

This is only the second Collective concert I have stewarded at (I have also done backstage guarding for them at Rock the Planet earlier this year) and it is such a laugh. Two of the girls go to my church so I have got to know them quite well which makes it all the more fun to see them up on stage singing and dancing away.

After packing up everything and travelling I didn’t get back home until midnight but it was totally worth the shattered feelings I have today. The next concert I can help with is not until December and Thankfully that concert is in Wootton Bassett so I won’t have to travel as far. Although I have heard that the kids are a lot bigger there and much harder to control. Eeek!

I thought the evening went very well and the meal that was cooked for us was excellent. I’m getting the impression though that my role in this Alpha may be more than I had first thought. It’s interesting how I started off by saying I didn’t think I was going to involved with this course, then I was agreeing to tidy up and help in a non-talking way but now I may be helping on or even (dare I say it) leading a small group next Sunday. It’s in God’s hands and I trust Him completely. I just have to learn to not get so worried about it beforehand!

One thing I am not happy about though is how bad I was at spreading the word about Alpha. I could have done so much more to talk to people about it and invite people along but I always chickened out (except with my old student from Tyco but he didn’t want to come anyway). I must learn how to talk about God and my faith more openly with people. I don’t understand why it is such a struggle sometimes! I am a work in progress though and hopefully I will get better at this as I continue to move on with God.

On Saturday it was time for me to do some serving after being served and relaxing for a week. I had signed up for four hours of backstage guarding at the Rock the Planet event at Lydiard Park. This involved me standing between two metal fences for four hours through sunshine, wind and torrential rain and checking everyone for red armbands. It was fun! I was very impressed by the turnout at the event. Despite the bad weather (the Fairford Airshow had been cancelled because the weather was so bad) there was still a good number of youth around to enjoy the bands and fun activities. Not that I got to see much of it from my perspective…