May Bank Holiday Week

The May bank holiday is the traditional week for CMM's visit to Grange-over-Sands in Cumbria. The team visit Abbot Hall, which is part of the Christian Guild chain of hotels, and it is situated right next to Kent's Bank Station. The week at Grange is always one of the highlights of CMM's year. This year the CMM team was Roger, Mary, Annie, Sharon Collins (choir trainer and soloist), Jaime Dawson (drums), and Jonathan and Linda Chappell. Marian Jones was the host again, and great to be with her.

This year the musical of the week was From Pharaoh to Freedom, and the rehearsals were led by Annie (orchestra) and Sharon (choir). The orchestra was smaller than usual - 1 violin, 3 flutes, clarinet, 2 percussionists, 2 guitars and cornet. Linda sat with Matt on guitar and they worked together wonderfully, which was great to see.

The choir also was smaller than usual, but they still provided plenty of soloists, including Sharon's son Anthony who played the part of Pharaoh.

The morning worship and teaching sessions were great fun. Jonathan preached on the Sunday morning, and during the week Annie, Jaime and Mary all led worship. Roger had three morning talks based around the musical. The themes he covered were:

"When I see the blood" which looks at the Passover and the Exodus, linking them to Jesus

"Face to face with God" in which Roger looked at Exodus 3:5 - 'Moses hid his face from God because he was afraid' and examining how our relationship with God was ruined and how it has been restored.

"Let my people go!" which looks at the different kinds of freedom we can experience through God's love.

The evenings were filled with different activities: Saturday night was a fun introductory session, Sunday was a sing-through of the musical, on Monday night Roger led an evening, on Tuesday night the social sec led a games evening, on Wednesday night was a rehearsal and then on Thursday night Annie led an evening. Some of the evenings really opened people up spiritually, and alot of prayer ministry took place. Please pray that people continue to be healed and to move forward in their faith.

The performance went well in front of a big audience. Annie says it was one of the best orchestras she has ever had - quality, not quantity!