A weekend in Bramhall

While Annie was busy leading Simeon in a day in Droitwich, Roger led a team to Bramhall just south of Manchester for a weekend of Two Sisters and a Funeral.  Roger, Jonathan, Amy and Helen travelled up on Friday night, and then were joined on Saturday by Martin, Wendy, Devon and Pete.  It was both Wendy and Pete's first gig - fantastic to have them with us.

The day had been organised by Paul Barnsley, who runs an organisation called Heart Notes Ministries.  Paul has been a wonderful supporter of CMM over the years and we have often held a kind of pre-tour practice performance of a new musical with him.

Paul had gathered a wonderful choir of over 60 singers to come and learn the musical in a day, and he and his wonderful band of helpers had also catered for everyone.  The choir worked incredibly hard as Helen and Roger taught the musical, and the final outcome was pretty good!  It was very tricky to learn in a day (we have since used sectionals, which makes a huge difference), but the choir managed it.  For the evening performance the audience wasn't quite outnumbered by the choir, but they had to sit all around it!

Roger, Amy, Jonathan and Helen stayed overnight with wonderful hosts, and then led the service at Bramhall Methodist on the Sunday morning.  Most of CMM's previous events in Bramhall have been at the Anglican church, but this time it was great to be able to spend some time with the Methodists.  We were welcomed wonderfully, and the service was great fun - the whole congregation even joined in with Helen's children's actions song!  Roger spoke on the 'More Than' God, and also shared some of the pictures and words we had at EBRG on the preceding Thursday.  It was great at the end of the service to spend lots of time chatting and praying with people.  We had a lot more requests for prayer after the morning service than after the musical, so this shows that our new schedule of including some input into a regular church service is a good way to go.

Huge thanks go to Paul for organising such a wonderful weekend, and thanks to all his helpers.