Music week at Abbot Hall

In the jubilee week, Roger, Mary and Annie travelled up to Kent's Bank near Grange-over-Sands in southern Cumbria to hold a music week.  This time they had a wonderful team of Sharon (who trained the choir), Catherine and Paul.  Marion was the Christian Guild host, and Helen joined them for the last day.

The musical for the week was Snakes and Ladders - a musical which looks through the whole Bible at different stories that involve snakes and ladders!  There are some wonderful themes through it such as covenant and God's endless love for his people.

On the Sunday morning Annie preached at the morning service and began to develop the themes, and then Roger took up the Bible teaching for the rest of the week.  The teaching seemed to be really well received, and it was a very happy week for all involved.

The rehearsals went well - Annie took the orchestra in the front lounge, and she had some wonderful instrumentalists - David on viola, Catherine on cello (plus Sharon for the performance), Peter on clarinet, Sheila and Gemma on flute, Andrew on trumpet, Paul on horn and Anthony on percussion.  Helen played the second violin part on her flute when she arrived, and Annie played keyboard for the performances ably assisted by Brenda - who also danced in 'Engraved upon my palms'.  The choir were good too - Sharon had about 30 singers, and they made a wonderful sound.  She also had some brilliant soloists and narrators, who all did a great job in telling the story.

Marion was a great host as usual.  On the Tuesday evening the hotel ran a special jubilee evening, serving a multi-course evening meal, and then some entertainment from a singer.  The hotel looked after everyone wonderfully well as usual, and a good time was had by all.

The final performance went very well, with a good audience, and the guests were delighted with their achievements.