Rock Staines

On the weekend between the Manchester and Birmingham Roadshows, a small CMM team travelled to Staines Methodist Church to lead their Circuit weekend. The weekend was themed around Rock, and they had a choir of 25 which had been training for a few weeks ready for our visit. The advance team were Roger, Annie, Helen and Anne, and on the Friday evening after a lovely meal with our hosts we had a rehearsal with the soloists in the Church Hall, preparing them for the hard work rehearsing and performing to come over the weekend.

On Saturday, the CMM team was augmented by Geoff, Alan, Sarah and Amy, and we had a day of Rock - incorporating choir rehearsals with teaching sessions and workshops. The teaching and workshops went very well, with plenty of ministry time and people responding to God's touch on their lives. And as the day progressed the choir built on the training they had already received and were ready to impress the circuit on Sunday night.

On Sunday morning the CMM team (minus Geoff and Alan) split up to attend different churches. Annie, Anne and Helen travelled with Lou Ashford (one of the circuit staff) to a special breakfast church, where a few people gathered together for bible study and worship over a lovely breakfast of cereal, toast and croissants. After this, they travelled to another church in the circuit for their morning service where Helen preached, and they led the song 'This is the Stone" from Rock with no music book whatsoever. Annie did a fantastic job playing it on the piano from memory!

Roger, Sarah and Amy were the other CMM team, and they took part in the morning service at Staines - Roger preached, and Sarah and Amy sang and played guitar and clarinet/sax respectively.

Then after lunch with hosts and a gentle start to the afternoon, we all met together at the church for a final choir rehearsal in place at the front of the church and a shared dinner before the performance. The performance was very well attended, and from the chatter afterwards, much appreciated. Well done to the choir and all the soloists. Annie, Helen and Amy had fun filling in all of the tour instrumental parts, and Sarah and Anne joined in with the choir.

All round, a great weekend.