Rhos on Sea

Last week Roger, Helen, and two associates - Andrew Lockwood and Sarah Harley - travelled to St. Winifred's Christian Endeavour hotel in Rhos on Sea, North Wales. It was our third visit to Rhos, and seems to be developing into a lovely annual event, well supported by the local churches.

We spent the week with 20 or so guests, learning the musical Saints Alive from scratch. Keith, a member of the local URC church travelled in every day to play drums for us, which was great. Andrew sang, played piano and flute, and Sarah sang and played violin. It was Sarah's first event with us, and we discovered more and more of her talents as the week progressed - her violin and flute playing were quite superb.

Every morning, after a time of worship, Roger led some Bible teaching around the theme of Pentecost and the first couple of chapters of Acts. Then after a short break, there was a choir rehearsal led by Helen, and ably assisted by Andrew on piano. They seemed to know the musical pretty well already, and made Helen's life very simple. A mention needs to go to the wonderful tenor section of Clyde, Mike and Andrew - they did a stirling job in the absence of any basses.

The evenings comprised of a variety of sessions - a sing through on Monday night, an evening with Helen on Tuesday, a rehearsal on Wednesday and finally the performance on Thursday.

The performance went extremely well. Roger played piano with Keith on drums, Andrew on flute, Sarah on violin and one of the guests, Catherine, making the occasional appearance on tenor recorder. Helen conducted the evening, and managed not to fall off her rather high podium. We also had some excellent solos from the guests, as well as brilliant narration. Over 100 people attended the performance at Penrhyn Bay Presbyterian Church, and we were warmly welcomed by the local congregation.

We had a wonderful week - the guests seemed really open to the Holy Spirit moving in their lives, and one lady was healed at the performance. A huge thanks go to the hotel staff for looking after us so well. Praise God for all he is doing, even amongst a small group of people on holiday together!