Thursday 22 January 2015

16-18 January 2015 Rock at the Oakes

Last weekend was the first CMM outing of the year.  Annie, Helen, Alan and Sally travelled to The Oakes in Sheffield to lead a music and dance weekend.  The Oakes is an amazing youth centre, staffed by a mixture of permanent, gap year, and volunteer staff.  They regularly welcome school and church groups, as well as running their own weekends and holiday weeks.  They are determined that no young person that visits the centre will leave without having heard about Jesus.

And our music and dance weekend was no exception.  Alongside our orchestra, choir, dance and drama sessions, the 53 campers heard Bible teaching based on the life of Peter, enjoyed some worship songs, had 'dorm time' - small discussion groups, played wide games, took part in outdoor activities and shared meals together.

Rock worked really well over the weekend - we cut out all reference to Cornelius (sorry Bill) and used songs 1, 3-7, 9, 11 and 16, and revamped the narration to be from Peter's perspective.  There's definitely potential to use this for a musical in a day!

On Sunday afternoon the performance was good fun.  The parents, choir and orchestra crammed into the dining room, and tried hard to find space for the dancers!  It became even more complicated when there were solos to fit in as well...

A massive thanks to the Oakes for inviting us again, and we look forward to going back again next year.  If you have a child aged 8-18 that sings, plays and instrument or dances, why not send them along?

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