Monday at CreationFest

Because we got to bed early, we got ready a little earlier today. It was really pouring down, but a nice couple, Charlotte and Reynold from the South London Calvary Chapel, who are staying at the same B&B, offered us a ride. The first speaker Monday was Scott Cunningham speaking on the Beatitudes. All of the speakers are following the same theme, teaching through Matthew 5-7.

Scott frequently leads worship on Wednesday nights at Calvary Costa Mesa, but I'd never had the opportunity to hear him speak before. He's very dynamic, and I really enjoyed his message.

The second speaker before lunch was Steve Vickery, the pastor from Cardiff in Wales. I'd never heard him speak either, and again, I was very impressed. It was a really powerful message, using the text immediately following Scott's, Matthew 5:10-12 on Persecution for Christ's Sake. Unfortunately, I forgot to snap a picture!

After the morning messages, we went and had a toasted sandwich, and wandered around to the other areas of the festival. The youth tent is called "The Tube".

It has a skatepark in one half. They partition the times between skating, scooters, and BMX bikes. They were skating when we went by.

They also have a separate "cafe" area where the kids can get drinks and snacks.

And, there's a smaller stage and venue where the youth-oriented bands can play.

There were also a lot of outside activities (besides the camping). Campers could do target shooting (I assume they were using pellet guns, because I didn't hear any gunfire when we walked by.) There was supposed to be a paintball area, but I never saw that. Perhaps, like the bouncy castles for the younger kids, it's waiting on a dry spell. One neat thing was the inflatable floating balls; it's really mesmerizing watching the kids try to stay upright.

We met most of our old friends yesterday, but were surprised to see Caelen Weber from York. (His wife Rachel and both kids were here, but I didn't get a picture of them all.)

In the afternoon, we listened to another great message, this one by Wendy Palau (Andrew Palau's wife) on "When the unthinkable happens." It was very personal and very powerful. (And, again, I forgot to snap a picture. Sorry.)

After Wendy's seminar, and before we took off for home, we wanted to see "the Cottages" where the volunteer staff are staying. It's some distance from the Showgrounds, so we hitched a ride with a staffer who had to pick up something from his cabin.

When we got back, it was after 5:00 so we decided to head home and get ready for leaving tomorrow. We stopped by Tesco, where we saw the entire Shawn and Annie Stone family shopping. Then walked back into town and had fish and chips along with scampi at Barnys in the center of town. It was inexpensive, but I'm not really sure what the scampi actually were. In the USA, that's shrimp; these didn't seem to be shrimp.