It was a fantastic time and we all thoroughly enjoyed the time we spent there.
On the Thursday we arrived and headed straight to the beach, we swam in the sea, made castles, wrote in the sand, took lots of pictures... standard beach trip!
Then we headed back to the house and had our first God session, where Debbie and Kirsty shared their testimonies... after Kirsty shared hers, one of the girls asked "could I tell you about my life?", so she did and it was beautiful to hear her share so openly with us, and very eye-opening too. One by one, most of the girls asked to share their story... it was incredible, the trust and openness in that room was pretty mind-blowing, and I could really just sense God loving these girls.
We followed the God-session with a yummy tea and watched 'The Freedom Writers Diary'. Following the film we handed all the girls their own 'God book/diary' and also presented the prayer box, where they could write down prayers and us leaders would later read them and pray together into these situations. The girls were pretty blown away by having their own book, and stayed up quite late to finish writing what they wanted to put down. After that, amazingly, they all went to sleep! We went away and prayed into the requests they had put in the box- there were quite a few.
The following day we went to a rock climbing and canoeing activity day, which was pretty fun! It was really good to see the girls coming together, making friends and gripping team-work. Rock- climbing was pretty scary, to say the least! But, all the girls had a go, and one of the girls climbed although she was petrified, she later said she climbed because 'she felt God calling her higher, towards Him.'
Then we got home and did a bit of a session about who God is, and had some tea.
A guy called Jim, who is part of the Swansea house, then did a little activity with the girls. He got each of them to write a name of someone they wanted to see healed on a piece of paper, fold it up, and place it on a tea-towel in groups of four. He then told the story of the leper lowered through the roof in Mark (The Bible), and got every group to lower the towels (with names) to the floor, as he prayed for that person.
We then had a bonfire and roasted some marshmallows, and some of us watched 'Pay it forward' as well.
Then, Saturday morning we had another God session... which was awesome! We started with playing a game of 'encouragement consequences', where you write an encouragement to whoever's name is at the top of the paper, fold it up and pass it on the next person; everyone ends up with a sheet of encouragements from everyone else. The girls really enjoyed this. Following that we talked about God's love for them, hope and Mother Teresa as an example of a woman we aspire to (most of the girls hadn't heard of Mother Teresa!).
Then, the best part, we dimmed the lights, lit some candles and asked each girl to write a letter to God, in their God books. We also said if the girls would like to light a candle as a sign of giving their heart to God, or a prayer for someone, they could. All the girls wrote in their books, and all of them went forward to light a candle. The option was there to leave the room and play games if they wanted to, but they all stayed and took part. It was incredible! The atmosphere in the room was really lovely, like we could almost feel God sitting in the room with us all! Could really, really feel His presence at that time, it was amazing.
I prayed with one of the girls, and she started crying, when I asked her why she said "I just feel so happy", I explained that I'd been praying for her to know God's love, and that's probably why she felt so happy and she agreed; it was beautiful.
Following this we cleaned and tidied the house, cooked some lunch and gave out certificates and goodie bags to take away- the certificates listed the main quality in the girl that had stuck out over the time we were away.
After packing etc, we set off home, with a stop to an amazing waterfall! It was one where you could walk behind, and the view was immense. We all loved the trip to the waterfalls! (View from behind the waterfall pictured below!)
It was such a good time, there's probably loads I've missed off, but that's what I remember of the top of my head. One of the main things that really stuck out was the prayer-support behind the trip. I know a number of people were praying into it, and we really felt the backing of that. Much appreciated to all who prayed :)
We also saw a lot of prayers answered over the time we were there, such as good weather, no accidents, brilliant God times, openness... the list could go on forever.
We have such a faithful God, and I can't wait until the next time we take the girls away!
