Cheers to a great week at New Wine

Having spent a week at the Keswick Convention I went last week for the first time to New Wine, a Christian holiday and festival.

New Wine, which is the largest network of charismatic churches and Christians, began in 1989 at the Royal Bath and West Showground, Somerset, attracting nearly 2,500 people. It became so popular that in 1993 a separate conference for teenagers, named Soul Survivor was launched.

New Wine now attracts more than 30,000 delegates over three weeks on three different sites and Soul Survivor has more than 28,000 young Christians over two weeks.

I went to the North and East week from Saturday, July 30 until Friday, August 5 at Newark Showground in Nottinghamshire.

I didn’t know what to expect but I was bowled over by the event with 6,000 Christians, most of whom were in tents or caravans, enjoying each day packed with seminars and meetings.

The worship was amazing, the speakers excellent, the people were so friendly and helpful and there was an atmosphere of fun, typified by the hundreds of children rushing around the site in complete safety on bikes, scooters and roller blades.

I was again helping on the European Christian Mission stand in one of the huge marquees, the Marketplace, with Don Gyton, ECM’s representative for Eastern England.

What was interesting was that at Keswick we met many older Christians who had supported the mission and prayed for Albania for many years.

Whereas at Newark there were many younger families and students who didn’t remember Enver Hoxha, Albania’s Stalinist dictator, and hadn’t heard of ECM. But most of them were interested to find out more and we had many productive conversations especially with some who were interested in serving God in Europe. Many of them, I am glad to say, also bought a copy of God’s Secret Listener.

It is always difficult to evaluate whether a mission gets good value for money by being represented at these big events. It is hard work being on the stand from 10.30am until 10.30pm, with only a few breaks, and talking to new people all the time.

But both Don and I have no hesitation in recommending to the European Christian Mission that we are represented next year at Keswick and Newark.

Having already been to GO 2011 at the Worldwide Evangelisation Crusade headquarters at Bulstrode in Hertfordshire and with Jan and I off to the Gorsley Festival on the Gloucestershire and Herefordshire border at the end of this month I am sure I will be recommending the mission returns to all four events in 2012.