2007 Family Holiday

The Open Bible Trust Family Holiday, Centre for Christ, Burstone Manor, Bow, Devon; August 4-11 2007

Report by Julie Todman

I feel slightly fraudulent in writing this account as we were staying near the venue of the holiday rather than on site.  However, we availed ourselves of the opportunity for fellowship and teaching as well as some of the more fun activities that are always part and parcel of the holiday.

Mike Penny’s teaching throughout the week was on the theme of  the Apostle Paul and his Predicaments..  Through this concentrated study we were reminded in a way that brought it very much to life how much that Paul suffered in fulfilling his ministry entrusted by our Lord. It was helpful to be reminded of the right use of Scripture to clarify God’s dealings with His people Israel and of us Gentiles during the Acts period; to seeing the Acts period as ‘descriptive’ of the situation then, rather than being ‘prescriptive’ of our Christian life today.

We were also indebted to Peter Mansell for a challenging evening of quiz questions, loosely Christian related, and an evening of miming various Biblical events, which served as a good ice-breaker, as well as some memorable mimes e.g. David Groves’ take on Salome!  We also appreciated David sharing some of his life experiences with us, and musical favourites, through a Desert Island Discs session.

However, I think the icing on the cake was that we had sunshine every day apart from a half day of rain; not bad considering how wet May, June and July had been!

Canonteign Falls, on the edge of Dartmoor		The view over south Devon from the top of Canonteign Falls
Michael Penny (left) doing a Desert Island Discs on David Groves		Bill Esselmont sharing a reading with the group