Outdoor Wedding Can Be Tricky

Right in the center, Vicki has entered, and Ben steps forward to receive her. They were married under a Jewish canopy, which turned out to be a good thing for them. See those clouds? They are minutes away from letting loose.

Ben Romaner is Jewish, newly come to faith in Jesus the Messiah. His fiancee Vicki Warren is Gentile. It caused some tension and concern in Ben's family.

Wanting to promote peace, Vicki decided to not have the wedding at a Christian church, but at her parents' home in Maidenhead, about 40 minutes from London. The backyard was large enough. We had a small PA system set up for the minister to speak through and for us to play special music. The harpist decided she didn't like the look of the clouds and stayed just inside the house to play the wedding march. We miked her and put it through the PA.

As it turned out, she was smart. Halfway through the ceremony it started spitting. The minister sped up the vows, the rings, the message. He had us play one song. It really started coming down. He pronounced them man and wife, Ben broke the glass under his foot (Jewish custom), and then the guests fled indoors and us musicians all grabbed equipment and ran for the closest shelter. No real damage, and it was a wedding to remember. 

Moral of the story: If you ever do an outdoors wedding in England, you had better have a Plan B.

Creation Fest 2010

The bandwithnoname rocks in the Main Shed. Lots more people attending than 2009.

Creation Fest 2010 involved a lot more volunteers than last year. A team from Calvary Twickenham came to staff the Welcome team at the gate and also the Information Desk in the Main Shed. Everyone had a great time, and they worked very hard to make things happen. Colin, Adam and Alan, the Welcome team, worked some 12 hours the first official day to greet, inform and direct the inflow of visitors and campers. There were over 1300 campers the first day.

The seminars were much better visited this year than any other. I think people are becoming aware that there the Bible teaching at the Fest is excellent no matter who they are listening to. They are receptive to teachers they have never heard of before.

Rather than camp, we stayed at a nearby bed & breakfast, all four of us in the same room. The bathroom door is open on the left. I took this photo with my back against the wall. It was practically all beds and very little walk space, but that was all we needed. The typical day was breakfast at eight, and then up to the Fest to work until ten at night. Go home, sleep, and do it all over again. 

Everybody was enthusiastic about the peoples' response each day. They are already talking about next year. 

Our part ended sooner than the Fest. We came home as tired as if we had stayed the full week. But we are signing up again, too.

Backyard Harvest

It's evening time. The girls play as Joanie harvests more vegetables from our garden in the back. We have a pumpkin, and some beans, tomatoes, raspberries, and apples, both cooking and eating. The big tree in the back is the cooking apple tree.

Now it's the next day. Here's the other end of the garden, with the eating apple tree on the left, almost ready for harvesting. Give it two more weeks. We don't get to use the sheds; they belong to the landlord. You can just see the monster rhubarb plants on the right.