Middle aged teenagers?

Last weekend we were of to Roots, a Salvation Army conference arranged by Alove, the SA's youth work in the UK. For Lisbeth is was the third time at Roots, for me the second, but the definitely the first time, when we only had an hours drive to get there. One of the great things about Roots is the programmes for all ages it offers, so Lukas participated in BLAST, a programme aimed at the 11-15 year olds, and he had a great time. Another good idea is that no matter whether you participate in the Children, Youth or Adult events, then the main sessions are built around the same Bible text and theme, which creates a unity, even when a family is split over several venues.

One of the highlights for Lukas was the football tournament. This was arranged for all youths, so from eleven to twenty-something, but one of the youths from Sale corps very kindly invited Lukas to play on his team, an invitation Lukas did not think twice about accepting. The tournament was played over 2 days, the first in nice sunshine, the second in rain, but for Lukas it was still a great time. It probably did help they made it to the final and only lost on penalties.

I have to be honest and say Roots was not a great experience for me. I am not entirely sure why and I do not want to sound like a grumpy old man, so I will keep most of my thoughts to myself. One thing I did realise is that I never would dream of becoming a member of a mega church. I would any day prefer to worship in a local church with anything from 20 – 150 people than among 3000 – for me big is certainly not beautiful.

One thing I did find amusing is that it is, as mentioned, the youth department of The Salvation Army that arranges Roots, but in the main venue, where most of participants are, I did not feel old at all – I doubt the average age can be pushed below 35.. I am not saying there is anything wrong with that, I just found it interesting. Wonder how it will be in 10 years time?

We stayed at a small Bed & Breakfast in Southport. The room was big and nice, the breakfast great and it was walking distance from the Roots venues. When we arrived we were greeted by a lady with a heavy accent – to our trained ears we were sure we recognised it as East European. We asked her and she told us she was from the Ukraine. It gave us a chance for practising our Russian, actually using almost my entire vocabulary: Good morning, Good day, Goodbye, Thank You, You are welcome (apart from that I can manage to the left, to the right, and straight ahead, but she did not need to be given directions!).

The highlight of Roots, for me at least, was meeting with the group from Latvia, who was there. All the cadets, plus Sarah, Dace and Dana and also Evie, although she left after the first day. Not only did we bump into each other several time during Roots, when it was all over they came to hour house and stayed until next morning (it was planned to they should stay till the morning!). It was really great to see them all again and hear a bit of how they are doing. We have just been invited to the commissioning in Latvia in June. It is very gracious of Goran and Chris to do us this favour, and we really look forward to that.

Well, as the observant reader will have noticed: I have just completed an entire entry without really saying anything – but rather that than not writing for a week or more and risking the wrath of my mother and daughter!