It’s not unusual for me to meet up with people from members of church outside of Sundays; breakfast with the boys in Liverpool Street, one on one lunch with those who work nearby, and evenings for birthdays or group socials are just a few things that have been on my calendar in the past. However, spending a whole day with a group of people from the Globe church was something I hadn’t done before, something completely new to me.

Upon entering Fraser chapel in the King’s Center I was shocked by how many people half turned up, there must have been between 80-90 which was much more than I expected. We all sat down with our custom made booklets and half opened mini Milky Way bars and listened to a handful of talks from the leaders of the church focusing on what we could do as a whole to move forward, to move closer to Christ.

I was particularly encouraged from knowing that our walk with Christ isn’t a sprint to the finish, that it doesn’t matter how quickly we get to our goal as long as we are moving, not completely standing still. I often read parts of the Bible and not understand what I have read even after reading the same passage over and over again. Sometimes I wonder if I’m wasting my time or if I could be doing something that will give a feeling of progression. But now when I read a part of the Bible I don’t understand I know there is a goal I am moving towards, and I keep that as my focus, this motivates me to keep reading.

There was some time after the first talk to anonymously write down the things we struggled with in our Christian walk which would be discussed in another talk. This was pretty revealing to me because it showed we all struggle with similar things; regularly praying, reading, finding the things of the world more fun than the things of Christ. It felt good not to feel ashamed or feel like a failure in the presence of other believers, it was good to know that we all hadn’t figured it out, we all hadn’t reached our goal yet.

These topics continued after the talks when we were in the foyer eating dinner the group that I sat with spoke about the struggles we had with evangelising to people at work, the struggle of knowing that if a co-worker didn’t receive the gospel well it would make it difficult to go into work every day, seeing and attempting to avoid them. We also went around the table and each gave our testimonies, this was really different from the usual questions that are asked such as ‘How has your week been?’ or 'How was your journey here?’

I believe this year’s Globe away day went really well. Not only did I speak to a handful of people I had never seen or spoken to before, and eaten more than my fair share of cakes, but engaged in meaningful conversations that I believe brought me closer to certain people, and also to received a reignited motivation to focus on my walk with the Lord.