Mission at Ellesmere (One)

Wed 25th Jul  Tetchill

Morning sun

James went for a walk to the farm to buy some eggs, and on the way back had a chat with a guy called Andy, who had a boat called Constance Irene with a butty workshop and a ginger cat.

Tim and Tracey left on Sola Gratia heading for Ellesmere.  David and Carole left soon after on their hire boat to turn round at Frankton Junction.

We needed to practise a few songs, and David and Carole went past again, now heading for Ellesmere.

A lady on a boat called Utterly Rudderly said “There’s the fish” and then “oh, we’ve met you before!”  We are not sure where we have met them. They may have met another Canal Ministries boat.

James spotted a large bird in a tree across a field, and went to investigate. It turned out to  be a buzzard but it flew off before he got near enough for a photo.

Lots of boats went past in both directions, including a cruiser called Lord Sooty –  We have met Brian before, sharing the Wigan locks and moored together in Leicester.

We had a good relaxing day, and were just commenting on the peace and quiet, when a harvesting team entered the field behind us and started bringing in the crop. There was noise and dust.

Harvesting

Pink sky

No boating today

Thu 26th Jul  Tetchill to Ellesmere

In the early hours there was a clear sky and the moon was reflected in the water.

Reflected moon

We cruised into Ellesmere, and found Gospel Belle, Kairos and Springwater all moored up. They invited us for a BBQ later.

Gospel Belle

Kairos

Springwater

We paused at the facilities to empty all our cassettes, fill with water and dispose of rubbish, in preparation for the mission. We moved into the Ellesmere Arm and found a space within our allocated moorings, just where we wanted to be, with bushes close by for Hugo.  We hung out our washing.

We went shopping and met Amanda and Edward, last seen in Roger and Mirjana’s home group.

We put out our chairs and a table and chatted to people going by, giving out the coasters with the mission information.  Brian from Lord Sooty came past and said he would come to our gig in the Ellesmere Hotel.

The boat behind was called Tin Slug and he said he called it that because all narrowboats are ditch crawlers. He thought many narrow boaters were lazy as their boats were untidy. He also said he doesn’t like washing hanging out, so he has a tumble drier on board.  We had just taken our washing in.  He was also touching up his paint below the gunwales with a brush as it had a few small scratches. He said he preferred being at sea on his Sunseeker yacht.  However, his narrowboat had some interesting features such as bulkheads that were also diesel tanks, not needing to be pumped, and a remote control system that meant that he could steer the boat in and out of locks without being on board.

We went round the corner to join the others for a barbecue. It was good to spend time with everyone before the mission.

Barbecue

Fri 27th Jul  Ellesmere

Our team boats moved into the Ellesmere Arm when space became available. Canal and River Trust had reserved the final end of the arm for us, and there was enough for all of us with about 45ft spare, which we kept as a space at the very end.

Roger Garland appeared with a portable battery powered amp and small mixing desk, which we tested out with Graham’s help. Apparently we could be heard from the junction and from Tesco, so we decided that we would use it for the open air service, and possibly for the open day as well.

We had a planning meeting with Phil Wright from the Cellar Church (TCC), Chris Buck and ourselves. Peter was meant to be there, but Lin had fallen and hurt her head, so he needed to be with her. We discussed who was doing what and when.

We needed to do some more shopping, and then we went to a general briefing meeting with all the team, going through the plans for the week.

A lady called Judy Raymont arrived. We had met her last year at the foot of Caen Hill Locks, and this year she had tracked us down as she was a freelance journalist and wanted to write an article about Canal Ministries for Plain Truth magazine.

When all the business was over, the two of us went for a curry at Asian Spices restaurant. Who should be at the next table but Roger and Mirjana! It seems they know everyone in Ellesmere as they were chatting to people on another table as well.

No boating today

Sat 28th Jul  Ellesmere Mission

James but up a “Boats of Hope” banner, acquired from Tim.

Roger had very usefully supplied the team with three A-boards, so we put one out by our boat with details of the Ellesmere Hotel gig.

Ellesmere Hotel poster

There was a light shower – the first for some time – so we brought in the A-board again.

Peter and Sue arrived for a song practise as they planned to sing “I the Lord of Sea and Sky” with our instrumental accompaniment. This was for the open air service tomorrow.

Later James commissioned our new laser printer and designed some song sheets for the service.

We had pizza and salad on board.

No boating today

Sun 29th Jul  Ellesmere Mission

James finished the printing of the song sheets before we walked to the Methodist Church for their Sunday service at 11am.  Paul was speaking, and James was called up to the front to explain some of the things that were happening.  Paul had chosen some songs, and one was the popular “Lord I lift your name on high” written in 1989, and sung everywhere, or so we thought. They didn’t know it, and the organist couldn’t play it, but they found it on a recorded organ-led track.  We had a warm welcome, and they have generously offered their premises for our team meetings every morning.

Afterwards we went to the Black Lion for lunch with Paul and Sue. The food was good and so was the service, as Sue has allergies and had to have something that wasn’t on the menu.

When we had finished, we walked through to another room and found more of our team having lunch, including Peter and Lin, Sue and Eric, and Graham.  We have three Sue’s on the team, but otherwise no duplicates.

We returned to our boat for zzzz before the open air service at 6pm.  It was raining for some of the afternoon, but it stopped for our service. We had prayed for a dry patch and our prayers were answered.

We discovered that one of our mics was not working, so we brought out our spare one. Roger’s PA system worked well.  People from TCC, and the Methodist Church joined us, as well as Roger and Mirjana, and Amanda and Edward from the Anglican Church.

Afterwards, many of us squeezed onto Gospel Belle as the rain started again.

No boating today

Mon 30th Jul  Ellesmere Mission

We had the first of our team meetings at 8.30am at the Methodist Church. We met in the coffee lounge area, and we led the team in three songs, Paul shared a word, and we spent some time in prayer. Chris then led us through some of the practicalities for the day.  This was to be the pattern for the rest of the week.

We had a coffee morning by the boats, with cakes and hot drinks available to anyone who would stop.  There were a lot of people passing by, including both boaters and locals.  We had two gazebos up to provide much needed shade.

In the evening we decided to go to the Greek Meze with Graham. We discovered it was closed on Mondays. We thought we might go instead to the Boathouse on the Mere, but that was also closed. We ended up at the Red Lion, which was very good. This was our third visit.  We had Mexican Chicken which was excellent, but it left no room for dessert.

We walked back via the Mere and some footpaths through woods.

Hugo had found a way in to the old factory site, through a tiny crack between the end of a wall and a tree. This served him well as the trees and bushes were a bit far away and there were lots of dogs going past, not all of which were on leads.

We planned a few songs for our gig tomorrow, and had an early night.

No boating today

Tue 31st Jul  Ellesmere Mission

The day started with our team meeting at the Methodist Church, followed by another coffee morning by the boats. Well, we had cake left over from the previous day!

We decided to eat at lunch time as we were performing in the evening. We went to the Greek Meze, which was open, and had some very nice tapas. We then had a rest in the afternoon.

Paul arrived with his car, and we loaded all the PA and instruments into the car and went to the Ellesmere Hotel to set up. Graham was a great help with getting the balance right.

The pub was full, which was very pleasing. Our publicity had worked.  We sang 21 songs in three sets, and Roger and Mirjana filled in the gaps with their melodeons.  It was a very successful evening, and landlords Mark and Sandra were delighted with the event.  We sang a mixture of boating songs, folk songs, and gospel songs, and were able to give a low key gospel message by way of introduction to some to the songs.  Tim took a video of almost every song, some of which will appear eventually on YouTube.

We had lots of help from the team to carry the equipment back to the boat at the end. Thank you guys and gals.

Gabriel in action

No boating today

Next: the second half of the mission week.