Throwback Thursday

M. & M. & D. & B.

Every Thursday is The Experience day. Even now when I'm not in Newbold any longer. The Experience and Thursdays will always go together for me.

It's hard for me to put it into words - how much love I had for The Experience. And how much love I had for my people. Every Experience was like a miracle for me. I remember how each Thursday night, after the program was done and after the Moor Close stuff was taken back (people, don't ever touch that pink Moor Close lamp again, it's not in a good condition, I should know) and after I had said 'thank you' and 'good night' to my team, I sat or paced back and forth in my little room, realising that what had just happened had been much bigger and much more beautiful than the sum of the parts - it wasn't only about finding a speaker and a praise team, or about getting PowerPoints done and the room decorated, it was always making a space for people to meet Jesus in that tiny little Student Centre. Every Thursday night I had so much adrenaline in my blood I couldn't fall asleep for hours, and thus I kept playing the Experience tape in my head, thinking of every little detail again and again. Crazy stuff.

And I look at this picture and it makes me sentimental and all. For half of the team is already gone - I'm in Estonia, D. is back to Brazil. Give it another year and M. and B. will be gone, too. Students who come to Newbold next year will know nothing of the team we used to have. And that is fine. For something that we created and the love we had for each other will always stay, even if some people know nothing about it. That's the beauty of The Experience. Well, that's the beauty of life, really.