The other day, I was told that it looks like I write all my blogs when Im drunk. I was quite offended at that statement. Well, no I wasn't 

 I kind of died off with the update of the past year, my bad

We're just off the back of Bodybuilders, that awesomeness in the middle of the summer that just rocks. This year myself and Tanya took the reins. A fairly daunting task, given that it was pretty much the catalyst for all things resound. We didnt really know what to do, so kind of just made stuff up as we went along...

Prior to the week, a lot of preparation was...... prepared. The local primary schools were all attacked, with fliers and assemblies, the churches inflitrated and all manner of poster and flier stuck up everywhere and in hundreds of doors.

The week before, amidst the building of a rather big chicken-wire whale, we all met on the Wednesday. Loads of the leaders converged on St. Colman's hall, to paint posters, build pretend plant costumes, film some stuff and generally just get stuff ready. As a throwback to previous years, when we used to Barbecue in Rory's# house, we finished the night with a fairly rockin BBQ in casa del Brown. The stage was set, and we were ready to get stuck in on Sunday morning....

#Rory 'exclamation mark' On behalf of all Dunmurry people, Congratulations and well done on the excellent news 'exclamation mark' Rory, for those of you who dont know, is one of the greatest people ever, who, not so long ago, got engaged

Sunday morning came. It began...

The day began with general boring stuff, then we all split up and hit Dunmurry in style, worshipping in 4 of the churches; St. Colman's, St. Anne's, Kingsway and Dunmurry Presbyterian. Armed, or rather, Torsoed, with our bright and colourful Bodybuilders tshirts, we truly made our presence known.

That afternoon was a bit nuts....

A troupe of about 6 leaders were dropped off at the top of seymour hill, and walked right down to finaghy, with fliers in hand. One fairly prominent feature was the 10foot tall Scarf wandering with them on stilts, it was a sight to behold

2 cars set off, filled with leaders, each car heading in the opposite direction, to drive about the streets. They werent just driving though, megaphone in hand they drummed up a bit of a racket and advertised to the max. Funniest thing of the week, until a rather interesting hat and 'ONE MORE TIME' was the sight of a giant yellow car, painted all over with Bodybuilders info.

Amidst this other leaders were preparing the hall, and we ended the night with some singing worship and inspiring words from Tanya, before we hit bed

The cars and the stilts; coupled with weeks and weeks of promotion, all resulted in what was about to hit us the next morning....

Monday morning was crazy....

First kids arrived at 9am, yes that's right, an hour early...

Frantic preparation ensued, and we finally opened the doors for registration at 10am. If only we had a bigger hall...

The queue of parents went right out the hall, onto the footpath of the main road, we ran out of registration forms the first morning, having to handwrite them all

Just to put this into perspective....

Last year we had about 180 kids over the course of the whole week. Monday morning alone - 220; a number which would rise to well past 300 as the week went on.

It was absolutely crazy. It had begun

Main deck started with a quite obviously pre-recorded entrance video, which still however invited some hilarious questions...

How did u get the camera beamed to the projector

Do you and mikey actually live together

I saw you and your brother on TV this morning

The sheer size, audacity and number of kids on that first morning sent everybody into overdrive. Programmes had to be recalibrated, activities expanded, and everything basically readjusted to cope with the massive amount of kids God had provided us with

The week was so packed and awesome, that I couldnt even begin to write of all my experiences, let alone everyone elses. I reckon some brief bulletpoints will have to suffice for you....

You know what, Im not even going to attempt to bulletise it all

God was there, he was moving, he did things

You want proof?

 Talk to any of the leaders, they felt him move and work through them

You want more proof?

 Talk to any of the blue belts, there oy and excitement of being loved for the week will blow you away

More?

 Red and Yellow. They were full of questions, delivered by post, and through gestures, wondering about this guy we call Jesus

Not done?

 The Escape guys. Even when it seemed they were lost, they came back, and loved every bit

The Decider?

The Black Belts. Especially those whose life was transformed during the week

Yea, God was there. He was large and in charge. I dare you to try and argue