Elevation Worship Part Ten.

Today was the last day, we would be going home. A lovely cooked breakfast was cooked on the barbecue, it was my turn to cook it, I didn’t have the knack, and burnt the sausages, all the others still ate it, but I couldn’t eat mine, but the other parts of the breakfast was wonderful, the bacon, buttered toast with thick butter on and marmalade, the hot sweet coffee, which was sweetened with, thick, rich condensed milk, there were lots of different choices and everyone had what they wanted. We mothers sorted out the amount of unused and opened food that we had all brought, most of it the same thing, plus the individual things we had all brought and put them into our own bags to take back home.

I hate packing when I’ve been on holiday, but love packing for a holiday, so my things were roughly chucked into my suitcase. Everyone was busy sorting their own things, it seemed liked we’d all brought far too much. I found out that we all had to be out by a certain time off the land, ready for the next huge event that would be starting later on that day called Wildfires, I had to look it up, (Wildfires, a festival where friends from different streams, Churches and communities come together to seek God and fan into flame the next Great Awaking) I’d never heard of it.

There were strong metal trolleys that could be hired, I was asked, “Will you go and hire one, as we will need to put both the six-man tents and the other heavy equipment’s in,” I replied, “OK,” I knew I would need to pay, but didn’t know the terms and conditions until I got to the stand. It was very well organized, and as I approached, I asked, “Can I hire a trolley and can you tell he how it works?” The guys were lovely and he explained to me, “It cost £15 to hire but it you bring it back within exactly one hour or less you will get £10 back,” I said, “OK,” That seemed pretty easy enough, but it’s a business and each trolley had the name of a person mine was called Irene. And has he handed Irene over to me he pressed the large timer and wrote down the exact time on my ticket and gave it to me, so we could both see the time my hour started.

The tents were both already down, everything was packed up ready to be loaded onto the trolley, they had done this before, so they knew what to expect. Young Gideon had come with me and between us we dragged the sturdy metal caged trolley back to where the others were waiting, it was a warm today unlike last night when it was wet and cold, so it was hard work, and the clock was ticking, it took us a good fifteen minutes to get back to the others so the way I saw it, we had a minimum of thirty minutes or less to pack all the heavy items onto the trolley and take it over rough grass all the way to the parked cars, and then take the empty trolley back to the hired stand, I had to remember to keep my cool, as it was my money at stake here, not theirs, so when we got back to base, I announced, “The trolley has to be back at the hired stand for 11.30am or it will cost me £15 if it’s back before then I will get my £10 back so in total it will only cost me £5,” Lydia replied, “Lets load up,” I let Lydia and Melanie load up as I’m rubbish at packing things into small spaces neatly so I did put things onto the trolley, but I only put them where I was told, we all helped lovely Lydia who was clearly in a lot of pain, I kept my eye on the time, the trolley had come with huge elasticated hooks so the items would be stable and not fall off as they were transported. My heart was beating fast everything seemed against us, we would only be able to make one trip to the car park, for cars were not allowed onto the grassy fields, for safety reasons, as everyone was coming and going, families old and young.

It was hard work, the sun was hot, I was on my own at one point, I was puffing and panting, and as I inhaled and took a deep breath in, a large blue bottle fly went swiftly into my opened mouth, and straight down into my tummy! I spat onto the grass, but there was nothing to spit up, for I felt it, as it hit the back of my throat, I was disgusted and felt sick, but there was nothing I could do, it had committed suicide!        

In our group, we were all at different stages on the field, all making our way to the cars, we were all spread out, we had our rucksack, on our backs and many pulled suitcases with other bags on top of them pulling them along, and others were pulling the trolley, it was then I noticed in the comings and goings a little toddler seemly all on his own, I went up to him and said, “Are you lost?” He didn’t reply, he was just crying, he had straight very blond hair and blue eyes, I said to him, “Can you see your Mummy and Daddy?” Still he said nothing, so I said to him, “My name is Jen, hold my hand we will go and find your Mummy and Daddy,” He gave me his hand to hold and off we went in the direction of the entrance for those coming into the event at the entrance, where I knew Security would be, after about five minutes we were walking past the many portable loos and this old lady came up to us and said, “Isaac, what are you doing there, I thought you were inside the loo!?” I said, “He was lost, I found him way over there in the fields,” She yanked him away from me and stormed off, talking to him, I thought what an ungrateful person! She didn’t even say, “Thank you.”

That was my good deed for the day, I thought would it cost me £15? I caught up with the trolley and pulled it for a few yards, but it was far too heavy for me so the children pulled and pushed it between them, to Elijah, Ruth and Gideon it was like an adventure, they were sweet kids, and did their Mothers proud in my eyes. We got to the cars and quickly unloaded the load, I had only five minutes to get it back, it really would be impossible to get it back in time, within the hour. Lydia said, “They will be OK with you,” But I wasn’t so sure, for it’s a business, not a charity, this is how they make their money. I got there seven minutes after I should have, and joined the small queue and I said, to the lady in front of me, “I’m seven minutes late,” She said to me, “Well I’m fifteen minutes early, I will ask them to give you my minutes,” I smiled and said, “Thank you,” But thought she don’t make the rules, they do. When it was her turn, true to her words she said, “I’m fifteen minutes early please can I give my minutes to this lady?” He looked at me and smiled and said, “Of course,” I was SO relieved inside and said to him, “Thank you very much,” The kind lady got her £10 and so did I, I thanked her again as she left. This day could only get better I thought as I walked to my car.

I had been nervous from the moment I’d woken up, we’d had a serious car accident on the way, to the event writing off MP’s car and damaging badly Lydia’s car and it would be 200 miles back home, that was a very long way back, would we be OK? I was anxious, deep inside the pit of my stomach, I just wanted to make it safely back home, I wasn’t looking forward to the journey back. MP would be driving my Galaxy car, as she had drove it to the event, but I hate not been in control, I reassured myself that all would be well, for what would be the odds of us in an accident on the way back?