I have never seen Charlotte so frightened as she was last night. With her face a pale shade of green, pleaing eyes and a desperate smell about her she was begging me to take her talk to 100 teenagers so she could run away and hide. I wonder whether that's what I look like during my pre-talk freak out?
Actually yesterday's 24-7 foray was quite the blessing in disguise. I responded to her frantic pleas for help not by letting her off the hook but by declaring we'd do it together, tag team style with a debrief afterwards to come up with a cunning plan to help her fly solo in the future.
The event was actually loads of fun and gave us a rare Thelma and Louise catch up as we drove too and from Brockenhurst. (It's funny how you can see each other most days in the office but it's no substitute for quality time and a little adventure).
Charlotte was of course spectacular! We devided the talk into parts and developed signals to say, "your turn", "I'm flowing with this let me keep going" and "help me! I'm drowning here!" All executed perfectly we were like a well oiled machine. By the time we got started talking about prayer and all the things God has done through 24-7 they could hardly shut us up! It's always an incredible reminder to me as I encourage others.
There were only a few slight hiccups. I missed my mouth and tipped a whole glass of water down my T-Shirt right at the beginning (I like to think it was an effective icebreaker) and Charlotte was a little concerned that more girls wanted to talk about her fabulous new shoes than 24-7 afterwards - but I think those shoes are hard to compete with.
The most breathtaking moment was when three teenage boys gave their lives to God! It was awesome, I hope that somewhere in our bumbling buffoonery God shone through. xc