Categories: uncategorized
Date: 10 July 2005 10:06:20
Prayer and Protesting
The major theme of the week ahead looks to be the union of prayer and protesting. Just being at such a major event, and being able to take part both in the protests and unobtrusive prayer support in the background is such an amazing experience. We have just had a VERY long barrio meeting which told us everything we ever wanted/needed to know about the week ahead - and several things that we didn't need to know either. This included how the campsite is run, and organised prayer times, 8.30am and 11pm and the various meetings we are having tommorrow.
We all have to chip in to the running of the campsite, so tommorrow I will be doing some woodwork - making a couple of notice boards and attempting to carve a cross, but I'm not advertising the fact I'm gonna make the cross as it has been a long time since I did any whittling.
Other mentions today should be the toilets - they are the old style greenbelt loos - holes in the ground with a plank of wood over them. Or the compost loos which are wheelie bins with planks...but there are some portaloos dotted about.
Above all, the feeling of today was one of the most amazing community - and the food is absolutely fantastic...
a few notes about the way stuff worked (sunday 10th July)
The campsite in Stirling was home to both the dissent camp and a People and Planet camp. I was camping on the P&P side of the fence, but broke down the fence about half an hour after setting up camp as I got fed up of stepping over it. I spent most of my time with a barrio (neighbourhood) called I58, which were a bunch of christians from all over the country. The Dissent part of the campsite had a capacity of about 5000, and was run along consensus lines, everyone had a say in every desicion. There were main meetings twice daily, called spokescouncils, where one or two representatives from the barrio went to relay the barrio's veiws. And meetings in the barrios were we discussed things, made proposals and either agreed, stood aside, or blocked the proposals made. Because every desicion had to be a consensus, the meetings sometimes lasted for hours...but in the end, I think it was worth it...