This blog doesn’t often focus on our church activities, one Sunday morning service is the same as another it might be argued. However, last weekend we attended the Devoted 2015 Festival. This is a ChristCentral organised event based at Newark Showground and we attended with our Stockport Family Church friends.

The weekend wasn’t all churchy, however. Each day we took the opportunity to get out and visit the local area.

We arrived on a Thursday evening. Then on Friday following the morning family session we set off for Lincoln. Sarah wasn’t feeling too good so we decided just to have a gentle wander around.

We had a great break at Sanctuary Cafe.

We then wandered over to Lincoln Cathedral.

I had hoped to look around but baulked at the cost.

  

Instead, we walked over to a small garden nearby.

From the cathedral, we wandered over to Lincoln Castle.

On Saturday afternoon we took part in a Colour Run. This was great fun!

  

It was a 1 mile run where coloured paint powder was thrown at you at certain points. Well …you either tried to avoid it (not very likely), or embraced it!

Sunday afternoon saw us on our bikes. We began by heading out through Winthorpe.

And then headed towards the centre of Newark.

We cycled past the castle.

From here we turned towards Kelham.

Before heading towards Hockerton we stopped for a bite of lunch.

Eventually we arrived at Southwell.

Where we headed over to Southwell Minster.

We had hoped to have a look around but it was a Sunday and the building was busy and being used for the purpose it was built for. How selfish! 😉

  

Instead we went for a walk around the gardens and the ruins of the Bishops House.

  

We continued on through the racecourse.

And then Rolleston and Staythorpe.

Finally we arrived back at Newark Showground. We had cycled nearly 26 miles and thoroughly enjoyed our bike ride.

You can view our route to Southwell below:

[sgpx gpx=”/wp-content/uploads/gpx/southwell-2015.gpx”]

Of course the main reason for the weekend was the Devoted Festival Weekend itself.

This involved Evening celebrations

Including worship with the excellent Lou and Nathan Fellingham.

As well as talks from Jeremy and Terry Virgo of New Frontiers.

And some daytime Lifezone sessions. We only attended one of these and it was well worth it. It was a fantastic Q&A with Steve McLaren (of England football, Middlesborough and Newcastle United manager fame).

Whilst I was initially sceptical about this weekend, I admit that I thoroughly enjoyed myself. This was a weekend of many memorable moments and a spiritually uplifting experience.

You can view the Devoted Review 2015 below:

Devoted 2015 Review from Graham Pyman on Vimeo.