Friday night. The room was completely dark, except for a red light glowing, the children were given a quick peak around the door, but no more. Something was happening, but what? We would not find out until we returned to the Secret Garden on Saturday morning. With torches in hand, we left the building to search for a real ‘Secret Garden’ somewhere within the grounds. Down the big steps, into the woods, under the cover of branches we crept slowly down the hill. Suddenly, the clouds parted and the moon shone down, reflecting in the pond of the Secret Garden - we had found it!

 

Saturday morning. We set out into the grounds of High Leigh again, our home for the weekend of the annual St. Andrew’s Houseparty. Birds were singing happily and the sun shone as we revisited the secret garden. This time, with our buddies, we were collecting objects from the wood floor to make our own model gardens. There were 18 children from 3-11 and so we had paired up for the weekend. An older child with a younger child to look after, encourage, share and play with. The children quickly got into their roles, especially those with the widest age gaps and there became a strong atmosphere of care and love within the whole group. So much so, that by the end of the weekend, it had become a wonderful example of God’s children living as people of God together. We returned from the grounds to enter our ‘Secret Garden’ room and their Pam unfolded the story of creation as the room changed from black to teaming with life and colour. The following sessions visited other ‘gardens’ in the bible as we looked at the whole story of God’s creation. There was perfection and the problem in Eden, the promise given as Joshua entered the land of Canaan, the person of Jesus as he sweated for us in Gethsemane and on the cross before we returned to the perfect ending of heaven. It was a wonderful weekend that far exceeded my expectations - praise the Lord!