Sunday July 31st was a strange day for me. Not just for me but for many other Christians from Hadleigh and surrounding areas. Some didn’t go to church that day. They were witnessing at the Olympic test event at Hadleigh Farm. Salvationists in Hadleigh also welcomed their new Commanding Officer, Major David Woodman, so a busy day all round.
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| The bus station in a field |
Those who know the farm will be aware that it is slightly out of the way. Even if you don’t know it, you’ve probably guessed that the town centre is not the place to look for it. With roads closed and access severely restricted, my way in was via a special minibus shuttle service. As we approached, a huge sign (that isn’t normally there) indicated that we had correctly arrived at Hadleigh Farm. It towered above a makeshift bus station built in the middle of a field. With 5000 visitors and heaven knows how many compeitors, officials, volunteers and other workers converging on the site, the vehicular restrictions encouraged visitors to make other arrangements. Fortunately the organisers had made things easy by implementing a “Park and Ride” bus service from Canvey Island and “Train and Ride” bus service from Leigh on Sea Station. In all 25 buses were used, 20 in service and five spares.
Close to the bus station (but not easily accessible from it) was a sort of church fete run under the umbrella of Churches Together in Hadleigh, but with the input from churches in Leigh on Sea and Southend also. Guests from outside the area included Christian illusionist Steve Price, a team of Christian mountain bikers called "Rezurgence" and Psalm Drummers who brought along a number of djembes for people to have a bash at. Of course, the farm being Salvation Army land and Hadleigh Temple being a significant congregation in the town, there were lots of Salvos around. They even treated the crowd to some music from Hadleigh Temple Band and Songsters.
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| The churches' fete field |
The police were there too, most noticeably with their helicopter circling above, allegedly filming the scene to gain tips in crowd control.
The presence of a riot van trying to hide in the bus
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| Major is the white horse |
station was a bit disquieting. The favourite police presence was in the guise of some horses. The sergeant told me that although the horses were good at crowd control, they were not expecting those skills to be called on. With people gathering round the equine pair (nobody was paying any attention to two police officers yards away on push bikes), the mounted sergeant explained that their role was mainly PR that day. I took my turn at stroking the nose of the white beast, called “Major”. He seemed to enjoy it because he nudged me to continue when I thought I had finished. At the end, Major and his companion, replete with riders, took the place at the east of the fete field whilst two other mounted officers arrived from the spectator area and stationed themselves at the north of said field. It was then that the two pairs of horses stared calling to each other across the corner of the field.
From my point of view, this exceptional event on a lovely sunny day was about evangelism. Lt-Col Ivor Telfer was there and the first thing he did was congratulate me for attending in uniform. “Presence Evangelism!” I replied. This brought a smile to his face because it is a phrase he used in a sermon when visiting Hadleigh Temple some months ago. It stuck because it is so right. Thinking of how people come to faith, for someone who has no thought of God, a Bible-bashing is unlikely to be well-received. But that’s for another day.
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Free water
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I was pleased to see that members of Leigh Elim Church turned up in polo shirts declaring their allegiance. They were handing out free bottles of water in Christ’s name. On such a hot day, the gift was very comforting. Although the footfall in the fete field was disappointing, we must remember people had gone to the farm for a completely different reason. And we trust that God will bless all the efforts in His name.
