UK Visit and Leadership Training

I was leaving in just 8 hours when the Qantas text came announcing that all staff travel to UK was to be suspended till November 30! A quick call to my travel agent and in an hour I was rebooked on another airline flying in just 3 hours time. That was the beginning of my annual UK visit. It was a chilly 0C when I landed in Heathrow two weeks ago. We had just had a glorious Aussie spring weekend of a sunny 26C and now suddenly transported to the land of multiply layers and scarves. Cheers Andy Swift for meeting me and having breakky, then ex Aussie friend Sandra (ex Aussie not ex friend) for lunch. I even got a stroll through the National Art Gallery before riding train to Phil William's beloved Nailsea.

This is now my 8th time visiting Nailsea and UK and European Director Phil. It does feel like visiting old friends and familiar church and streets. Chatting at the Golden Horse $4 lunch, meeting the rector at All Saints, experiencing Phil's endless banter with shopkeepers and passersby, chatting to members of his church, hearing Joe's skate talk with his mates. Abi and Joe now the proud wearers of "I Live for Balance" shirts from my son Taylor and Annie the Amazing who juggles everything with such effortless ease it seems. Nailsea could be a set for the UK equivalent of 'Neighbours' I think, your quaint anglo, professional neighbourhood where people know what's going on in each others lives.

We had invited wider Europe to attend the first dedicated leadership training weekend utilising the CS Foundations Training and Phil was ably assisted by wonder admin woman Chloe and awesome operations man Dave Reynard. Two from Spain, two from Holland and another from Ireland joined 14 others from the UK making a great team of 20 for the training. Spain.....Holland.....Ireland, for some of you these don't evoke images of surf culture, but be very assured that surfing is alive and well in these countries and booming........imagine if the Swiss guys had turned up! Our goal was to expose our leadership to the training and give new trainers opportunity. Great to see Johnny Hillman inspired and he led us with his own unique Welsh humour. Both Dave and Phil along with myself delivered other units. The church Rectory is being renovated with a vision of it being a centre for Christian development and the local Rev Jolyon was very stoked to see the building utilised for the first time in this way.

"If you are in England maybe you can meet up with my dad he happens to be staying with us near Nailsea," so said my Facebook reply from one of our former Australian leaders. It was amazing that Boyd Pope just happened to be staying up the road.......one has to go 10,000km and the opposite side of the globe to meet up with an old friend from home!

God is so good enabling this weekend and with just 5 nights in UK I should have been incomprehensible with tiredness but felt pretty good actually.......just one 5am morning out jogging after not being able to sleep. It was a looonnnnngggg flight home, but great to have Aaron meet me at the airport (thanks Aaron!) and take my tired body home. The rest of that week was a bit of a blur with men's speaking appointments, fundraiser dinner and family catch up. I'm still somewhat tired but happy and for those reading this, PRAY for Phil Williams and the huge needs of the European surfing community. We need more staff, money and leadership to take this on.

Surf Report Dinner Summary

Thanks to all of you who attended our recent annual report and dinner and for the many well-wishers who could not attend.

We had a great night with each of the 100 available seats filled at the great venue of the Manly Pacific Novotel. The view of the beach was matched with the decor of the meeting room as a history of surfboards and a history of Christian Surfers adorned the walls in the form of boards, shirts and posters.

We were entertained by a band made up of local CS members, led by Tom, and an enlightening talk from ASP Chairman, Richard Grellman, whose tips on Men's and Women's world champions were absolutely correct!

We were engaged with the auction items, including handmade Alaia boards and bowls by BD and others, and we were inspired with the account of the world mission movement of Christian Surfers by BD and his interviews with those engaging at each end of the surfing spectrum:

• Abe Andrews shared about life on the road with the Men's ASP World Tour. Tragically his services were called upon big time directly following, with the death of Andy Irons. We're so glad to have had a chaplain in place there.
• Murray Bothma shared what it was like to be a 17-year-old volunteer leader in a local mission reaching out to no-name groms, whom God loves equally.

We were encouraged to share in the mission financially, and 5 new partners signed up totalling $5,700pa, with another $1,300 donated and $3,500 raised in the auction.

If you have not signed up as a partner yet, you still can on our website at:  http://www.christiansurfers.net/Partnership.aspx

We look forward to two events next year, one on the Gold Coast on March 26 and again in Sydney in October.

God bless you and thank you for your support,
Brett Davis and the CSI team