The Gathering – CVM
Last weekend, 10 local men (including a few familiar faces from St Martin’s Church) travelled up to Swindon to attend The Gathering…a weekend festival for men, orgainised by Christian Vision for Men.
Here’s what Liam and Darren had to say about it:
In a field near Swindon…
CVM is shorthand for “Christian Vision for Men”, an organisation formed to share the good news about Jesus to men, with a target of 1m men won for Christ.
They work in partnership with the UK church and some of the menfolk from St Martins recently attended a one day event in Plymouth.
Each year, CVM organise a large festival in a field near Swindon called “The Gathering”, where up to 2,500 men gather in fellowship to camp together, learn about Christ, worship, share stories away from the struggles and noise of day to day life.
This year, we took 10 men to CVM. 3 were non believers, 5 are established Christians and 2 are new Christians.
It was a great weekend with amazing worship, great testimonies and plenty of activities for men. Men of all ages & backgrounds were there & there’s nothing like singing praises & hearing those voices in a tent full of men.
Amongst other things, we entered an over 50’s walking football match and an all-age 5- a-side football tournament… but sadly we won neither! Thankfully no-one got injured!
The icing on the cake was that one of the lads gave his life to our Lord!
At the event over 100 men stepped forward to profess their faith for the first time.
All in all it was a great experience and we would recommend it to anyone who would like to join us and/or bring along a non-believing mate.
We will be going again next year – please speak to us if you’d like to join us or find out more.
Liam Crabtree & Darren Arulvasagam.