Yesterday's trip to see Franklin Graham.

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Yesterday I went to see Franklin Graham in Birmingham (details in the picture above.) I went with my friend Yasmin and her Church in Tamworth, the Coton Green Community Church. My friend said they would pick me up at 4:00pm. We needed to get to their Church by 4:30pm and the coach would be leaving at 4:45pm. But her husband John lost his credit card. He thinks he lost it in a shop that morning. He went back to look for it, but they said they were too busy to look for it! Anyway, he couldn't find it so he had to go to the bank to cancel his card, so that made them late! They got to my house at about 4:15pm, and then we had to bomb it down to Tamworth as fast as we could! We didn't think we were going to make it! But we got there just in time and the coach hadn't arrived yet! We had time to go inside and go to the toilet. We were all given wristbands to remind us which coach we were on. We were on coach 98. A guy I know who used to come to.my Church, Mark O'Rorke was there. He's going grey. The coach arrived and we went outside. One little girl fell over and dropped all her pencils and colouring book and Yasmin went to help pick them up. Yasmin's husband John wasn't coming with us, he was just dropping us off. We got on the coach and we set off about 5 mins late. Yasmin messaged John to tell him to look for the tortoise and put it to bed! It took about half an hour for us to get from Tamworth to the NEC in Birmingham. Then we got stuck in a coach jam! As you can see on the poster above it started at 6:00pm. It took us a while to park and disembark. We were told we would have a different coach coming back, but it would still be coach No. 98, and it would still be a Robinsons coach. Somebody had left some of their stuff on the coach thinking I'd be the same coach going back so we had to tell them they needed to fetch their stuff. I think someone else brought some of it out. And then we headed off to the Resorts World Arena. We joined the end of this one long queue, and we saw notices saying we couldn't take in any bags bigger than A4. Mine was only a small bag so I was OK, but one chap from off our coach had a backpack! Someone said we could join this other queue so we did. Then when we got in the door we had to have our bags searched. I had my bag searched and given back to me with no problems, but Yasmin was told she couldn't take her flask of coffee in! She had to give it in at this hatch and was given a lottery ticket to get it back afterwards! After that we went to the toilet, and when we came out we'd lost the rest of our coach party! We went down this corridor where we were directed to go, and we went up some stairs onto a balcony. An usher found two seats for us and we negotiated our way to them. I was sitting right over the stairs with a rail infront of me, so I had a good view of the stage with no heads infront of me. Except when this nice little black girl who was sitting next to me stood up and blocked my view! It had already started when we sat down. I think it was about 7 minutes passed 6 when we sat down. Yasmin texted John to say we'd lost everyone and we didn't know if we'd be able to find the coach, so she might have to ask him to come and fetch us. The lady who was singing, Taya, was from Hillsong or so Yasmin tells me. I thought the music was a bit loud, and Yasmin said so too. When she'd finished singing they had some videos on the big screens about Samaritans Purse and other Christian charities while they were setting up for Michael W Smith. He was very good. I was particularly pleased he sang Our God Is An Awesome God. After Michael W Smith, we had some more videos on the big screen, and then another band came on with many members singing. I can't remember what they were called. After that Franklin Graham spoke a gospel message about how God loves us (the title of the tour is the God Loves You Tour), and sent Jesus to Earth on a rescue mission to save us from our sins. Throughout the night people kept coming passed us. Yasmin would stand up sometimes, whereas I just moved my knees. Yasmin said that we should start making our way out when Franklin Graham told people to come to the front if they wanted to get saved. That way we could go to the toilet and find our coach before the rush. So that's what we did. When we'd been to the toilet Yasmin went to collect her flask and we made our way out. Someone gave us a Samaritans Purse bag. Yasmin saw someone that she knew and he directed us to the coach park. We found the first coach park and we were looking at the numbers on the coaches looking for No.98 and this bloke asked us if we were alright and Yasmin said we were looking for coach No. 98. He said it could be in the other coach park and I said that's what I thought because that's where we were dropped off. So we headed over there. Yasmin was looking for a Roberts coach, and there were several, but I said, No, it wasn't Roberts it was Robinson's like the cordial I said! Anyway Yasmin went looking and then she said she'd found it. So we went and stood infront of coach No.98. There was no coach driver so we waited. A few more of our party arrived and it started spitting with rain so I put my hood up on my mac. A few minutes later our coach driver arrived so we got on the coach and sat in the front seats. When more of our lot were on board the coach driver asked if we were all on board but Yasmin said no, our leader wasn't on board and he was the one who was supposed to be counting us! Yasmin said, he'll have a clipboard. One of the other guys went off to look for the rest of our party and found them waiting by the path! When we were all on board the fella with the clip board checked we were all on board and off we went. We seemed to get back to Tamworth quicker than we'd got to the NEC. Yasmin texted John to tell him we were on the coach. Then she texted him again when we got to junction 10, and he said he was on his way. We got back to Yasmin's Church and got off the coach. Yasmin's husband John wasn't there yet, but he arrived after a few minutes and they took me home. When I got home I told my Mum all about it. I didn't go to Church this morning because I was too tired after last night. What have you lot been getting up to? I hope you are all well. Have a nice day.