Here at ChurchSuite our aim is to build software that "supports your church, extends God's kingdom". For us, that mission drives not only the day-to-day work we do as a business, but also how we deploy our greatest resource - our amazing staff - beyond the confines of the office! ChurchSuite employees are entitled to one week's paid leave every year to serve the Church in whichever way they choose. We wanted to recognise and celebrate the exciting things that our staff got up to this year.

I spent a week serving on the Harriers Cruise, a Scripture Union camp for 15-18 year olds. We spent the week sailing around the Norfolk Broads on traditional wooden cabin yachts, eating and sleeping on the boats, and having morning and evening Bible studies and discussions about faith. We also had a visit to the beach for games and a "grill a Christian" Q&A session, and a little rowing dinghy adventure along the way!

I was really encouraged by how much answered prayer we saw this year. In particular, the weather forecast was very wet and thundery almost every day, but every day we prayed for good weather and saw it come to pass. We prayed for safety, logistics, for the crew to bond well and have good discussions, for our Q&A session, and all week we saw all of these answered - God is very kind! It was also really great to see new crew-members learning to sail for the first time, and quickly learning how to tack a 30ft yacht up a narrow river while avoiding a stream of motor cruisers!

In our morning quiet times we worked through part of the gospel of Mark, and our evening "Cabin Club" discussions were around the theme of trees - how the seed of the Gospel is planted, grows, flowers and bears fruit. Our prayer is that the young people will continue to grow as they go home and settle back into normal life!

My Missional Leave was spent helping out on a young persons' (11-18 years) holiday camp (called Total Adventure aka TAs) at a Christian outdoor activity centre called Adventure Plus (A+). We've been involved with TAs at A+ for six years now. My wife Sophie and I run the evening worship services (The Roadshow) during the camp.

Whilst most of the time TA focuses on having fun in God's creation, the Roadshow is the part of the day where the young people gather to experience God in the context of "church". For many of these young people, this is their first experience of church, so we're keen for them to get an experience of church that is fun but also completely centred around the gospel and encountering the Holy Spirit.

My role in the Roadshow has two parts: hosting the service with Sophie, and leading worship. Having led worship for around ten years now in many different contexts, it's easy to become complacent and go through the motions of worship. Leading worship at TA though always reminds me that worship is different for everyone, and God will touch everyone's heart differently, but in a way that is beautiful and unique to them. Just as every person is unique, the way they encounter Jesus is completely unique.

The highlight of this week for me would have to be getting to spend time with one of our goddaughters, Evie. After the first night, Evie came up to Sophie in tears and she simply said, "These are happy tears. I've never realised how powerful it is". For the rest of the week, we were blessed with seeing Evie continue to encounter Jesus and get to know him more and more.

I spent a week serving refreshments with a friendly smile and waiting on tables at New Wine in Maidstone. No miracles were performed, but I did have lots of great conversations!