After many days of waiting, on a little misty and chilly dawn of 18th July 2009, marked the day of Gujarati Christian Fellowship United Kingdom’s(GCFUK) picnic to the Great Yarmouth beach on the East Anglia coast of England, approximately 150 miles north east of London.

Seventy one members and friends boarded the bus from their designated pick up points and with a prayer for God’s grace on the entire journey and day the bus finally left Wembley’s Ealing Road Methodist Church for Yarmouth. The spirits were already high in this double Decker bus. Like most the gifted singers and musicians chose the upper deck and the mood pepped up as they worshiped the Lord through a song game ‘Antaakshari’ all through the journey to Yarmouth and the same mood observed whilst returning to London in the evening.

On reaching Yarmouth we dedicated time to worship God sitting on the beach with cool breeze blowing, mild gentle waves of the North Sea hitting the coast all seemed to add music to the worship! Rev. Anil Patel visiting us from Staten Island, USA brought a brief encouraging and uplifting message on Christian life. Later, as the clouds gathered on the beach we were pushed back to elevated cemented platforms along the coast where we as a big GCFUK family gave thanks to God for food and opened our lunch boxes. To our amazement there were approximately 40 various food items both vegetarian and non-vegetarian ranging from starters, side dishes, main course and drinks that were shared by each other! Every single individual was just too eager to share his/her piece of food with friends around -- from a distance and to the ordinary passerby this looked like a grand Asian Food Festival at the beach!!

As the clouds slowly disappeared and the sun peeped out we headed to the sea, while some preferred to have a dip and some wet their feet in the waves some chose another option – cricket on the beach! With yards of open space the game began two teams of kids, young and middle-aged, male and female everyone took the challenge of hitting the ball and getting out the opponent team. After cricket the next challenge was volleyball played equally in the same spirit! Later in the evening, young & old joyfully participated in a traditional Indian sport called ‘Ubhi Kho’.

As the clock ticked the early evening hours it was time to wind up and board the bus back to London. To have a souvenir for the day before leaving, group pictures were taken for the entire GCFUK family and friends near the bus (click here for pictures).

The sun set and 18th July 2009 now becoming a sweet memory with a prayer of thanksgivings to God for the blessed day, all boarded the bus back to London. With hearts soaked with fun and Christian fellowship through out the day, it seemed love prevailed- impressing fond memories to cherish a long time.