Below are selected testimonies given at the end of 2003's Weekends Away.

2003 Weekends

WOLDINGHAM PARK (South)

This weekend has been a very special weekend for me and there has been a lot of healing. Since a young age self worth wasn’t in the dictionary for me. We’ve been told that we are born as ‘Rolls Royces’ and we end up thinking we are wheelbarrows. You should see my father’s wheelbarrow! This weekend I have received an awful lot of healing. Basically over the weekend Satan has been beaten up, removing the lie that I am no good, that I cannot have a relationship should God request it. I realise I want something a bit faster than a Rolls Royce, something more like a Formula One car pulling into the pits. The Holy Spirit has pumped His fuel into me and allowed me to be set free. If there was a Press briefing after this weekend then my response would be, "Satan, I’m knocking you off pole. I’m not only knocking you off pole, I’m going to win the championship – you are going to be at the back of the grid."
I am leaving Woldingham Park "bowled over". I came to this weekend for the first time with little understanding in my own life of the words ‘worth’, ‘control’ and certainly there was no ‘balance’. I came with so much anxiety in my life following three family deaths around the world, and in so much debt. I came feeling vulnerable and stressed and saying to God, "Where do I start to deal with all that’s going on in my life?" I found myself saying to God, "I need to be touched by You. I need to feel that You are here and I really don’t want to leave this place as I came in." Some say you should be careful what you pray for because shortly after that there was an opportunity for people to be prayed with. I could almost feel God’s touch approaching me. I asked someone to pray with me and told him what my anxieties were. As he prayed I felt like a rocking fence, as though the dentist was trying to pull a tooth out. Nothing seemed to happen and I begged God to let me keep my dignity and leave the weekend as a man! Just as I prayed these words to God I felt floored and was powerfully touched by God’s anointing. I couldn’t do anything to stop it. That evening, after a short spell of being quiet before the Blessed Sacrament, I slept like a baby and the anxiety I have been feeling has ceased. I know have been touched by God and am confident that there are even greater things that He is going to do.
I first went to Catholic Mass a few years ago, and no one spoke to me, which I have since learnt is a time old Catholic tradition! Strangely, this was great because it gave me the time to think about things. I went to my local priest with a whole of objections that I had about the Catholic faith. He didn’t answer any of them but replied that I needed to learn to love the Church. This weekend and the first one that I attended last year have been such a blessing to me.
I don’t think that the guys that I shared with in my small group over the year realise what they have given me. They have affirmed in my self-worth and have given me so much fellowship that I feel confident enough to go forward with a vocation to the priesthood. I go to seminary in August. I have had conversations with several men over these past two weekends. There is something about being here with other men that has made conversations possible that somehow wouldn’t have been possible elsewhere. What you are doing here has been an incredible blessing to my life.
My brother and I both made our own way to this weekend without any prior arrangement or without discussing with each other our decision to attend. I am pleased that we have been literally forced together and have discovered the time and opportunity to actually talk with one another. We have decided that this is important to us both and that we need to take more time to do this in the future.

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STONYHURST COLLEGE (North)

This is my first year at the weekend I had been thinking of coming on one of these Men’s Weekends for some years but had been putting it off. I have had a huge burden lifted from me this weekend and can only say thank you to God for what these weekends and men’s groups are achieving.
The very powerful sense of the Holy Spirit is evident in this place, as is the acceptance among a group of men. I have led a rather feminised existence through my lifetime’s work in education and so have benefited enormously from just being in the company of Christian men over this weekend.
Between the ages of five to thirteen I had a very turbulent relationship with my father. I resented his authority and very often rebelled against it, which led to problems with my seeing God the Father as a kind, caring and loving father rather than an authoritarian dictator. But over this weekend Jesus has helped me to take steps to lead me back to my earthly father and my heavenly Father.
I wanted to come to the Men’s Weekend to examine where I was presently at in life as things have been complicated recently. The past couple of years have been an especially bumpy journey for me and I know my soul has needed to know God’s healing touch. Here at this weekend I experienced Jesus filling my heart and my whole being. I came to the weekend desiring discernment, something external to myself, but Jesus came and touched my heart. I can’t put into words what has happened only I now know that I am a completely different person. The burdens have been taken away from me and suddenly I leave this weekend with the yoke being light.

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