illuminate update from Chris
illuminate is part of The Door and is made up of specific projects which offer young people opportunities to explore faith and spirituality from a Christian perspective.
The illuminate team have had an exciting year building relationships with new young people through the Tin Church drop-in (Stroud) & Fusion Cafe in Dursley. This culminated in taking a group to the Satellites festival in the Summer, where they had a transformational time, encountering God & connecting with each other, with many being inspired afresh to follow Jesus in their day to day lives.
In September, they had a reunion BBQ and visited a Movement worship night in Bath where they got to hang out with the Archbishop of Canterbury for the second time in one month. He encouraged our young people to pray with authentic stories from his life. This encouraged a desire within them to keep gathering together, inspiring one young person with the idea of having a Bowling, Burger and Bible night! They had a great time there and shared a Bible study on what it means to follow Jesus – Matthew 4:18-22, right in the middle of the bowling alley!
God had blessed illuminate with some significant funding over the Summer and we are excited to now be recruiting a youthworker to develop and grow this work, which includes pioneering a chaplaincy-like model in a local secondary school. We are also looking forward to bringing prayer spaces into schools in the run up to Christmas
Please keep this project and our young people in your prayers, to be culture changers in their generation.