Catholic Life and Mission goes global: American faith students join us in worship and faith
On Tuesday 12th March 2024 we were truly blessed with a visit from 20 American Christian students from Concord Evangelical Church in Tennessee, USA. The students and their staff were on a mission to explore our faith, share their faith and join us to grow spiritually this Lent. Our students were really excited to work with them and learn about their faith, their culture and to grow our relationship with our brothers and sisters in faith from America.
In the first session, students in Year 8 and 9 had a question-and-answer session with their students and then worked together to compete to make our very own Jesus theme parks. Two groups were given ‘Parkitect’ awards for exceptional theological creativity.
In the second session of the day the Americans joined us to celebrate the EVENT which is our worship session and we joined together starting with some ‘Jesus Keep Fit’, liturgical My Lighthouse dance, then they shared with us their ‘Church clap’ dance which we joined in. We played faith-based games together such as Jesus splat, ‘capture the word of God’ and Jesus, Jesus, Roman. We explored through reflection John 3:16 and the impact of Jesus’ sacrifice upon the world and then ended with a thought-provoking candle-lit celebration of the word where our students and the American students led each other in prayer by candle-light.
At lunch time, the Americans were swarmed by Year 11 students who wanted to meet them and challenge them to some table tennis games. In the afternoon, our musicians had a musical meet and greet with them and shared their gifts and talents with our brothers and sisters in faith from America. We are extremely grateful for this opportunity, we give thanks to the American students, their staff and Rev. Gavin from Hope Family Church for organising it and making the whole retreat day possible.
God bless.
