What a delightful evening we were treated to a couple of weeks ago. All the young people on our Catalyst discipleship program had been set the challenge of communicating who Jesus is in a creative way. They were instructed not to use the words ‘me’ or ‘I’, so it wasn’t about their relationship with Jesus, or who He is to them, but who He is to us all.
Hannah Latty, the Director of our Catalyst Program explained that the aim of the project and the evening was to bring each of us closer to Him.
Emily from Germany started our evening off and performed a beautiful spoken-word piece about who Jesus is. I love the line that describes Him as “the most powerful name in history”.
YeongEun (South Korea) was next up and choose to express the character and characteristics of Jesus through a video she put together.
Ryan (UK) then treated us to a poem he had written for this challenge and it had great depth and passion.
Valerie (Madagascar) shared with us through a piece of writing, how we are a new creation and He is our salvation.
Some of our volunteers preferred to create a piece of art rather than perform something, and we had some lovely paintings, drawings and sculptures.
Leo (Brazil) explained this was a hard task for him as he loves to memorise scripture and doesn’t consider himself too creative. So, he mused on the accessibility of the Gospels.
Hannah Latty had written a lovely song called beautiful and got the talented YeongEun to accompany her on the cello.
Melodia (Belgium/ Italy) invited us to close our eyes and to visualise the passage she had written. The protector is about a young woman with storms in her life crying out to Jesus, her first love.
Leo (Italy) presented some photos and videos to share his perspective of how he senses God, through animals, creative photography, friends and motorbiking.
Simona (Lithuania) performed a live spoken piece as she painted a powerful picture of the empty tomb.
Aaron (Spain) explained it was the first time he’s written a song in English. It is called “Fall in love with you” and it was really beautiful with captivating words. You could imagine a congregation singing along with it as a love song to Jesus.
Another invitation from Maureen (Belgium) to close our eyes as she played the cello and invited us to choose a title for the piece she played.
Andrea from Columbia shared with us a video she’d made about God the Creator in creation. It shared moments and sounds of where she finds Jesus.
Alex (Brazil) read to us his poem against a backdrop of Aaron playing the guitar. It was very heartfelt and beautiful.
We next heard another poem from Mateus (Brazil/ Italy) called “God clothed in humanity”. It was perfect how each piece of poetry was so different.
Oh wow, such a powerful drama from Michael and his team came next, as he reminded us how the world places labels on you for what you do and how you live, but Jesus died on the cross to take those sins away. It was such a good visual representation as labels were stuck on his coat and then the cost was removed and put on by Jesus.
We finished the evening with an affirming reading from Tachy (Brazil) as she reminded us how Jesus is peace, always available and waiting for us.
Each one of our volunteers is talented and it is such a joy to watch them discover their gifts and grow in them during their time here at Ashburnham Place.
We are looking for young volunteers (aged 18 – 27 years) to join us from June 21, September 21 or January 22. Why not share about our Catalyst program with someone you know may benefit from serving with us for a year?
