Churches come together as chaplains at Lowestoft festival  

Ten chaplains volunteered their time to host a space where people could encounter the presence of God at the First Light Festival

Lowestoft is the mostly easterly town in the country, and therefore the first to see the sunrise at midsummer. To celebrate this, the First Light Festival has been running for three years - a free event, open to all - and the Lowestoft Chaplaincy Team has been part of it from the beginning.

Minister in Training, Esther Day, from London Road Baptist Church, has facilitated a pioneering chaplaincy team for six years now, running pop up chaplaincy sessions in cafes, in the town centre, and on the beach. The chaplaincy offers space to chat, and peace treatments such as hand massage, personalised art, Jesus Deck Readings, and of course prayer and blessings.



This year at First Light the inter-denominational team of chaplains ran the "Soul Space" tent. From there they offered peace treatments, facilitated a reflection space (what we would call a prayer space) and a co-created art piece. Ten chaplains volunteered their time to host a space where people could encounter the presence of God.

'We have so many amazing stories coming out from the day,' says Esther, 'The highlight for me was seeing a team of ordinary Jesus-followers stepping up to learn new skills, to give hours of their time to listen to people, hearing how they dared share prophetic insight, pray for healing, pray publicly for people, love people and use creative ways of enabling people to encounter Jesus.'

Dorothy, a chaplain with the team, tells the story of using the Jesus Deck and getting cards about Gethsemane and the trial before Pilate, and how that allowed a lady to share the sorrow she was carrying, cry, be heard, and receive prayer. 

Maria recalls giving a hand massage to a lady with severe eczema and praying with her. As she prayed the lady felt the anxiety that causes the eczema fall off her like water.

Gail was giving a hand massage and was asked to share her testimony - so she did! The Revd Sharon Lord was able to speak God's love and peace to teenagers facing exams; Becki was able to hand massage a lady with a terminal diagnosis and talk gently with her and hear her say her spirit had lifted. 

Esther (pictured) recalls doing around 40 Jesus Deck readings in two days, and was continually astounded at how the Holy Spirit led the right cards to be picked to enable healing conversations and prayer.

'With each person we could share about our world view, who Jesus is and how God feels about us, it was amazing.'

The next stop for the chaplaincy team is to do the same thing at The Latitude Festival at the end of July, in partnership with the Festival Pastors.

 

If you want to find out more contact Esther on chaplaincy@londonroad.org.uk or via the Facebook page (@chaplaincylowestoft)