What a two days we had down here at Lowe House for the Life and Soul Festival on the 4th and 5th July. The place was buzzing with all sorts going on. We had Steve Thomson demonstrating his juggling skills around the place, RISE Theatre showing why they are one of the best Theatre groups around, members of the CAFOD youth team helping us to think about our role in this world with fun and innovative ideas and hearing great talks from Luke Turner, Kepha Ngito and Alice Atieno Ahenda. If that wasn’t enough for you we also had two fantastic masses over the weekend, followed by barbecues and live music and praise & worship from ‘The Circles’. That’s without even mentioning the workshops, so here’s what happened:

Saturday’s Speaker: Luke Turner – Luke was a volunteer here at animate before joining the retreat/mission team at SPEC back in London where he has since moved to SPECeast to become Programme Leader. He joined us to speak about God’s love and how he has experienced it in his life. He also challenged people to think about God’s love in their own lives and how they share that with others!

Sunday’s Speaker: Kepha Ngito & Alice Atieno Ahenda – Kepha and Alice spoke inspiringly about their lives in two of the biggest and poorest slums around Nairobi, Kenya. They spoke about the different ways they are trying to help and improve the lives of the young people in those areas and also challenged those that were there to do what they can in their own communities to help in whatever ways they can!

Workshops include:

T-Shirt Painting: There were many different varieties of t-shirts produced by those involved in this workshop. They took their inspiration from different quotes both secular and religious and all the fashion designers will be getting in touch very soon I’m sure!!!.

Bread Making: A popular workshop at the festival that saw the ovens working over time! Whether people came as masters of the kitchen or amateurs, everyone enjoyed making their own bread from scratch. All the ‘loaves’ came out different shapes, sizes, patterns and styles, not sure how they tasted but everyone was pleased with what they produced!

 
Creative Prayer: The guys at the prayer workshop had great fun exploring what prayer is and how we pray. It was also a chance to try out different ways of praying, through more traditional prayers to multi sensory prayer. It was an experience that everyone enjoyed and gained a lot from.

Music: The music workshop was a great opportunity for people to flex their vocal chords and learn some great songs. It involved lively action songs through to calmer reflective songs and was enjoyed by both younger and older. It also involved preparing the music for our masses that were great celebrations with some amazing music to complement them.

Circus Skills: Definitely one of the most fun and challenging workshops at the festival! It involved all sorts including Diablo, juggling, speed stacking, toothbrush twirling and more! It was fun for everyone and it was great to try and learn some of the things Steve had been sharing with us throughout the day!
 
CAFOD: It was great to have a variety of different workshops with CAFOD over the weekend. On Saturday some of the young CAFOD members from the diocese led workshops on world issues and on Sunday we welcomed Kepha and Alice along with some of the CAFOD youth team from London who spoke of the projects in Nairobi and also had a video link up with some young people from one of the Nairobi projects, a great experience for everyone!

Drumming: Under the tutelage of Nigel once again, some people had the opportunity to learn or improve their drumming skills on different types of drums. There was also a chance to play together as a whole group using the many djembe drums we had (many on loan from Our Lady’s in Skelmersdale, thank you!). It was a great workshop for new drummers and the more
experienced percussionists!

Drama: We were glad to be able to welcome RISE Theatre to Lowe House once again to lead a fantastic workshop. It gave people a chance to develop new drama skills and techniques through games and improvisation in a fun
and lively way.

Community Art: We were grateful to welcome Stan and Jo to run this workshop in which the groups each contributed individually and as a group to a huge picture! It was put together on canvas using pastels, cut out shapes and words that focussed around the theme of the weekend!