Article by Caleb McAlpine. Photos by Bronwyn Fairchild.
Grayson, Kyle and Seth get ready to raise a marquee.
On May 1st, the entirety of our DTS (35 in all) got on a bus and traveled to Cardiff, Wales. Our first ten days of outreach were spent here, partnering with a massive youth event called Ignite Hope 2012. Ignite Hope has an annual aim to “[Raise] up a generation of young people who are sold out for the gospel and ready to step out into South Wales to see a difference made in the lives of individuals, streets and communities.”
The bulk of our time was spent setting up and setting down the event site. We had a large section of the city’s main park to build the event on, but it
was much too muddy to get any work done at first, so we spent time bringing in wood chips and sand to help absorb the wet ground. Once the ground was taken care of, we were able to set up several bouncy castles, three trampolines, three café marquees, an outdoor stage and a gargantuan central marquee that housed our nightly worship/teaching sessions during the event.
Our outreach team members had plenty to do during the event itself: doing gate security, facilitating the fun (bouncy castles, football cages), being part of the prayer team during sessions, performing on the outdoor stage, going with the youth to daytime outreaches, providing meals
Sandwiches. Sandwiches. Sandwiches. Did I mention sandwiches?
(1000+ sandwiches made!) and more. The flurry of activity was made all the more exciting when we found out that over 100 young people dedicated their lives to Christ during the long weekend event. Wow.
It was a privilege to be involved with the Ignite guys to help get the event going. The set-up was practical, the event itself was spiritually inspiring and the set down was definitely muddy — and all of it was a joy to be a part of. Special thanks to the Desperation Leadership Academy guys from Colorado Springs for coming alongside our team and getting the big tents up.
We spent 10 days in Cardiff total — on May 10th, our team of 35 split up and dispersed all across the UK. Check back for updates from Coventry, Glasgow, Newcastle and Manchester!