4 Step Days in 7 Normal Days

During the week before half term, Step ran four Step Days in a seven day period with nearly 400 young people.

Each day the students are split into groups of 20 and carousel around 4 workshops focusing on different aspects of the theme of the day. Alongside this they also compete in team games, spend time chilling and chatting, learn a little more about the practises of retreating and also given time to look at life from the Christian perspective. The day culminates with the students gathering to enjoy photos of the day and share in community activities including competitions, mass and a small talk and prayer.

The Step Days have several themes:

• Christian Beginnings
• Identity
• Justice
• Relationships
• Stress
• Fresh Starts
• Moving On

Each of these days has 4 dedicated workshops designed for them. The workshops seek to involve the students in different styles of learning and experience. They could be categorised as ‘be’, ‘think’, ‘do’ and ‘play’. The hope is that this varied approach provides a space for all the students to engage more naturally with the content.

The students respond to the day very differently, but by giving them space and a different context we see them grow in many different ways. Over the last few days they have said many things to us, but a few of the highlights were - “I’m an atheist but I feel real peace when I am in this space”, “where is the gift shop?”, “I feel like I’ve been journeying with you for the last 5 years of my life”, “will there be a Christian rock band”, “if God knows everything why did he make Putin and give him the free will to do the things he does?”, and “ you're going to love it, we get doughnuts, play with clay and talk about real stuff!”

We are keen to grow our Step Day team and currently particularly looking for people to come and help with:

• Hospitality -  it would be good to offer the team a lunch rather than asking people to bring their own.
• Clean up - the workshop team work hard all day and the last thing they want to do is spend an hour cleaning once the students go.

If you can think of people that could help with these areas, please let Terrie or myself know. Thank you.
Chris