Youth Festivals Report

On March 28th and 29th, our youth group ran two festivals in Edmonton: one here at St. Paul's and the other at St. Matthias.

On Thursday, the youth group joined the congregation of Christian Family Fellowship (a Burmese church) and Little Angel's Daycare to host a festival for about 77 people. There were booths of cotton candy, crafts, art, face painting, friendship bracelets, and balloon animals formed the outer circle of the festival. The inner circle had youth-led Indigenous Games every 10-15 minutes, taught by Sarah K., who had visited the group a few months ago to pass along the teaching of community games from the original people of our land. In keeping a connection to those before us, the youth group was visited by Fred M. to tell the story of Frog Lake and what God was doing within this community. The youth planned to visit Fred on March 30th, but was prevented by the snowstorm.

On Friday, the youth group headed over to St. Matthias to work with St. Peter's Anglican Church on their festival.  About 37 people came, with the same kind of programming. The snow blizzard was worst that day, but gave families a chance not to be stuck with their kids in the home, but could instead run around in the church's hall.  

Ashlyn K., age 14, shared her experience running festivals: "Running the festivals was an incredible experience! I was in charge of the craft table, and it was great talking to and helping the kids with a variety of crafts. I was teaching one of the kids how to make a bracelet in between games and she would run up after a game had completed to get the next step. However, the best part was seeing everyone having fun and running around. I think everyone in the festival was having a good time."

Jordan Y., our director of the festivals wrote: "I had an incredible experience directing a festival-like event with my youth group, where our main goal was to bring the community together in a fun and engaging way. Although I didn’t have a booth of my own, I had the chance to help out with a variety of activities, ensuring everything ran smoothly and everyone felt included. I got involved in making balloon animals, preparing cotton candy, getting face paint done, and facilitating indigenous games and parachute games. One of my favorite parts was seeing people of all ages enjoy the many craft activities we offered, from painting to creating unique, handmade pieces. It was amazing to watch families gather together to work on their projects, and the creative energy was contagious.
          "The entire event was free for the community, including food and coffee, which allowed us to create an atmosphere where everyone could participate without any barriers. A heartwarming moment came when my mom was working at the face paint booth. A little girl, turned to my mom and said, 'This festival is sooo much better than the last one I went to!'  Hearing that from her made all the effort worthwhile. It was such a rewarding experience to witness the joy on everyone’s faces and know we had created something that really brought the community together. From the lively games to the arts and crafts, it felt like we were making a meaningful impact, and I was proud to be a part of it."

Weston Y. writes, "The festivals flowed very smoothly during our two days. We had the opportunity to expand our leadership skills as well as patience . One moment that was special to me was when I was giving out cotton candy and a little boy came up to me to ask for some. I gave him some and he ran over to his sister and gave it to her. This showed me the kindness he had in his heart. It made me realize that we should all try and be like this little boy."

Callie R. also writes, "My time volunteering at the festival was worthwhile. I enjoyed many things such as the cotton candy, balloons, and crafts. Despite all the good things that happened, good things always come with challenges. Some of the challenges we faced included the balloon pump breaking (and our prayer team coming in handy), a broken mic system, and some other unexpected issues." 

Finally, Rev. Eric K. writes, "My favourite part was right before we started our festival on Thursday. We gathered for prayer with the Burmese church, right before we started. Both churches were running booths. We prayed together and ended our time saying the Lord's Prayer. And then the Burmese church prayed the Lord's prayer in their dialect, Karenni; it was beautiful."