Jesus Decking at the Hythe Festival by Belinda Federl

So there we were, SOURCE, on a windy but thankfully sunny day in Edwards Quay "Jesus Decking" at the Town to Port Hythe Festival last Saturday, the 25th of May.  We had conversations on what we wanted to do for this day with a "sofa and conversation" connecting with the Hythe community - but our aim is also to be God's presence in the Hythe and an interesting, different way of engaging a diverse group of people was to "Jesus deck".  Matt, Ali, Jo, Sheila, Jane, Nikki, and me (and Jackie supporting) all taking turns to welcome, read and encourage each other. 



Jesus decking is a great way to interact with people in your community an opportunity to have some deep and meaningful conversations about themselves, their faith and spiritually.  The Jesus Deck is a pack of cards with each card having a visual interpretation of a passage or a story in the Gospel.  Some of the cards are just pictures and others are pictures with the words of the Gospel.  To those who chose to have a go, we dealt five cards out and asked which card or cards they were particularly drawn to and asked them why that card and then it was just a case of listening, listening closely to what was being said and asking open questions now and again to encourage movement of conversation.  

For many of us at SOURCE this was the first time we had Jesus Decked - although did have some practice on each other before the day!  First was the challenge of actually attracting people to have a reading.  Being the upfront person I am I approached all kinds of people asking the question "had they heard about Jesus Decking".  Some laughed and said they didn't want to be "decked" (!), some said it wasn't for them, and others backed away in a kind of fear and sneered - or as one of my friends said to me "I don't want to be Jesus-fied!  It was important not to be discouraged, nervous or embarrassed to approach people - the worse they can do is say "no" but for all those that said "no" there were many who said "yes".   I also stressed now and again that this was not necessarily about Christianity but where they were personally spirituality.  And one other thing is you can't tell a Christian by their appearance - with the saying "don't judge a book by its cover" coming to mind.   What is the passage in the bible which says "one stray sheep"?  If we can reach one person, just one person encouraging faith then all is worthwhile .......  Suffice to say we did have some very interesting conversations - but that is for another blog!

 I was quite busy that day dividing my time performing comedy and supporting the spoken word, Jesus Decking and also helping Hythe Forward springboard the Community Land Trust.  This was Hythe Forward's chance to increase their presence within the Hythe community and have important conversations about the CLT is and why it is important that as many of the Hythe community are involved as possible.  Again SOURCE has an influence within Hythe Forward, with both Ali and I being members on the committee setting up the CLT and myself having some extra inside knowledge being nominated at interim secretary for the committee.  I know I spoke to many people often stopping them in their path to give out one of the postcards and brief explanations of the vision or the Hythe - with many saying "about time!"
It was a lovely and joyous occasion  filled with music of many genres,  poetry and storytelling, comedy, craft stalls and the wafting smell from food hubs.  It was so heartening to see the quay alive with the barges at their moorings giving colour, flavour and character to this part of Hythe and a vision of what the future could hold here.
May God continue to bless and encourage us all in the community of the Hythe.  I think there are going to be exciting times ahead for SOURCE and a great opportunity to grow and flourish through our witness to faith, faith in action: action in faith.