Satellites 2024

Published by Anne Townsend on September 5, 2024September 5, 2024

During the summer holidays the illuminate team went to a youth festival called Satellites. 3 leaders, 17 young people and 5000 other delegates descended on the Bath and West Show Ground for a week of learning, worship and fun. One of those young people Isaac tells us all about his time at Satellites:

Satellites was very different to any festival I have been to before, in that it had lots of amazing speakers over many stages, covering so many different themes. Some of my favourites included a seminar from Father Greg Boyle, a Jesuit Priest who works in communities in LA with some of the worst gang violence in the world, and a workshop from Spoken Word artist Dai Woolridge, which managed to cover the whole Bible in 45 minutes!

One of the best things about having so many different speakers was that there were so many different stories. It was really interesting to hear how these different people became Christians, and this was brilliant for some of the young people we were able to bring to Satellites to hear, who are at the beginning of their faith journey.

As well as going to listen to the speakers each day everyone on site met in a warehouse in the morning and evening for games and worship. There was a brilliant live band to sing with including some assembly bangers one morning when the whole room went mad!

We also got to try out some craft activities, dance workshops, skate boarding, axe throwing (don’t worry they were plastic!) as well as eating at the cafes and looking around the book shops and merch tent.

There were countless blessed moments during the week

If you want an idea of what the Satellites festival was like, I think these verses sum it up pretty well.

As the deer pants for streams of water,
so my soul pants for you, my God.
My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
When can I go and meet with God? – Psalm 42:1-2

Because we had the privilege of being a part of some 5,000 young people, all thirsting and panting for God. It felt surreal. You could tell that the Spirit was quenching the thirst these young people had, and changing people’s lives for the better, and doing so on a scale that I have never experienced.

where you could tell that The Lord was working through people to make a difference. And this wasn’t just with all of the speakers. You could tell that God was moving within all of the Satellites Team, all of the young people, and the illuminate team who were there with us.

Satellites was a moment for our thirst for Jesus to be quenched and fulfilled. Now that we are back home we need to sustain this fulfilment and desire for God to be in our lives every day. The work of illuminate is a sustaining, constant reminder that The Spirit moves in so many ways and doesn’t just turn up at large gatherings of Christians. So in answer to the question “When can I go and meet with God?” at the end of Psalm 42:2,  all you have to do is remind yourself that there are people like the illuminate team walking their journey with Jesus every day.

Illuminate offers young people the opportunity to explore life’s big questions and explore their spirituality from a Christian perspective.

Find out more about youth club sessions and more at illuminatestroud.org.uk