Friday, April 21, 2006

Feast At The East - Mission At The Marketplace

These last few days I was involved in part of the 60-hour community festival called "Feast at the East" in a shopping centre in the Eastern suburbs of Melbourne, where many churches , schools and Christian artists are participating in. The community festival happens from the centre stage and is organised by RSVP: to Life! . The Director of RSVP: to Life! and the main organiser of the event has invited me to be one of the MCs during the event.

The vision of this community festival is to use a feast of artforms (including singing, drama, mime, cartoon-making, stand-up comedy, dances, mosaics, jigsaws, quilting, walking with giants, game shows, sketch and tell, art and photo displays, puppets, harp playing, floral art, jazz bands, storytelling, drumming, and various creative and children's workshops etc.) to share life meanings with people in the community.

Aims and Objectives of the community festival:
  • To choose a number of themes and issues around popular books, films and subjects of interest – grace, identity, power, addiction, hope, redemption and community.
  • To express and explore these stories and concerns through a wide range of high quality, crowd-friendly creative activities on the stage area.
  • To engage a cross-section of the public in conversation (we consider this is a crucial part of the whole enterprise, not only our on-stage presence).
We are using an inclusive/inductive approach, exploring life matters and life meanings together (based on our common humanity, God’s image, meeting and befriending people from all walks of life). Given our blend of ingredients, it’s a new model for mission in the market place, and we hope this will become a template, a pattern, for elsewhere in Melbourne.Around 200 people are already involved. And I feel really privileged to be part of it.

13 comments:

Kc said...

I suspect you're an excellent speaker. I hope all goes well. ;-)

Anonymous said...

sounds fun! i'm sure you're a good MC. God bless. =)

Anonymous said...

you were a very entertaining MC with the other speaker and make a good team.

Kitty said...

kc, I wasn't an excellent speaker, but I enjoyed myself very much.

Kitty said...

pia, yes it was fun!

Kitty said...

thanks anonymous.

Anonymous said...

kitty, can i have your email addy? i want to send you something. =)

Kitty Cheng said...

Sure Pia, my email addy is: kitping@optusnet.com.au

Mark D said...

60 hour feast? I don't know of anyone who can eat for 60 straight hours!

Just kidding (ha ha)

Sounds like a tremendous time of expression and outreach. I'm sure you did a fine job of speaking.

Anonymous said...

It was great to catch up with you and Derek again. I hope my being there was an encouragement to you and the outreach.

Kitty Cheng said...

Hi Mark, haha I love eating, although 60 hours of straight eating might be stretching it a bit. Yes it was a great time of arts and mission (which are two of my passions by the way).

Kitty Cheng said...

Hey Ross, good to hear from you :) Your being there certainly was a great encouragement and support to me and the outreach. Really appreciate it!

audrey` said...

WOW!
An exciting event :)