Download Festival - Chaplaincy Team 

TFM are fielding a small team - Dan Holland, Tao Hu, Paula Preston, David Pickavance, Rob Mills and Kevin Granville - joining a larger team to sharing in Chaplaincy support to the heavy rock music festival at Donnington Caste, Thursday 8 June to Sunday 11 June.

The team met initially with the whole chaplaincy team back in May for training and also as just the TFM team for some specific training in June.  Here are some images and short comments back from the team with the latest material at the top.
 

After Mission full report

Dan writes;

Caleb calmed down the crowd and said,
 

Let's go and take the land. I know we can do it! (Num 13v 30)

Last year, I was like Caleb going up to Download (Heavy Rock Festival) to spy out the land. It all came about in the unique way that God alone can manufacture – a ‘random’ exchange of texts with my friend Pat from Castle Donnington. I went up for a day to join the chaplaincy there and immediately connected with the leaders; Sister Barbara, Rev Roy and Rev Andrew, now friends as well!

I returned bursting with ideas and possibilities. I definitely wanted to take a small TFM team back with me this year, I prayed for 6. They were handpicked, people I believed were well suited to the chaplaincy at Download. They needed to be unshockable, adaptable and possessing the EQ to work as part of a much larger chaplaincy team. Oh, and they shouldn’t mind too much heavy metal belting out all day all around the site!

The 6 of us arrived, eventually, along with the largest ever crowd of 120.000 in bumper to bumper traffic and sweltering heat. We worked alongside the wider chaplaincy, always in pairs, and in liaison with a dedicated TFM and chaplaincy prayer team of hundreds. Prayer requests were continually fired back to them. We needed to keep foremost in our minds that we were there as chaplains, not evangelists. None-the-less we circulated the site being as friendly and helpful as possible but we had to allow festival goers to approach us. We were there to listen, not proselytise, and let Christ in us shine.

Many excellent conversations were had, the TFM team excelled. One morning in the camp area a young man came running up behind us panting ‘are you Christians? Will you pray with me?’ He had broken up with his girlfriend earlier that morning, she had fled the site threatening to hurt herself. He had given his life back to Jesus a month ago and couldn’t understand why everything was going so wrong. He came to the tent later and we ministered to him at some length. There were many other marvellous moments of God’s Kingdom breaking in. Kevin and I had a long chat with two guests, one of whom is a guitarist in a semi-famous metal band, we may stay in touch.

God gave us favour with the festival organiser Paul, who came personally to thank us for the chaplaincy and to ask us what we needed for next year. The icing on the cake was the inaugural communion service the chaplaincy conducted on the Sunday morning. 50 festival goers gathered and I even was able to preach the gospel – the blessings exceeded what we had dared to hope for, gospel seeds were widely sown. God willing next year we’ll be back in 2024, maybe with a bigger team!

 

Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus (Eph 3v 20-21a)
 

Initial after mission report

Dan writes;

'So thankful for a glorious 4 days with the chaplaincy team at Download 2023, many great conversations, friendships formed with local churches and the cherry on the cake, an outdoor communion service on Sunday morning with the TFM team participating. Thanks also to the prayer team.

A full report will come out soon!'?
 

Sunday 11 June

The final day of the festival and the TFM team will be serving on the morning and afternoon sessions.  The festival itself will continue into the evening with the final team from the Chaplaincy.

Many, both in the teams and the wider public of course will be tired which will bring its own challenges.  Please continue to pray through to the end and as the teams return home.

The team held  a communion service this morning with Paula officiating

Communion service music with Paula and other team members showing their moves!
 

Dan Holland delivers a talk at the service

Kevin takes a visitor through eh Knowing God Personally booklet.
 

Saturday10 June

For prayer - the team are planning a communion service for Sunday morning.  There have been lots of other news from the team and prayer requests, however, for confidentiality reasons, we can't share these.  Please just pray - God knows what these issues are already.

Today, the TFM team are doing the morning and evening sessions.

Evening session

The mass of people at the fesival and a Christian steward in need of much encouragement.

Morning session

9am

The morning team gather together at the start of the day.

8am

Tao writes.
Clearly seeing God at work here, even when people just turned up at our tent (as in some of the photos) needing direction/chat/water/antihistamine/sun cream/sit-down, or sharing their own God encounters, asking for communion or baptism!
God uses us hallelujah praise His name.

?

Friday 9 June

9pm

Dan writes.
'A really good day, we are circling wider away from the arena into the camping areas where it is quieter and people are chilling and at leisure to chat.

Kevin and I were sat for 1 1/2 hours with 2 guys, very friendly and conversational, 1 a guitarist with a semi-professional heavy metal band. Kevin had a word of knowledge and they allowed us to pray with them.
Later they hailed us in the arena area.

This is just a taster of the great chats we had.

3pm

A team member writes.
'The atmosphere is noticeably caring and the facilities for the disabled are impressive.

Pictures don't convey the scale of the event - vast numbers, but we are on the lookout for the rams in the thickets'
 

9am

Today, the TFM team are only doing the afternoon session, joining with Rachel, Michelle and Alan from the wider team.

A report came through last night that the team had found a distressed boy (early teens) who had become separated from his Dad.  He was taken to the welfare/ security team and Paula offered to pray with him. He agreed to this and they prayed that God would help the boy's Dad to find him and he turned up!  Prayers answered.
 

Thursday 8 June - First session

 

The team is sub divided into smaller teams and serve on a rota in 3 shifts; morning -10am to 2pm, afternoon 2-6pm and evening 6-10pm.  Today, Thursday are doing both the afternoon and evening shifts.

Thursday 8 June - arrival
 

Dan, Tao and Rob  kitted out in their Chaplaincy Team hi-vis jackets.
 

June 3 TFM Team training

Struggling to erect the table in Tao's back garden.

 

May 13 Training

 

In right image, Kevin, Tao and Paula.