The Encounter

On Saturday 1st December, the Youth Minister at St John's Hoxton hosted its first youth worship night, The Encounter, for 11-17s in secondary school. The aim of the evening was to gather young people from Hoxton and across East London for an evening of pizza, games, worship and prayer. The organising team had hoped that 30 young people would attend the initial event - in the end, 45 young people attended.

As young people arrived pizzas were served fresh from a wood-fired pizza oven. Inside, space was provided for table tennis and PS4, drinks and popcorn, and simple hanging out with friends. Young people were welcomed and hosted by two of the youth from St John's Hoxton - Ednabel (15) and Joshua (18).Worship was led by John Wyatt, complete with a band made up of musicians from St John's Hoxton, St Paul's Shadwell, and also Soul Survivor Watford. Moses Baako gave a testimony about how his encounter with Jesus changed his life, and Graham Hunter related the story of Jesus and Zaccheus, reflecting on how that encounter changed Zaccheus' life.As young people continued to worship, they were invited to come forwards for prayer if they wanted to rededicate themselves to walking with Jesus. 7 young people responded.The Encounter is part of the programme of activities at St John's Hoxton aimed at supporting youth ministry across East London. We intend to run The Encounter on four further occasions in 2019: 2nd March // 1st July // 12th September // 5th December.The Youth Minister at St John's Hoxton is part of the Capital Youth project in the Diocese of London.[FAG id=1614]