Feedback from Emily Hannah, shortly after GSUS Live visited Ipswich...

 

Hi Steve,

 

I hope you are well and that you have enjoyed a good Easter holiday.

 

First of all I want to say a huge thank you to you personally for all the time and effort that you put into the Gsus Live visit to Ipswich.  Whilst I know that it is your job, I felt you went above and beyond the call of duty with the numerous phone calls and problems that we encountered and at no stage did I ever feel as though the metaphorical weight of the trailer was on my shoulders.  The reassurance of knowing that should anything at all go wrong I could just phone you was amazing.  And thank you for your always kind assistance no matter how dumb the question, or obscure the problem.

 

As a team, Gsus Live has been incredibly beneficial to us.  Not only have we seen over 2000 young people engage with the teachings of Jesus, but Gsus Live enabled us to testify to the awesome God who is there with us no matter what is going on in our lives.  Without the Gsus Live set up, we certainly would not have been able to do that within such an appealing structure and framework so easily and to such large numbers.  The trailer and lessons created much of a stir in each of the six schools we went in to, and it’s presence alone caused conversations to arise with us as a team, but also with staff members at some of the schools.  At almost every school, the teachers expressed what a buzz the lessons and trailer had created, and in more than one school, we had pupils that would normally bunk their RE lessons deliberately coming along just to be on the trailer – that impact is massive, and without the trailer, we could never have done that.

 

For us as a team, the experience has been hugely beneficial in establishing and renewing relationships with 6 of the local schools.  As you will be aware CYM delivers lessons and assemblies in the schools around Ipswich.  Due to staff changes, some of our contacts in the schools that we visited have disappeared or been recently re-establised.  Gsus Live not only gave us the opportunity to deliver it’s message and teaching to the pupils, but personally allowed me the opportunity to speak on a day to day face to face basis with the RE teachers in those schools, establish relationships and good standing with them, a basis from which CYM is now able to go back and offer more lessons, assemblies and support to the schools we visited.  Gsus Live has provided us with a relational basis from which to launch and re-establish CYMs work with these schools.

 

In addition to the relationships built with the staff in the schools, and the pupils, Gsus Live also gave us the opportunity to forge stronger links with local churches, getting some of their members involved in delivering the program, moving the trailer but most importantly, getting the churches town wide to support us in prayer, and to be praying for each of the schools we went in to.  It often takes a big project like this to highlight and remind people of the need to be praying for our local schools, and Gsus Live gave us and the local churches and focus through which to do that.

 

So all in all huge thanks for the use of the trailer over the last half term.  I hope the next term is a good one for you and all the team.

 

Emily Hannah

 

PS.  I should also note how fantastic Eddie Stobarts were at always being on time, helpful, and extremely experienced and proficient when moving the trailer.  The whole team was hugely impressed!