Phil and Russell Broughton did a fantastic job with the lighting, so much so that it literally made people stop in their tracks as they came to into the church and made passers-by come in and see what was going on! With such a great setting everything else just fell into place, we had a free cafe for adults, a neon disco and various light based activities for children ending with a giant picnic tea. The lantern procession around the church to ‘Shine from the inside out’ was a very special moment.
We had 170 people come to the event led by a team of 14 working together to make it a successful, fun and exciting evening for families. Comments like; WOW, inspiring, brilliant, amazing were heard over and over again. Revd William Warren said, “It was great to see the church filled with so many families having a brilliant time and enjoying the party atmosphere.”
A few parents said that they were really pleased for a decent alternative to the typical Halloween party as their children weren’t particularly keen on scary things but they didn’t want to miss out on a ‘fun’ evening. One parent that had seen the event on Social Media travelled from Norwich with her two daughters. She said on Facebook:
“It was just so lovely and we all had the best time. Thank you so so much to everyone who put so much time and effort in for all of the children. We got a warm welcome and people were so friendly, generous and kind. It was lovely to see so much hustle and bustle in the church.”
A visiting parent from another church, took several pictures to inspire their church to do something similar, saying, “this is how church should be.” Another said, “Thank you for a fantastic evening the other night, my daughter and I really enjoyed the evening, I must visit the church more often.”
Simon Fenn, the event organiser, said:
“I cannot begin to describe how pleased I am with how successful the Light Party was last week. It was a fantastic evening for all the family and we pulled as a team to provide a warm, friendly and welcoming atmosphere. We were able to celebrate the light rather than darkness and demonstrate God’s love to the wider community”.
