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Concerts and Classroom Outreach in Caithness
Over 1700 pupils from Caithness secondary schools experience a music- based, multi-media outreach with top Christian musicians and a scientist who explored the relationship between faith and science.
first report published 20/04/11
UPDATE: 07/07/11
Have a look at a short video of Chip Kendall's visit to Caithness. The video was produced by Caithness film-maker Toby Watts.
origianal report below by Kenny Cormack
Caithness Churches Festival Committee
 OVER 300 attended concerts in the north of Scotland during the first week in April while the issues of Faith and Science were discussed in classrooms.
The highly-professional and talented 'Chip Kendall Band’ band from Manchester performed their high energy show for Caithness secondary school pupils after a busy week of working in both Thurso and Wick high schools.
Also at the concerts were two representatives from New Generation, Peter van Strijen (Netherlands) and Gabriel Hagenfors (Sweden).
New Generation help resource and support Christian pupils share their faith with fellow pupils. Although they have been working in England for a few years, this was their first real venture into Scotland.
Over 1700 pupils from both high schools experienced ‘Test of FAITH; Live!’ which is a music-based, multi-media approach to exploring the relationship between faith & science.
Throughout the week there were songs performed by Chip Kendall, the former lead singer of ‘thebandwithnoname’ and Roo Walker the very gifted guitarist from the newly formed, ‘The Chip Kendall Band’.
Multi-sensory; multi-media
Chip Kendall who has worked in schools all over the UK would sometimes hear comments from pupils that ‘Science has proved there is no God’, so he decided the next time he visited schools, rather than let them take his word, he’d take a top level scientist with him.
Accordingly, during Easter assemblies and classes, Dr Ruth Bancewicz from Cambridge, conducted some fun experiments, and showed video clips from the award winning Test of Faith documentary. The production which she directed includes interviews of top level scientists, historians and theologians from across the UK and USA.
This multi-sensory teaching approach is used to help young people look at some of the perceived conflicts between science and Christianity and explore how the two disciplines actually complement each other.
She also said, ‘just because people now believe they understand the mechanism for creation, it is no reason to ignore God the Creator’.
After answering lots of questions, she urged pupils to thoroughly examine all the evidence themselves rather than just listen to the opinions of others.
Chip Kendall working hard
The team also took time in the evenings to visit local youth groups in the area. Chip Kendall worked incredibly hard all week in both schools and showed amazing levels of enthusiasm and energy to keep every presentation in classes and assemblies as alive and fresh as the first one. His enthusiasm for the Gospel was infectious.
This was Chip Kendall’s third visit to Caithness after first performing at the Luis Palau Highland Festival in 2009 and also during high school concerts last year. This exceptional singer and communicator has made many friends in the far north and it is hoped that he will be able to return again sometime in the future.
Budding film maker Toby Watts filmed the events during the week and will produce a ‘highlights’ video. As Toby was a former Dux pupil of Wick high school who recently graduated from Cambridge, he was also roped into giving a short testimony in some of the classes and assemblies.
Professions of Faith
‘Test of FAITH; Live!’ and ‘The Chip Kendall Band’ concerts were supported by Caithness churches from across the denominations. Many young people made professions of faith during the outreach events and many more requested Bibles following the concerts.
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Footnotes:
Prayer Please
Kenny Cormack says: "Please pray for the follow up Youth Alpha and youth groups that are planned in Thurso and Wick."
Dr Bancewicz has a PhD in genetics. She explained that science cannot prove anything, it can only disprove things. "You can build up layers of evidence to give confidence that a theory is true until someone is able to disprove it."
She also explained that no one has actually seen the iconic ‘twisted ladder’ structure of DNA, but due to all the evidence and the fact no one has been able to disprove it in the past 50 years, she believes that this is what DNA looks like and would be virtually willing to stake her life on it.
Likewise she said that by using logic and analysing all the evidence available, she has come to the conclusion that there must be a creator God, and that Jesus Christ is indeed who he said he is.
New Generation have been part of an amazing move of God in schools across Europe in recent years, check out their website for more details.
See further pictures of the Chip Kendall events at James Gunn Photography.
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Kenny Cormack, 07/07/2011
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