Cornish Youth @ Soul Survivor

Over 200 young people from Cornwall were at Soul Survivor B at Shepton Mallet. Kernowyouth's Phil Hadley went along to find out what they were up to...

The Bath & West Showground was taken over by 11,500 young people from all over the UK for Soul Survivor Week (16th - 21st August 2003). They were there for a mix of worship, teaching and ministry.

The main meetings were held in the Big Top where 10,000 squeezed in sitting on the floor. Worship was led by the likes of Matt Redman (pictured right), Tim Hughes, Martyn Lazell and Vicki Beeching. Good quality teaching came from Mike Pilavachi, founder of Soul Survivor, American Louie Giglio who spoke powerfully on the Cross, and Matt Redman, speaking on worship, and his wife Beth speaking on Self Image. For many of the Cornish young people the highlight of the preaching was J John, the Anglican Canon and evangelist. His story about the doughnuts had everyone in stitches whilst making the point that "The earth is the Lord's and everything in it".

Over 130 young people went forward to make a profession of faith on the first night. There were another 200 after Louie Giglio's message on the Cross and another 70 the next night. The youth group from Grace Community Church were rejoicing that three of the teenagers in their group became Christians during the week.

There were also young people from St Martin's Church in Liskeard, Launceston Central Methodist Church and other churches in the area that support their EPIC event (pictured left), and Church of the Nations from Camelford. The youth pastor of Redruth Baptist Church, Chris Mitchelmore was also there. The youth group from Soul's Harbour Church in Camelford had to split their youth group over two weeks as they couldn't get them all into the fully booked Week B. However, those there Week B won their way through to the final of the Pink Village football competition where they shared the honours after a niggly match ending 1-1. (pictured right)

The afternoons were spent at a range of seminars, while the late night activities included a range of different style cafes with varying standards of entertainment and a number of gigs from Christian artistes. These included Blush - the new schools band working with the Message Trust in Manchester - the Tribe (pictured left), DJ's Cameron Dante and Andy Hunter, rock bands Steve and Quench and also One Hundred Hours. Rob Lacey also gave a performance of the Essential Street Bible Show.

Steven Ovens, youth leader from Camelford, said "It's great for our young people to mix with so many other Christian young people." Steve Emery-Wright, minister at Launceston Central Methodist Church, said "The young people are slowly getting used to all my practical jokes! But yes, they are having a good time." Mark Davy, youth pastor at Grace Community Church (seen on the right addressing his youth group), said, "It's just amazing to see God at work in the lives of the young people."

Despite the cold showers, the constant queues for the ladies loos, and the numb bums after an hour or so sat on the carpeted floor of the Big Top, I am sure that these Cornish young people thoroughly enjoyed Soul Survivor and will be discussing about whether they go to the one week running next summer, or getting involved in the Soul Survivor Mission to London called "Soul in the City".

Check out the individual youth group pages on Kernowyouth for more photos and comments on Soul Survivor

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