News
from our Members
Five regular Youth Delegates at Flames of
Fire packed their tents once again in August and headed not to Builth
but to Manchester, here is their account of what took place.
Festival:Manchester,
on the streets, in the park = evangelising with a difference!
Give
up a week of your holidays to live in a tent in the middle of Manchester, be
freezing cold at night, with portaloos and portacabin showers as the height of
luxury and pay to be allowed to clear alleys, people’s gardens and other
people’s mess (in the rain!).
You must be mad! But
this is what over 5,000 young people did this summer between August 25th-31st.
Festival:Manchester
was a week long Christian mission in Manchester run by “The Message 2000
trust”, an organisation with a heart for Jesus to be active and seen in
the streets of Manchester.
A similar mission was held in 2000, which led to a drop in crime in the
city and meant that Festival:Manchester was not only supported by over 500
partner churches in and around Manchester, but the Festival also worked in
co-operation with the Greater Manchester Police.
The Festival during the week “on the
streets” (Tuesday to Friday) was run over three ‘Hotzones’ around the
city; one in the Apollo Theatre, one in Broadhurst Park and the other in Peel
Park. The day would
start with the mass transportation of 5,000 people from Heaton Park (or Tent
City as it was known) to these Hotzones.
The morning was taken up by a session comprising of worship and talks
were we could meet with God and be fired up by Him in order to take His love
onto the streets. We
were in the North Red Hotzone along with about 1,500 others, we were very
blessed by our worship bands, and inspirational speakers such as Andy Hawthorne,
even the world famous Luis Palau.
After
spending the morning in worship to God, the afternoon brought the opportunity to
go out to work and witness for Him, in a practical ways through the
‘Projects’. These
projects involved all sorts of different social action work to show God’s work
in a practical, caring way.
This social action work could mean a lot of different things, my group,
host 00406, did things like clear alleyways, paint houses and clear gardens
(even though you might mistake them for jungles!).
Others
worked with the Police doing things like clearing canals and their towpaths,
places notorious for crime, some ran kid’s clubs or helped at youth cafés,
one group even helped to lay a football pitch!
Through doing such things we as Christians showed local people a
different attitude to life, especially as young people who they would have
expected to be causing the problems rather than helping to solve them.
Because
of this (and the fact there were hundreds of people wondering around in white
t-shirts with Festival:Manchester on!) we caused quite a bit of interest from
local people and hence had the opportunity to tell them it was God we are
working for and explain a bit about our faith (as well as being given much
appreciated hot drinks!). But
it wasn’t just a case of tell them and leave them, every evening there was a
concert that all local people were invited to.
From
7.30 every night there was a free concert that included big Christian bands like
“thebandwithnoname”, “Phat Fish”, “Steve”, “MIC”, “29th
Chapter” and Manchester’s very own “The Tribe”.
In these sessions there was also some Christian teaching, which on the
first night alone in our Hotzone led to 53 young people giving their lives to
Christ.
As
Friday came to a close we saw the end of the ‘Hotzones’ and the social
action projects, but the “in the park” weekend was about to being.
This “in the park” part of the festival consisted of a huge
free event in Heaton Park with a skate park with the world’s 2nd
and 3rd top skaters doing demonstrations, a kids zone with bouncy
castle and activities, as well as a huge main stage (the one used at
Glastonbury), which attracted between about 25-30,000 people on both days.
Saturday saw bands that had featured during the
week like the “Tribe” and “thebandwithnoname” taking to that stage as
well as the Christian stars such as TAIT and Toby Mac, both of DC Talk who wowed
the audience with some of their classic tracks like ‘Jesus Freak’.
I must admit it is an awesome sight seeing tens of thousands of people
jumping up and down in praise of God.
Luis Palau also talked with the result of hundreds of people coming to
Christ. The
evening finished with a massive fireworks display.
The
Festival was also held on the Sunday with more bands, another talk by Luis and
even a guest appearance from Cameron from Big Brother.
The whole event finished with a praise session led by Tim Hughes.
The sound of thousands of voices and hands lifted in praise to Jesus was
breathtaking, and the presence of the Lord so strongly felt there by all.
The
Festival:Manchester experience was something totally amazing, with God working
so powerfully to change people’s lives and points of views.
Well over a thousand people became Christians in the week and the good
work started by all these young people will be carried on by the Eden project.
God calls us to mission every day of our lives and in everything we do we
show his love, and we never know the impact it may have on someone’s life.
Julia Baker, Elen Griffith, Angie Hardie, Catherine Hardie and Cheryl Rowlands.