Soul Survivor!

Big Top!

Soul Survivor was FANTASTIC! (as usual) I went as a youth leader this time, and the experience was different to when I have been before. It was my fourth year there, and I really couldn't imagine my summer's without it now.

Ellie and I

 For those who don't know, Soul Survivor is essentially a HUGE Christian youth festival on the Bath & West County Showground, in Somerset. There are three main weeks, A, B and C, and then Momentum follows, which is the same kind of thing, but aimed at '20-somethings' rather than teenagers. I've only ever been to Week C, which is usually the biggest event, with just under 10,000 people there. You camp, shower in porta-cabin things, and everyone stinks the entire week. Washing is overrated. 

Dreggs with Leanne, Dave and Ellie

There are two main meetings, one in the morning at 11-1ish, and then an evening one from 7-9. In reality, you never know when the meetings are going to finish - it totally depends on what God is doing. The main meetings are held in the Big Top - the biggest marquee in Europe! The stage is in the centre, with four huge screens so everyone can see, and the sound system is absolutely deafening! There is live worship for around an hour, then a talk from someone, and time to wait on the Holy Spirit. For your first time there, and especially if you're not used to seeing the Holy Spirit work, it can be pretty intense. This was a real experience for me - the first year I went I remember my youth leaders making sure I was okay, and this year I was asking the youth! It's awesome to chat with them about why people can cry/laugh/scream, especially when I was asking all the same questions they were a few years back! Praying for people is one of my absolute favourite things about Soul Survivor. There's no exclusiveness, everyone is encouraged to get up and have a go. Seeing some of the youth grow so much that by the end of the week they were praying for each other was just... wow. I was tearing up! 

Ellie and her noodles!

There are also seminars throughout the day, at 9.30am, 2.30pm, and 4pm. There are tons going on all at the same time, so buying a programme helps you stay organised! You can pick what and if you go to them, and they are on all sorts of different things! This year I went to:

• Soul Man meets Soul Sista: Sex
• Jesus loves 'The Hunger Games'?
• What on earth is the Church for?
• Britain's got Spirit
• U-Turn: The Great Adventure

There are so so many different ones to choose from though, like the whole Old Testament in one hour, why does God cause suffering, starting uni etc. 

Me on night duty at approx. 3am. I don't know what they were doing with that pan, but it drove me crazy!

The worship at Soul Survivor is always fantastic. Nothing beats being in a huge tent with thousands of other young Christians worshipping God! Plus Rend Collective Experiment were there this year, and I fell in love with them.

We all stayed in the Big Top to watch the Olympic Closing Ceremony and that was a pretty surreal experience, too! When the national anthem came on, everyone stood up and sung it - however many thousand of us there were watching! I had watched the opening ceremony of the Olympics at the actual Olympics, and watched the closing ceremony with thousands of others at Soul Survivor - now that's not something everyone can say they've done!

The other thing about Soul Survivor is the venues. They have the Tool Shed - with computers, phone charging capabilities, stuff to buy, and loads of stands with people to talk about Gap Years, mission work, CU's etc. There's a sports venue, Lift - the skate park and free running centre, Blueprint - the club venue, Gigs (no prizes for guessing what happens there every night), as well as a few Cafe's - my favourite is Dreggs, where there's Jenga, card games, and crazy challenges like drinking pints of milk.. I don't know, it's just brilliant. The venues all stay open till around midnight, and then you head back to your camp and drink hot chocolate, staying up for another few hours. 

Where's Wally? dress-up theme

I had such an amazing week, and like I said, not just experiencing God for myself. What was possibly even more of an 'experience' for me was seeing the beautiful youth encounter Him! Some of them changed so much over the week, for some it was just crazy seeing Jesus in them so strongly! I also gained a new respect for my youth leaders - near the end of the Big Top meetings during worship/Holy Spirit time, they'd all head back to camp to get lunch or go to bed, and I was left in charge of thirty teenagers. Obviously they were all just happy to worship etc, but when stuff was happening, my eyes were all over the place! I'd go over to pray for one guy on his knees, and then someone would start crying, so I'd go to grab some tissues for them, then you'd have someone fall over.. I gave up on worshipping myself and had to just focus on them. This, though, was somehow more meaningful - seeing God working in them. Like I said, wow.

The other things that happened at Soul Survivor was... A Level Results!! The Tool Shed opened early for people to log on to check their results, so I headed down and checked.. 3 A's and a B! I was a bit gutted about the B in Politics, as I was only 1% off an A, but I felt incredibly selfish thinking like this when I know some people would have killed for my results. It all depends on your expectations of yourself, though, and I knew I was capable of getting an A in Politics! I was so so so thrilled with my three other A's though! And even better, when I phoned Joe, he'd got AAAB too! 

If you've read to the end of this post and you aren't a Christian, or even if you aren't a Happy-Clappy church kind of Christian, I guess you might be thinking Whaaaaat is she going on about? I get that! I used to be just like that! So if you do wanna ask anything, go for it! We all know it sounds pretty weird, but once you encounter God in that way... you never look back :)