Stories from Soul Survivor 

Welcome to the first news update from Christ Church for the autumn term!

We do hope you had a fantastic summer.  Just a quick reminder that tomorrow is THE BIG CLEAN, from 9am to 6pm at Church.  If you have any time to spare, please do come along and help get our building ship shape and Bristol fashion – details here.  

And don’t forget that all our kids groups resume at The 10 Gathering on Sunday.

Stories from Soul Survivor

On the 19th of August young people from Christ Church joined forces with some soon-to-be-friends from Pip N Jay for a week at Soul Survivor - a 5 day festival in Peterborough for teenagers to meet with God, hear solid Bible teaching, worship with phenomenal bands and sleep under canvas. The group of 33 - a mixture of youth and leaders - got on site safely and set up their tents in pretty strong winds. Words cannot really express just how fantastic the week was but we’ve asked Kate Moreton to have a go.  You can also watch Kate’s highlights video and see who you can spot…

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Kate writes…

There was a great focus in the teaching on the Father’s love for us, a topic the speakers knew we knew but they really challenged us to let it sink deep in and not be the same message we’ve always heard. There was encouragement to use our words to speak life to each other and into our culture, and loads of focus on Jesus being truly alive and desiring a united Church. Entertainment on site, other than that provided by our hilarious teenagers, included a neon club night, a silent disco (everyone gets their own headphones and tune in to one of two DJs and then dance like mad), football matches, an inflatable assault course, a concert by MOBO award winning grime artist Guvna B and doughnuts and riddles put on by the leaders.

Val Moore was our head chef for the week and, needless to say, we all left totally stuffed and completely blessed by her hard work not just in the kitchen! Elliot and Sophie Mocharaffie, our future youth pastors, were with us too which proved a great way for the team and youth to get to know them a bit more before they head to South Africa prior to starting their role at Christ Church in January. We prayed hard as a team that there would be good unity between the two churches and throughout the week great friendships had been made and we hope to spend more time as a group in the future.

An absolute highlight, without a doubt, is that one of our young people responded to a nudge from the Holy Spirit and became a Christian. Mike Pilivachi, the founder and leader of Soul Survivor, is right when he says that nothing is better than a salvation. That is the height of our ministry and so it is with total delight that we share this news with you. Another highlight was just how open our whole group were in sung worship, to praying for each other, for prophesying over each other, and to responding to prayer ministry times to receive more of the love of the Father.

We praise God for glorious weather, an awesome group of young people, incredibly smooth logistics, a servant-hearted team and most of all for God meeting with us. That the creator of the universe and the one who hung upon the cross would spend time with us is a joy that we will never tire of.

Here’s photo of some of the team ready for the final fancy dress night – the theme was “what I wanted to be when I was 5”. 

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From left to right: Elliot - A pro-cyclist; Mark - Mario; Julia - Mary Poppins; Morag - Clever; Sophie - A mermaid; Kate - 6 years old;  Val - Lady with the Lamp; Charlie - A cow...

Latest Prayer Update

The latest Prayer Update, covering 4th September to 1st October is now to collect from Church.  Thank you for praying for Christ Church.

Finally, a date for your diary

On Wednesday 13th September, 7:30 pm at Linden Gate we’re having an an evening with Francesca Elloway.  Fran is one of our Mission Partners, based in D R Congo. She will be sharing images and stories of he palliative care work in Africa.  Everyone is welcome.