Soul Purpose

I just had a brilliant bank holiday weekend. For the last three days I've been involved in Soul Purpose; a townwide event which gathers young people to worship together and serve communities in Shrewsbury. Every year (SP09 is the fifth time it's happened) we undertake a number of social action projects - including the quintessential litter-pick!

This year I just about managed to avoid litter-picking.

I did, however, do a lot of branch-carrying and sumo-lifting, among other things, in all of which I was assisted by a fantastic team of young people! Who were all great. Except that they decided that I looked like Mr. Tumnus and decided to call our team Team Tumnus.

I could go on and (I don't doubt) on and (probably) on about the weekend. But instead, here's just a few highlights in no particular order:

1) Coming back to base after a hard afternoon's work to be greeted by hot chocolate with squirty cream and marshmallows.

2) Winning two sumo fights and losing one (after a hard struggle).

3) Talking to a lad from the area whose name I remembered from last year, and discovering that he had remembered mine.

4) Leading worship on the last morning and really enjoying it. It's fantastic to see 100+ young people from a wide range of backgrounds and churches worshipping together.

5) Watching Phil eat the mushy remains of a black banana.

6) Seeing lots of people having lots of fun. And none of them getting injured.

7) Knowing that God will be planning exciting things for the future.

What I did not enjoy so much, however, was being compared to a Narnia character who is half goat. I would have objected profusely, but I reckon about five or six people who haven't ever met have all likened me to Mr. Tumnus in the last two years. So there must be something in it...