Walking the walk, even if it is in the mud

Well I did intend to post before this but as usual life got in the way. Well I say life but what mean is I was busy at Leeds Festival.

For those who don't know I am a member of the Salvation Army and for the last two years we have run a ministry at a local music festival serving cheap alternatives to the wildly over priced food and providing for physical and spiritual welfare of the festival goers.

As I normally would attend the festival anyway this is a fantastic opportunity for me to be in my natural habitat yet still display to the world unashamedly that I am a Christian and that even though My Chemical Romance blew my mind serving Jesus will always come first for me. The chance to talk to other young people who normally would have nothing to do with Jesus, the Church or the Salvation Army is one that for me can not be missed. I also have to say hearing an appreciable fraction of Leeds Festival chanting about how amazing the Salvation Army is was a moment of pride I will never forget.

For me this is the sort of Christian behaviour we should always be aiming for, being in the world but not part of it. Showing the world we love them, yet also showing them how by being just a little different life can be so much better with Jesus. Walking the road that Jesus would want us to take, getting down and dirty with the unwashed (which with it being wet and muddy at Leeds Festival was oh so true this year). We may not have converted anyone at Leeds festival this year, but for us that was never the point, what we did do was sow thousands of seeds, plant tens of thousands of thoughts about why 65 people took on the challenge of taking care of 75,000 people living in a field for the weekend. Some of these seeds and thoughts will lead to people looking into the Salvation Army, finding out about the Church and Jesus for possibly the first time and maybe next year they will be ready for the conversation about how to have Jesus in their lives too.

Check out the coverage we got from the BBC http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-14631755