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Urban Soul 2008
We’ve spent years dreaming about it, months working on it and it was all over in a few days, or was it. Urban Soul was held in Dublin city centre from the 1st to the 4th of July. ‘Indiscriminate Acts of kindness’ were preformed all over the city centre, much to the confused but grateful looks of inner city communities. “Why are you doing this?’ many asked, and ‘It’s free?’ more of a question than a statement, came out of the mouths of many.
Over 180 young people came together to live their faith out loud for others. We took up residence in Jacob’s Inn for the week and daily made the morning walk over to St. Marks for our daily bible study with Ed Vaughn. He challenged and inspired us as he made the bible come to life. We had team time and then set out, with our packed lunches (a huge thank you to Mothers Union, Joe K. and his team), to invade communities across Dublin city with the message of hope, love and kindness.
There were 9 project teams in all, mixed up with young people from Ireland, Northern Ireland, the UK, Africa, Germany and 2 American groups. The cultural and denominational diversity was an inspiration as everyone became firm friends as they worked side by side. Each group preformed acts of kindness throughout the week, from painting a flat for someone who desperately needed help, to free tea and coffee around the O’Connell Street area, to food for the homeless, gardening for an old folks home, weeding, painting, playing with kids, face painting, painting schools, the list goes on and on. The excitement built throughout the week as local communities welcomed the teams in, still finding the concept of ‘free’ hard to grasp.
In the evenings we gathered together for dinner(another huge thank you to Mothers Union, Joe K. and his team) and an evening meeting. Eoghan Heaslip and his band unified us as we focused on God and all He was doing in us and through us. Reggie Dabbs spoke each night, and with the support of the XM Productions drama group, made a huge impact on everyone who was in the meeting. We also had ‘The Café’ each night (hosted by CMS) where we got to chill out, have some great entertainment and heavenly brownies! Guest acts through out the week included acoustic artist Jay Wilson, a lively concert by the Redeemed Christian Church of God Praise Band and a singer/songwriter evening.
Remember indiscriminate acts of kindness don’t finish at Urban Soul, and they don’t have to be difficult. Buy a coffee for someone, offer to do a free nights baby-sitting, get your church / youth group to paint a neighbors fence, clean a local park. Continue them every week and watch your community change.
Here’s a few highlights from the delegates:
‘The local kids were delighted with the attention and affection we gave them, youth from the area started volunteering to help too.’
‘I had an amazing time’ W.R.
‘Helping people who needed help.’ J.L.
‘Knowing we will be welcomed back into these communities next year is exciting’ S.T.
‘Seeing the appreciation on the face of the lady when we painted her flat’ R.Y.
‘This is the first time I’ve done anything like this: going out and helping people for no cost at all, it was amazing!’ D.N.
‘EVERYTHING!’ J.Q.
‘Knowing that I made a difference in someone’s life’ D.H.
‘God showed me, it’s not all about me and how I feel, because He’ll give me more than I need.’ K.C.
‘Spending our last day with the people in the old folks home having a BBQ, it felt great that they appreciated our work’ B.B.
‘I’ve fallen in love with the people here.’ K.C.
‘I love the look of gratitude and respect we got from the people we were serving’ H.B.
Check out our photos here
The main sessions in St Mark’s have been great! You can see some lovely photos taken by Peter Neill
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