In August 59 young and youngish (!) people from St Peter’s went to the Soul Survivor festival in Somerset. Soul Survivor is the largest Christian youth festival in the UK and attracts around 25,000 people each year. 

We had an amazing time! God worked powerfully in the youth and many of them met with him in amazing ways. Seven of the group gave their lives to Jesus Christ during the week which was really exciting and others went deeper in their faith and took the next step on their journey with God. Many of the youngsters have come back with powerful testimonies of what God has done in their lives and it has been great to see them come back with a passion and excitement for God. It was really exciting to see Becky Pratap and Alan Phelan baptised a few weeks ago and a copy of Becky’s testimony is below.

Soul Survivor is an amazing place and it is an incredible time of meeting with God – the important thing that we tell the youth (and try to remember ourselves!) is that it is really all about putting our faith into action when we are back home around non-Christian friends and family and when being a Christian is a bit tougher. It’s not about the 5 days in a field in Somerset, it’s about the other 360 in the mission field in Farnborough!!!

Please be praying for the teens as the live out their Christian lives day to day and continue their walk with God, and for us as leaders as we begin planning for next year…we can’t wait to see what God has planned for us!

Becky’s Testimony

‘I have always been to Church all of my life and have known God for all of my life. When I was born we went to a Baptist Church so I was dedicated, which has given me the option to get baptised when I wanted to.

It was at Soul Survivor this year that I decided that I wanted to be baptised, I had been thinking about it for a while but hadn’t got the courage to go forward with it, and felt like I didn’t have a good enough testimony, since nothing had really happened between me and God for me to suddenly say – I want to get baptised. I was then told that it didn’t matter about your testimony, because everyone is unique and special to God, and it doesn’t matter where you’ve come from it matters where you are now.

This summer I went to Soul Survivor; where, on the first day I found out that you can’t pretend in front of God, you may be able to do it in front of your friends, family, and even to yourself, but you can’t do it to Him, as He knows everything. He knows when you are sad, happy, annoyed or in pain; and He is there to help you through these things, which is one of the things that I realised whilst there.


For a while before I went to Soul Survivor I had been doubting myself, in many of the things that I did; this was most probably due to some of my exam results, and so the nearer it came to my A-level results, the more I felt like I was going to fail other people, and myself. At Soul Survivor I spoke to one of my leaders, who told me that I shouldn’t doubt myself, because I didn’t need to, I didn’t believe him. One of the next times we were in the big tent, God just made me feel at peace with myself. I then felt free of letting people and myself down, I felt happy. God took away this feeling of self-doubt that I had, and from that point I have felt that I should give something to Him, and the rest of my life was the biggest thing that I could give!

Lastly, at Soul Survivor a Bible verse came into my head, “And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” John 8:32, God speaks the truth. Which just seemed like that verse had been written just for me! Thinking about it, this verse seems to have followed me around all summer, from the holiday club here, to COGS activity week. I was also told this same passage by Andy, which just cemented the fact that God was always there for me no matter what, and He has people here helping me and supporting me throughout the rest of my life.’

Andy Linton           Home Page