Lift up a shout

People hearing about Jesus’ love is what Festival Manchester was all about. From students in schools, forgotten communities and prisoners to business leaders, the homeless and women working in the sex industry, we wanted everyone no matter where they spend their days to hear.

As we prayed and reached out, what an impact God had!

Charlotte is one of the 45,000 pupils who saw the Festival Manchester schools team. When she heard about the gig taking place near her house that Friday, she decided to go along with her friends. As she enjoyed music from OTC, LZ7, SoulBox and Saintz, Charlotte also heard about how Jesus loved her so much that he died on the cross for her, so that she can have hope and a future. Immediately struck by what she’d heard, Charlotte responded to the gospel and has been getting involved in the church youth group and follow-up ever since. Knowing that others need to hear about Jesus, she decided to volunteer at the festival weekend in Wythenshawe Park.

One evening, she went running up to James from OTC, who she’d met in school, and excitedly told him that she’d just told someone about Jesus and got to pray with them as they gave their life to him. From hearing about Jesus in a lesson, Charlotte is now leading others to faith!

Another day, Wesley and Luiz were sharing about the power of prayer from the Festival Manchester stage and how Wesley had been so ill with Covid that his family were told to expect the worst. However, as people across the globe prayed, God fully healed him! As they came off the stage, they were approached by a guy who said he’d like to talk to them.

‘As we went somewhere quieter, and we got chatting, he pulled a bag of drugs out of his pocket,’ Luiz shared. ‘He said he’d been using drugs for years and had had enough. He’d bought the drugs and planned to visit Festival Manchester for one more day of fun before deciding to end his life that evening.

‘What he said next blew me away. “I don’t want to end my life anymore, I want to follow Jesus instead.”

‘I got to tell him about Jesus and how much he loved him. And that even when times are tough, he’s never alone. There and then we got to pray with him and he gave his life to Jesus. He’s now connected with a local church who are supporting him.’

For some people, like Connor, they didn’t respond during the festival, but God’s been moving in their lives since.

Connor’s plan was to disrupt what was going on at Festival Manchester. However, God had another plan! Whilst he was in the park, he spent some time in the gaming lobby and heard about a church youth group that was taking place the next night. So, with nothing better to do on a Monday evening,
he decided to go with his friend, Keegan.

That night, Nick Shahlavi was talking and got chatting with the lads. As they spoke, Nick felt that God gave him something that he needed to share with them. As he did this both Connor and Keegan were blown away by what Nick said as it was spot on, without him knowing anything about them. They then listened closely as Nick shared his story of how God had saved him from his old life where he was involved in drugs and in trouble with the police. What Nick said hit home with Connor, and he gave his life to Jesus. Later in the evening, Connor and Keegan were telling Nick that they were into writing music and showed him some of their tracks. Whilst the lyrics were explicit, Nick could see the gift they had and offered to help them with their music, inviting them to join him in the studio the next day.

At 10am, Connor and Keegan turned up with new lyrics they’d been up until 3am writing all about Jesus and how they could feel their lives being changed by him! Since then, Connor and his mate have been at church and in the studio every week, as well as getting involved in the follow-up that’s happening as part of Festival Manchester.

These are just some of the stories we’ve heard already of God transforming lives through Festival Manchester. We believe there will be countless others. And Festival Manchester is just the start of us ramping up mission even further as we reach our nation and beyond with the good news of Jesus.