Over the past three weeks, Respect ME schools teams have visited 11 schools across Salford sharing their truth-filled lessons with thousands of pupils, whilst inviting them to an evangelistic gig where they could hear more about Jesus too.
Diving into some of the tough topics young people face, such as bullying, self-esteem, and sex and relationships all from a Christian perspective, the team got to have great conversations with young people. As they chatted with students, they challenged them about how they can make positive choices in relationships, and to see themselves as God sees them. And the response was amazing. ‘The session showed me I needed to believe in myself’, and ‘It gave me advice for how to help my friends with tough situations’ were just two of the comments we got back from those who were part of the lessons.
As well as sharing the gospel-centred lessons, our team invited the young people along to the end-of-tour gig, LIFT, where they could hear music from our bands as well as the gospel. Bex was one of those invited to the gig. Emma got chatting to Bex in school after she said that she viewed herself as ‘stupid and ugly’. Emma was able to tell her that this was not how God saw her and share about how true value and worth is found in Jesus, as well as giving her a free ticket to LIFT.
Last Saturday night, 118 young people came along to LIFT. As the gospel was shared, 27 people responded including one young person and their mum! On top of this other young people took Bibles away too.
And as they responded, each person was invited along to the local church. At the end of the event, one lad, Jake, ran up to team member Macy who’d recently been in his school and said, ‘I’ve brought my friends along and we’ve had the best night ever. We just got invited to the youth event happening at Audacious next week and we’re definitely going to go!’ How fantastic is that; young people responding to the gospel and immediately getting excited about getting involved in church!
And things aren’t slowing down. With Respect ME sessions happening in schools right across the country, and No More Knives tours with evangelistic gigs happening in coming months, we believe lives will be changed as people discover Jesus’ love for them.
Find out more about Respect ME here, and stay up-to-date with upcoming events at message.org.uk/events
