Sneak Preview of SP08 Theme

For the few readers of this blog, I've decided to give you the distinct advantage of knowing the theme for SP08 in advance. Growing excitement is what we're looking for...

Anyway the theme is: "A Faith worth sharing"

I'm already looking forward to it....

Launch Night

Hi guys,
Just so you know - we have a date for the launch service for SP08. And it is Sunday February 24th

More soon

Soul Purpose in Pillar

News of Soul Purpose reached the homes of every Severnside tenant with the Autumn issue of their Pillar magazine. Click here to see it for yourself, it's on page 7 and you need Adobe Acrobat to see it.

Are you in the picture? Do you know who is? The leaders are Emma Whittall and Liz Davies but who are the others?

Another Thank You!

I've been meaning to type this up for ages so finally here we go:

"Thank you so very much for doing such a WONDERFUL JOB of the gardens, Julie is so very pleased with her shrubs and would have loved to have wrote herself she thanks you from the bottom of her heart.

I would also like to thank you all as I know how hard you and all the young people have worked. I hope that I can keep it up and looking nice. I am down for a smaller place but it might take a while. 

It's great to know that a lot of younger people do good work. Theres not enough praise for all they do, we only hear the bad. Thank you all once again and wish them all well in what they choose to do in life.

Yours faithfully

M Edwards and Julie Davis"

Dearest Soul Purpose Dudes,

We, the Soul Purpose organising committee bods, would like to invite you to an event like no other. The place is the Church of the Holy Spirit, the date is the 7^th July (next Saturday), the time (8-10pm).

Between now and then you may need to ensure you spend long periods of time in a darkened room having a lie down in an attempt to contain your excitement. You may need to warn family and neighbours in case you start jumping and shouting uncontrollably at the sheer wonder of it all. After all this could be your ONLY chance this year to throw Simon Iddon into a swimming pool. He ha€™s been found guilty of many serious crimes, here are just a few of them

Slander -€“ I never touched his porpoise. Lies all lies

Cruelty - how many times did he get me to the front and then made me sit down again? Too many

Bad jokes -€“ Soul Purpoise? Please...

Poor fashion sense -€“ no further comment needed

And if that isn't reason enough,€“ there is almost no other time other than next Saturday than to reward him for becoming Assistant Head at Meole Brace School than by giving him a really good dunking. If you go to Meole Brace School, he'€™s the Assistant Head, brilliant. If you don'€™t go to Meole, he does so equally brilliant. It'€™s a win whichever way you look at it. I mean how many more reasons do you need? Even Fi thinks we should dunk him and as Simon doesn't know what he's doing unless Fi tells him (he said that himself remember) then a dunking it is.  

If that wasn'€™t reason enough (and it really should be) then there will also be the premiere (we hope) of the SP07 DVD, a BBQ and a chance to worship God together and thank Him for yet another amazing weekend.

So please bring yourself, your appetite, your enthusiasm and possibly a towel -€“ this could get messy. Well for Mr Iddon anyway. Don't miss it, next to Soul Purpose itself, this could be the highlight of the year.

See you there

Phil

Can you do the 7th July?

We're trying to sort a date for the SP07 BBQ and DVD premiere. Who can do the 7th July?

This photo is nicked from Facebook

THE SOUL PORPOISE.

A sad story of a little girl's toy, viciously stolen by an evil, twisted genius and hidden away. Tears are cried at bedtime and mean old Phil has the porpoise and will, I know, hold it for ransom. If any of you can help - please do!!!

Letter of Thanks

Mark Salmon received this letter of thanks:

"On behalf of Rose at Moston Green, I am writing to thank you and members of Soul Purpose for all the hard work that you put into tidying her garden and the surrounding area last weekend. I know that Rose was extremely grateful for the time that the young people were able to give - indeed, she couldn't speak highly enough of how helpful and how hard working they were.

Rose was beginning to get quite worried about the state of her garden. This has given her a real lift.

Our grateful thanks once again.

Trevor Thorold
Community Support Officer."

Soul purpose images

This was from 113 Wingfield Close. Question is though, is that the famous lead singer of 'Try the Polish'?

Soul Purpose on Facebook

If you're on facebook - find, sign up to and contribute to the Soul Purpose Facebook group! Keep the past inspiring the present

Soul Purpose Clip

This is a clip from the 1st Soul Purpose as found on the BBC....click here

How was it for you?

Faces have been painted, gardens have been dug, murals have been created and an alleyway has been cleared, songs have been sung - all this and more was Soul Purpose 2007.
So how was it for you? Ok, alright, not bad or something more? We want to hear from you, we'll be posting more stories and pictures in the next few days but we want your thoughts - so post a comment so all the world can see what you thought of SP07

It's a rubbish problem to have

We have a problem and it's rubbish. No really, quite literally rubbish. All the skip companies are taking the weekend off and a small and very good natured bunch of some 100 young people
are taking the weekend on to clear up Ditherington. So how do you get rid of the rubbish? I have till Saturday to solve the problem...

Buckled bikes and alleyways

So yesterday I went down to Wingfield Close to check out some potential project sites and I lock my bike up against a metal fence and off I go. I clamber up this overgrown, litter strewn dump of an alleyway that has been a dumping ground for years and ruined the back of people's gardens.

Then I have a conversation with a local man who shows me his garden (very nice) and he tells me how he no longer knows his neighbours, how the community spirit has disappeared and he's afraid to even ask people their name any more.

By the time I get back to my bike I understand a little of what he meant, the chain has been cut and my bike dumped over a fence buckling the back wheel. No point to it, just bored, meaningless vandalism, although I guess the lads that did it found it funny briefly.

I move on and visit some more residents who for a variety of reasons are struggling with the upkeep of their properties and gardens. You get a sense of how poverty (in its many varied forms) undermines people's ability and capacity to manage. There seems little point.

Well I'm not accepting that - not in my town. I don't accept that there should be families in one of England's prosperous county towns should be left to feel helpless and hopeless, if they do then the church is failing in its mission. Soul Purpose can make a difference in those homes and families lives and through a practical demonstration perhaps people can sense or feel just even for a moment that God loves them. Let's hope so.

Long live the Revolution

Greetings Comrades

It’s been two weeks since my last communication when I set some pretty challenging targets of 70 people signed up for SP07 while I was away on holiday. It seems that I was too easy on you, too soft, not demanding or challenging enough as you waltzed through that target with 87 delegates plus small team leaders. I had planned on setting 100 as your next mission but it all seems too easy now….so with just 10 DAYS left can we get to 120? Can you round up, press gang, lasso, kidnap, arm twist, blackmail or otherwise persuade anyone not signed up to do so. If we can get to 120 perhaps we can get Simon Iddon to do something really silly (feel free to post ideas at http://soulpurposeshrewsbury.blogspot.com/) and that would be fun for everyone….the possibilities are well endless really.

So where are we at with everything else? Well halls have been booked, bouncy castles ordered, projects scouted, tools bought, and flyers printed which leads me cunningly to my next point. This Sunday, May the 20^th at 3pm from the Church of the Holy Spirit (drum roll please) well - we’re delivering the flyers to the whole area to tell them Soul Purpose is coming and we need your help. The more there are, the quicker the job gets done, simple as that. We’ve 5000 flyers to deliver but this is more than just a flyer through a letterbox this is 5000 homes to inform, tens of thousands of people to reach (who knows – the house you deliver to, could be a changed life forever) so please there won’t be anything better to do (even if it’s raining).

Speaking of which, lovely weather isn’t it? Nothing at all like the weather we experienced on holiday, in Cuba where it was boring and sunny every day. Cuba is an amazing place and is one of the very few communist countries left in the world. All over Cuba are banners and posters with slogans from the revolution, things like ‘Long live socialism’, ‘Defend the revolution’ and stuff like that. Anyway it made me see that Fidel Castro and Che Guevara and co were all motivated by a desire to help the poor, Che Guevara even said that it was his aim to ‘create a new man’, people who were motivated to help one another. That’s good and I agree with that but I think the best way of doing that is through showing the love of Jesus Christ to people in practical ways that they can understand like sorting their garden. I don’t know if you realised this but Soul Purpose is revolutionary, it wants to change society and remove injustice, it wants to encourage people to know and love their neighbour and to do it all with a smile on our face. Who wouldn’t want to be a part of that?

So sign up, get your mates to sign up, come and deliver flyers and pray like crazy that everything falls into place and the sun shines all weekend because Soul Purpose is only 10 days away!

Long live the revolution

Phil

Soul Purpose Pics

Soul Purpose

Soul Purpose 2007 is Coming

Bonjour, Guten tag, Howdy, N'amahoro, Hello, Hey Y’All, Hola, Jó napot, Ohayo-sama

WHAAAAAAASSSSSSSSUUUUUUUUPPPPPPPPP?*

Right now we’ve got the pleasantries out of the way lets get down to business. First things first – sorry that I’ve not sent out any emails before now, I’ve got lots of excuses but no good reasons. Here are some of my excuses

1) I’ve been trying to take over the world involving a series of cunning plans that are TOP SECRET and it’s kept me really busy

2) I’ve actually been on holiday for the last 9 months in space

3) The dog ate my homework (that one used to work in school – the excuse not the dog)

4) The Cricket World Cup has been so exciting I forgot all about Soul Purpose (May 26-28^th)

5) I’ve been busy doing this
I have more excuses but I know you’re all busy people. Anyway I’m sorry. Things will be different. Possibly. Possibly not, I am actually about to go on holiday so it will be different when I get back.

Still that gives you two weeks to accomplish the following simple tasks

1) Sign up for Soul Purpose 2007 (May 26-28^th). 30 or so have so far and we’re aiming to break the 100 barrier this year so get your mates signed up too. Can we get to 70 by the time I get back in two weeks?

2) Get your youth leaders signed up as small team leaders and your vicar/pastor/church leader/cult figure (delete as appropriate) to plug Soul Purpose on Sunday’s

3) Check for wrong and old email addresses on this email (this is why for the only time you can see everyone’s email address) and let me know new ones please? DO IT NOW!! No I mean it, really, now. I’m not joking. Now. You’ll forget otherwise and I’ll sulk and others will miss out. That’s a lose, lose, lose situation.

4) Pray that, like all the best A-Team plans – (you have seen the A-Team right?) That all the projects, finances, food, invitations and the thousand other things that need doing in the next 6 weeks get done. We’re excited but there’s a lot of work to be done.

5) Sign up for SP2007 (May 26-28^th)

This is the third year that Soul Purpose has taken to the streets of north Shrewsbury with deeds of kindness and love and this year we want to step up another gear. We’re stretching ourselves from Harlescott and increasing our presence in the Grange and Ditherington areas. There are 5 areas in Shrewsbury that are in the bottom 30% of the country (most deprived) 4 of them are in North Shrewsbury and we’ll be working in 3 of them (although not everywhere falls into that category). One of the areas is in the bottom 15% while most of the rest of Shrewsbury is in the top 30% in the country. We want to see more than 100 young people demonstrating the good news of the kingdom with free gifts of kindness, challenging ideas that the church has nothing left to offer, and that things can change for the better and that young people are leading the way. Our morning theme for this year is that we have a ‘God worth following’ – He really is. We believe He’s calling us to follow Him back on to the streets into the highways and byways of our town demonstrating love and compassion.

See you in May.

Adios Amigos

Phil

PS If you received this email in error please let me know and I’ll remove you from the list. We don’t give your email addresses away to third parties. We don’t sell them either. Make me an offer and see….

* For greetings in over 800 languages go here http://www.elite.net/~runner/jennifers/hello.htm