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Training Youth - Souled Out
Have you ever considered what it means to be
‘souled out’ for something?- to be so completely
and utterly dedicated to a cause that you are
willing to make sacrifices for it, to give your
all to it, and to hold nothing back? From the
18th to the 25th August 2006, Coleg-y-Bala was
home to over 40 young people from all over the
country and beyond; all hoping to learn more
about Jesus Christ, and to be challenged to live
lives completely ‘souled out’ for him.
After an introduction to the course and some
‘get to know you’ games on the first Friday
evening, the minister Meirion Morris kicked off
the teaching programme on Saturday with a look
at the book of Esther. He drew our attention to
the role of Esther in the plot against the Jews;
and showed us that, like Esther, God sometimes
calls us to act for him in the positions in
which we find ourselves. Meirion’s talk was a
wake-up call to many of us, and we were so
grateful that he could come and share with us on
that first day.
Sunday brought with it a trip to Aberystwyth,
and more specifically, to St Michael’s Church.
The Rector, Stuart Bell, was actually
celebrating his 60th birthday, so we were
welcomed to share his cake with him after the
service! After eating our packed lunches in the
church hall, we had a chance to look around the
town before heading off to the beach at Ynys Las
for a game of rounders. Back at the Coleg, Bryn
led us all in a service as we were joined by
some local families for ‘Coleg-y-Bala @ 7’. As
this was to be Bryn’s last course as Warden, we-
as young people- were given the opportunity to
offer our thanks to Bryn, Nia and the family for
the amazing work they had done whilst at the
Coleg, and more specifically for their vision
for the Souled Out course.
The main focus of Souled Out this year was the
book of Jonah, and we delved straight into it on
Monday morning under the guidance of Andy
Ollerton. He talked to us about the message of
the book: that Jonah could be seen as a
representative of the nation of Israel, a nation
of people who were continually running from God.
We were confronted by the powerful image of
Hypocrites, who wore a mask to disguise his
bare, skull-like face. Andy asked us to consider
if we were truly living lives ‘souled out’ for
God, or if we were still living as hypocrites.
He also challenged us to consider what, where or
who was our Ninevah (God’s call on our lives)
and what, where or who was our Tarshish (what we
were tempted to run to in order to avoid God’s
call). This session enabled me to confront some
of the obstacles I had come up against in my own
faith, and helped me to see God clearly again.
Andy’s talks continued to speak to the group
throughout the week. In chapter 2, we read of
Jonah’s prayer from the belly of the whale.
Having initially fled from God’s call, Jonah
realized that it was only God who could save him
from his plight. We learnt that God is our only
hope; that only he can save us from our
rebellion, and that all who call on his name
will be saved. This brought us on to chapter 3,
where we met with the amazing God of the second
chance! We saw how God was still able to use
Jonah, even after he had been disobedient. In
fact, Jonah chapter 3 starts in an almost
identical way to Jonah chapter 1, which, as Andy
pointed out, is no coincidence. Just as God
wipes our slates clean when we are truly sorry
for our rebellion, so God forgives Jonah and
disregards his sin as though it had never
happened. God gave Jonah a second chance to
fulfil his mission of preaching to the
Ninevites, who are living in much sin. However,
this is not where the book ends. Jonah is angry
that God is willing to forgive those people and
to allow them to turn back to him. He is angry
at God’s seemingly outrageous grace, despite
having been a receiver of that grace himself in
the whale’s belly! Andy challenged us to think
about how we can deny others the grace that we
have been so readily given by God.
During the week, Sion had organised a number of
different activities for us. On Monday
afternoon, we went to Lake Vyrnwy and took part
in a photography challenge. This proved to be
very amusing as we tried to take photos that
matched set titles including ‘a scary situation’
and ‘a photo with an unusual animal’. The ‘funny
moment’ category was won by a group who actually
had their photo taken with MP Lembit Opik and
his weather forecaster fiancee, Sian Lloyd.
Another day, there was the opportunity to
perfect kayaking techniques on Llyn Tegid,
whilst Wednesday was the return of the
ever-popular Chester shopping trip and optional
visit to Lazerquest! It was during this shopping
trip that some of the boys set themselves the
challenge of buying an entire outfit from the
city-centre charity shops. Part of the challenge
was that they then had to wear their new clothes
to a restaurant later that evening: this was
quite funny, as one of them had bought a pair of
pyjamas!
With such a packed programme, people were
getting tired by the end of the week; and this
was not helped by the fire alarm going off at 4
am one morning! Some of us had to be dragged out
of bed as we assembled on the tennis court to
await the arrival of the Bala fire engine!
During the week, there were a number of seminars
and sessions led by those on the course itself.
We looked at ‘the Cross’ with Becca and Oli, the
Holy Spirit with Meryl and Rachel, the
importance of mission with Eleri and Llinos, and
what it means to be ‘Souled Out’ with Sion,
Gethin and Dafydd. These evening sessions were
varied in content, and yet all were interesting
and challenging. There was also a choice of
seminars during one morning, with Gav and Gwen,
Genni and Owain focussing on the subjects of
telling others, prayer and reading the Bible. We
also had the opportunity to split into gender
groups, as Bryn and Nia looked at how we could
be godly men and women.
The Souled Out week was full to bursting with
teaching and encouragements; and it was amazing
to see so many young people and adults from the
church across Wales. During the Friday morning,
we prayed and commissioned each other for the
year ahead, and were excited about taking all
that we had learnt back with us to our
respective churches. The challenge now will be
to live ‘souled out’ lives for Jesus, and to
encourage others to do the same; and as the
title of this year’s course reminds us, ‘now is
the time’ for this to begin.
Rachel Perry
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