Last Friday night, 813 teenagers stepped through the door of The Oakwood Centre for a night of gospel centred pumping live music and loads of fun.
So what was it all about?
Our partner charity, The Message Trust, work all over the world to bring the good news of Jesus to everybody. They work in creative ways to love the least, the last and the lost. Over the past year, they have commissioned their outreach band OTC to head into high schools, combining music with powerful stories and teaching, lessons and assemblies that equip young people with the skills and knowledge they need to say no to knives and gang culture and start to discover their full value and identity.
“Knife crime and the devastating impact it has on lives is never far from the headlines. Something must change, so the No More Knives tour is heading into high schools to show young people there is another way.“
The Message
Last week, OTC came to Teesside! Through the week, they visited 4 schools in Teesside and spoke to 4,000 pupils. They invited each one to a gig on the Friday night, where they would perform with their good friend DJ Genesis.
When Friday night rolled around, the Message Trust North East Team, plus their team, many of whom are part of TVC Church, opened the doors to receive the 813 teens, plus some parents, school teachers and local youth groups.
At the end of the night, the gospel was preached and 169 youth responded to accept Jesus as their personal saviour! Each were prayed with and given a pack, which included a Bible and information about how they can get connected in to their local church. A further 100 took a bible and info pack home.
This week, join us in praying for each and every one who was present last Friday night. Pray that the message they heard would continue to impact them. Pray that those Bibles are read and that Jesus meets with them.
North East Message Hub leader Terry Young sends this message to us as TVC Church:
“Although we arranged the event under The Message trust, I want to say how proud I was of the TVC Church volunteers, who, by going the extra mile on the night, gave hundreds of young people to have an amazing night and gave them the opportunity to hear the gospel preached.”
It has been so exciting for us to be able to offer our building in this way – so that Jesus’ name can be lifted up and he can be known. We are already hearing stories from our local community of how our children and their friends have been impacted by this event.
And this is just the beginning! The Message North East team are looking at how they can create a termly rhythm for this sort of event as they serve the Church of Teesside and make Jesus known. There are 40,000 young people in secondary education on Teesside who all need to be reached with the Gospel.
To help us achieve this together, the Message invite you – the mams, dads, aunties, uncles, grandmas, and grandads to stand with us in prayer and financial support. If you want to support The Message in this on a regular basis, all your giving will be ring-fenced for Teesside Creative Mission – you can do that from as little as £6 per month (The price of a coffee and muffin in Costa). If you want more info message terry.young@message.org.uk.
Find out more information about the ‘No More Knives’ tour here.
06 Oct 2022
