Network Peterborough : Street Invasion 2010

Street Invasion 2010

For the third year running, Street Invasion (headed up by CROPS) has been the city’s main summer youth event, bringing together youthworkers and young people from over 15 churches in and around Peterborough. This year was no different; 80 young people were involved in the 5-day event, and saw them meeting other young people out on the streets and inviting them to youth clubs that ran across the city, creative evangelism and prophetic prayer (‘divine treasure hunting’) in the city centre, and lots of different social action projects to bless local communities.

The entire team spent their mornings at KingsGate Community Church to prepare themselves for the day ahead with worship, teaching, prayer and various workshops. In the afternoons the teams went out to their locations (7 different churches and the city centre this year) for their afternoon of outreach and then the evening youth clubs called The Zone. The 7 venues this year were in Parnwell (KingsGate Community Church), South Bretton (Bretton Baptist Church), Welland (run by the Sparx Youth Project), Werrington (Emmanuel w. St John’s, based at The Barn), Millfield (Salvation Army Citadel), Orton (Christ Church in Orton Goldhay), and Stilton (held in the Village Hall). SI20102

The first night of Street Invasion was a joint prayer evening for all the churches and families of those involved to come and pray for the event and all the team. For the next 3 nights each venue ran The Zone youth clubs. While all the clubs were different due to their locations and attendees, each one always had a short gospel presentation that the young people themselves presented, which included games, personal testimonies for Street Invaders, and gospel presentations using media clips and clever illustrations. These were received well in all the locations and often led to opportunities for the Street Invaders to chat about what they believe and why:

“All of the team were really pumped for the final evening, which was the most attended. It was a little more chaotic that night (think berry fights and broken windows!) but also the most rewarding with the 'ringleader' of the group striking up a really good conversation about God, and giving the 'vaders the boost they needed after such an intense week.” Helena, Werrington team leader

The week finished with a concert on the final night at KingsGate with Kairos and the amazing 29^th Chapter, and over 300 young people attending thanks to 4 coach runs to bring them in from the various locations!

As always with Street Invasion, the teams already have plans for ways to continue the work they have started in the summer – new youth clubs, bible study groups for new Christians and Youth Alpha courses are just some examples. This isn’t an annual one-hit-wonder event, this is just one of the larger parts of a whole year of working to share Jesus with the people living in Peterborough.