Breakout Weekend 2006

See the photos here!

7th July 2006 saw five young people from the Church in the Westlands head towards Blackpool's Winter Gardens for the MAYC Breakout Event. The theme of the weekend was “Passion” and along with 1,500 other Young People and their leaders they were passionate about worship, learning and having fun.

The weekend started very well with an introduction to our host Church at Ashton Methodist in Preston. Their hospitality was extremely friendly and very welcoming and nothing was too much trouble for them. Our Young People loved the food and appreciated all that had been done for them.

Next on to the Friday evening session – something we had not sampled in the past, but this was worth it with a general introduction to proceedings and that special atmosphere that runs right through Breakout. The entertainment included a very impressive “Vertical Reality”, a professional Christian based group who perform circus acts, music, magic and martial arts.

The following day had the usual mix of worship, entertainment, workshops and fun on the inflatables, which really is one of Breakout’s strengths as it manages to provide something for everybody and enables church groups to attend as a group whatever the mix of commitment amongst its members. Our leaders spent a lot of time experiencing the fresh expressions events and were particularly impressed with “Sounds of Salvation” and their Ska Worship. The Young People were involved with some of the workshops – creatively, to learn and just for fun. We all went to see the show, which this time was based around the film character “Shrek”.

The evening’s entertainment started with Salsa lessons and yes the Young People did get involved ! Later came what many had been waiting for – one of the country’s best selling Christian bands “thebandwithnoname” and they were brilliant – leading the audience to focus on God as they performed many of their old numbers and one new number “shake it down”, not yet released. The response to their request that the Young People “make some noise for God” was phenomenal.

Sunday morning began with a worship session with music from the MAYC Singers and Orchestra, during which issues of Passion explored throughout the weekend were summed up.  This was extremely well led and the gospel faithfully taught in a sincere way by Andy Moffatt. This was followed by a Walk of Witness through the streets of Blackpool as locals watched the long crowd of green and yellow bedecked young Christians make their way very noisily to the sea front, where worship concluded with prayers for the respective parts of the UK and the rest of the World.

For those who couldn’t make it this time book the dates for the next event – 11 th to 13 th July 2008, probably at Cliff College.

Chris Gill

20 July 2006