Well, I’m back from the Soul Survivor gathering (and have been since Sunday), and wow – we all had such a great time again! I posted here about last year’s gathering as well.
So, this year, I was expecting something “big” to happen, as it did last year with my decision to sell my business. But nothing big happened. I was beginning to feel a little disappointed, until I realised that if something “big” did happen again this year, I’d be looking to Soul Survivor in order to fufil needs in my spiritual life. And that’s not the way it should be – there’s no reason why something big can’t happen at anytime – Soul Survivor is not the only way to God! I wouldn’t want to get addicted to big gatherings.
Although nothing big happened, I still greatly enjoyed the week. I got a chance to do the lyrics for some of the main meetings, using an open source program called Lyricue, and hopefully next year will get a chance to do more technical jobs. The week was also a nice break from work – and from getting up at 7am every weekday morning 
– and a chance to spend some time with friends that I don’t get to see as often as I used to anymore.
I also got a better understanding of God’s Word and its relevance to my life, through the various seminars and talks during the gathering. This will hopefully help me in my quiet times with God. Through these seminars and talks, I also learnt a bit more about spiritual gifts, especially prophesy (see 1 Corinthians 14), which greatly interests me.
A great illustration I picked up about spiritual gifts was: how would you feel if someone gave you a gift for your birthday, and you said “Thanks, but I’ll just sit that here and not open it”. How do you think God feels if we just ignore these spiritual gifts he has offered to us, and encouraged us to seek after? I’d encourage you to have a read of the relevant passages in 1 Corinthians (in chapters 12 and 14) if this speaks to you.
Finally, it was great to hear from Jim Yost – a Californian born missionary who has been serving in Papua, Indonesia for many years (around 25 or so, I think). He is a great risk taker, and from hearing some of his stories, he really should be dead many times over!! He is doing great work in the tribes and cities in his area, and his talks certainly encouraged me to think about cross cultural mission more.
So that’s my rundown of the Soul Survivor Gathering 2006. The theme for the gathering was “Walk as Jesus Did”. There is another gathering at the same time next year as well.
Hey Dude, Come On! Yeah how awesome was soul survivor aye! Too right man it was an awesome week! Thats great to hear man. I dont know if you know me but my name is Matt Wilson and u may of seen me, but i was the smallish redish haired guy who was always up the front. I was lookin for those professional photos from soul cause they arent on the website and i seen this website in google so i thought id have a look. But man thats so cool to here. Were u doin music or somthing? Too right buddy Jim Yost was awesome! Bye the way dude do u know where to get photos from soul from? Write back to wilso_77@hotmail.com, thanks buddy. Keep Praise the Lord Brother. God Bless Matt
Yea man, it was so mad, I really enjoyed it. You probably may not know me but I’m from vision in canberra and I played twice in the Open Mic sessions, I did Iris in both of those. But anyway, I got the same question as Matt, do you know where I can get photos? If you could email the link to my email at Inhale_wasabi517@hotmail.com I’d be heaps grateful, cya next year!