The Message Trust is a Manchester-based evangelistic organisation; Andy Hawthorne is its founding member. For years The Message Trust have been taking the gospel into Manchester's schools together with organising many other music based evangelistic youth events. The Message run a training course called Genetik (formally Accelerate) which I took part in for the last 5 months. The course is based in Manchester and it enables Young Christians to live in a communal house, learn how to share their faith in practical ways, together with receiving daily teaching on evangelism, the kingdom and how to serve.

Each week I had six evening placements these were; two church placements, A prison placement working primarily with juveniles/young offenders, two youth-club placements and a soup run placement which involved serving homeless people with the food they need to live.

I gained so much practical experience from my time in Manchester, before I started the course I might never have had dreamed of entering into such situations which I took part in during my time in Manchester. Also each day we had the privilege of hearing a different guest speaker preach on various aspects of the kingdom which greatly increased my knowledge and understanding on relevant issues. I feel I contributed a lot of time as a volunteer, which helped worthwhile projects like these to happen across the city. Also as part of the 19 strong Genetik class, I believe I contributed a great deal of youthful, vibrant Christian perspective into many peoples lives as we lived,prayed and served together.

Taking part in so much spiritual input/output is an amazing experience, for any young Christian to have. Entering into sometimes dangerous and intimidating situations forced me to grow in confidence. Meeting new people who I once considered outsiders enabled me to love all people equally as Jesus did. Living in a communal house and doing my own washing/cooking grew me in the necessary life skills we all need. Having so many other young Christians around me in such an intensive way enabled me to learn about myself, others and how God wants us to treat each other. In a personal way, there were many times within the five months when all I could rely on was God, and this brought me much closer to him, Jesus certainly wanted/used me in Manchester. Spending time with The Message Trust inspired me, permanently.

On my arrival home to Halifax, I now look at people in a new & loving Christ-like way. The Message has encouraged the ethic of serving into my spiritual understanding/lifestyle. I also made many friends during my stay in Manchester who will hopefully be long-term acquaintances. Overall I feel that The Message as an organization are; focussed, directed, obedient, faithful and loving. All these characteristics have rubbed off on me on a life long scale. I would strongly recommend the Genetik Urban Course, to anyone between the ages of 18 and 25, who has a desire to further the kingdom of God and to learn more about the gifts & calling they have on their life, but do understand, anyone who is willing to, will be challenged and stretched by God in both practical and spiritual ways. Information about the course and others run by The Message Trust can be found at www.message.org.uk