The Notting Hill carnival can be looked at from different perspectives depending on your age or background. I had many mixed feelings during the carnival. On one hand it is a really exciting experience the streets are teaming with people from all over the world there are smells and colours everywhere you look. I really like the idea of a street party but what I find difficult is the reasons people are there for, basically to get as drunk as possible and have a good old fest!
I can imagine how God must see us if this situation was redeemed, as people are from all tribes and tongues and it has the possibility if it was done for the glory of Glory of God it could look like heaven but unfortunately the carnival follows its name of ‘carne’ or of the flesh and with the rubbish dump with is usually the streets of Notting Hill and the behaviour that accompanies the carnival is more like what I would describe hell to be totally are utterly fleshly.
However there was glimpses of God’s Kingdom in the carnival like the GOD CORNER run by Urban Missions from Calvary Chapel presenting at Westbourne Park Baptist, proclamations of Jesus and salvation booming out across the area and with various people being chatted to about the gospel.
A little later on in the evening we had a coffee stall on the corner of Kensington Park Road which was quiet but it was like us bringing some of God’s sanity to the streets of chaos. We did the same on Monday but this time with miraculous effects. We placed a table outside NHCC with Coffee and tracts and painted our faces to stand out and we did. Then we had one of us standing with a board in the street which read ‘What about your future?’ and the people would say what about my future can you tell me. It just shows that people are really open to the spiritual, when you probe people they are willing to talk about it which is really exciting.
The best part of this was that we had some fantastic conversations some of which resulted in those people choosing to change directions in their lives and giving the control of their lives over to the Lord.
Our time in Notting Hill really encouraged me that evangelism is not necessarily difficult and that people really are open the fields really are white for the harvest