Jonathan Bellamy caught up with XLP

Jonathan: Can you tell us some of the stories of some young peoples lives that are being changed by what you are doing?

Patrick: Yes absolutely. There are so many young people that we come into contact with and you know; I guess one story that always comes to mind is: We'd just finished a Guns Down show and a kid came up to me and he was wearing a bullet proof vest underneath his school uniform. And he said to me "I'll be dead by Monday". I thought he was bragging; I found out from his teacher that he wasn't. That his cousin had been shot dead; his brother had been shot and was currently in hospital and that he was involved in a gang in Brixton and there were people out to get him. We managed to get him a mentor who basically started dealing with the anger issues that were there when Dad is not always around and you're living on an estate where you don't always have the opportunities as others have; and you know the whole complexity of things. And he started doing really really well. And I thought I had a Nicky Cruz story on my hands. This is going to be fantastic you know. And then it must have been a couple of months after that, Charlotte one of my youth workers phoned me; she was in Peckham in floods of tears saying he's been stabbed outside his school at half past three in the afternoon. The knife just missed one of the main arteries in his neck. And while he was being stabbed and while he was recovering waiting for the ambulance, there was eight guys who also sort of on the edges of gangs gathered around him, putting a cardigan to his neck to stop the blood flow. And they all decided to go to church the following Sunday because they were so shaken up by the whole thing. And basically five of them became Christians that morning as they said they wanted to make a change in their life. And the kid that got stabbed went on to make a commitment as well. And now is doing - he' still got challenges but he's really trying to make some positive life style choices. And there's been many stories like that. It's also for me about bringing communities together. We run an art show case event where we literally bring two or thee hundred people from the community together. And it's amazing, as they look at the stage and see their kids performing and doing something positive. I've seen parents literally weeping crying because they're feeling feelings of pride that they haven't felt for years. You know it says in the Psalms 'place the lonely in the family' and we always think it's the family of God but wouldn't it be amazing if it was their own family that suddenly relationships start to get restored. And we've seen a lot of that sort of thing go on over the last twelve years.

Jonathan: Patrick they're absolutely awesome stories. It sounds like an amazing work that you're doing. If people want to find out more of what you're doing, do you have a website?

Patrick: Yeh we do. We have www.xlp.org.uk And I've also written a book which just basically tells stories of stuff which is going on called the Conspiracy of the Insignificant. And I guess I think there's a review on the Cross Rhythms website and you can get that off Amazon and other places as well.

Jonathan: Fantastic. Patrick it's inspiring listening to what you're doing and looking forward to watching the programme: MTV 1 on the 30th isn't it?

Patrick. Yes Sunday.

Jonathan: On Sunday fantastic. More power to what you're doing. It's great.