Soul Stock: Last Day and Recap
The festival ends with a community church service and one last musical artist, and final thoughts on the whole experience.
Sunday morning was bright and warm and filled with air of summer relaxation. The band, Resurrected was hanging out under the tent until the time came for them to perform. Today there was a small group of people, not the crowds of the past two days. Ben Fuller performed the night before to the largest crowd even seen at Soul Stock since its grass roots origins in the midst of the Covid pandemic. As usual for me it is the music that will get me up and moving on a Sunday.
However my mind kept slipping back to last year, when I went to the Sunday community worship at Soul Stock in 2023. There were wildfires in Canada and the smoke was floating down to this area of Pennsylvania. I have asthma and I spent a lot of the summer struggling to breathe. However, last year the band, from Hallton Church, By the Jordan, was playing the music. I remember being thankful that I could still sing. The beauty and lesson of last summer was not to take the feeling of the sun on your shoulders or the scent of summer in all of God’s glory for granted.
Every time I feel the sun on my shoulders I am reminded of how thankful that I am alive. Live your life with real gratitude not a facade of thankfulness. Someone out there will see through it especially if you are a big talker with a bigger ego. Unfortunately, that is the norm for most of the people of the western world. Social media and everyone’s tiny corner of fame inflates their head and shrinks their heart until their empathy is nearly gone. I urge you to go through the social media of people that you know and see if their is a facade of perfection, drama and lot of it, and the perpetual victim. They are ego builders. Then look at the social media of the famous people of the world and despite their fame they need to keep their eoo fed. Perfection is found in faith because you don’t have to be perfect or a victim. God is perfect and He is victorious leaving no room for the victim mentality.
I went off on my own tangent there. Well, Pastor Owens spoke of faith and its expression in the use of your money. It was definitely tailored to those already hooked into the Christian faith. However, she offered the opportunity for prayer to those who attended, and that opens the door for the believer and unbeliever. The act of prayer even if motivated by faith and not your own personal feelings is demonstration of care for others. Christians are guided to pray for those who hate us and those whom the world hates. There is room for everyone and the chance for hearts to change.
Soul Stock is a free event open to anyone who wants to attend. Many people come from distant counties in Pennsylvania and other states to watch and participate in Soul Stock. Most of the bands do not perform for free and Janice spends most of the year raising money for their performance and have a place to stay in historic St Marys. Your donation will allow this life-changing, soul-changing, and wholesome event to come to St Marys, which affects many lives beyond the community and into Pennsylvania and the world. One dollar can change the lives of many people. Here are the donation options: Paypal: @gatheronthegrass Venmo to @gatheronthegrassworship. You can also donate at GiveButter at https://givebutter.com/EtKJQ or by texting “SoulStock” to 53-555.
The community worship service was open to everyone in Elk County and beyond. Members of Hallton Church of Christ from Ridgway and Hallton were there as well members from the Agape Assembly of God in St Marys. Events like this allow members from different churches and even those who do not attend church to connect. In a world where people are more isolated than ever as a result of the Covid and screen technology, connecting with others in person is valuable gift that we must not lose. Hopefully as the year progresses more churches with real faith will connect with each other because when times are troubling we need each other.
The weekend for me was refreshing like a staycation, a vacation at home, where I was able to meet new people and gain a new perspective on faith, St Marys and the people I see everyday. Whether you have faith or not, Soul Stock really is a life giving festival filled with good people, good food and unforgettable memories are made here. Soul Stock isn’t just for those with a great faith, it is for everybody. It is a place to mingle, get a bite to eat, listen to good music, and browse and even buy some handmade goods. It has that that distinctive local Elk County flavor that can’t be found anywhere else in the world.
I am thankful for the vendors, the food venues, the radio stations, the volunteers, and the musicians who came to Soul Stock. St Marys began as religious commune and a refuge for German Catholics, and eventually Irish Catholics. They were persecuted and ostracized in the political environments of the cities on the east coast of the United States in the 1840s. Today, nearly two hundred years later, St Marys is still a place bringing the faithful together in an uncertain world or trouble, where Christianity is not always welcome. Thank you to all those who attended and if you didn’t attend, I encourage to come back next year.
I aspire to make the trip and attend next year. And by the way, I enjoyed your tangent. Feel free to indulge in tangents sometimes.