Jesus Life 73 - The Jesus Army
Jesus Life 73 - The Jesus Army
Jesus Life 73 - The Jesus Army
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esus<strong>Life</strong>#<strong>73</strong><br />
INSIDE:<br />
MULTI<br />
RACIAL<br />
CHURCH<br />
Multiply<br />
International<br />
Leaders<br />
Conference<br />
<strong>Jesus</strong> on<br />
Trafalgar<br />
Square<br />
three/2006<br />
FREE<br />
United in <strong>Jesus</strong><br />
A UK JESUS PEOPLE MAGAZINE from the Multiply Network and <strong>Jesus</strong> A UK Fellowship/modern JESUS PEOPLE MAGAZINE JESUS army from (mJa) the Multiply Network and <strong>Jesus</strong> Fellowship/modern JESUS army (mJa)
12-13<br />
CHANGED LIFE<br />
14-16<br />
TALKING TO: Matthew Guest<br />
5-7 THE PROPHETIC WORD<br />
Cross Culture<br />
29 RADICAL BITES<br />
A <strong>Jesus</strong> <strong>Army</strong> challenge<br />
THE JESUS FELLOWSHIP CHURCH, which is also known<br />
as the <strong>Jesus</strong> <strong>Army</strong> and includes the New Creation Christian<br />
Community, upholds the historic Christian faith, being<br />
reformed, evangelical and charismatic.<br />
It practises believer’s baptism and the New Testament<br />
reality of Christ’s Church; believing in Almighty God: Father,<br />
Son and Holy Spirit; in the full divinity, atoning death and<br />
bodily resurrection of the Lord <strong>Jesus</strong> Christ; in the Bible as<br />
God’s word, fully inspired by the Holy Spirit.<br />
This Church desires to witness to the Lordship<br />
of <strong>Jesus</strong> Christ over and in His Church; and, by holy<br />
character, righteous society and evangelical testimony to<br />
declare that <strong>Jesus</strong> Christ, Son of God, the only Saviour,<br />
is the way, the truth and the life, and through Him alone<br />
can we find and enter the kingdom of God.<br />
This church proclaims free grace, justification by faith<br />
in Christ and the sealing and sanctifying baptism in the<br />
Holy Spirit.<br />
3-4 Church Alive<br />
8 <strong>Life</strong> on the Outside<br />
9-11 mJa Tribes: London<br />
17-21 Multiply Network<br />
22-23 Spiritual Search<br />
24 Electronic Postbag<br />
25 <strong>Jesus</strong> on Trafalgar Square<br />
26-27 <strong>Jesus</strong> Centres<br />
30-31 Rant & Rave<br />
© 2006 <strong>Jesus</strong> Fellowship Church, Nether Heyford,<br />
Northampton NN7 3LB, UK. Editor James Stacey.<br />
Reproduction in any form requires written permission.<br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>Jesus</strong> Fellowship does not necessarily agree with all<br />
the views expressed in articles and interviews printed in<br />
this magazine. Photographs in this magazine are copyright<br />
<strong>Jesus</strong> Fellowship Church unless otherwise noted. <strong>The</strong><br />
<strong>Jesus</strong> Fellowship is part of Multiply Christian Network.<br />
Both the <strong>Jesus</strong> Fellowship and Multiply Christian Network<br />
are members of the Evangelical Alliance UK.
Comments from Noel Stanton and<br />
members of the Apostolic Team,<br />
<strong>Jesus</strong> Fellowship UK/mJa<br />
ALIVE<br />
church ALIVE<br />
united in <strong>Jesus</strong><br />
JESUS breaks racial barriers. We<br />
must show in the local church<br />
fellowship that <strong>Jesus</strong> unites us<br />
and that people from all nations<br />
and races are “all one in Christ<br />
<strong>Jesus</strong>”. <strong>The</strong> new commandment<br />
of <strong>Jesus</strong> is that we love one another<br />
and so convince the world<br />
that we are His disciples.<br />
<strong>Jesus</strong> Fellowship is a multiracial<br />
church and we are thrilled<br />
that many non-white African,<br />
Asian and Caribbean people have<br />
joined us. <strong>The</strong>n there are those<br />
from the nations added to the European<br />
Union in recent years. We<br />
have great people from Slovakia,<br />
Poland and Latvia as well as from<br />
other member-nations of the EU.<br />
Our hearts must be open with<br />
love for people of all nations.<br />
Some of them arrive in the UK<br />
in very real need. We must invite<br />
them to sit with us at the table of<br />
<strong>Jesus</strong> brotherhood. <strong>The</strong> colour of<br />
our skins or the accent of our lips<br />
Noel Stanton<br />
is not important. It is the heart<br />
that matters.<br />
Multi-racial does not mean<br />
multi-cultural. <strong>The</strong> New Testament<br />
is clear in saying that we<br />
are of the new creation and our<br />
old selves and old cultures “pass<br />
away”. <strong>The</strong> Holy Spirit removes<br />
the cultural and social divisions.<br />
“Christ is all and in all”. <strong>The</strong>re<br />
is “one new man”. We are all<br />
joined together in the kingdom<br />
of God culture.<br />
It is a great joy to bring the<br />
radical blessing of a charismatic,<br />
covenant community church like<br />
<strong>Jesus</strong> Fellowship to people from<br />
a variety of ethnic backgrounds<br />
and see them moving among<br />
us with confidence, knowing<br />
they are fully accepted. Many<br />
of them have been rejected<br />
over the years, and we see them<br />
getting healed and taking their<br />
place. Some of them will become<br />
important leaders.<br />
Mick Haines<br />
cross centred<br />
AS A CHURCH we’ve deliberately made<br />
it part of our culture to wear crosses as<br />
we identify with <strong>Jesus</strong>. However, we must<br />
understand that it’s the application of the<br />
Cross to our lives that counts. <strong>The</strong>re’s little<br />
point in wearing a cross if the cross is not<br />
central to your life.<br />
“Unless a grain of wheat falls into the<br />
ground and dies, it remains alone; but if<br />
it dies, it produces much grain” (John 12:<br />
24). This is the call of <strong>Jesus</strong> and the secret<br />
of fruitfulness. But many have surrounded<br />
themselves with a protective layer – they<br />
don’t want to die to their self-life. But there<br />
must be a dying before there is true life.<br />
Romans 6:5 starts with a very important<br />
if: “If we have been united with Him in His<br />
death, we will certainly also be united with<br />
Him in his resurrection”. <strong>The</strong> if is important:<br />
have you been united with His death?<br />
If not, you will not find the reality of resurrection<br />
life.<br />
Many have found fresh anointing from<br />
the Holy Spirit – but if underneath there<br />
is just lots of untouched self-life, the Holy<br />
Spirit will not be comfortable. He brings us<br />
to the Cross where we die. It is only then<br />
that we will have resurrection life.<br />
We’re called to have a martyr spirit for the<br />
sake of the cause of <strong>Jesus</strong>. Are you willing to<br />
die for the Church?<br />
Don’t be someone who just comes to the<br />
Church and enjoys the sacrifices that others<br />
have made. Let go of self-life and put the<br />
cause first.<br />
In the back of my Bible I have written<br />
“Mick Haines is dead” – can you say that<br />
about your name? It’s the way to truly live<br />
– in resurrection with <strong>Jesus</strong>.<br />
Give up to go up. To win, first lose.
Ian Callard<br />
I’VE BEEN struggling<br />
with intimacy.<br />
I can just about<br />
cope with being<br />
exposed, if there’s<br />
no get-out. Like<br />
when I made my<br />
foot bleed removing<br />
some dead skin.<br />
<strong>The</strong> evidence trailed<br />
from the bathroom<br />
to the bedroom.<br />
<strong>The</strong>n it started again<br />
my intimacy hang-up<br />
at the newsagent’s,<br />
and I dreaded the assistant’s<br />
alarm at my<br />
soggy sandal.<br />
No, it’s the whole<br />
volunteering for<br />
exposure thing that<br />
unnerves me. Why<br />
mention it? Because<br />
in a few months<br />
time, I, together with<br />
two other families<br />
and a bunch of singles,<br />
will move into<br />
a new community<br />
house. And we don’t<br />
know each other yet.<br />
Covenant relationships<br />
are scary. Sarah<br />
was skewered by<br />
the Lord when she<br />
laughed at the prospect<br />
of pregnancy.<br />
Jacob was wrestled<br />
to submission, and<br />
forced to admit his<br />
“wangler” identity,<br />
before God could<br />
affirm him. Moses<br />
extracted the most<br />
private of names<br />
from God, Yahweh.<br />
<strong>The</strong>n promptly<br />
back-tracked<br />
when the personal<br />
implications of the<br />
revelation became<br />
apparent.<br />
Once in our covenant<br />
community<br />
house, where will we<br />
hide when the stakes<br />
are raised, and full<br />
honest self-disclosure<br />
is the price we<br />
can’t avoid?<br />
Obviously there<br />
are good sides to<br />
close relationships.<br />
My Motorists’ Guide<br />
says friendship (and<br />
fruit and veg) offers<br />
the best prevention<br />
for road rage. Research<br />
predicts our<br />
chances of having a<br />
coronary are much<br />
reduced by belonging<br />
to a small fellowship<br />
group. <strong>The</strong> New<br />
Testament calls me<br />
to walk in the light.<br />
And yet fears find<br />
no easy peace. Will<br />
I be laughed at,<br />
misunderstood or<br />
disapproved of? Or<br />
abandoned, having<br />
shared my need? Or<br />
repeatedly reminded<br />
of what I long to turn<br />
from? Will I still have<br />
a valued place, or be<br />
rejected?<br />
Who underestimates<br />
the pain of<br />
building relationships?<br />
I’m battling with<br />
my intimacy, my<br />
“into-me-see”, hangup.<br />
I hope you’re<br />
fighting yours.<br />
gifts for healing<br />
FOR SOME months we’ve been<br />
emphasising healing for spirit,<br />
soul and body, found in <strong>Jesus</strong>.<br />
Healing is four dimensional:<br />
healing for the spirit through<br />
regeneration; healing for the soul<br />
(inner healing); healing for the<br />
body; and deliverance healing to<br />
remove evil spirits.<br />
<strong>The</strong>re will ever be a mystery in<br />
healing – some are healed and<br />
some are not – and we must accept<br />
the importance of medical<br />
advice, diagnosis and treatment.<br />
All of us, unless <strong>Jesus</strong> returns first,<br />
will eventually die (death is the<br />
“last enemy” to be destroyed).<br />
But let’s be true to God’s<br />
revealed truth. <strong>Jesus</strong> has taken<br />
our sicknesses. He is the healer<br />
and He is with us, gifting us to<br />
remove the demonic, to bring<br />
recovery to the sick. We need to<br />
be brave and confident in the<br />
use of these gifts.<br />
If you are sick, diseased or<br />
in pain as you read this, call on<br />
<strong>Jesus</strong> to heal you<br />
and make it quite<br />
clear to demons<br />
that you resist their<br />
attempts to keep<br />
you unwell.<br />
Noel Stanton<br />
FINAL MIX<br />
IT’S BEEN a busy and<br />
blessed four months.<br />
<strong>The</strong> last four months<br />
of 2006 will be just as<br />
eventful (see National<br />
Events p.28). And the<br />
London <strong>Jesus</strong> Centre is<br />
due to open in Spring.<br />
Thank you, our readers<br />
and friends, who support<br />
us with your love,<br />
prayers and gifts. JL<br />
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THE PROPHETIC<br />
WORD<br />
CROSS<br />
Our churches must<br />
be multi-racial in<br />
order to express<br />
true kingdom of God<br />
culture, argues <strong>Jesus</strong><br />
Fellowship apostolic<br />
leader, Steve Calam.<br />
WE ARE in our oaken cathedral – the open air<br />
at Hyde Park. As we dance and sing “come<br />
and see <strong>Jesus</strong> brotherhood”, people are<br />
drawn to us there. <strong>The</strong>re’s an Iranian couple; some of<br />
our Iranians get talking to them. Some South Africans<br />
come to have a look; there are Columbians, Italians,<br />
Brazilians... all attracted to what we’re doing, joining in,<br />
receiving prayer. It’s very, very exciting.<br />
In such moments I see the future of the Church: people<br />
of different nations and races joined in a demonstration<br />
of <strong>Jesus</strong> that draws people from every race and culture.<br />
Sixteen years ago, I moved from rural Warwickshire to<br />
Continued overleaf<br />
s<br />
s
CROSS<br />
CULTURE<br />
s<br />
s<br />
Continued from overleaf<br />
London to lead the church here. Back then the church<br />
in Warwickshire was fairly mono-racial, but I knew<br />
that the church in London must be made up of many<br />
nationalities, because that reflects what London is. And<br />
more than that: it reflects what I believe church is. So I<br />
spoke into it, people caught the vision and it began to<br />
happen. People began to turn up who were not white<br />
English.<br />
Now we have about 40 nations represented and I<br />
couldn’t imagine being in a church that isn’t made up<br />
of different nations.<br />
DEATH AND RESURRECTION<br />
It all starts with meeting at the Cross. Look at Galatians<br />
3, from verse 26: “You are all sons of God through faith<br />
in Christ <strong>Jesus</strong>, for all of you who were baptised into<br />
Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.”<br />
Wherever we’re from, our foundation is faith in <strong>Jesus</strong><br />
Christ. If we “clothe ourselves with Christ” that will involve<br />
getting rid of our old cultural “clothing” – whether<br />
English or African or Polish – or whatever. “<strong>The</strong>re is neither<br />
Jew nor Greek... for you are all one in Christ <strong>Jesus</strong>.”<br />
Baptism means we’ve died to old things.<br />
But it doesn’t end there: there is resurrection. “We<br />
were all baptised by one Spirit into one Body— whether<br />
Jews or Greeks, slave or free— and we were all given the<br />
one Spirit to drink” (1 Corinthians 12:13). We’re literally<br />
“plunged” into the Body. Paul goes on to write about<br />
every member having a contribution; I believe we can<br />
extend this to every cultural distinction having a contribution<br />
and enriching the Body. After baptism, your<br />
old cultural identity is no longer dominant, no longer<br />
defines you – yet you bring who you are, including your<br />
race and culture, into the Body and enrich it.<br />
“Drinking of the one Spirit”, worshipping Christ and<br />
sharing in His life and power, maintains this oneness. If<br />
we stop “drinking” we inevitably begin focusing on the<br />
old distinctions again and trying to administer unity.<br />
“We’ll have this kind of group”; “we’ll wear these kinds<br />
of clothes”. It becomes a contrived thing rather than a<br />
spiritual thing – and it doesn’t work.<br />
Racial mix: relaxing brotherhood in Hyde Park, London<br />
PROPHETIC LEADERSHIP<br />
This is one reason why it is so vital that the Church is<br />
prophetically led. Prophetic leadership will cut across<br />
everybody’s preferences. We no longer do “our kind of<br />
church,” singing “our kind of songs”. Prophetic leadership,<br />
by its very nature, doesn’t pander to personal<br />
preferences: we’re all uncomfortable together!<br />
Of course, this means that it is vital that such leadership<br />
is open to challenge, journeying with honesty, integrity<br />
and a willingness to learn. Otherwise the dominant<br />
culture may merely be that of the “prophetic” leadership.<br />
I’ve learned many lessons over the years. I remember<br />
years ago in Warwickshire, we had a young West Indian<br />
woman in the church. She came up to me in a skimpy<br />
dress: bright red and consisting of a few inches of material.<br />
“What do you think?” she asked me. I was horrified.<br />
(This was totally outside our dress code.) I said, “It’s awful.”<br />
Hurt was written all over her face. I now realise she saw<br />
me as a father figure and how important it was for her to<br />
be affirmed. I should have said, “You<br />
look really beautiful” (and explained a<br />
little later on that it may not be a particularly<br />
helpful outfit...)<br />
“You’ve got to take it off – at once”, I<br />
said. So she did. Right there and then.<br />
Leaving her... less modest still.<br />
I was being completely insensitive to<br />
where she was coming from.<br />
NITTY-GRITTY<br />
Of course, the nitty-gritty of working<br />
out multi-racial church involves many<br />
such encounters. We could be glib and<br />
just say, “Be filled with the Spirit”. This<br />
is the starting point, but it has to be followed with a lot of<br />
love and learning about each other.<br />
“Do to others as you would have them do to you” is the<br />
key. It is not so much a matter of rights and wrongs as<br />
living out love.<br />
<strong>The</strong>re’ll be some unexpected culture clashes. It’s easy<br />
It can be easy<br />
to slip into<br />
tokenism -<br />
putting chilli<br />
sauce on the<br />
table with<br />
the Yorkshire<br />
pudding and<br />
saying “We’re<br />
going African<br />
tonight”!<br />
Cake in community<br />
to be in “sensitive mode” with someone from far away<br />
– the latest Inuit to turn up or whatever – but there can be<br />
huge communication problems with those we consider<br />
culturally “closer” to ourselves. I’ve had some incredible<br />
rows with one brother who comes from across a narrow<br />
strip of sea in Holland. Language falls apart sometimes<br />
– because we haven’t been sensitive and listened for<br />
what the other was really saying.<br />
It’s important that this is genuine and that it flows<br />
out of our love for each other. It can be easy to slip into<br />
tokenism (putting chilli sauce on the table with the Yorkshire<br />
pudding and saying “We’re going African tonight”!)<br />
Our music style changed dramatically the moment an<br />
African brother arrived: yet we were enriched by his contribution,<br />
not making token gestures to try and make him<br />
“feel at home”.<br />
POVERTY OF SPIRIT<br />
Our multi-ethnic increase in London may have more<br />
to do with economics than culture. Most white Brits in<br />
London are taken up with the UK’s dominant religion<br />
– materialism. Eastern Europeans, Africans and others<br />
who come to the UK poor (and poor in spirit) tend to be<br />
the ones who respond. Being a multi-racial church flows<br />
out of being a church of the poor. We need to reach such<br />
people with the gospel before they are converted to British<br />
consumerism.<br />
We should learn from the sad story of white Christian<br />
relationships with black Afro-Caribbean churches in the<br />
UK. Initially, such black churches were largely rejected by<br />
the white mainstream. Now many are growing far faster<br />
than white churches, yet they’re usually mono-ethnic. An<br />
opportunity for a demonstration of oneness in Christ was<br />
squandered.<br />
Now churches are starting to form relationships across<br />
the racial divide – with the Multiply Network this is<br />
happening. This is excellent, but still not so powerful a<br />
demonstration as single churches containing a thoroughgoing<br />
racial mix.<br />
<strong>The</strong>n there is the miracle of Christian community. It’s<br />
one thing to do church; it’s another thing to live with one<br />
another. One of our African brothers was asked by fellow<br />
Africans, “How do you live with white people?”<br />
Yet he does. We live in community together. Our<br />
shared life is full of joy and fun, even regarding cultural<br />
issues: we don’t tiptoe around them, we enjoy the differences<br />
and have a laugh about the crazy things we all do<br />
and say. (I think I’m being so spiritual, but I’m just being<br />
so English sometimes. That’s when it’s healing to be<br />
laughed at.)<br />
Churches must demonstrate to the nations that Christians<br />
have broken down the barriers. This is part of our<br />
being a light to the nations – and healing to the nations.<br />
JL
life<br />
life<br />
ON THE INSIDE<br />
OUTSIDE<br />
“<br />
How do you keep clean<br />
when you’re out?<br />
Joe Morriss writes about Open Doors,<br />
a group for ex-prisoners.<br />
Open Doors<br />
PRISON IS a hard place. I spent<br />
18 months of a three-year<br />
sentence inside for a robbery<br />
which I pulled off to get money<br />
for drugs. I had been injecting<br />
amphetamines over several<br />
years and was suffering from a<br />
psychotic illness.<br />
During my time inside, I<br />
kicked the drugs and even<br />
gave up smoking. I had made a<br />
change and become a Christian.<br />
Although I was on a drug-free<br />
wing and had support from<br />
a key-worker, I faced a lot of<br />
opposition from other inmates<br />
who were using. <strong>The</strong> general<br />
feeling was ‘if you’re not with<br />
us, then you’re against us’. I was<br />
subjected to a lot of threats and<br />
verbal abuse. I was crying out<br />
for love and I wanted to find<br />
fulfilment. But you had to have<br />
a front.<br />
Open Doors is a chance to<br />
connect with the real person<br />
behind the ex-convict front.<br />
<strong>The</strong> group started in 2003. At<br />
first two or three of us met in<br />
a different house every other<br />
week. I wanted to develop a<br />
group that could go to prisons<br />
and evangelise. We applied to<br />
local chapels in prisons but<br />
were seen as a security risk<br />
because of our criminal records.<br />
We could go with visiting orders<br />
but that was it. At this time morale<br />
in the group was very low.<br />
Now there are four of us<br />
meeting every other Friday<br />
night at the Northampton <strong>Jesus</strong><br />
Centre. It is a time of relaxed<br />
sharing and we encourage one<br />
another. We often have focus<br />
sessions - the last one was on<br />
women of faith who were imprisoned<br />
for believing in <strong>Jesus</strong>.<br />
We had two new guys come,<br />
which was great!<br />
Our current focus is to act as<br />
a bridge for people who have<br />
come out of prison and got<br />
involved in the church. Open<br />
Doors is a good arena to thrash<br />
out issues, for example, those<br />
who struggle with authority and<br />
therefore church leadership and<br />
so on. One of the regulars has<br />
said that Open Doors has kept<br />
him strong as a Christian.<br />
Andy came to the group after<br />
“Open Doors<br />
is a chance<br />
to connect<br />
with the<br />
real person<br />
behind the<br />
ex-convict<br />
front”<br />
”<br />
• For information on the <strong>Jesus</strong><br />
Fellowship’s Prison Release<br />
Programme, write to: Phil Ferris,<br />
<strong>Jesus</strong> Fellowship Central Offices,<br />
Nether Heyford, Northants<br />
NN7 3LB tel: 01327 344533<br />
or e-mail: info@jesus.org.uk<br />
moving into Christian community<br />
on the Prisoner Release<br />
Scheme straight from a nineyear<br />
prison sentence for arson.<br />
He has been through various<br />
struggles since, but he came to<br />
us and shared his heart. He’s<br />
learnt to be honest with himself<br />
and is doing well.<br />
In 2005 I won a Community<br />
Champions Award for Open<br />
Doors. <strong>The</strong> Northampton Community<br />
Foundation, a government-funded<br />
charity, awarded<br />
several local charitable groups.<br />
I got a certificate, £1,000 for<br />
the group and I was in the<br />
Northampton Chronicle and<br />
Echo. I won in the category of<br />
innovation: there was no group<br />
in Northamptonshire that was<br />
doing what we did.<br />
We accept anyone who wants<br />
to sort themselves out. A few<br />
people have come who were<br />
met through evangelism as well<br />
as a newly baptised chap. We<br />
even had a Christian policewoman<br />
come!<br />
We want people to become<br />
stable and have changed lives.<br />
And our vision is still to go into<br />
prisons; pray for that!<br />
JL<br />
Joe Morriss is a leader from<br />
<strong>Jesus</strong> Fellowship Northampton
TRIBES<br />
FOCUS ON: London<br />
Faith-flavoured church<br />
embarks on new adventures<br />
<strong>The</strong> modern<br />
<strong>Jesus</strong> army<br />
in London<br />
is a vibrant<br />
and varied<br />
multiracial<br />
church. <strong>Jesus</strong><br />
<strong>Life</strong> editor,<br />
James<br />
Stacey, talked<br />
to some of its<br />
leaders.<br />
ASKED what he would say<br />
was an important part of the<br />
London mJa character, one<br />
member laughed, “Food!” He<br />
followed it with a more serious<br />
point: “<strong>The</strong> food we eat does<br />
reflect who we are. It’s very<br />
multi-national. It’s not deliberate;<br />
it’s people being who they<br />
are, doing what they do. Stick<br />
a Korean in a kitchen with<br />
some fish and flour and peas<br />
and they’ll make something<br />
Korean!”<br />
<strong>The</strong>re are more than 40<br />
nationalities represented in<br />
London’s mJa congregation.<br />
<strong>The</strong> result is a colourful, lively,<br />
imaginative church. Each new<br />
national ingredient has added<br />
to the flavour with its branches<br />
in Croydon, Acton and Westminster.<br />
Last year, the congregation<br />
embarked upon a significant<br />
new adventure of faith: the mJa<br />
bought a big former convent<br />
near Oxford Circus in Central<br />
London, planning to use the<br />
building as both a Christian<br />
community house and a <strong>Jesus</strong><br />
Centre. A year on, the “Battlecentre”<br />
house family are used<br />
to their unusual dwelling and<br />
the plans for the <strong>Jesus</strong> Centre<br />
are nearly at launching point.<br />
One leader commented: “<strong>The</strong><br />
countdown clock has seriously<br />
started”. <strong>The</strong> <strong>Jesus</strong> Centre,<br />
which will include a drop-in,<br />
tea room, and skills suite, is due<br />
to open next spring.<br />
Residential Christian community<br />
has long been central<br />
to the <strong>Jesus</strong> Fellowship’s vision.<br />
<strong>The</strong> first <strong>Jesus</strong> Centre pilot<br />
scheme began in Northampton<br />
in 2001. But the combination<br />
of <strong>Jesus</strong> Centre and Christian<br />
community in a single venue is<br />
a new kind of venture.<br />
Rob Bentley, London <strong>Jesus</strong><br />
Centre Project Manager, is enthusiastic:<br />
“<strong>The</strong> shared life will<br />
be obvious,” he says. “Christian<br />
community will be on display<br />
like never before.”<br />
s<br />
s
THE FIRE IS<br />
SPREADING<br />
Chris Dekker, from<br />
the Netherlands, now<br />
a leader at ‘Spreading<br />
Flame’ mJa in Acton,<br />
West London, reports:<br />
Chris Dekker<br />
“SPREADING FLAME”, the <strong>Jesus</strong> Fellowship<br />
community house in Acton was<br />
established a fairly long time ago, but we<br />
experienced a restart when our other house<br />
“Battlecentre” moved from down the road<br />
to Central London. It took time to find<br />
our feet and work out the new pattern of<br />
relationships.<br />
Our evangelism is proving very fruitful;<br />
in particular, we’ve met many young men.<br />
<strong>The</strong>y in turn have been finding <strong>Jesus</strong> and<br />
the family of God, along with restoration,<br />
forgiveness, love, friendship – and a cause<br />
to live for. It’s been like dominoes as one<br />
after another is baptised, joining the brotherhood.<br />
Some of them are Eastern Europeans:<br />
a good opportunity for some of us to use<br />
our Russian or Polish. Learning to communicate<br />
in different languages is loads<br />
of fun and immigrants really value being<br />
welcomed and made to feel at home.<br />
Last year we met and baptised a lot of<br />
young Koreans. Although most of them<br />
have gone back to Korea now, we are still<br />
in touch and they are sending friends to us<br />
for training in Christian discipleship.<br />
We have a good team from many cultures<br />
and backgrounds; a real ‘new creation’<br />
family!<br />
Spreading Flame brotherhood<br />
Australian,<br />
Tim Skene,<br />
made his home<br />
in London<br />
with the <strong>Jesus</strong><br />
Fellowship.<br />
He now leads<br />
‘Broken Bread’,<br />
the mJa church<br />
in Croydon,<br />
South London.<br />
He reports<br />
for <strong>Jesus</strong> <strong>Life</strong><br />
on the goings<br />
on in South<br />
London.<br />
<strong>The</strong> buzz that<br />
animates<br />
London’s mJa,<br />
is faith writes<br />
apostolic<br />
leader, Steve<br />
Calam.<br />
We want more. We’re<br />
seeing ‘our kind of Steve Calam<br />
thing’ happening,<br />
which is good, but we want more. It’s a<br />
matter of growing our faith; not being<br />
complacent, not accepting where we<br />
are lightly but challenging ourselves: are<br />
we seeing the results of faith, the fruit of<br />
faith?<br />
<strong>The</strong>re was a Chinese Christian who<br />
visited the churches in America and was<br />
reported to have said, ‘You can do church<br />
without God’.<br />
I don’t want that to be us. So we’re attacking<br />
our unbelief, dealing with it. Hearing<br />
from God and taking hold of what He<br />
has said. Once you’ve received that living<br />
word from God, you’ve really got something<br />
to go on. That’s when faith kicks in.<br />
And that’s where we’ve got to be.<br />
HEALING IN THE<br />
BROTHERHOOD<br />
Tim Skene<br />
MJA CROYDON is a small gathering of<br />
people from different cultures, races<br />
and ages. We’re discovering what it<br />
is to work together. Our mission is to<br />
gather together more people from this<br />
very multiracial area to establish a<br />
group of people who demonstrate the<br />
love of God’s kingdom – right here in<br />
the heart of Croydon.<br />
Statistically, Croydon has more<br />
young people than any other London<br />
Borough. Many of them come from<br />
broken backgrounds and don’t have<br />
‘the word is faith’<br />
Faith in action: prayer for healing<br />
fathers; we want them to get to know<br />
the heavenly Father and experience<br />
His love through us.<br />
One of our more recently baptised<br />
Nigerian brothers said, “Fellowship in<br />
the brotherhood has given me healing<br />
that I have not found anywhere else<br />
before.”<br />
We’ve been working in Croydon<br />
now for nearly three years and appreciated<br />
the support of the larger mJa<br />
tribe we were birthed from, in West<br />
and Central London.
DID YOU KNOW?..<br />
• Just under 10% of the total population<br />
of the UK were born overseas.<br />
• Between 2001 and 2004, almost<br />
two thirds of the increase in population<br />
in England and the UK was due to net<br />
immigration.<br />
• <strong>The</strong>re have been 25 member states<br />
in the European Union since May<br />
2004. Slovakia is one of the ten newest<br />
member states. <strong>The</strong>se new states have a<br />
combined population of over 70 million<br />
people.<br />
• Mortality and unemployment rates are<br />
higher in the new member states then in<br />
established EU member states.<br />
• In Slovakia, more than 9 out of every<br />
1,000 babies born will die before they<br />
are 1 year old.<br />
Source: National Statistics<br />
different faces<br />
different races<br />
one church<br />
God is doing<br />
something remarkable<br />
in the Pitsmoor area<br />
of Sheffield. Scores of<br />
Slovakian Romanies<br />
have been finding<br />
faith in <strong>Jesus</strong>. Many<br />
have joined <strong>Jesus</strong><br />
Fellowship Sheffield.<br />
One of them, Cyril<br />
Dunka, tells his story.<br />
s Above left: Cyril has found vision;<br />
Above right: Romany Christians in<br />
Sheffield<br />
IT IS July 2005 and Cyril has just fallen down<br />
some stairs in his home in Zehra in Slovakia<br />
and broken his ribs during a fit.<br />
“I was ill with secondary epilepsy and I<br />
lived in fear of what might happen to me”<br />
remembers Cyril. “My wife got the idea of me<br />
going to visit England. I was afraid and said<br />
to her ‘If I go England I will die.’ She tells me,<br />
‘Cyril, I feel that it will be good there for you<br />
and that you will be made well and that you<br />
will get work.’ I listened to her and left for<br />
England.”<br />
He arrived on the 25th August with only<br />
enough money for three weeks’ food. He<br />
stayed with some fellow-Romanies, Janu and<br />
Lida, and was immensely grateful to them<br />
– but he still wasn’t sure what to make of<br />
their talk of <strong>Jesus</strong> and a <strong>Jesus</strong> <strong>Army</strong> leader,<br />
Andrzej, who had helped them so much.<br />
“I wasn’t sure whether to believe them or<br />
not,” admits Cyril. Yet his curiosity was stirred<br />
and he couldn’t escape the feeling that there<br />
was something in what his friends were telling<br />
him. “I kept feeling something continually<br />
drawing me to the Welcome Centre in the<br />
church building in Sheffield where I knew the<br />
<strong>Jesus</strong> <strong>Army</strong> met. For two days I walked around<br />
the building but it was locked. On the third<br />
day it was open at about 7:45 pm. I went in<br />
and saw an English Vicar. ‘Are you Andrzej?’ I<br />
asked him. ‘No’, he said, ‘Andrzej will arrive in<br />
ten minutes.’ I waited.”<br />
He met Andrzej and stayed for the <strong>Jesus</strong><br />
<strong>Army</strong> meeting though he found it very<br />
strange and different to his experience of<br />
Catholic church back in Slovakia.<br />
“I thought I was at a disco!” is how he puts<br />
it. Yet Cyril was going to experience God’s<br />
power in a way that was far more real than he<br />
had expected in his wildest dreams.<br />
“Towards the end of the meeting Andrzej<br />
asked who wanted to receive prayer for<br />
healing. I immediately believed and answered<br />
‘I do.’ He asked me what was wrong<br />
with me and I said that I have a headache. I<br />
didn’t say that I was suffering with epilepsy<br />
and broken ribs.”<br />
Andrzej prayed for Cyril, putting his hands<br />
on his head and asking <strong>Jesus</strong> to heal him by<br />
the power of His Spirit.<br />
Cyril describes the result of that prayer: “I<br />
no longer had the headache – or the rib pain!<br />
I stopped taking my tablets. A week later I’d<br />
had no fits. Before this, despite medication,<br />
I was having two fits every week for many<br />
years. I have not had any fits now since<br />
Andrzej prayed for me. I was immediately<br />
healed; <strong>Jesus</strong> healed me.”<br />
Naturally, Cyril was very excited about going<br />
to the next meeting. He got to know more<br />
people and grew much closer to Andrzej.<br />
On the 1st October 2005 he was baptised.<br />
He describes the experience with simple<br />
eloquence. “At my baptism I spoke in new<br />
tongues. <strong>The</strong> Holy Spirit rested on me. I<br />
prayed to God, I sang out my praise to Him –I<br />
was happy. Before leaving for England I had<br />
said that I would die here and I did die – to<br />
my old sinful life, in baptism!”<br />
What is happening now in Cyril’s life? As<br />
he puts it: “Very much...<br />
“I now appreciate and know <strong>Jesus</strong> Christ<br />
more than before. He has truly changed me<br />
and indeed he has changed my whole life. I<br />
have a lot of joy. <strong>Jesus</strong> says ‘Do not accumulate<br />
treasures on earth where thieves break<br />
in and can steal but rather store up treasure<br />
in heaven where rust and moth cannot<br />
destroy.’ This real treasure I am storing up<br />
in my heart is <strong>Jesus</strong> and His love which I<br />
can share with others. I want to serve <strong>Jesus</strong>.<br />
I have given Him my life. He loves me and I<br />
love Him.”<br />
Cyril recently travelled to Slovakia together<br />
with Andzej, Janu and <strong>Jesus</strong> Fellowship<br />
apostolic leader, Ian Callard, to visit the<br />
growing work of God among the Romany<br />
population there.<br />
“It was like living the New Testament,” recalls<br />
Ian, “with healings and people receiving<br />
the Spirit with joy. <strong>The</strong>re are some very poor<br />
families – seven people in a one-roomed timber<br />
house, living on £100 per month. <strong>The</strong>re<br />
are very few jobs. Our Romanies in Sheffield<br />
had sent a collection to buy groceries.<br />
“At Cyril’s village, Zehra, we led several<br />
members of his family to the Lord. <strong>The</strong>n, in<br />
other homes, we saw more people finding<br />
faith, being healed and receiving the Spirit.<br />
<strong>The</strong>re are possibly 20 people ready for baptism,<br />
and we’ve committed them to the care<br />
of four brothers with trustworthy hearts and<br />
a desire to serve.”<br />
A new church, “Church of the Red Cross,”<br />
has been started in Zehra. Cyril enthuses,<br />
“This is not a joy just for us but for the holy<br />
angels in heaven and for <strong>Jesus</strong> Himself!”<br />
Back in Sheffield, the Spirit’s movement<br />
among the Romanies continues to gather<br />
momentum. About 80 Slovakian Romanies<br />
have been baptised over the last year. <strong>Jesus</strong><br />
Fellowship Sheffield is now about 50/50<br />
British/Romany (with the balance just tipped<br />
in favour of the Romany contingent).<br />
<strong>The</strong> congregation is rising to the challenge<br />
of embracing one another across the divides<br />
of language and culture. Cyril explains the<br />
key to this: “Don’t you know that brotherhood<br />
is more than friendship; that it is God’s<br />
spiritual family – that we are God’s family?<br />
“Our church is growing by the power of <strong>Jesus</strong>.<br />
We love <strong>Jesus</strong> but He loves us more than<br />
we love Him; He gave us His life, He poured<br />
out His blood for us.<br />
“I want us all – Romanies and English<br />
brothers and sisters – to be together and<br />
worship together because there is strength<br />
in unity. That is what the Lord Himself wants<br />
and where the Holy Spirit leads us.” JL<br />
“Don’t you<br />
know that<br />
brotherhood<br />
is more than<br />
friendship;<br />
that it is God’s<br />
spiritual family<br />
– that we are<br />
God’s family?”
Talking to: Matthew Guest<br />
Huw Lewis<br />
Matthew Guest (second from right) with three visitors to the ‘Caring Hands’ day centre<br />
Matthew Guest is the<br />
senior pastor of Kings<br />
Church, Medway. Early life<br />
in a family considered ‘at<br />
risk’, followed by a wild<br />
teenage period gave him<br />
the ability to empathise<br />
with the disadvantaged<br />
people in Medway.<br />
He has pioneered the<br />
‘Caring Hands’ project,<br />
community living and<br />
many other initiatives<br />
that have made Kings a<br />
thriving multiracial church.<br />
He is married to Mara<br />
and they have three<br />
children.<br />
In this interview he talks<br />
to Huw Lewis, a member<br />
of the Apostolic Team of<br />
the <strong>Jesus</strong> Fellowship.<br />
HUW: How did you first find<br />
<strong>Jesus</strong>?<br />
MATTHEW: I grew up in what<br />
I would call a semi-Christian<br />
home in Gravesend (Kent). It<br />
was my mum’s second marriage,<br />
and there were eight<br />
children and a lodger. <strong>The</strong>re<br />
were eleven of us living in the<br />
house and a few dogs and cats<br />
as well! My dad was in and out<br />
of prison and we were on the<br />
Social Services ‘at risk’ register.<br />
That sounds a very difficult<br />
start!<br />
Yes. Very sadly, my mum had<br />
gone through a rape ordeal and<br />
I was the result of the rape. My<br />
real father committed suicide<br />
after he had written a full confession<br />
- he had raped his own<br />
two children as well. As a result,<br />
my mum was in a very poor<br />
state – mentally, emotionally<br />
and physically. She then met<br />
my step-father.<br />
Our social worker was a<br />
I’d been<br />
expelled<br />
from school<br />
twice and<br />
couldn’t<br />
read or<br />
write. My<br />
wife taught<br />
me to read<br />
later by<br />
reading the<br />
Bible<br />
member of a Baptist church<br />
and she invited my mother and<br />
father to go to church. At first<br />
mum said no, but when she<br />
found it was opposite the local<br />
police station, she changed her<br />
mind. She hated the police and<br />
wanted to feel good walking out<br />
of a church saying ‘I’m a good<br />
person; I’ve been in a church!’<br />
On one occasion, the visiting<br />
minister was a man called<br />
Trevor Dearing. My mum was<br />
profoundly deaf and didn’t<br />
hear a thing the whole way<br />
through, but when there was<br />
a call for prayer many people<br />
went forward and a number<br />
were falling over in the Spirit.<br />
My mum said to my dad, ‘He’s<br />
pushing them over.’ My dad<br />
said, ‘No, he’s got a little zapper<br />
in his hand’. Eventually, for a<br />
£5 bet, mum went forward to<br />
find out! When she was prayed<br />
for she went over in the Spirit.<br />
On returning to her seat, my<br />
dad was jeering and laughing.<br />
But she said, ‘No Dave, there’s<br />
something in this.’<br />
What happened then?<br />
At the end of the service, the<br />
last song they’d sung was ‘You<br />
ask me how I know He lives,<br />
He lives within my heart’. As<br />
Trevor sung those words, he<br />
looked at my mother and she<br />
could lip read him. <strong>The</strong> only<br />
thing she actually understood<br />
from the whole meeting was<br />
the line ‘You ask me how I<br />
know He lives’, and she said at<br />
that minute she received the<br />
gospel. Mum suddenly realised<br />
that <strong>Jesus</strong> was actually alive<br />
and He loved her.<br />
So they both became Christians<br />
- but it took a while. Dad<br />
was on the run from the police<br />
and in a lot of trouble. We had<br />
many challenges. In my teens, I<br />
rebelled against Christian things<br />
for about four years. But when I<br />
was 18 I just found a fear of God<br />
- a reverent fear that I’d shut<br />
this awesome, wonderful God<br />
out of my life. So I made the<br />
decision to go to church again<br />
and it took me six months to get<br />
there. But eventually I came to<br />
the Kings Church at the beginning<br />
of 1991 and made an adult<br />
comitment.<br />
How did you get on with the<br />
church?<br />
I’d fallen in love with <strong>Jesus</strong>,<br />
which was the most important<br />
thing. He was my hero. I found<br />
it difficult because I’d been<br />
expelled from school twice and<br />
couldn’t read or write. My wife<br />
taught me to read later by reading<br />
the Bible.<br />
A lot of the young people<br />
here at that time were going off<br />
to university and came from<br />
pretty good homes. And there<br />
was me with tattoos, five earrings,<br />
still smoking, but loving<br />
the Lord radically! I wanted<br />
people to know Him,<br />
and I wanted to see His<br />
Church be freed from<br />
the world’s negative<br />
image. When I was<br />
at school you could<br />
spot a Christian at 200<br />
yards – they were very<br />
straight-laced, probably<br />
mummy’s boys.<br />
I struggled with that<br />
image as I wanted the<br />
world to see a radical<br />
church that was on fire<br />
and attracted people to<br />
a radical <strong>Jesus</strong>.<br />
How did your connection with<br />
the <strong>Jesus</strong> Fellowship happen?<br />
<strong>The</strong> connection happened<br />
through a <strong>Jesus</strong> Fellowship<br />
leader, Len Kroon, who had<br />
been part of Kings Church. A<br />
group of us came to a <strong>Jesus</strong> Fellowship<br />
Winning Weekend, and<br />
I suddenly realised that there<br />
were other radical Christians<br />
around! I loved everything I saw<br />
–intimacy, covenant relationships,<br />
dying to the self life and<br />
paying any price. But also, the<br />
flesh life got uncovered and it<br />
was painful.<br />
As time went on I got married<br />
It’s a living<br />
testimony<br />
- a miracle<br />
- to walk in<br />
a church<br />
and it’s half<br />
black, half<br />
white and a<br />
total mix<br />
A Kings Church baptism<br />
KINGS CHURCH<br />
MEDWAY<br />
• About 300 members<br />
• Part of the Multiply Network<br />
for 12 years<br />
• Half the membership is from<br />
ethnic minorities<br />
• Opened ‘Caring Hands’, a day<br />
centre for the disadvantaged,<br />
in 2001<br />
• Recently developed a<br />
computer recycling initiative,<br />
‘3R’, which aims to provide<br />
training for long term<br />
unemployed people<br />
to Mara. Not long after we got<br />
married I felt that I needed<br />
to gain experience in various<br />
areas. My parents had already<br />
joined the <strong>Jesus</strong> Fellowship.<br />
We were regularly travelling up<br />
and down most weekends, so<br />
eventually we got committed.<br />
After 18 months I had become<br />
unsettled and I spoke to<br />
our leader. He talked to <strong>Jesus</strong><br />
Fellowship senior pastor, Noel<br />
Stanton, who supported our<br />
return to Kings Church. We just<br />
knew that it was God.<br />
What did you do when you<br />
returned?<br />
This was about 1995. We came<br />
back and we were just attending.<br />
<strong>The</strong>n Barry, one of the<br />
founders and an elder of the<br />
church said to me one day,<br />
‘Matthew, why don’t you get<br />
committed?’ And without<br />
meaning to be arrogant or<br />
self-righteous in any way,<br />
I just said to him, ‘Well I<br />
just look at what’s here<br />
and I don’t know if that’s<br />
what I want to commit to,<br />
because I just believe <strong>Jesus</strong><br />
is more than what I’m<br />
seeing’.<br />
Myself and Mara<br />
were in the car one day,<br />
listening to a <strong>Jesus</strong> Fellowship<br />
worship tape. I<br />
said to Mara, ‘I’ve got to<br />
make a decision whether<br />
I’m going to serve God with<br />
all my life.’ <strong>The</strong> song on the<br />
cassette was ‘Just poured out<br />
wine, just broken bread’. That<br />
sealed it for us. Mara did night<br />
work so we could earn enough<br />
money to live off, and I became<br />
available to the church 24/7. I<br />
started here in ministry, sweeping<br />
the church drive, tidying<br />
up the boiler room, putting up<br />
shelves.<br />
How did your ministry develop?<br />
I served in practical ways to the<br />
very best of my ability. When<br />
I was working here one day a<br />
homeless guy came up off the<br />
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streets who was hungry and<br />
tired and asked for something<br />
to eat. So I made him a cheese<br />
sandwich in the kitchen and he<br />
then began to share with me<br />
about the homeless in Medway,<br />
the drug abuse, the prostitution,<br />
the sheer deprivation. I<br />
prayed for him and he came<br />
back to see me 18 months later,<br />
telling me two weeks after I<br />
prayed for him he got involved<br />
with some people doing a walk<br />
for <strong>Jesus</strong>, and gave his life to<br />
the Lord and had been a committed<br />
Christian ever since.<br />
As he shared all this with me<br />
I thought that we just could<br />
not be a church in the midst of<br />
this and do nothing. We had a<br />
responsibility - not a choice.<br />
I saw the leaders and I shared<br />
my heart, pouring out what I<br />
thought we should do, and they<br />
were supportive.<br />
I marched off to the hostel<br />
and volunteered to help with<br />
cooking and cleaning. I did that<br />
for about six weeks and then<br />
one of the guys accepted me,<br />
and it went from there. I was<br />
simply their friend – I didn’t<br />
have the answers, I had no<br />
experience, but the one thing I<br />
knew they needed was friendship.<br />
More of the guys started<br />
coming up to the church and<br />
we’d give them a meal and it<br />
began to grow from that.<br />
I soon gained a reputation as<br />
a street pastor. I also began to<br />
get to know the prostitutes and<br />
then the pimps. <strong>The</strong> biggest<br />
thing that would hold the girls<br />
back would be the pimps, so I<br />
had to befriend the pimps as<br />
well. God gave us a heart for<br />
them and an ability to relate to<br />
them. We began to know more<br />
and more need so we converted<br />
part of the church to meet that<br />
need until in 2001 we bought<br />
the building across the road<br />
which became ‘Caring Hands<br />
in the Community’.<br />
How did you end up as the<br />
senior pastor here?<br />
I had been a leader here since I<br />
started Caring Hands. Mara was<br />
running Little Eagles Nursery,<br />
and we were heading up the<br />
covering of all the cell groups in<br />
the church. We had also started<br />
King’s Community. <strong>The</strong>n we<br />
went to South Africa and while<br />
we were away some problems<br />
emerged in the leadership back<br />
home.<br />
When we came back from<br />
South Africa, we were kicked<br />
out of the church we loved and<br />
made homeless. It was an utter<br />
mess. At first I just wanted to<br />
run away.<br />
Everything in me said, ‘No<br />
way! I don’t want to take the<br />
risk of staying around.’ But I<br />
had this awareness of <strong>Jesus</strong>,<br />
the man with scars. <strong>The</strong>re was<br />
nothing more to debate.<br />
I put myself under the<br />
authority of Alan Smith, an<br />
experienced local pastor. He<br />
simply reaffirmed my calling<br />
as a pastor and asked us to<br />
not make any quick decisions.<br />
Eventually, we were invited<br />
back to the church after the<br />
previous leaders had left. <strong>The</strong>n<br />
Barry and Alan and several<br />
other ministers in the area felt<br />
that I should take on the role of<br />
senior pastor. It was put to the<br />
congregation and they agreed<br />
overwhelmingly.<br />
I just shared my heart,<br />
honestly, with the congregation<br />
and said, ‘Look, I don’t<br />
know the way forward, I don’t<br />
know what’s going to happen<br />
but I know that God is faithful’.<br />
<strong>The</strong>re was an emotional explosion<br />
with everybody looking for<br />
the answers and the reasons<br />
why all these things happened<br />
and who was to blame. At the<br />
end of the day we said, as <strong>Jesus</strong><br />
said, ‘Father, forgive them for<br />
they know not what they do’.<br />
<strong>The</strong> key has been equipping<br />
We’ve got<br />
to be the<br />
prodigalfriendly<br />
church,<br />
making it<br />
easy for<br />
people to<br />
come back<br />
when they<br />
screw up<br />
the team of saints for the work<br />
of the ministry. I told them ‘We<br />
are a family, we are a body and<br />
we’re doing this together. It’s<br />
not my sole vision; it’s our vision<br />
for the church. It’s your responsibility<br />
as well as mine and<br />
we’ve got to do this together’.<br />
What do you feel went wrong<br />
with your last leader?<br />
Basically, pride and a lack of<br />
accountability. <strong>The</strong>re was an<br />
absence of covenant relationship<br />
where you could get alongside<br />
and just say, ‘I’ve screwed<br />
up’. <strong>The</strong>re was also a lack of<br />
support, and people that he<br />
could turn to for help.<br />
You lost quite a lot of people<br />
during this time?<br />
Yes, before that we were a<br />
couple of hundred strong and<br />
we went down to 30 adults and<br />
15 kids. We just had to trust in<br />
God’s faithfulness, rebuild and<br />
move on.<br />
You’ve had some cultural challenges<br />
to work through as well.<br />
Half of our congregation is<br />
black, the other half is white.<br />
We don’t have Nigerian services<br />
or Malawian services - we<br />
preach one culture and that’s<br />
‘kingdom of God’ culture. It’s<br />
not English culture either! With<br />
all the current political unrest<br />
and suspicion of different<br />
cultures because of terrorist attacks,<br />
it’s a living testimony – a<br />
miracle – to walk in a church<br />
and it’s half black, half white<br />
and a total mix. <strong>The</strong>re are more<br />
people in our leadership that<br />
are black than white. Half of<br />
our trustees are black.<br />
Nevertheless, the Bible says<br />
you pick men and women full<br />
of the Holy Spirit and wisdom,<br />
not colour, creed or social<br />
background. It’s impossible for<br />
the church of <strong>Jesus</strong> Christ to be<br />
politically correct. <strong>Jesus</strong> was not<br />
politically correct. He turned<br />
upside down the political and<br />
social culture of His day.<br />
You had to hold onto God.<br />
It’s been very important to<br />
have the father heart of God.<br />
We’ve had to be the prodigalfriendly<br />
church, making it easy<br />
for people to come back when<br />
they screw up and make mistakes.<br />
We love them, encourage<br />
them, put the ring on the<br />
finger, re-establish them, but<br />
we then teach them. In tough<br />
times with lots of suspicion and<br />
lots of mistrust, we just had to<br />
apply God’s grace.<br />
JL<br />
Part Two of this interview<br />
will feature in the next<br />
<strong>Jesus</strong> <strong>Life</strong>.
free to serve<br />
<strong>The</strong> heart of the vision is to serve<br />
Set<br />
Servant leadership was<br />
the theme of the 2006<br />
Multiply International<br />
Leaders Conference<br />
held in Northampton,<br />
UK, in June. Emma<br />
Merry reports<br />
s<br />
s<br />
A WHITE MAN (English) kneels<br />
before a black man (Zambian),<br />
and tenderly washes his feet<br />
before drying them, gently, with<br />
a towel as the words of Brother<br />
let me be your servant resound<br />
around the <strong>Jesus</strong> Centre auditorium.<br />
This foot washing demonstration<br />
expresses the heart of<br />
the Multiply Network’s vision:<br />
to serve leaders and churches,<br />
and to refresh them for the next<br />
stage on their journey.<br />
For the 55-plus overseas<br />
delegates, there was much to<br />
be refreshed by in visiting the<br />
<strong>Jesus</strong> Fellowship. Many came<br />
for more than just the conference,<br />
some for two weeks or<br />
more, staying in various of the<br />
Church’s community houses.<br />
Days were full: touring the<br />
chapel, community businesses<br />
and Northampton <strong>Jesus</strong> Centre;<br />
listening to, and questioning,<br />
leaders old and new(er) on<br />
various distinctives of the <strong>Jesus</strong><br />
Fellowship.<br />
Goodness Foods’ walk-in<br />
freezer cabinet (at 26 degrees<br />
below freezing it’s so cold your<br />
nostril hair freezes) proved a<br />
challenge for many, and the<br />
bathroom display at Towcester<br />
Building Supplies was a<br />
particular hit with the Ivory<br />
Coast contingent. Little-known<br />
concepts, such as the “Kingdom<br />
Servants Declaration”<br />
which all employees in the<br />
businesses adhere to, provoked<br />
lively responses.<br />
Saturday’s conference, held<br />
at Northampton <strong>Jesus</strong> Centre,<br />
explored servant leadership<br />
– apostolic, pastoral, prophetic,<br />
evangelistic – plus how to train<br />
a new generation of servants<br />
(and keep the old ones radical).<br />
Servant leadership? When<br />
Samuel Brengle applied to join<br />
the Salvation <strong>Army</strong>, he thought<br />
he’d be given a prominent<br />
place. General Booth sent him<br />
to the dingy cellars to clean the<br />
boots of 300 men. “If you’re not<br />
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able to do this, you’re no use to<br />
me,” he said. Brengle did it.<br />
Multiply director Huw Lewis<br />
had started the week by saying,<br />
“One ox can pull eight tonnes.<br />
Two can pull 32 tonnes. And<br />
four oxen can pull 128 tonnes”,<br />
emphasizing the importance of<br />
teamwork and togetherness. So<br />
it was good to strengthen the<br />
LIFTED INTO ANOTHER DIMENSION<br />
STEPHEN MWAKABINGA, ZAMBIA<br />
TWENTY-FIVE years ago,<br />
Stephen Mwakabinga popped<br />
out to the local grocery shop. But<br />
this time was to be different. He<br />
met two evangelists on the way.<br />
After talking with them, right<br />
then and there in the dusty<br />
street, Stephen knelt down and<br />
gave his life to <strong>Jesus</strong>.<br />
Later the same year he heard<br />
about the <strong>Jesus</strong> <strong>Army</strong> – but<br />
Multiply 2006 was his first taste<br />
of the real thing.<br />
“It was an eye-opener,” he<br />
says of his time here. “Multiply<br />
lifts you into your vision - and<br />
gives you another dimension.<br />
You begin to see that your vision<br />
can happen because you’ve<br />
mixed with people of faith.<br />
Everything they speak, it can be<br />
done. Everything is big, it can be<br />
done. It’s full of faith and that’s<br />
the thing.”<br />
Stephen is head pastor of<br />
All Nations Harvest Church in<br />
Kitwe – both the main church<br />
and its branches. A number of<br />
different ministries are run – for<br />
men, for youth, for women and<br />
for children. Stephen also works<br />
with other pastors in the city and<br />
around Zambia, is church planting<br />
in Tanzania and goes on<br />
regular preaching engagements<br />
to the Congo.<br />
He describes what the <strong>Jesus</strong><br />
<strong>Army</strong> has been doing as “awe-<br />
bonds with brethren in Sierra<br />
Leone and the Ivory Coast, and<br />
to create new ones with the<br />
Philippines, Zambia and India,<br />
among others. As the days<br />
passed, the clamour for your<br />
“contact” so as to be able to<br />
keep in touch increased.<br />
On the last day, the old ballroom<br />
at Cornhill Manor, one of<br />
some: I’ve dreamt to see such<br />
things happen in our country:<br />
ministering to the poor, the drug<br />
addicts, and among the people<br />
that need hope in their lives in<br />
a very practical way. What we<br />
learn here can be very helpful<br />
back home.”<br />
Stephen was also blessed with<br />
the fellowship, and the openness<br />
of the hearts of the people: “It’s<br />
like you are anti-UK tradition<br />
– you don’t live in this culture!<br />
You have your own!”<br />
He explains: “I’ve seen bigger<br />
things, where people started from<br />
nothing, and it gives me a lot of<br />
faith that these things can happen<br />
if we stay faithful and we stay<br />
connected with people of faith.”<br />
A man of passion, Stephen<br />
wants more fire and found it<br />
here. “<strong>The</strong> catching of the passion<br />
to do what God is calling a<br />
person to do and never to die out<br />
in the fervour of the call: that was<br />
very, very strong. I want to make<br />
sure that I am part of this fire! But<br />
the other thing I want is to see the<br />
fire that I’m catching over here<br />
beginning to flame up in Zambia.<br />
I want my people to see that what<br />
you believe in should never be<br />
hidden – bring it out, let everybody<br />
know it in the city square<br />
and everywhere, inside and<br />
outside – and I want that radical<br />
spirit to get into our nation.”<br />
the <strong>Jesus</strong> Fellowship’s community<br />
houses, witnessed a dance like<br />
none it had ever seen. Dancers<br />
from Bhutan to Belgium, Hungary<br />
to Liberia, and many more,<br />
formed a lengthy conga line<br />
which snaked its way through<br />
the maze of chairs before obeying<br />
the call to change direction<br />
and to weave another way.<br />
<strong>The</strong> stiffness of the previous<br />
Tuesday afternoon when the<br />
group had had to be exhorted<br />
to look at one another when<br />
singing “Let us open up ourselves<br />
to one another” had<br />
faded. Now we were a people<br />
joined together, a rainbow<br />
stream determined to bring<br />
change across the world.<br />
Zambians together: Stephen (right) with Audrey from the <strong>Jesus</strong> Fellowship<br />
(left) and Mary<br />
A PARADIGM SHIFT<br />
DANIEL AND HEPHZI GRIMMER,<br />
UNITED ARAB EMIRATES<br />
Daniel Grimmer<br />
AT THE FIRST Multiply International<br />
Leaders Conference in<br />
2002 one of the delegates was<br />
Alexius Pereira from Abu Dhabi<br />
Evangelical Church in the United<br />
Arab Emirates. This time, the<br />
senior pastor Daniel Grimmer,<br />
and his wife Hephzi attended.<br />
<strong>The</strong> church began in 1982 as<br />
a Bible study group for a few<br />
Catholics from Goa. Two years<br />
later they left the Roman Catholic<br />
Church to form the Indian<br />
Christian Fellowship. When a<br />
Sri Lankan joined, the name was<br />
changed to Abu Dhabi Evangelical<br />
Church.<br />
Since then, through one-toone,<br />
counselling and literaturebased<br />
outreach, the church<br />
has grown into a multi-ethnic,<br />
multi-national congregation.<br />
(<strong>The</strong> worship team consists of<br />
three Nepalis, an Ethiopian,<br />
a Brazilian, a Kenyan and two<br />
Indians!) Hundreds have joined<br />
– many have gone to other nations<br />
like Canada, New Zealand,<br />
Nepal, India, Sri Lanka, Italy and<br />
Australia, where they continue<br />
to witness. “We see ourselves as<br />
a discipling, mentoring, training<br />
and equipping, sending church<br />
- a church with a heart for the<br />
world, especially for the poor<br />
and needy,” explains Daniel.<br />
<strong>The</strong>y also want to be a worshipping<br />
family demonstrating<br />
the love, care and the power<br />
of God. For them, sharing is<br />
normal: “Asians and Africans live<br />
in communities where everyone<br />
knows everyone, including what<br />
is being cooked for lunch as the<br />
spicy fragrance wafts through<br />
the cluster of homes around!<br />
“Since we married we took<br />
various people in and walked<br />
with them anywhere between<br />
two months and five years. Our<br />
home, dining table and hearts<br />
are opened to anyone who<br />
“You begin to see that<br />
your vision can happen...<br />
Everything they speak, it can<br />
be done. Everything is big, it<br />
can be done. It’s full of faith<br />
and that’s the thing.”<br />
comes along. No one needs to<br />
be invited. If they come during<br />
the meal time, you don’t ask if<br />
they ate, you simply include an<br />
extra plate!”<br />
Even so, the <strong>Jesus</strong> Fellowship<br />
model of community surprised<br />
Daniel: “<strong>The</strong> community concept,<br />
especially pooling salaries<br />
into the common fund, is<br />
something I’m seeing for the first<br />
time – after the Book of Acts! <strong>The</strong><br />
simple lifestyle, the humility and<br />
the presence of the Holy Spirit is<br />
striking. <strong>The</strong> eagerness you have<br />
to know about others and spend<br />
time with them is unique in the<br />
Western culture. While more and<br />
more people around the world<br />
are becoming time-money oriented,<br />
you continue to encourage<br />
an event-people oriented<br />
thrust.<br />
“Overall, your acceptance of<br />
anyone irrespective of colour,<br />
creed or lifestyle with the love of<br />
God truly has opened my eyes<br />
and caused a paradigm shift in<br />
my mind and heart.”<br />
Hephzi adds: “Your love is<br />
amazing and treats everyone<br />
alike. You cannot make out who<br />
is the leader and who is the new<br />
community member.”<br />
It was Daniel who told his<br />
younger brother Joy Stevenson<br />
(see over) about Multiply 2006<br />
and also forwarded the Multiply<br />
email newsletter to Satish Chettri<br />
(see page 21) in Delhi. Multiply is<br />
multiplying!<br />
s<br />
s<br />
<strong>Jesus</strong> <strong>Life</strong> Three/2006 Page 18<br />
www.multiply.org.uk
CHALLENGED<br />
TO CHANGE<br />
JOY STEVENSON,<br />
INDIA<br />
JOY STEVENSON is a pastor with<br />
New <strong>Life</strong> Fellowship, a fast-growing<br />
house church in Mumbai,<br />
West India. He stayed in the <strong>Jesus</strong><br />
Fellowship’s “Jewel” house in Daventry,<br />
Northamptonshire, during<br />
the conference.<br />
“Living in community during<br />
my visit has shown me the reality<br />
of things I have only experienced<br />
before in words,” he says. “It has<br />
really spoken to me that as believers<br />
we should carry a spirit of self-sacrifice<br />
and share our possessions.<br />
One scripture that really challenges<br />
me is Galatians 6:10: ‘As long as we<br />
have, therefore, opportunity, let us<br />
do good unto all men, especially<br />
unto them who are of the household<br />
of faith.’ In India, we do much<br />
social work but I believe that we<br />
often neglect the household of faith.<br />
“If community can happen in<br />
England, it can happen anywhere<br />
by the power of the Holy Spirit!<br />
Change is always very difficult<br />
but love can conquer anything. I<br />
believe when I get back home that<br />
I will be able to take this love with<br />
me and work towards inspiring<br />
others to join me in taking up the<br />
challenge to put what I have seen<br />
into practice in India.”<br />
s<br />
s<br />
Joined across the nations: Joy (centre) with his African brothers, Duncan and Stephen.<br />
“...I will be able to take this love with<br />
me and work towards inspiring others<br />
to join me in taking up the challenge to<br />
put what I have seen into practice...”<br />
AS SPARKS OF FIRE<br />
SATISH CHETTRI, INDIA<br />
Satish Chettri<br />
“WHEN I FIRST got an email<br />
about Multiply, my impression<br />
was very positive but very careful,”<br />
says Satish Chettri. “But it<br />
came from a good source. Why<br />
not be a part of the blessing?”<br />
Satish was born in a staunch<br />
Hindu family. In 1986 at the age<br />
of 16, he received Christ as his<br />
Saviour in a youth camp. <strong>The</strong><br />
following year he co-founded<br />
the first Delhi Nepali Christian<br />
Fellowship. For almost 14 years<br />
he worked for the Bible Institute<br />
in Delhi and broadcast a<br />
popular programme, ‘Songs of<br />
<strong>Life</strong>’. A research project on the<br />
needs of the Nepali people then<br />
challenged him so much that in<br />
2001 he resigned and founded<br />
Grace Ministries, with a vision<br />
to reach out primarily to other<br />
Nepali people – but other nations<br />
too.<br />
Poverty is one of the biggest<br />
barriers he and his 32 co-workers<br />
face.<br />
“<strong>The</strong> practical need is always<br />
there,” explains Satish. “Nepali<br />
people in India are always<br />
poor. We have little solution<br />
for economic problems, but we<br />
have much solution for spiritual<br />
problems.<br />
“For example, I go to market<br />
and I see a man dying from<br />
hunger. I can give him all the<br />
bible verses I want; what he<br />
needs is bread and soup. We<br />
have to take immediate action.<br />
And yet, if I don’t share gospel,<br />
he could – as a healthy man<br />
– go to hell. We have to make<br />
him understand who <strong>Jesus</strong> is:<br />
this is the very vital heart of our<br />
ministry.”<br />
Satish was amazed by his<br />
stay in two of the Fellowship’s<br />
community houses. “I’d heard<br />
about ashrams. But I’d never<br />
seen this kind of community:<br />
people from different backgrounds<br />
and nations, all being<br />
a witness for Christ, sharing<br />
food, sharing a common purse.<br />
“Even in churches there are<br />
so many barriers and discriminations.<br />
Here your love for<br />
one another is so selfless. It is<br />
not possible only with human<br />
efforts. You are so saturated in<br />
the love of <strong>Jesus</strong>.<br />
“It is still unbelievable to<br />
me how it can work. I thought<br />
such things were only for the<br />
apostolic era!”<br />
Another surprising concept<br />
for Satish was celibacy, a<br />
lifelong vow to remain single.<br />
“This is the first time I’ve<br />
come to an organisation where<br />
people are encouraged to pray<br />
about this matter,” he says.<br />
“<strong>The</strong> way it is practised here I<br />
have never heard!”<br />
Satish, an avid networker, is<br />
looking forward to sharing the<br />
Multiply vision with others: “I<br />
am very much impressed by the<br />
conference. As leaders we need<br />
boost and encouragement. I<br />
believe many will go from here<br />
as sparks of fire to many parts<br />
of the world.”<br />
JL<br />
WHAT IS MULTIPLY?<br />
Multiply Christian Network is an<br />
apostolic stream which works<br />
through an informal network of<br />
churches and groups in the UK<br />
and around the world, initiated by<br />
the <strong>Jesus</strong> <strong>Army</strong> (<strong>Jesus</strong> Fellowship<br />
Church). It is a member of the<br />
Evangelical Alliance UK.<br />
Multiply seeks to operate<br />
internationally through key<br />
apostolic men who are<br />
responsible in their own countries<br />
for the growth and development<br />
of the network, communicating<br />
the vision and organising local<br />
conferences.<br />
WHO’S IT FOR?<br />
Multiply is open to fellowships<br />
large and small, from all cultures<br />
and races, as long as they accept<br />
a basic evangelical statement of<br />
faith.<br />
WHAT DOES IT<br />
OFFER?<br />
Relationships between leaders<br />
are central to the vision and<br />
are fostered through regular<br />
Multiply conferences, celebration<br />
gatherings and fellowship.<br />
Multiply partners have<br />
access to the <strong>Jesus</strong> Fellowship’s<br />
leadership and evangelism<br />
training plus a variety of<br />
resources, including free<br />
literature.<br />
MORE<br />
INFORMATION:<br />
Contact Multiply Director Huw<br />
Lewis Tel: +44 1327 344533<br />
Email: huw.lewis@jesus.org.uk<br />
or write to: <strong>Jesus</strong> Fellowship/<br />
Multiply Central Offices,<br />
Nether Heyford, Northampton,<br />
UK NN7 3LB
which is me?<br />
Jessica Thomas, 24, often used<br />
to feel like two people. “Shy<br />
serious Jessie” hid in her room,<br />
reading books and writing her<br />
diary. “Jess the rebel” went out<br />
on the town, breaking all the<br />
rules. It took a tragedy to set her<br />
on the path to discovering who<br />
she really was.<br />
FOR THE first fourteen years of her life,<br />
Jessica and her sister, Sophie, were<br />
brought up by their dad near Shepherd’s<br />
Bush, West London. Three of Jessica’s<br />
half-sisters and her half-brother lived with<br />
her mother in a different area of London.<br />
“Dad gave up his job as a fitter to become a<br />
single parent,” says Jessica. “Dad’s flat was<br />
small but he did a good job of looking after<br />
us: he moved out of his bedroom and slept<br />
on the sofa for years so we could have our<br />
own bedroom.<br />
“Secretly, dad was my hero. I should have<br />
been grateful for his care - but at the time<br />
I wasn’t. I loved him and was proud of the<br />
respect friends and neighbours had for him<br />
- there weren’t many single dads around at<br />
that time. But I felt angry because I never<br />
knew why I didn’t live with mum.<br />
“Dad was determined his daughters<br />
should be brought up properly. We weren’t<br />
allowed junk food. Instead, Dad sent us to<br />
school with mostly homemade lunches,<br />
including lemon juice in a re-used bottle.<br />
Embarrassing!”<br />
Jessica began to feel trapped - especially as<br />
her dad seemed even more strict with her<br />
than he was with Sophie. He insisted Jessica<br />
should go to a Catholic girls’ school run by<br />
nuns in Ladbroke Grove, while Sophie was<br />
allowed to go to a mixed school in Holland<br />
Park where they didn’t have to wear uniform.<br />
<strong>The</strong> two sisters already had problems<br />
getting on with each other - now the wedge<br />
was driven deeper until they were hardly<br />
speaking to each other.<br />
“My friends’ families all seemed so close<br />
and happy - why couldn’t we have a normal<br />
family life like them? At school I was getting<br />
bullied for being skinny and quiet. By the<br />
time I was twelve I often felt I belonged<br />
nowhere and that life was pointless. This led<br />
me to keep a diary. Now I could be myself<br />
and let out on paper all that was inside.”<br />
By the time Jessica was fourteen, even her<br />
diaries weren’t enough and one evening,<br />
near the end of 1996, she walked out of<br />
her dad’s flat. Two years of living with her<br />
mother and then an aunt followed. “Shy,<br />
serious Jessie” disappeared and in her place<br />
appeared “Jess the rebel”, who bunked<br />
off school with a friend to smoke draw or<br />
explore London by Tube.<br />
“I liked fun and spontaneous adventure:<br />
I was tired of being good. Living with mum<br />
didn’t last long - eventually we had a big<br />
argument over something silly and I lost it.<br />
Mum called the police to say I was sixteen<br />
and uncontrollable - she was kicking me<br />
Mum called the<br />
police to say I<br />
was sixteen and<br />
uncontrollable -<br />
she was kicking<br />
me out.<br />
out. A succession of Centre Point hostels<br />
followed.”<br />
Things went from bad to worse for Jessica<br />
and she started going out with a man who<br />
turned out to be violent. She managed to get<br />
away from him, but a few weeks later she<br />
discovered she was pregnant.<br />
“That calmed me down a bit!”<br />
Jessica felt she had something to live for<br />
at last. But eight weeks before the baby was<br />
due she went into premature labour and her<br />
dreams came crashing down.<br />
“I don’t remember much about what<br />
happened except for massive pain and the<br />
nurses giving me a spinal injection and<br />
telling me they were sorry but they couldn’t<br />
hear the baby’s heartbeat any more. On 27<br />
November 1999, Mya Shanay was stillborn.<br />
I felt her kicking only the day before but<br />
during labour she died inside me. I felt so<br />
empty.”<br />
Jessica was still only 17. One of her sisters,<br />
Elisha, came to support her and the hospital<br />
arranged a little funeral for Mya. <strong>The</strong>n Jessica<br />
went back to Camden and tried to carry<br />
on as normal.<br />
“Such a lot had happened to me in that<br />
year - but I had to be strong, didn’t I? For a<br />
long time I didn’t cry. I was determined not<br />
to. Instead I wrote a song to God and sung<br />
it to Him:<br />
Why did You take my baby? Was there a<br />
reason - You’ve got to tell me!<br />
“<strong>The</strong> following May, on my 18th birthday, I<br />
went clubbing with friends in King’s Cross.<br />
I’d loved that sort of thing before but now it<br />
seemed pointless. Mya’s death had matured<br />
me. I felt a longing to get away completely<br />
from everything that had been my past life<br />
and start all over again.”<br />
Seven months later, in January 2001, Jessica<br />
had an unexpected phone-call from a<br />
long-lost friend who was living with some<br />
Christians near Northampton. Would Jessica<br />
like to come down for a visit?<br />
Jessica’s childhood memories of ‘church’<br />
were a blurry mixture: hymns learnt by rote;<br />
big hats; manic Pentecostal praying and<br />
people falling all over the place.<br />
“‘Church’ had terrified me as a child but<br />
I decided to accept the invitation and my<br />
friend took me to my first <strong>Jesus</strong> Fellowship<br />
meeting. I remember feeling excited<br />
and happy and saying to myself ‘Wow<br />
- I’m home!’ I saw something and I went<br />
after it! It was only a gathering of ordinary<br />
people going to church but something was<br />
different. I became fascinated by <strong>Jesus</strong> and<br />
couldn’t get enough of the Bible - I’d never<br />
known the Bible was like this - it became my<br />
manual for life. <strong>Jesus</strong> became my best friend<br />
instead of my diary - Someone who knew all<br />
about me, but never rejected me. Fourteen<br />
months after my baby’s death, in January<br />
2001, just before my 19th birthday, I joined<br />
the church and moved in with a single mum<br />
and her family.<br />
“In the church I’ve found the place where I<br />
can stop hiding and be totally myself. I still<br />
love to sit quiet and listen but I also love to<br />
go out and befriend the homeless and the<br />
teenagers that hang around - just like I used<br />
to - and tell them about <strong>Jesus</strong>.”<br />
Now “serious Jessie” and “Jess the rebel”<br />
both have their place in Jessica’s new life. JL
RWANDAN COMMUNITY<br />
Dear brothers and sisters in the Lord,<br />
We are a Rwandan Christian community called <strong>The</strong><br />
New Humanity Mission. Since 1997, we have been<br />
living in Christian community, with all in common in true<br />
brotherhood.<br />
As all other Christians in our region were against us,<br />
we used to think that we were the only community with<br />
that vision in the whole world. Because of that constant<br />
opposition from our brothers, we were becoming weary in<br />
our determination, until God helped us and we found out<br />
about you. We then visited your website and read some<br />
of your brochures and books, notably “Kingdom Seekers”,<br />
“We Believe” and “Fire in our Hearts”.<br />
After reading about your testimony, we were very happy<br />
and thanked God for His mercy and kindness to you. We<br />
were particularly encouraged to realise that there are<br />
other brothers and sisters who have succeeded in that<br />
vision, even through persecutions and problems.<br />
As our elder brothers and sisters in that vision, we<br />
would like to know more about you to learn from your<br />
experience especially in community life.<br />
May heavenly blessings rain upon you. Your brothers<br />
and sisters in <strong>Jesus</strong>,<br />
<strong>Jesus</strong> <strong>Life</strong> Three/2006 Page 24<br />
electronic<br />
postbag<br />
If you’d like to send your prayer requests, or let<br />
us know what God has been doing in your life or<br />
you’d like to find out more about Him<br />
email: info@jesus.org.uk<br />
write: <strong>Jesus</strong> Fellowship, Nether Heyford,<br />
Northampton NN7 3LB<br />
New Humanity Mission<br />
RWANDA<br />
PHILIPPINES<br />
MISSION<br />
Hi, I am a missionary in the<br />
Philippine Islands. We have<br />
a large group that lives and<br />
travels together, preaching the<br />
gospel.<br />
I was interested to come<br />
across your site... I believe<br />
our people would like to know<br />
more about you.<br />
Jeff Pessina<br />
Director, Philippine Frontline<br />
Ministries, PHILIPPINES<br />
SALLY ARMY SOLDIER<br />
I am a Salvation <strong>Army</strong> soldier<br />
in California, passionate<br />
about serving Christ and a bit<br />
nervous about the institution<br />
that the Salvation <strong>Army</strong> has<br />
become (although praying for<br />
her revival and associating<br />
myself with those who are<br />
like-minded).<br />
I just stumbled on a PDF<br />
copy of Fire in our Hearts<br />
(see www.jesus.org.uk/vault/<br />
library_jabooks_index.shtml)<br />
and like what I’ve read so far.<br />
I noticed that the <strong>Jesus</strong> <strong>Army</strong><br />
traces its roots back to the<br />
Salvation <strong>Army</strong>.<br />
Ed Lamaster<br />
USA<br />
NEW CHRISTIAN<br />
Hi, I’m a new Christian (two<br />
months in the faith) and I<br />
want to know how I can know<br />
<strong>Jesus</strong> more. <strong>The</strong> advice you<br />
gave about reading the gospels<br />
and praying each day was<br />
helpful and I shall continue to<br />
do that, but if there’s anything<br />
more you could suggest I do<br />
to know <strong>Jesus</strong> more and love<br />
him more, then please let me<br />
know! I know that I need him,<br />
really need him, in my life.<br />
Thank you and God bless<br />
you all,<br />
Julie Dube<br />
UK<br />
NO LONGER<br />
MORMON<br />
I used to be a Mormon<br />
missionary and we lived over<br />
the road from the <strong>Jesus</strong> <strong>Army</strong><br />
meetings.<br />
Now I am part of a<br />
movement in Scotland, not a<br />
Mormon anymore, and within<br />
an evangelical charismatic<br />
movement. We don’t have<br />
the <strong>Jesus</strong> <strong>Army</strong> here, but you<br />
made a lasting impression.<br />
You guys are great! When are<br />
you coming up here?!<br />
Chris<br />
SCOTLAND<br />
ATHEIST RESPECT<br />
I think you Christians are<br />
good and decent people. As<br />
an atheist I have the greatest<br />
respect for you. I would like<br />
us to become friends. I think<br />
conceit and arrogance are the<br />
biggest barriers between us.<br />
We should try to understand<br />
each other as human beings<br />
and in that understanding<br />
rediscover the true<br />
brotherhood of man.<br />
Neil McBain<br />
UK<br />
NEW YORK RADICAL<br />
I’m very much interested<br />
in visiting one of your<br />
communities. I’m a radical<br />
Christian and a lover of <strong>Jesus</strong>.<br />
I’m from New York City, USA.<br />
I love to see other Christians<br />
bringing the true gospel to the<br />
world. I would love to be part<br />
of what you are doing in the<br />
UK, so please give me any<br />
information about the <strong>Jesus</strong><br />
<strong>Army</strong> and how I can visit one<br />
of your communities. That<br />
would be a blessing to me.<br />
Michael<br />
USA<br />
www.jesus.org.uk
JESUS<br />
IN TRAFALGAR SQUARE<br />
ê<br />
8 July 2006 saw the <strong>Jesus</strong> Fellowship<br />
taking to the streets in London, singing<br />
and dancing their way from Marble Arch<br />
to a colourful <strong>Jesus</strong> demo at Trafalgar<br />
Square. Mary Davies recorded her<br />
impressions of the day for <strong>Jesus</strong> <strong>Life</strong>.<br />
SUN IS shinin’, weather is sweet... it’s gonna be a good<br />
day! Start the day off by reading Ephesians chapter<br />
six in the minibus on the way to London... good to get<br />
psyched up for the big day, ‘putting on the armour of<br />
God’.<br />
Assembling for the march, excitement is rising. Sound<br />
of the drum beat. We are a crazy array of colour. What<br />
are we waiting for? Let’s go!<br />
We dance, shout and sing our way to Trafalgar<br />
Square, spreading the love of <strong>Jesus</strong> to the people of<br />
London... what an impact! <strong>The</strong> streets are alive with the<br />
Spirit of God like a fire bursting through the town.<br />
Treading on each others’ toes, clobbered by each others’<br />
flags, we rage onto Trafalgar like a tribe with a war<br />
cry and get stuck in; spread out! (Ah, our pastor’s got his<br />
summer hat on...)<br />
Members of the public mix in with us; all around people<br />
gossip the gospel amongst all the commotion. People<br />
hear the message and get a taste of life. I love this<br />
church’s boldness, its life. Unashamed and unafraid.<br />
<strong>The</strong> afternoon wears on... My legs are aching from so<br />
much dancing.<br />
Little Sarah grabs me by the hand and I’m off to try<br />
and catch a T-shirt being thrown from the stage! (Children<br />
are the perfect excuse to act like an idiot...)<br />
Three hours later, it’s over! Crowds disperse. We’re<br />
off to have tea in some park somewhere... time to chill.<br />
Until next time...<br />
Mary Davies Treading<br />
on each others’<br />
toes, clobbered<br />
by each others’<br />
flags, we rage<br />
onto Trafalgar<br />
like a tribe with<br />
a war cry.<br />
Wild at ‘the National’: <strong>Jesus</strong> <strong>Army</strong> dance in London’s centre<br />
PASSING BY...<br />
Simone an Italian on holiday<br />
in the UK for two weeks, stood<br />
looking on, clearly touched by<br />
the atmosphere and what was<br />
happening on stage. But he<br />
couldn’t understand how “<strong>Jesus</strong>”<br />
and “<strong>Army</strong>” went together until<br />
it was explained to him that the<br />
fight was not against people but<br />
against dark spiritual forces.<br />
He ended up having prayer to<br />
receive the Holy Spirit.<br />
Thomas from France had never<br />
seen anything like it and was<br />
clearly captivated by what he<br />
saw. He too requested prayer<br />
to receive the Holy Spirit and<br />
an assurance of forgiveness of<br />
sins. “This sort of event would<br />
be very welcome in France!” he<br />
said.<br />
JL
<strong>Jesus</strong> Centres<br />
WHAT ARE<br />
JESUS CENTRES?<br />
<strong>Jesus</strong> Centres are places<br />
where the love of <strong>Jesus</strong> is<br />
expressed daily in worship,<br />
care and friendship for every<br />
type of person. We offer<br />
a hand of friendship and<br />
a listening ear as well as<br />
functioning as a ‘gateway’ to<br />
other services and agencies.<br />
WHO RUNS THEM?<br />
<strong>Jesus</strong> Centres are run by the<br />
<strong>Jesus</strong> <strong>Army</strong> Charitable Trust<br />
(JACT), and are the initiative<br />
of the <strong>Jesus</strong> Fellowship<br />
Church (modern JESUS army).<br />
WHERE ARE THEY?<br />
Coventry and Northampton.<br />
London <strong>Jesus</strong> Centre will open<br />
spring 2007. We expect that<br />
eventually <strong>Jesus</strong> Centres will<br />
be found in many major towns<br />
and cities around the UK.<br />
MORE INFORMATION:<br />
www.jesuscentre.org.uk<br />
ESOL CLASSES:<br />
Thursdays (during term-time)<br />
10.15am - 12.15am and<br />
2.00pm to 4.00pm at the<br />
Northampton <strong>Jesus</strong> Centre,<br />
Abington Square, Northampton.<br />
WEI LOON was 16 when he<br />
came to England with his father<br />
from Malaysia four years ago. He<br />
couldn’t speak a word of English,<br />
and had a problem fitting in to<br />
the school system as he didn’t<br />
have sufficient qualifications<br />
for sixth-form college. A friend<br />
arranged for him to go to ESOL<br />
classes at the Northampton <strong>Jesus</strong><br />
Centre, and he went for a year<br />
and a half, also learning IT.<br />
Now he is living in a <strong>Jesus</strong><br />
Fellowship community house,<br />
working in a building firm and<br />
speaks fluent English.<br />
He enjoys his new life-style,<br />
especially living at “River<br />
Farmhouse”: “<strong>The</strong> people there<br />
are well close together. We have<br />
visitors, but it’s like a family.”<br />
JANA came to England from<br />
the Czech Republic in January<br />
this year because of her<br />
husband’s job. She has been attending<br />
a class since February.<br />
She has appreciated the<br />
opportunity to speak English:<br />
“You can learn something from<br />
a text book, but when you don’t<br />
speak you don’t learn.”<br />
HEWAIDA first read about free<br />
English classes in an advert<br />
in the local library, and came<br />
straight in to enrol. She had<br />
arrived from Egypt in April, and<br />
was planning to buy grammar<br />
books to learn to speak to her<br />
English brother-in law.<br />
She has regularly attended<br />
two classes a week since May,<br />
and was so pleased with her<br />
progress that she brought in her<br />
sister Safaa when she arrived in<br />
the country in June, describing<br />
the classes as ‘a big family’.<br />
“I was so lonely without my<br />
sister before, but when I came<br />
to the class I felt I was with<br />
friends,” Hewaida says.<br />
She also feels she has gained<br />
confidence in speaking – “Now<br />
I don’t have to think before I<br />
speak” - and has learned about<br />
places in the UK.<br />
Safaa noticed the improvement<br />
in her sister’s English:<br />
“Her writing is better as well.<br />
She’s more confident. It’s different<br />
writing from left to right,<br />
but her handwriting is much<br />
better.”<br />
She has also enjoyed the<br />
‘friendly and helpful’ atmosphere<br />
of the <strong>Jesus</strong> Centre, and<br />
meeting people from all over<br />
the world. She comments: “It’s<br />
nice to walk through Northampton<br />
and meet people you<br />
know.”<br />
Jana has also been to a<br />
college, but prefers a more<br />
informal atmosphere: “Here<br />
I can find a more personal<br />
approach. At college I asked<br />
for more preparation for the<br />
exam and they asked me what<br />
I wanted to know. Here the<br />
teacher is always prepared.”<br />
Safaa joined the class herself<br />
at the end of term, and is keen<br />
to improve her pronunciation.<br />
Hewaida has also been to a<br />
multi-cultural evening at the <strong>Jesus</strong><br />
Centre and hopes to return<br />
some time to teach Egyptian<br />
dancing.<br />
Hewaida and Safaa have both<br />
experienced difficulty in getting<br />
a job, and hope that more fluency<br />
in English will help them.<br />
<strong>The</strong>y feel disadvantaged by their<br />
nationality. Safaa says: “When I<br />
started to look for a job – I had<br />
three years’ experience of working<br />
in hotels – they rang me and<br />
said I was not qualified enough.<br />
I wanted to have a right to ask<br />
why.”<br />
Hewaida adds that sometimes<br />
“I go for a job and they tell<br />
me ‘no’. I remember the class<br />
and I feel better.”<br />
DELIA has worked as a volunteer<br />
classroom assistant for a year<br />
and a half. She has to be “aware<br />
and alert to notice when the<br />
students need help”. Sometimes<br />
she sits with someone who has<br />
additional needs.<br />
Her aim is “to make friends, to<br />
make the students’ lives easier<br />
and to create a culture of acceptance.”<br />
A Much-needed<br />
Welcome<br />
Sue Withers teaches English for<br />
Speakers of Other Languages at<br />
Northampton <strong>Jesus</strong> Centre; her<br />
intention is to do the same in<br />
the London <strong>Jesus</strong> Centre when it<br />
opens in Spring 2007.<br />
‘You made it feel like home when I<br />
had first arrived and felt so lonely’<br />
A recent student in Northampton <strong>Jesus</strong> Centre ESOL class<br />
Delia understands what it is<br />
like to be new to the country, because<br />
when she first arrived from<br />
Romania in 2001 she worked as a<br />
volunteer for a clothing company<br />
and felt “paranoid and weird”<br />
because she couldn’t understand<br />
English humour. She was thrown<br />
out of her accommodation, but<br />
found “home” in the church.<br />
For her the work involves “a<br />
real concern for people, in and<br />
out of lessons”, but it is also good<br />
fun. She enjoys seeing them<br />
come in “all sleepy but go out<br />
lively”; being more determined<br />
to learn.<br />
Delia is looking into the training<br />
needed to become a teacher<br />
herself, having been teachertrained<br />
in Romania but without<br />
work experience.<br />
“CAN YOU IMAGINE yourself<br />
arriving, sometimes through<br />
difficulty, in a bewildering foreign<br />
environment where you<br />
can’t speak the language?<br />
“Can you imagine yourself<br />
grappling with incomprehensible<br />
forms, unable to<br />
understand the signs in a<br />
supermarket, baffled by the<br />
GP receptionist or dumb in the<br />
face of hostility?<br />
“In my career as an ESOL<br />
(English for Speakers of Other<br />
Languages) teacher my students<br />
have told me stories like<br />
these.<br />
“In the <strong>Jesus</strong> Centre our aim<br />
is to teach immediate survival<br />
English to those at the lowest<br />
level of speaking and listening,<br />
but also improve the literacy,<br />
pronunciation and grammar<br />
of more advanced students.<br />
“Classes can be a shock to<br />
those who expect to come<br />
and quietly listen. <strong>The</strong> aim<br />
is to have 30% teacher talk<br />
and 70% student participation.<br />
<strong>The</strong>re is group work, role<br />
play, hands-on activities and<br />
communication games. It’s an<br />
opportunity to hear about different<br />
cultures, to allow people<br />
to open up about things they<br />
need to express and to discuss<br />
our values.<br />
“I believe that God loves justice<br />
and cares for the foreigner.<br />
For me, the ESOL class is more<br />
than teaching English or even<br />
imparting an understanding<br />
of English culture. It is an<br />
opportunity to give a muchneeded<br />
welcome, offer a sense<br />
of family and share a taste of<br />
the Kingdom of God.”<br />
JL<br />
<strong>Jesus</strong> <strong>Life</strong> Three/2006 Page 26<br />
www.jesuscentre.org.uk<br />
<strong>Jesus</strong> <strong>Life</strong> Three/2006 Page 27
t<br />
t<br />
s<br />
SATURDAY<br />
14 Oct<br />
SATURDAY<br />
11 Nov<br />
SATURDAY<br />
25 Nov<br />
SATURDAY<br />
30 Dec<br />
SATURDAY<br />
27 Jan 2007<br />
national<br />
events<br />
<strong>Jesus</strong> Fellowship UK / modern <strong>Jesus</strong> army<br />
MEN<br />
ALIVE FOR GOD<br />
From 11.00am <strong>Jesus</strong> Centre,<br />
Abington Square, NORTHAMPTON<br />
MULTIPLY<br />
LEADERS<br />
CONFERENCE<br />
From 10.30am Cornhill Manor,<br />
Pattishall, NORTHAMPTON<br />
UK<br />
PRAISE DAY<br />
2.00pm & 6.15pm Ponds Forge<br />
Sports Centre, Sheaf Street, SHEFFIELD<br />
JESUS<br />
CELEBRATION<br />
2.00pm & 6.00pm <strong>Jesus</strong> Centre,<br />
Abington Square, NORTHAMPTON<br />
CHURCH<br />
GROWTH<br />
CONFERENCE<br />
From 11.00am <strong>Jesus</strong> Centre,<br />
Abington Square, NORTHAMPTON<br />
ALL FREE / ALL WELCOME / NO PREJUDICE<br />
Info: <strong>Jesus</strong> Fellowship, FREEPOST, Nether Heyford, Northampton NN7 3BR<br />
t: 0845 123 5550 e: info@jesus.org.uk www.jesus.org.uk<br />
a very special invitation<br />
n e w f r i e n d s<br />
i n t r o d u c t o r y c o u r s e - t h e c h r i s t i a n f a i t h t o d a y<br />
attractive scene<br />
friendly vibes<br />
lively music<br />
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RADICAL<br />
BITES #02<br />
God’s kingdom<br />
is good news for<br />
the outsider and<br />
the have-not.<br />
CHECK OUT the opening chapters<br />
of Luke. <strong>The</strong>y all begin with<br />
big-wigs (King Herod, Caesar<br />
this, Caesar that, governor the<br />
other, High Priests, tetrarchs...)<br />
but then immediately wheel<br />
round to focus on “nobodies”<br />
on the edge of things – two<br />
childless pensioners, an obscure<br />
village woman, a freak in the<br />
desert, a bunch of illiterate<br />
shepherds.<br />
<strong>The</strong> point? This is their<br />
story, not the story of the big<br />
cheeses. <strong>The</strong> human map is<br />
being re-drawn, the world is<br />
“being turned upside down”.<br />
<strong>The</strong> world’s way of measuring a<br />
person’s worth – wealth, power,<br />
status – is being over-turned.<br />
<strong>The</strong> early chapters of Luke<br />
aren’t about pop stars. It’s an<br />
unmarried pregnant teenager<br />
who sings, “He has brought<br />
down rulers from their thrones<br />
but has lifted up the humble. He<br />
has filled the hungry with good<br />
things but the rich He has sent<br />
empty away.” (Luke 1:52-53)<br />
<strong>The</strong>n Zechariah, an obscure<br />
priest joins in: “<strong>The</strong> rising sun<br />
will come to us from heaven<br />
to shine on those living in<br />
darkness and in the shadow of<br />
death.” (Luke 1:78-79)<br />
And John the wilderness<br />
weirdo sings verse three: “Pre-<br />
pare the way for the Lord, make<br />
straight paths for him. Every<br />
valley shall be filled in, every<br />
mountain made low!” (Luke 3:<br />
4-5)<br />
At first glance this may<br />
seem to be about free lunches,<br />
holidays for refugees and, er,<br />
landscape gardening?<br />
Actually, it’s about the justice<br />
which has arrived with the<br />
king – in effect, the privileged<br />
high-ups (mountains) will be<br />
humbled and the down-ontheir-luck<br />
(valleys) lifted. <strong>The</strong><br />
hungry fed; the dispossessed<br />
given a sunny home. Heaven’s<br />
reign arriving.<br />
So the king of the poor puts<br />
it like this. “<strong>The</strong> Spirit of the<br />
Lord is upon me, because he<br />
has anointed me to preach good<br />
news to the poor… to release<br />
the oppressed, to proclaim the<br />
year of the Lord’s favour.” (Luke<br />
4:18-19)<br />
Favour for whom? Draw your<br />
own conclusions.<br />
JL<br />
‘Isn’t it clear by now that God operates<br />
quite differently? He chose the world’s<br />
down-and-outs as the kingdom’s first<br />
citizens, with full rights and privileges.’<br />
(James 2:5,<strong>The</strong> Message)
marie lutter<br />
pete jones<br />
MULTIPLY CHURCHES AND GROUPS MEET ALL OVER THE UK<br />
RING UP AND FIND OUT WHAT’S GOING ON IN YOUR AREA!<br />
BIRMINGHAM <strong>Jesus</strong> Fellowship Church......................... 0845 166 8153<br />
BLACKBURN Hyndburn Christian Fellowship................ (01254) 876980<br />
BLACKBURN Rishton Christian Fellowship................... (01254) 887790<br />
BRIDGEND <strong>The</strong> Bridge Community Church................... (01656) 655635<br />
BRIGHTON & HOVE <strong>Jesus</strong> Fellowship Church................ 0845 166 8151<br />
CHATHAM House Of Prayer For All Nations.................. (01634) 669933<br />
CHATHAM King’s Church Medway ................................. (01634) 847477<br />
COVENTRY <strong>Jesus</strong> Fellowship Church.............................. 0845 166 8154<br />
CROYDON <strong>Jesus</strong> Fellowship Church............................... 0845 226 1972<br />
DEAL Christchurch.......................................................... (01304) 366512<br />
HIGH WYCOMBE Church of Shalom............................... (01494) 449408<br />
IPSWICH <strong>Jesus</strong> Fellowship Church................................. 0845 166 8156<br />
KETTERING <strong>Jesus</strong> Fellowship Church............................. 0845 166 8157<br />
LEEDS <strong>Jesus</strong> Fellowship Church..................................... 0845 166 8167<br />
LEICESTER <strong>Jesus</strong> Fellowship Church ............................. 0845 644 9705<br />
LIVERPOOL <strong>Jesus</strong> Fellowship Church ............................ 0845 166 8168<br />
LONDON N Glad Tidings Evangelical Church............... (020) 8245 9002<br />
LONDON S Bible <strong>Life</strong> Family Ministries ....................... (020) 8689 2244<br />
LONDON SE Understanding Ministries ....................... (020) 8855 3087<br />
LONDON SE Ephratah Int’l Gospel Praise Centre....... (020) 8469 0047<br />
LONDON SE Flaming Evangelical Ministries .............. (020) 8694 2083<br />
LONDON SE Hope of Glory Int’l Ministries .................. (020) 8694 6<strong>73</strong>8<br />
LONDON SE Mission Together for Christ..................... (020) 7401 2687<br />
LONDON <strong>Jesus</strong> Fellowship Church................................. 0845 166 8152<br />
MANCHESTER <strong>Jesus</strong> Fellowship Church........................ 0845 166 8169<br />
MILTON KEYNES <strong>Jesus</strong> Fellowship Church .................... 0845 166 8159<br />
NORTHAMPTON <strong>Jesus</strong> Fellowship Church .................... 0845 166 8161<br />
NORWICH <strong>Jesus</strong> Fellowship Church............................... 0845 166 8162<br />
NOTTINGHAM <strong>Jesus</strong> Fellowship Church......................... 0845 166 8163<br />
OXFORD <strong>Jesus</strong> Fellowship Church.................................. 0845 166 8164<br />
RAMSEY HOLLOW (Cambs) Christians United.............. (01487) 815528<br />
SHEFFIELD <strong>Jesus</strong> Fellowship Church............................. 0845 166 8183<br />
STOKE-ON-TRENT <strong>Jesus</strong> Fellowship Church................... 0845 123 5334<br />
JESUS FELLOWSHIP GROUPS ALSO MEET REGULARLY IN:<br />
BELFAST............................................................................0845 123 5552<br />
BOURNEMOUTH ..............................................................0845 123 5558<br />
BRISTOL ...........................................................................0845 123 5339<br />
CHESTER/NORTH WALES ................................................0845 123 5561<br />
HASTINGS ........................................................................0845 123 5551<br />
NEWCASTLE-UPON-TYNE ................................................0845 166 8187<br />
PRESTON .........................................................................0845 123 5554<br />
SWANSEA ........................................................................0845 123 5556<br />
WALSALL...........................................................................0845 123 5563<br />
WOLVERHAMPTON...........................................................0845 123 5564<br />
RAAAAGHAH FEEL<br />
“CHEATS”, “scroungers”,<br />
“criminals” – media words for<br />
asylum seekers. Most asylum<br />
seekers arrive with nothing,<br />
fleeing persecution, war, and<br />
threat of death; seeking a safe<br />
refuge. Often traumatised, they<br />
are dependent on interpreters,<br />
solicitors, and an inadequate<br />
“support” system.<br />
Imagine: you’re in a strange<br />
culture; you don’t speak the<br />
language; you have ten days to<br />
prepare and submit your case<br />
in that language, knowing the<br />
system is loaded against you.<br />
Happy with that?<br />
<strong>The</strong> asylum system often<br />
regards people as just numbers.<br />
Above 90 per cent of asylum<br />
seekers receive a “no” from the<br />
Home Office. Support and accommodation<br />
is cut; they end<br />
up destitute. Many depend on<br />
friends themselves below the<br />
poverty line. <strong>The</strong>y face pressures<br />
of deportation.<br />
Stress, grinding poverty, uncertainty:<br />
all produce high levels<br />
of sickness and mental health<br />
problems for asylum seekers.<br />
Many become depressed and<br />
turn to drugs or even suicide.<br />
Many asylum seekers have<br />
high levels of professional skills.<br />
<strong>The</strong>y want to work, but are not<br />
allowed to while their case is<br />
being determined: “supported”<br />
(ha!) at 30 per cent below the<br />
accepted minimum living<br />
standard; accommodated in<br />
poor housing in “hard to let” inner<br />
city areas. If they do receive<br />
permission to stay in this country<br />
as refugees, they face great<br />
difficulties in finding houses<br />
or jobs and are discriminated<br />
against on every hand.<br />
Christians are commanded to<br />
love the stranger and welcome<br />
the poor, showing them the love<br />
of Christ: “Inasmuch as you did<br />
it to them you did it to me.”<br />
Let’s speak out for those who<br />
have no voices and break down<br />
the unjust barriers in our society.<br />
www.jesus.org.uk<br />
BETTER?<br />
www.jesus.org.uk<br />
<strong>Jesus</strong> <strong>Life</strong> hears<br />
from mJa members<br />
about what makes<br />
them bubble with<br />
excitement... or boil<br />
with rage.<br />
THE BIBLE shows us that our<br />
awesome and eternal God is<br />
passionately involved in getting<br />
us into what is really happening<br />
here on planet Earth - His story.<br />
What a privilege to be able<br />
to read this. It hasn’t always<br />
been that way. For centuries,<br />
the Bible was only available to<br />
an educated few. Everyday folk<br />
could only hear some of it (if<br />
they were lucky) on a Sunday in<br />
church – and then only if they<br />
spoke Latin! Yep, that’s right,<br />
for nearly a thousand years you<br />
had to speak a dying language in<br />
order to understand the life-giving<br />
words of the living God.<br />
So I raise a shout of respect<br />
and gratitude those who<br />
ensured that we have access<br />
to God’s Word today, men so<br />
consumed with passion for<br />
the gospel that they decided to<br />
stand up and shout it out from<br />
the rooftops for everyone to<br />
hear.<br />
John Wycliffe, Martin Luther,<br />
William Tyndale and others<br />
stepped out of history and<br />
into God’s story, joining ranks<br />
with the very men they would<br />
have us read about. <strong>The</strong>y were<br />
pursued, imprisoned, exiled<br />
and martyred for acting on<br />
their conviction that all people<br />
should have access to God’s<br />
Word in their own tongue – be<br />
that German, English or Swahili.<br />
After all didn’t God himself<br />
reveal this to us at Pentecost?<br />
Having received this book at<br />
such cost, should I not also read<br />
and live in the hope of its invitation<br />
to us: to meet God and<br />
then step out into the adventure<br />
of His story too?<br />
JL<br />
<strong>Jesus</strong> <strong>Life</strong> Three/2006 Page 31
A MULTIPLY<br />
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from Multiply Publications<br />
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whether <strong>Jesus</strong>’ teaching and example is a possibility in the 21st century.<br />
If it is, it will be essential for bringing healing to a broken and sick world.’<br />
- Roger Forster, Leader, Ichthus Christian Fellowship UK, from his Preface.<br />
One Heart and Soul<br />
Christian Community for the 21st Century<br />
by Trevor Saxby<br />
One Heart and Soul<br />
Christian Community for the 21st Century<br />
‘Let’s talk’ booklet<br />
for those wanting<br />
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One Heart<br />
and Soul<br />
Trevor Saxby<br />
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Daniel<br />
and<br />
Jemma<br />
Stuart<br />
David<br />
and<br />
Belinda<br />
Ian<br />
Steve<br />
and<br />
Val<br />
‘<br />
Janie<br />
<strong>The</strong>y were not to live like the nations around them,<br />
but were to pioneer a new lifestyle,<br />
such as befitted a people set apart by God.<br />
Available from <strong>Jesus</strong> People Shop, Nether Heyford, Northampton NN7 3LB<br />
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