Fire in our hearts - Jesus Army

FIRE IN OUR HEARTS
ON THE MARCH
‘We want to pay it for him. No strings attached.
‘Just like Jesus paid our debt,’ someone added. They took the
money. They knew we were different. Our words didn’t get
through. Our actions did. 75
It was spring 1984. This story was printed in Jesus People
Lifenews. We were in Milton Keynes, visiting pubs and singing
in the shopping centre. The hassler, Nathan, was a black
street kid and he came to the Lord. He backslid in detention
centre, but the Farm prayed for him, wrote to him, visited
him, and he came through. They won his heart.
Who were the Jesus People? The Bugbrooke freaks, of
course! Over a decade had passed since we had first been
given the name — and it had stuck. Early believers were
‘Christians!’ Wesley’s folk were called ‘Methodists!’ (and got
pelted with rocks and rotten eggs!). We were Jesus People. It
was a good name, and we were proud to have it. Lifenews
was our new evangelistic paper and contained many of our
people’s stories.
Our outreach was continuing along the lines of friendshipevangelism
and church building. We looked for those with an
eagerness for discipleship and began to expect the supernatural
to follow kingdom proclamation. But we were now
entering a new phase as the ‘Jesus People’ went high profile
with stickers, banners, tracts, hand-outs, newspapers, discreet
metal badges and not-so-discreet plastic ones.
‘This is where I came in!’ some of us thought.
‘Jesus phones’ were set aside in some houses for those seeking
help or information. Gold labels adorned our free literature
with the slogan JESUS 84 — God Loves To Save Us! There
242