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Fire in our hearts - Jesus Army

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FIRE IN OUR HEARTS THE LORD TOOK HOLD OF BUGBROOKE<br />

the Scriptures he failed to see a vegetarian <strong>Jesus</strong>, so he gave<br />

it up — much to the relief of the dogs!<br />

Rufus also burned his mystical books. But the house quickly<br />

filled with black smoke and they all rushed <strong>in</strong>to the garden!<br />

The police soon got <strong>in</strong>terested <strong>in</strong> all these hippy com<strong>in</strong>gs and<br />

go<strong>in</strong>gs, and at two <strong>in</strong> the morn<strong>in</strong>g the <strong>in</strong>nocent freaks were<br />

busted! In came the law with a search warrant but all they<br />

found was a pile of <strong>Jesus</strong> leaflets and One Way tee-shirts.<br />

Perplexed, they sniffed out a jar of herbal tea and took it away<br />

triumphantly for test<strong>in</strong>g. As soon as the door closed, the hippies<br />

all rolled around laugh<strong>in</strong>g. Rufus had only just disposed<br />

of his last ‘grass’ plants.<br />

By now John Thom was established <strong>in</strong> a house at Almond Close<br />

on the Bugbrooke estate. There he gathered some unlikely<br />

characters: a biker, an ex-monk, the eccentric chap with the<br />

badges, and a fairly normal Christian lad, who had turned up<br />

late one night on the back of his dad’s Honda 50. It was a<br />

crash c<strong>our</strong>se <strong>in</strong> relationships; for John it was a crash c<strong>our</strong>se<br />

<strong>in</strong> leadership.<br />

He also manned the ‘<strong>Jesus</strong> Lifel<strong>in</strong>e’ telephone and recorded<br />

a new message late every night. ‘Phone every day. Drive gloom<br />

away!’ was the motto and up to sixty people a day left a recorded<br />

response to the message — some none too sav<strong>our</strong>y!<br />

Amidst all the excitement we needed to steer a firm c<strong>our</strong>se<br />

and see what God was do<strong>in</strong>g. One th<strong>in</strong>g was clear to us — a<br />

new society was emerg<strong>in</strong>g whose roots were not <strong>in</strong> an old<br />

tradition but <strong>in</strong> a new work of God.<br />

There was a great mix. Students from Oxford began to visit<br />

us, three or f<strong>our</strong> lay preachers had jo<strong>in</strong>ed us, and God was<br />

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