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TACKLING DEBT • KOLBE: MAKING THE ULTIMATE SACRIFICE • TRAILBLAZING GAMING APP<br />
FORALL<br />
ALL<br />
MEET<br />
AMES<br />
LUSTED<br />
THE ‘THREE FOOT<br />
SEVEN DWARF’<br />
BAD?<br />
THE SPOTLIGHT’S ON<br />
USTIN<br />
BIEBER<br />
REASONS FOR<br />
HOPE<br />
CELEBRATING BOTH<br />
CHRISTMAS & EASTER<br />
AFTER COVID<br />
JOIN<br />
JOANNA<br />
& SIMON’S<br />
WELLBEING<br />
JOURNEY<br />
DE VILLIERS<br />
BATTING FOR<br />
GOD
Editor:<br />
Catherine Butcher<br />
Design:<br />
S2 Design & Advertising Ltd<br />
Print & Distribution:<br />
Belmont Press<br />
Photos:<br />
Alamy, Getty, Istock,<br />
PA Images, Shutterstock<br />
Publisher:<br />
HOPE Together,<br />
8A Market Place, Rugby,<br />
Warwickshire<br />
CV21 3DU<br />
office@hopetogether.org.uk<br />
01788 542782<br />
©HOPE Together <strong>2021</strong>.<br />
Acceptance of advertising<br />
does not imply<br />
endorsement.<br />
HOPE 08 Ltd.<br />
Registered Company<br />
No. 05801431<br />
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No. 1116005<br />
HOPE <strong>for</strong> <strong>All</strong> is<br />
published by HOPE<br />
Together in<br />
partnership with <strong>Hope</strong><br />
<strong>for</strong> Every Home. Visit<br />
hope<strong>for</strong>all.org.uk to<br />
watch videos linked<br />
to the features in the<br />
magazine.<br />
FORALL<br />
WELCOME<br />
How are you as<br />
we emerge<br />
from a year of<br />
Covid lockdowns? Maybe, like my family,<br />
you’ll decide that it makes sense to celebrate<br />
Christmas and Easter together when larger<br />
gatherings are allowed this year. I’ve also joined<br />
the Wellbeing Journey – find out more in this<br />
issue. As always we turn the spotlight on<br />
celebrities and their faith. And we’ve good<br />
news stories from people who’ve tackled<br />
debt successfully, as well as lots more.<br />
HOPE <strong>for</strong> <strong>All</strong> is a free gift from your local<br />
church. It points to the hope found by people<br />
who follow Jesus. To find out more, ask the<br />
person who gave you this magazine, your local<br />
church or visit hope<strong>for</strong>all.org.uk.<br />
Catherine Butcher<br />
HOPE’s Communications director<br />
04<br />
10<br />
13<br />
16<br />
20<br />
23<br />
26<br />
28<br />
THE JOURNEY TO<br />
GREATER WELLBEING<br />
Join TV presenters Joanna and<br />
Simon on The Wellbeing Journey<br />
ALL BAD?<br />
Justin Bieber under the<br />
celebrity spotlight<br />
PASSION FOR LIFE<br />
Meet James Lusted, the ‘three<br />
foot seven dwarf’<br />
REASONS FOR HOPE<br />
Celebrating Christmas and<br />
Easter together<br />
LET’S PLAY<br />
Discover the game played by<br />
1.6 million children<br />
MONEY MATTERS<br />
Imagine what it is like to lose<br />
your home<br />
THE ULTIMATE SACRIFICE<br />
80 years ago a Polish man died.<br />
Find out why<br />
BATTING FOR GOD<br />
Meet cricketing legend<br />
AB de Villiers<br />
hopetogether.org.uk<br />
visit us online<br />
hope<strong>for</strong>all.org.uk hopetogether.org.uk/shop christianity.org.uk<br />
watch the<br />
featured videos<br />
order more copies<br />
of this magazine<br />
or discover other<br />
resources from HOPE<br />
find answers to<br />
your questions<br />
about Christianity<br />
HOPE FOR ALL 3
HEALTH<br />
Join TV presenters<br />
Joanna and Simon on<br />
The Wellbeing Journey.<br />
Catherine Butcher reports<br />
THE JOURNEY TO GREATER<br />
WELLBEING<br />
loved going on<br />
The Wellbeing Journey.’<br />
‘Iabsolutely<br />
That’s the verdict of<br />
Joanna Adeyinka-Bur<strong>for</strong>d, who<br />
presents this new eight-part<br />
video series with sports TV<br />
pundit Simon Thomas.<br />
Joanna, who has appeared on<br />
shows including CBeebies’ The Let’s<br />
Go Club, Home and Away, Little<br />
Britain and Holby City, said the<br />
journey was ‘incredible – we met so<br />
many great people who were so inspiring’.<br />
The Wellbeing Journey is a series run by churches<br />
around the UK exploring holistic wellness: body, mind<br />
and spirit. It’s based around seven key areas of<br />
wellbeing – the wellbeing mindset, physical, emotional,<br />
spiritual, relational, financial and vocational – to help us<br />
Alan and Julie talk about the<br />
'nightmare' of payday loans<br />
discover how to run on a full tank,<br />
rather than running on empty.<br />
Joanna said the experts they<br />
met challenged them to<br />
Joanna meets Steve Uppal, a church<br />
think about each of these<br />
leader and expert on healthy living<br />
areas, to know what steps<br />
to take to improve their overall<br />
wellbeing: ‘I found it so interesting that<br />
your physical wellbeing has a knock-on<br />
effect <strong>for</strong> your relational wellbeing and<br />
your emotional wellbeing.’ The way<br />
different aspects of our wellbeing are<br />
connected made the journey ‘definitely<br />
something I’ve got to take hold of,’ she added.<br />
Simon explained how to start the Journey: ‘Firstly,<br />
we need to be honest with ourselves about where we<br />
are at. But then we need to be honest with others –<br />
those we trust around us that we can off-load on;<br />
people we can be vulnerable with. That’s not always<br />
4 HOPE FOR ALL
easy.’ He added, ‘This journey’s<br />
a marathon, not a sprint!’<br />
To make the series, the duo<br />
took to the road in two Wellbeing<br />
Journey Minis, interviewing a range<br />
of experts around the country to<br />
find ways to improve different<br />
aspects of their wellbeing. ‘Even<br />
part-way through the filming, I’d already<br />
started to make changes,’ Joanna said.<br />
‘I’m already on the journey.’<br />
Small change<br />
Joanna’s first change came as a<br />
result of meeting John Kirkby,<br />
the founder of CAP (Christians<br />
Against Poverty). The charity<br />
offers debt counselling, money<br />
management, job clubs, life skills<br />
groups and support <strong>for</strong><br />
people breaking habits<br />
which are controlling their<br />
lives. John is one of the<br />
experts featured in the<br />
Financial Wellbeing session.<br />
‘Finance is one of the<br />
areas I needed to address,’<br />
Joanna admitted. ‘I’m selfemployed<br />
and I find budgeting really difficult because<br />
I never know what’s coming in each month. John gave<br />
me some really good tools to put in place. Be<strong>for</strong>e the<br />
end of filming the series I’d already done those things<br />
and felt a sense of freedom. It was not that I had any<br />
more money, but I knew what I was doing. I had a plan<br />
in place.’<br />
Joanna was also inspired by the physical wellbeing<br />
session. ‘I met lots of people who exercise with their<br />
partners – it’s such a good way to build relational<br />
wellbeing at the same time as improving physical<br />
wellbeing.’ She put the idea into practice by taking<br />
her seven-year-old son out running with her.<br />
‘As he gets older he’s probably going to talk to me<br />
less. If we are exercising together out on a run, there<br />
Simon meets clinical psychologist<br />
Dr Rosemary Gomes<br />
Simon meets Pete Greig, from the 24-7 Prayer<br />
movement, to talk about spiritual wellbeing<br />
Meeting Jill Garrett to talk about<br />
vocational wellbeing was a highlight<br />
of the series <strong>for</strong> Joanna<br />
Your physical wellbeing has<br />
a knock-on effect <strong>for</strong> your<br />
relational wellbeing and<br />
emotional wellbeing<br />
are no distractions, no TV, nothing<br />
else to stop us talking. It will keep<br />
us fit and will also help with our<br />
relationship.’<br />
Time <strong>for</strong> God<br />
Simon’s key take-home lesson<br />
came from the spiritual<br />
wellbeing session. ‘As a<br />
Christian’, he said, ‘I know this<br />
already, but it was a reminder<br />
that when it comes to our<br />
overall wellbeing, particularly if<br />
we do have a faith, developing<br />
our relationship with God<br />
means carving out time, being<br />
disciplined when it comes to listening<br />
to him. We’ve got to learn to hear<br />
God’s voice and to recognise his voice.<br />
We’ve got to set aside time. It doesn’t<br />
mean everything becomes easy but<br />
some of the other areas in life – our<br />
emotional wellbeing, our<br />
finances, our jobs – do become<br />
easier to manage even if they<br />
aren’t going particularly well.’<br />
That lesson hit home <strong>for</strong><br />
Simon in an interview with<br />
Pastor Agu Irukwu, one of the experts he met filming<br />
the Wellbeing Journey. Pastor Agu once topped a poll<br />
organised by the Metro newspaper and the Mayor<br />
of London to find Britain’s most influential black<br />
person. He is based at Jesus House in North London<br />
and leads the Redeemed Christian Church of God<br />
(RCCG) in the UK. The RCCG is the world’s fastest<br />
growing group of churches.<br />
Pastor Agu regularly blocks out extended periods<br />
of time to listen to God and spend time worshipping<br />
him. Simon asked him what gets in the way of hearing<br />
from God. Pastor Agu’s immediate response was to<br />
point to our busy lives. ‘We get on this treadmill – it’s<br />
frantic, it’s frenetic – and there are so many competing<br />
voices in the world today. It makes it challenging and<br />
HOPE FOR ALL 5
HEALTH<br />
difficult to hear God with all that<br />
noise.’<br />
But to encourage us to make<br />
a start to improve our spiritual<br />
wellbeing Pastor Agu added, ‘He<br />
speaks to everybody. There are<br />
no favourites; no special people.’<br />
When asked what steps to<br />
take to hear God, he explained, ‘The first thing, of<br />
course, is to show up. Set a time and get into a pattern<br />
of meeting with God. The second thing I encourage<br />
people to do is to study the Bible.<br />
Create time to read, study and<br />
meditate on the Word of God.<br />
Intentionally develop a relationship<br />
with the Holy Spirit. Since he’s<br />
the one who’s going to do the<br />
speaking – it’s through his Spirit<br />
to my spirit that God speaks – so we<br />
should pay attention to him.<br />
‘No matter where you are – in a difficult place<br />
going through a trying time or in a challenging period –<br />
Simon meets Pastor Agu Irukwu<br />
at Jesus House, London<br />
TEST YOURSELF<br />
These are some of the questions you<br />
will tackle on The Wellbeing Journey<br />
PHYSICAL<br />
WELLBEING<br />
1. Think of a time when you<br />
were in great shape physically.<br />
How did this make you feel?<br />
2. What challenges do you think<br />
we face through the areas of<br />
diet, sleep and exercise?<br />
3. What do you think motivates<br />
people to make a positive<br />
change?<br />
4. If you believe in God, what do<br />
you think he thinks about the<br />
human body? If you’re not sure<br />
about God, what do you think<br />
the Christian God thinks about<br />
our physical wellbeing?<br />
EMOTIONAL<br />
WELLBEING<br />
1. What do you like to do to<br />
refuel when you are under<br />
pressure? Where do you like<br />
to go?<br />
2. Which statement do you think<br />
your closest friends would say<br />
best describes you: heart on<br />
your sleeve OR a closed book?<br />
Why?<br />
3. How often do you take note<br />
of how you feel?<br />
4. How do you respond when<br />
you face challenging times?<br />
5. How do you express gratitude?<br />
SPIRITUAL<br />
WELLBEING<br />
1. What practices does society<br />
associate with spirituality?<br />
2. Which traditions are part of<br />
the UK’s Christian heritage?<br />
3. Do you think of God as a<br />
Father with the door always<br />
open, or do you have another<br />
picture of God?<br />
4. Pastor Agu organises his life so<br />
he hears from God. Have you<br />
ever consciously connected<br />
with God?<br />
5. What practices can help us<br />
to hear from God?<br />
6 HOPE FOR ALL
just a word of com<strong>for</strong>t from God<br />
makes all the difference. You<br />
know “I can get through this”.<br />
God might not have told you<br />
how to get through it, but he<br />
might tell you “Don’t worry, I’m<br />
with you in this!”.’<br />
Simon described the<br />
experience of hearing from God<br />
as ‘rocket fuel’ and ‘a rudder’ <strong>for</strong> life and Pastor Agu<br />
agreed: ‘My life unravels once that part of my life<br />
is out of sync.’<br />
The Wellbeing Journey is the brainchild of<br />
another church leader – Dave Smith from KingsGate<br />
Community Church in Peterborough. He devised it<br />
because he became aware that ‘wellbeing’ was of<br />
Paul McGee, known as the Sumo Guy, talks to<br />
Joanna about relational wellbeing<br />
prime concern in our culture. He<br />
explained, ‘In a conversation with the<br />
CEO of our local council, she simply<br />
declared that from her perspective<br />
wellbeing was “the key issue” in<br />
society. This was in late September<br />
2019. Now we have had the<br />
whole world seriously impacted by<br />
the Covid-19 crisis. It seems as if the hugely disruptive<br />
effects of the crisis have only made this subject of<br />
even greater importance <strong>for</strong> so many.<br />
‘Whether you consider yourself a person of faith<br />
or not, whether you are struggling with areas of<br />
wellbeing, or just want to get healthier, I hope The<br />
Wellbeing Journey will be of great benefit to you’.<br />
RELATIONAL<br />
WELLBEING<br />
1. Are you someone who prefers<br />
a few close friends or a wide<br />
social network?<br />
2. When you are under pressure,<br />
what is your natural tendency –<br />
to be left alone or to crave<br />
company?<br />
3. When you’re in trouble, who<br />
are you going to call?<br />
4. Who do you love being with?<br />
Who energises you? What kind<br />
of relationships replenish you?<br />
5. How can <strong>for</strong>giveness and<br />
reconciliation have an impact<br />
on our wellbeing?<br />
FINANCIAL<br />
WELLBEING<br />
1. What experiences in life can<br />
affect our finances? When have<br />
you experienced changes in<br />
your life that had an impact on<br />
your financial position?<br />
2. Think about your current<br />
financial situation. What three<br />
words come to mind?<br />
3. John Kirkby from CAP says<br />
‘How you use your money<br />
reflects who you are.’ What do<br />
you think of these three words:<br />
spending-giving-saving?<br />
4. How does the way we think<br />
about money affect our<br />
wellbeing?<br />
VOCATIONAL<br />
WELLBEING<br />
1. How do you answer the<br />
question ‘What do you do?’<br />
2. What does Monday morning<br />
feel like to you?<br />
3. Describe an occasion when you<br />
felt ‘I was made <strong>for</strong> this’. What<br />
energises you?<br />
4. When have you lost motivation,<br />
what was happening and how<br />
did you turn this around? How<br />
do we keep motivated in what<br />
we do?<br />
5. Who do you invest in? How<br />
could you/do you contribute to<br />
the wellbeing of others through<br />
your vocation?<br />
HOPE FOR ALL 7
HEALTH<br />
STAY STRONG<br />
W<br />
ill van der Hart, a vicar and<br />
a director of The mind and<br />
Soul Foundation, is one of<br />
the contributors to the Emotional Wellbeing<br />
session in The Wellbeing Journey. Here are<br />
his tips on staying strong and well mentally.<br />
1. Swap despair <strong>for</strong> gratitude<br />
‘There’s a great danger, with contemporary media<br />
especially, that they create an amazing “soup of<br />
despair”,’ says Will. ‘Gratitude training is really good<br />
<strong>for</strong> our psychological health and wellbeing, but<br />
contemporary news-feeds steal our vision from the<br />
things we’re called to be grateful <strong>for</strong>, towards things<br />
that will propagate anxiety and fear. And the human<br />
psyche is actually tuned to identify fear as a priority<br />
over everything else.’<br />
Will highlights three human systems: security,<br />
productivity and recovery. When we’re under threat,<br />
all we do is crave security, he explains. For months,<br />
we’ve been focusing on the issues of threat, and the<br />
result is our vision is distorted towards the soup of<br />
despair and despondency. What we need to do right<br />
now, is identify locally and immediately, those things<br />
which we can be grateful <strong>for</strong>.<br />
The relentless input of global news makes us feel<br />
8 HOPE FOR ALL<br />
like everything in the world is going<br />
wrong. While there is trouble in our<br />
own contexts, there are usually also<br />
things that we can be grateful <strong>for</strong><br />
to enable us to retain a level of<br />
resilience.<br />
Practical action: only watch<br />
the news <strong>for</strong> a limited time each<br />
morning to prevent it affecting<br />
our mood and sleep patterns.<br />
2. Be productive<br />
‘When we go back to those three<br />
life systems – security, productivity<br />
and recovery – productivity is very<br />
good <strong>for</strong> your wellbeing,’ says Will.<br />
Practical action: Buy a 1000 piece puzzle and,<br />
rather than watch the news, do some puzzling or start<br />
painting or drawing. These things sound small, but<br />
creativity is at the heart of God, and when we do<br />
things that are in the heart of God, they’re good <strong>for</strong> us.<br />
3. Be still and focus on the moment<br />
When we ‘catastrophise’ ...that is, predicting disaster<br />
be<strong>for</strong>e it’s happened... we propagate cortisol and<br />
noradrenaline, which are hormones that impact<br />
our body physically. These raise our blood pressure,<br />
damage our heart, increase our cholesterol levels<br />
and make us feel stressed and discordant.<br />
Jesus said ‘Never worry about tomorrow, because<br />
tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough<br />
trouble of its own.’ But it’s hard to stop a habit of<br />
worrying without replacing the habit with something<br />
more positive.<br />
‘We tend to relax when the body is busy and the<br />
mind is still. Often the best thing we can do is busy<br />
the body so the mind can be still,’ says Will.<br />
Practical action: Take a walk. The physical exercise<br />
itself is good and, as we engage our bodies, our minds<br />
can begin to grow still.<br />
mORE...<br />
Find out more about The Wellbeing<br />
Journey at wellbeingjourney.org or<br />
at a church near you.
CELEBRITY<br />
Photos: Shutterstock<br />
Fiona Graham<br />
explores the impact<br />
of the celebrity<br />
spotlight<br />
JUSTIN BIEBER:<br />
ALL ‘ BAD ’?<br />
I<br />
magine what is it like to grow up<br />
in the spotlight. Everything you say,<br />
do and wear is scrutinised and<br />
ridiculed by the intrusive paparazzi as well<br />
as millions on social media. This nightmare<br />
has been the reality <strong>for</strong> Justin Bieber since<br />
he shot to fame in the late 2000s.<br />
Bieber grew up in a small town in Ontario, Canada,<br />
but has lived in the public eye since the age of 13,<br />
when the talented young singer was spotted by an<br />
agent who saw videos of his cover songs on YouTube.<br />
At 16 years old, Bieber released his debut album<br />
which contained the hit single ‘Baby’ and he quickly<br />
established himself as one of the most popular and<br />
well-known artists on the planet, with a devoted<br />
10 HOPE FOR ALL
‘By 20, I made every bad<br />
decision you could have<br />
thought of...’<br />
teenage fanbase sometimes referred to as ‘Beliebers’.<br />
The pop star has gone on to have an incredibly<br />
successful career. With sales of over 150 million<br />
records, Bieber is one of the world’s best-selling music<br />
artists. He has received numerous accolades such as<br />
MTV awards, Brits and a Grammy. Time magazine<br />
named Bieber one of the 100 most influential people<br />
in the world in 2011, and he was included on Forbes’<br />
list of the world’s top ten most powerful celebrities<br />
in 2011, 2012 and 2013.<br />
Troubles and challenges<br />
This rapid rise to stardom inevitably came with many<br />
challenges. Like many other child stars, Bieber has had<br />
troubles. Perhaps the same can be said of most people<br />
to some extent, but when you consider the pressure,<br />
scrutiny and the potentially damaging influences that they<br />
face, it’s no wonder that so many child stars struggle as<br />
they grow up. For a child prodigy, the challenges faced by<br />
typical teenagers are amplified, and there are additional<br />
issues which most of us never have to tackle.<br />
Much has been written in tabloids about how<br />
Bieber went ‘off the rails’, but this stage of his life is<br />
perhaps best explained in his own words, ‘By 20,<br />
I made every bad decision you could have thought<br />
of and went from one of the most loved and adored<br />
people in the world to the most ridiculed, judged,<br />
and hated person in the world.’<br />
Publicly he was seen to be rebelling and had<br />
high-profile misdemeanours including drugs and<br />
drink-driving offences. But in private he was struggling<br />
with depression; the effects of his rapid rise to fame<br />
were clearly taking their toll on his mental health.<br />
He has spoken more in recent years about those<br />
difficult times. ‘I got really depressed on tour,’ Bieber<br />
says. ‘I haven’t talked about this, and I’m still processing<br />
so much stuff that I haven’t talked about. I was lonely.<br />
I needed some time.’<br />
He has also been open about his struggles with<br />
drug use. Battling with the relentless ups and downs<br />
of life on tour, Bieber said he started ‘doing pretty<br />
heavy drugs at 19’.<br />
As well as the challenges of fame and touring,<br />
he has been upfront about feeling overwhelmed by<br />
different aspects of life at times, a feeling many people<br />
can relate to. ‘It’s hard to get out of bed in the morning<br />
with the right attitude when you are overwhelmed<br />
with your life, your past, job, responsibilities, emotions,<br />
your family, your finances, relationships...’ he says.<br />
He was baptised in the<br />
bathtub of basketball player<br />
Tyson Chandler<br />
Trans<strong>for</strong>mation<br />
But since then, his trans<strong>for</strong>mation has been remarkable<br />
and he says that it is his faith in God which has<br />
changed his life: ‘He found me in my dirt and pulled<br />
me out,’ Bieber says.<br />
In 2014 he met with a pastor in New York and,<br />
after opening up about the issues he was struggling<br />
with, he asked this church leader to baptise him.<br />
And so, that very night, he was baptised in the bathtub<br />
of basketball player Tyson Chandler, who happened<br />
to be friends with the pastor.<br />
Since his baptism, Bieber has been keen to share<br />
his faith with the world. ‘My faith has gotten me to<br />
where I am. My faith has brought me to a whole<br />
other level. I love talking about my faith.’<br />
HOPE FOR ALL 11
CELEBRITY<br />
‘My faith has gotten me to where<br />
I am. My faith has brought me to<br />
a whole other level. I love talking<br />
about my faith.’<br />
Bieber has spoken about how faith has been key in<br />
his relationship with his wife, Hailey, who he married in<br />
2018. ‘I want to give up my selfish desires daily so I can<br />
be a good husband and future dad!’ he said. The couple<br />
were also baptised together in the summer of 2020,<br />
an occasion which Bieber described as ‘one of the<br />
most special moments of my life’.<br />
He has been outspoken about the role of faith in<br />
his life and how God is at the centre. ‘I want to walk in<br />
the plans God has <strong>for</strong> me and not try to do it on my<br />
own!’ He has also said: ‘I’m not trying to earn God’s love<br />
by doing good things... God has already loved me <strong>for</strong><br />
who I am be<strong>for</strong>e I did anything to earn or deserve it.’<br />
In December 2020, he teamed up with an NHS<br />
choir to per<strong>for</strong>m his hit single ‘Holy’. The song was<br />
released in a bid to raise money <strong>for</strong> NHS Charities<br />
Together, which represents more than 230 NHS<br />
charities. The song, which also features Christian hip hop<br />
artist, Chance The Rapper, has over 100 million views<br />
on YouTube, and includes the faith-inspired lyrics: ‘I know<br />
we believe in God and I know God believes in us’.<br />
Justin Bieber remains one of the most famous and<br />
influential celebrities in the world, with more than 150<br />
million people following him on Instagram. He regularly<br />
WHAT IS BAPTISm?<br />
Baptism in water imitates<br />
Jesus Christ being baptised<br />
in the Jordan River about<br />
2,000 years ago. Just as Jesus<br />
died, was buried and rose<br />
again, baptism symbolises<br />
being buried – leaving our<br />
old life behind – and rising<br />
again to start a new life.<br />
Billions of people around the world and throughout<br />
history have been baptised: some in a river, like Jesus;<br />
others in a bath, the sea, or a purpose-built baptistry.<br />
People of all ages are baptised, to mark the start of<br />
their lives as Christians.<br />
WHO IS JESuS CHRIST?<br />
■<br />
■<br />
■<br />
■<br />
■<br />
Jesus Christ, the founder of Christianity, lived<br />
about 2,000 years ago in the Middle East.<br />
He described God as his Father.<br />
He once asked his followers: ‘Who do people<br />
say I am?’<br />
When he was about 33, he was crucified.<br />
Eyewitnesses said he rose from the dead.<br />
Find out more at www.christianityexplored.org/hope<br />
uses the plat<strong>for</strong>m to express his new-found Christian<br />
faith and share it with others. He has said ‘I never want<br />
to be someone that’s trying to persuade anyone to<br />
believe in what I believe. I think God persuades<br />
people...But I definitely want to tell my story so that<br />
if that resonates with anybody they can hopefully<br />
learn from it.’<br />
Cynics suggest Bieber’s Christian faith is a gimmick.<br />
His own words suggest that anyone can explore faith<br />
and, even when you might feel you are all bad, God is<br />
waiting to welcome everyone with open arms.<br />
12 HOPE FOR ALL
INSPIRATION<br />
Photos: Alamy<br />
meet James – the<br />
‘three foot seven dwarf’,<br />
as he describes himself.<br />
Jen Johnson reports<br />
PASSION<br />
LIFE<br />
FOR<br />
‘I<br />
enjoy life – I love life – I’m living<br />
the dream!’ James Lusted – the<br />
actor, TV presenter, sports fan,<br />
husband and dad – is full of joy and has<br />
a real passion <strong>for</strong> life. But his life so far<br />
hasn’t been without its challenges.<br />
Born with diastrophic dysplasia, a rare disorder of<br />
cartilage and bone development that causes dwarfism,<br />
he measures just three foot seven at the age of 32.<br />
He endured bullying in school and, until his teenage<br />
years, felt very limited by his condition.<br />
‘I couldn’t play rugby – and, as a Welshman, that’s<br />
all I wanted to do!’ says James.<br />
‘I’ve always had the most encouraging supportive<br />
parents. They’ve always challenged me to become a<br />
better person.’ But he hasn’t always found life easy and<br />
his height was an issue at times. He recalls one day in<br />
particular, aged 15 years old, when he came home<br />
‘Yes I am different,<br />
but that’s OK’ says James<br />
from a day of facing the bullies, headed straight <strong>for</strong> his<br />
bedroom and hid himself under his duvet to cry. In that<br />
moment, his mum, a Christian, came into his room and<br />
saw how distressed he was. Her words made all the<br />
difference. She told him: ‘James, you are made in the<br />
HOPE FOR ALL 13
INSPIRATION<br />
image of Christ. It doesn’t matter who you are, or<br />
the way you are – you can do everything, just in a<br />
different way – and you can use your voice to ask<br />
people to help you. If you can’t reach that box of<br />
cereal on the top shelf in Tesco just ask someone<br />
to help…God has a plan and a purpose <strong>for</strong> you<br />
and he wants you to see life and live it to the full.’<br />
‘It was like a switch in my heart just flicked on,’<br />
says James. ‘From that day onwards, I went<br />
into school and started to stand up <strong>for</strong><br />
myself…Yes, I am different, but that’s okay.’<br />
New-found confidence<br />
From that moment on, James possessed<br />
a new-found confidence.<br />
‘I believe it is a faith-filled<br />
confidence, which God has<br />
given me, to be bold in my<br />
life,’ he says. Indeed, a quick<br />
glance at James’ CV shows<br />
that his condition has not held<br />
him back in the slightest! He<br />
has made several appearances<br />
in pantomime, as well as in other<br />
theatre per<strong>for</strong>mances. He is one of the<br />
presenters of the well-loved BBC<br />
programme ‘Songs of Praise’<br />
and has appeared in the<br />
children’s comedy drama<br />
series ‘4 O’Clock Club’, as well<br />
as various documentaries. He<br />
speaks Welsh fluently. He is a<br />
leader at Festival Church, Chester, a local councillor<br />
in Conwy, a <strong>for</strong>mer trustee of Disability Sport Wales<br />
and an Ambassador <strong>for</strong> Sports Chaplaincy UK<br />
(sportschaplaincy.org.uk). In his political role, he has<br />
pledged to campaign <strong>for</strong> the rights of people with<br />
disabilities, and he delights in spending time with his<br />
family and watching sport. ‘I’ve got my fingers in<br />
a few pies!’ laughs James.<br />
But he holds all these things lightly. ‘Am I going to<br />
be a presenter on TV <strong>for</strong> many years to come? I don’t<br />
‘“God, it’s all <strong>for</strong> you”<br />
and I just want to give<br />
everything to him.’<br />
know. Am I going to be a senior pastor of a<br />
church? I don’t know. But all I want<br />
to do is say “God, it’s all <strong>for</strong> you”<br />
and I just want to give everything<br />
to him.’<br />
James’ attitude is one that puts<br />
the God that he believes in first.<br />
Quoting the Bible he adds: ‘He knows the plans he has<br />
<strong>for</strong> me, plans to prosper me and plans not to harm<br />
me – I just need to be obedient in that.’<br />
These days, James embraces his short stature.<br />
He even uses his height as his website domain name<br />
– threefootseven.co.uk – and he says ‘I’ve always said,<br />
if I had another opportunity to live on this earth again,<br />
I’d want to come back as me – James, the three foot<br />
seven dwarf!’ At the same time, though, he’s clear that<br />
it’s not the most important aspect of who he is.<br />
14 HOPE FOR ALL
‘I’m proud to be who I am.<br />
I’m proud to be diastrophic<br />
dysplastic, which is a rare<br />
<strong>for</strong>m of dwarfism – there<br />
are more than 200<br />
different conditions within<br />
dwarfism and I have a rare<br />
<strong>for</strong>m, but I’m not defined<br />
by that. God has made me<br />
who I am. I’m defined by Christ.<br />
Throughout all the challenges<br />
that I’ve faced...I’ve learned and<br />
grown so much.’<br />
A beautiful blonde<br />
Another area in which<br />
James’ faith is evident is in<br />
his family life. He had always<br />
prayed that he would find<br />
someone to marry and that<br />
they would be able to start a<br />
family, but he couldn’t know<br />
whether this would actually<br />
happen. In 2012, he had the<br />
honour of carrying the<br />
London 2012 Olympic torch<br />
through Colwyn Bay in North<br />
Wales. A ‘beautiful blonde girl’<br />
called Chloe watched him from<br />
the crowd and she was one of a<br />
number of friends who joined his<br />
family to celebrate afterwards.<br />
James saw her and prayed ‘Lord,<br />
if this is going to happen – let it<br />
happen!’ They started dating<br />
in 2013 when James invited<br />
Chloe out <strong>for</strong> a drink – and<br />
they never looked back! They<br />
married in 2016, in a ceremony<br />
that was later featured in a BBC TV documentary.<br />
‘Chloe is of average height. She’s two feet taller<br />
than me – we have a lot of laughs and jokes about<br />
that, and we do have our challenges,’ he says.<br />
‘It’s so important to wake<br />
up every morning as if it’s a<br />
new day, with new<br />
potential in that day.<br />
‘She saw my personality...<br />
not a dwarf.That’s who she fell<br />
in love with. I’ll never <strong>for</strong>get on<br />
our wedding day the tears of joy<br />
to know that Chloe had<br />
accepted me as I am,’ says James.<br />
The couple have appeared<br />
on television together to<br />
share their love story, in the<br />
hope that it will encourage<br />
others not to see outward<br />
differences as a barrier to<br />
love. In 2019, they<br />
welcomed baby Olivia to<br />
the family and faith remains<br />
at the centre of their life<br />
together. ‘I pray <strong>for</strong> my little<br />
Olivia every day, that she<br />
will be protected – and I pray<br />
<strong>for</strong> Chloe, my beautiful wife,’ says<br />
James.<br />
So, what’s next <strong>for</strong> James? ‘It’s<br />
so important that not only do<br />
we keep our mental health<br />
and our wellbeing and our<br />
physical health in a good<br />
place, it’s important to<br />
keep our spiritual wellbeing<br />
in a very good place too,’<br />
he says. ‘It’s so important to<br />
wake up every morning as<br />
if it’s a new day, with new<br />
potential in that day. My<br />
hope <strong>for</strong> my future is just<br />
to bring glory to God, and<br />
to keep listening and<br />
hearing from him giving<br />
me direction and wisdom<br />
about what to do next.’<br />
Most of all, James is clear about where he finds<br />
stability in life: ‘<strong>Hope</strong> has a name, and that name is Jesus.’<br />
Watch James tell his story to Warren Evans from<br />
Sports Chaplaincy uK – hope<strong>for</strong>all.org.uk<br />
HOPE FOR ALL 15
FOCUS<br />
Let’s celebrate<br />
Christmas and<br />
Easter together<br />
– here’s why it<br />
makes sense<br />
REASONS FOR<br />
HOPE<br />
D<br />
uring 2020 millions of us put<br />
celebrations on hold. milestone<br />
birthdays, weddings and even<br />
Christmas celebrations were cancelled.<br />
Getting back together with friends and<br />
family, means those celebrations can take<br />
place. Christmas and Easter can be rolled<br />
into one massive celebration.<br />
Celebrating Christmas and Easter together makes<br />
perfect sense. Jesus Christ is the focus <strong>for</strong> both<br />
festivals. Born around 2,000 years ago in the Middle<br />
Eastern town of Bethlehem, Jesus is the person at the<br />
turning point of history. We even count our years from<br />
his birth.<br />
We know his life story from the eyewitness<br />
accounts written by his followers Matthew, Mark, Luke<br />
and John. Their accounts – known as Gospels – are<br />
recognised by historians as authentic records. The four<br />
Gospels are available to read in every major language<br />
as part of the Bible. They describe what Jesus said and<br />
did; how he showed God’s love to people who were<br />
16 HOPE FOR ALL
marginalised and rejected by others; how he wasn’t<br />
impressed by pompous, proud people and, most<br />
significantly of all, how he talked about God as his<br />
father in heaven.<br />
making sense<br />
The Gospels all give detailed accounts of Jesus’ death<br />
on a wooden cross just outside Jerusalem, and his<br />
resurrection from the dead – the event we celebrate<br />
at Easter. When Jesus rose from the dead it made<br />
sense of his claim: ‘This is how much God loved the<br />
world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this<br />
is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing<br />
in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life.’ These<br />
words were recorded by John, one of Jesus’ closest<br />
friends (John chapter 3 verse 16). Because of Jesus’<br />
resurrection, Christians believe that death is not the<br />
end. It is possible to have a loving relationship with<br />
God now that lasts <strong>for</strong> eternity.<br />
We were made to enjoy an<br />
intimate relationship<br />
with God<br />
John’s account of Jesus’ life puts his 33 years into<br />
context and explains that Jesus was with God when<br />
our world began and when men and women were<br />
created in the image of God. Having the image of God<br />
as part of human identity is why we experience awe,<br />
wonder and intimacy; why we have a sense of<br />
purpose in life. We were made to enjoy an intimate<br />
relationship with God and to live in harmony with<br />
each other and with the natural world.<br />
But we all know that our world is fundamentally<br />
flawed and human beings are responsible <strong>for</strong> so much<br />
that is wrong with it. Jesus’ death on the cross was<br />
God’s remedy <strong>for</strong> all that’s wrong. He lived to show<br />
us how we can live at peace with God. He died and<br />
rose again to make that possible and to restore our<br />
broken relationships.<br />
Through the resurrection of Jesus, God has started<br />
a new creation. His purpose is to make all things new<br />
FIRST CENTuRY<br />
BAPTISm<br />
One of the first people<br />
to be baptised after Jesus<br />
rose from the dead, was an<br />
Ethiopian travelling back<br />
home from Jerusalem. On<br />
the way he met Philip, one<br />
of Jesus’ followers, and they<br />
talked about Jesus. As a<br />
result, the Ethiopian<br />
wanted to become a<br />
Christian so, when they<br />
came to some water, he<br />
asked Philip, ‘Look, here is water. What can stand in<br />
the way of my being baptised?’ The story of Philip<br />
and the Ethiopian was written down by Luke, one of<br />
the four Gospel writers, in his second book called<br />
Acts, which describes how the early church grew<br />
dramatically in the first century.<br />
and to put an end to guilt, shame, fear and all<br />
the damage we have done through our greed,<br />
self-centredness and hatred.<br />
When people turn to God, they discover the<br />
peace, love and hope he offers as a gift – God’s<br />
Christmas and Easter gift, all rolled into one.<br />
100 COPIES TO<br />
GIVE AWAY<br />
We have 100 copies of mark’s<br />
Gospel to give away. This short book,<br />
written by a first century follower of<br />
Jesus, includes eye-witness accounts<br />
of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection.<br />
First come first served – to win a copy visit<br />
hope<strong>for</strong>all.org.uk or send your name and address to<br />
<strong>Hope</strong> <strong>for</strong> <strong>All</strong> magazine, 8A market Place, Rugby,<br />
Warwickshire CV21 3Du. Copies are also available<br />
to buy from hopetogether.org.uk/shop<br />
HOPE FOR ALL 17
FOCUS<br />
FOUR STORIES OF<br />
HOPE<br />
PEACE<br />
Drug-dealing had landed Danny in prison.<br />
On release he returned to his old habits<br />
selling cannabis and was making lots of<br />
money. One of his friends said, ‘You are living like a<br />
lottery winner,’ but<br />
he felt like a slave to his criminal behaviour. ‘I had no<br />
peace inside. I’d got nothing...’ he says.<br />
His parents were Christians and he knew that he<br />
wanted to make peace with God. One day he sat on<br />
his bed and prayed, ‘Jesus, sort me out. Please <strong>for</strong>give<br />
me. I will follow you, but I need your help.’<br />
When Danny tells his story, he remembers that<br />
was the turning point, which was followed by a couple<br />
of memorable coincidences. His young son came into<br />
the room and said, ‘Daddy, peace at last...’ Three times,<br />
Danny asked him what he had said. Then his son<br />
brought a children’s story book into the room.<br />
Its title was Peace at Last.<br />
Danny then picked up a Bible his parents had given<br />
him, which he had never read. The first words he read<br />
were: ‘Stop quarrelling with God! Agree with him and<br />
you will have peace at last!’ The words from the Bible<br />
book of Job hit home hard <strong>for</strong> Danny. From that<br />
turning point, Danny knew God had <strong>for</strong>given him and<br />
he started to follow Jesus; he had found the peace<br />
he was looking <strong>for</strong>.<br />
LOVE<br />
Raj was 16 when she tried to kill herself.<br />
‘I started taking these tablets. I just wanted<br />
to be dead.’<br />
When her dad found out, he said ‘It’s a shame it<br />
didn’t work.’ She felt totally unloved.<br />
‘I used to pretend that everything was alright;<br />
I pretended a lot, but the reality was that no one really<br />
loved me <strong>for</strong> me – only <strong>for</strong> what I could do <strong>for</strong> them.’<br />
When she was alone, her pretences disappeared.<br />
One night as she was crying, she heard a voice saying<br />
‘Raj, stop crying’.<br />
‘I knew it was God,’ she says. ‘I felt love. I didn’t<br />
really know what love was as I’d never experienced<br />
it, but I knew it was love.’<br />
That night, as she felt God’s love <strong>for</strong> the first time,<br />
she found herself <strong>for</strong>giving her family <strong>for</strong> the way she<br />
had been treated. Later, thinking about Jesus’ death on<br />
the cross and his resurrection, she says ‘It just clicked;<br />
what Jesus has done <strong>for</strong> me. He saved me! I wanted<br />
to be dead and he gave me life.’<br />
Now, knowing that Jesus gave his life to make it<br />
possible <strong>for</strong> her to know God’s love, she says, ‘I want<br />
to live a life that is worthy of the cross.’<br />
18 HOPE FOR ALL
HOPE<br />
Stephen’s parents were brokenhearted<br />
when their son was killed in a coach<br />
crash in May 1985. Stephen was on a school<br />
trip and died along with the coach driver, four other<br />
children and a teacher.<br />
‘We were struck at that time how people from<br />
church surrounded us,’ John says. They cooked and<br />
cared in practical ways while the couple grieved.<br />
John took com<strong>for</strong>t from knowing that God loved<br />
Stephen even more than they did. But Linda recalls,<br />
‘I didn’t have the faith and belief that John had then.’<br />
However, there was a lady in Linda’s fitness class<br />
whose words touched her deeply. ‘She put her hand<br />
on my shoulder and said “God’s weeping alongside<br />
you.” I had never thought about that. Lots of people<br />
had said “Why did it happen?”, “How could God let<br />
it happen?” But her saying that made Jesus very real<br />
to me.’<br />
Even though they lost their son, they trust that<br />
God does have things under control and does know<br />
what he is doing, and that gives them hope <strong>for</strong> now<br />
and <strong>for</strong> eternity.<br />
INSPIRATION<br />
The beauty of the natural world often<br />
inspires people to look <strong>for</strong> a Creator behind<br />
it all. Samuel says he feels closest to God<br />
when he’s surrounded by Britain’s beautiful scenery<br />
in the Lake District.<br />
‘When I look out and see the fells and the lakes,<br />
it reminds me of the magnificence and majesty of God<br />
and how amazing and powerful he is to make all of this<br />
happen.<br />
‘It inspires me to think that amid all of this God<br />
cares about me; amid all of this great creation God<br />
has a purpose and a plan <strong>for</strong> me.’<br />
When Samuel wanted to be baptised as a<br />
Christian he asked <strong>for</strong> the baptism to take place in Blea<br />
Tarn, surrounded by the iconic Lake District scenery.<br />
‘It’s a really lovely location surrounded by all the<br />
mountains and the fells,’ he says. ‘I chose to get baptised<br />
there because that’s where I feel closest to God.’<br />
HOPE<br />
STORIES<br />
Visit hope<strong>for</strong>all.org.uk to watch<br />
watch Danny, Raj, Samuel, John<br />
and Linda telling their stories<br />
HOPE FOR ALL 19
DIGITAL<br />
maggie Barfield talks to<br />
us about a trailblazing<br />
children’s gaming app<br />
Let’s<br />
PLAY<br />
Six years ago, a pioneering gaming<br />
app was launched inviting children<br />
to become ‘Guardians of Ancora’.<br />
At the time, few people had a tablet or<br />
smartphone. Now, more than 1.6<br />
million have downloaded the app and<br />
children all over the world are playing<br />
the game in multiple languages.<br />
Like many classic online games, it’s an<br />
adventure. The players run, jump and climb, slide<br />
on zipwires, achieve new levels in the game and<br />
win trophies. Guardians of Ancora – typically eight to<br />
11-year-olds – are invited to explore the imaginary city<br />
of Ancora, visiting the ‘Hall of Memory’<br />
and the ‘Theatre of the Saga’. They<br />
meet the Guild Master and<br />
Keeper of the Keys, unlocking<br />
stories and collecting ‘Guardian’s<br />
Gear’ in a digital satchel. Players<br />
who enjoy quizzes can answer<br />
questions. Children who want to<br />
be creative can use virtual<br />
paints and stickers to create<br />
pictures. There are animals to<br />
feed and new friends to be<br />
made – all in a secure<br />
environment which follows<br />
the strictest international rules<br />
<strong>for</strong> children’s online gaming.<br />
The game was devised by<br />
world-class gamers working<br />
with the Christian charity<br />
Scripture Union. Their<br />
challenge was to capture<br />
children’s imaginations with the unchanging stories of<br />
the Bible, while still allowing players to<br />
influence the outcome of the game. Children<br />
can play offline and online. They don’t need to<br />
be able to read well, but there are options<br />
to read stories as well as listen to them.<br />
Players are introduced to a man called<br />
Jesus in the ancient town of Capernaum<br />
(named after the real town in the Middle<br />
East) where he is recruiting his followers.<br />
20 HOPE FOR ALL
Gamers can read eye-witness accounts of the real,<br />
historical Jesus as well as watching the on-screen<br />
avatar enacting the story from his birth in<br />
Bethlehem to his crucifixion in<br />
Jerusalem, followed by his<br />
amazing resurrection.<br />
Breaking new<br />
ground<br />
Maggie Barfield, one of the<br />
team behind Guardians of<br />
Ancora, explains how they<br />
devised the game: ‘We wanted<br />
something really immersive <strong>for</strong><br />
the children. Six years ago, people<br />
thought we were mad going <strong>for</strong><br />
an app. Smartphones didn’t exist<br />
as we now know them and only<br />
4% of the population had a tablet.<br />
It felt risky but we could sense<br />
how things were moving.<br />
‘We went to a specialist children’s game<br />
design company and worked very closely<br />
with them. Then we did a lot of research<br />
with children – we watched them play and<br />
talked to loads of children, as well as<br />
looking at other games.<br />
‘Different children play in different ways – some are<br />
very intensely playing the game. Others are much more<br />
interested in the more sociable aspects such as sharing<br />
pictures and creating prayer posts. We wanted to give<br />
children choice, so they can choose what they do in the<br />
game and when they do it. The game is used by<br />
children at home and in schools, where there are<br />
Guardians of Ancora clubs. Initially the game was mainly<br />
popular with church groups and Christian families, but<br />
now it has become much more widespread.<br />
One of Maggie’s favourite stories about the<br />
players began when a Scripture Union schools<br />
worker visited a class and told pupils about<br />
the Guardians game. Two years later, he<br />
went back to the school and noticed that<br />
one of the children seemed to know a lot<br />
more about Jesus and the Bible than her<br />
classmates, even though she had no links<br />
TELLING AN<br />
uNCHANGING STORY<br />
Scripture Union began in 1867, the same year that<br />
English law changed so no factory or workshop<br />
could employ any child under the age of eight;<br />
employees aged between eight and 13 were<br />
required to have at least 10 hours of<br />
education per week. That’s when the so-called<br />
‘ragged schools’ began.<br />
In June 1867 Josiah Spiers spoke to 15<br />
children in a drawing room in Islington, London,<br />
pioneering a new approach to introducing<br />
children to Jesus. The following year, Spiers<br />
went on holiday to Llandudno in North Wales<br />
and spontaneously wrote ‘God is love’ in the<br />
sand. His simple, compelling message attracted<br />
the attention of local young people, and<br />
Scripture Union was born, as children<br />
began to engage with Jesus.<br />
with Christians or a church. He was<br />
amazed to discover that she had<br />
followed up on what he said on his<br />
first visit, had downloaded the app,<br />
and had been playing ever since.<br />
So, what’s the feedback? Maggie<br />
says one of the most frequent comments from adults<br />
is ‘I don’t know how to play this!’ But children are digital<br />
natives who catch on much more quickly and<br />
intuitively than their parents. Sadly, a few children have<br />
said ‘We only play games where we can kill people.’<br />
However, millions more enjoy the game and Scripture<br />
Union has been able to respond to their requests to<br />
provide more virtual costumes <strong>for</strong> players <strong>for</strong> example,<br />
as well as making other improvements to keep pace<br />
with changes in technology.<br />
With new generations of children getting online<br />
every year, millions more are set to enter the<br />
wonderful world of Ancora and play!<br />
BECOmE A GuARDIAN<br />
Visit guardiansofancora.com to find<br />
out more and download the game <strong>for</strong><br />
iOS (Apple) and Android tablets and<br />
smartphones from your app store.<br />
HOPE FOR ALL 21
Do you want to help people<br />
in your community?<br />
You can help people find freedom from debt and hope <strong>for</strong> the future<br />
COVID-19 has had a devastating impact on household finances. People in<br />
your community are struggling with debt and money problems.<br />
Community Money Advice provides a variety of low-cost ways <strong>for</strong><br />
churches and community organisations to provide free, confidential faceto-face<br />
debt advice and support to local people.<br />
To know more visit www.communitymoneyadvice.com or email<br />
info@communitymoneyadvice.com.<br />
Book to join our webinar: Debt Advice & Your Community, by visiting<br />
www.communitymoneyadvice.com/webinars<br />
If you are struggling with debt issues yourself, to access free, face-toface<br />
debt advice visit: www.communitymoneyadvice.com/freedom-fromdebt/get-help<br />
to find your nearest CMA centre.<br />
cma<br />
Freedom from debt<br />
<strong>Hope</strong> <strong>for</strong> the future
FINANCE<br />
Home is normally<br />
a safe place.<br />
Imagine what it<br />
is like to lose it.<br />
MONEY mATTERS<br />
Keila was nearly evicted<br />
when she got into<br />
debt and says: ‘The<br />
thought of losing your home<br />
is the worst feeling.’<br />
‘A few years ago I split up with my<br />
husband. He was a recovering alcoholic.<br />
My benefits were capped. I was in<br />
quite a bit of debt but, because<br />
I was putting all of my money into<br />
my rent, there wasn’t any money left.<br />
‘I would feed the children and then<br />
what they’d left – that would be my dinner. I’d lost<br />
loads of weight and was in hospital <strong>for</strong> three days.<br />
When I came out I was just so weak. And then my<br />
daughter was in a car accident. It was just one thing<br />
after another. I was in a really bad place.’<br />
A friend told Keila about Reach – a charity near her<br />
home in Suffolk. That’s where she found the help she<br />
needed to sort out her debts and manage her money.<br />
Reach was founded by the River of Life<br />
Community Church in 2005, initially as a debt<br />
Keila: ‘I was in a really<br />
bad place.’<br />
counselling centre. They went on<br />
to launch further projects to tackle<br />
poverty under the name of Reach<br />
Community Projects and became<br />
an independent charity in 2017.<br />
Henry Wilson MBE, the project<br />
director at Reach, explains: ‘I started<br />
here first as a debt counsellor. It was<br />
while doing this work that we came<br />
across families that were going<br />
without food and so we added<br />
a foodbank project to it.’<br />
Reach aims to find the underlying<br />
problems that cause people to need<br />
a food box in the first place. As well as being a<br />
Community Money Advice centre offering free debt<br />
advice from experienced debt counsellors, Reach runs<br />
a drop-in centre, a foodbank and other projects like<br />
Acts 435, which is managed through a network of<br />
churches and local charities, and helps clients pay <strong>for</strong><br />
clothing, furniture, children’s needs, travel costs and<br />
other unexpected expenses.<br />
‘Whether it’s poverty, debts, homelessness or the<br />
risk of losing their home, we’re here to help,’ says<br />
HOPE FOR ALL 23
FINANCE<br />
Henry. ‘We can walk alongside<br />
somebody and take them<br />
through a journey to lift them<br />
out of poverty. Being there.<br />
Being a friend – that relational,<br />
personable service is absolutely<br />
crucial.’<br />
Thanks to a grant from the Nationwide Building<br />
Society, Reach has employed a fulltime worker, Justine,<br />
who supports people in the community. People can<br />
24 HOPE FOR ALL<br />
Reach’s fulltime worker, Justine,<br />
supports people like Keila<br />
in the community<br />
PAYING IT FORWARD<br />
Julia is one person who<br />
was helped by Reach.<br />
Here’s how she is now<br />
helping someone else<br />
Malcolm* is vulnerable due to<br />
learning disabilities. During the<br />
Covid-19 lockdown, he was one of<br />
those who ‘slipped through the net’<br />
– and it nearly killed him.<br />
When Malcolm’s mum died a<br />
few years back, he wasn’t placed under care as it was<br />
deemed he could manage. Generally, he did – until the<br />
pandemic arrived.<br />
His social lifeline was volunteering at a local charity<br />
shop several times a week. But when lockdown came,<br />
the shop had to close. Several months later, when it<br />
was allowed to reopen, Malcolm did not reappear.<br />
The charity shop team began to worry about him.<br />
They couldn’t call him as he had no phone. So Julia,<br />
one of the volunteers and a <strong>for</strong>mer Reach client, went<br />
round to his house.<br />
She was shocked at the state she found him in.<br />
The house was in darkness; the sink full of unwashed<br />
crockery. Malcolm was unkempt, suffering badly from<br />
depression and he needed medical attention. Because<br />
he had understood that during lockdown he wasn’t to<br />
leave the house except to buy food, he didn’t think he<br />
drop in at the Reach<br />
resource centre to ask <strong>for</strong><br />
food. If conversations bring<br />
to light other needs like debt<br />
or housing advice, Justine<br />
then follows that up.<br />
‘Just giving someone a<br />
parcel of food is just a sticking plaster,’ she says. ‘There<br />
are always issues underneath. Reach is all about helping<br />
people to move <strong>for</strong>ward.’<br />
was allowed to go to the bank. So<br />
he had run out of money – and<br />
food. He hadn’t eaten <strong>for</strong> five days.<br />
Henry, the project director at Reach,<br />
said: ‘We don’t like to think what<br />
might have happened to Malcolm,<br />
had Julia not gone round that day.<br />
Fortunately Julia contacted us <strong>for</strong><br />
help.’<br />
‘We got a food box to Malcolm<br />
straight away and Julia cooked him<br />
a meal. He bolted it down – when he finished he said<br />
he felt like a beached whale; he’d not eaten so much<br />
in so long! Julia also got the doctor out to see him.’<br />
Reach also bought Malcolm a prepaid mobile<br />
phone; one designed <strong>for</strong> people with learning<br />
disabilities. There is an emergency button on the back<br />
which, when pressed, rings a designated contact, so<br />
now he can always get help.<br />
Malcolm is still nervous about going out, so now Julia<br />
gets his benefits money <strong>for</strong> him, does his shopping and<br />
helps clean his home. Reach gives her a little money to<br />
cover her extra petrol costs. Malcolm is so much better<br />
and looks <strong>for</strong>ward to the time when he can go back<br />
to volunteering at the charity shop.<br />
* Name and details changed to protect client’s identity<br />
To find a Community Advice Centre near you<br />
visit communitymoneyadvice.com
“Who do you say I am?”<br />
A short animation exploring the message of Jesus.<br />
Watch now:<br />
christianityexplored.org/hope
INSPIRATION<br />
Photos: Getty Images<br />
80 years ago,<br />
a Polish man died.<br />
Here’s why<br />
THE uLTImATE<br />
SACRIFICE<br />
I<br />
n<br />
July 1941 a prisoner escaped from<br />
Auschwitz – the largest of the Nazi<br />
concentration and death camps.<br />
The camp commandant had a brutal response in<br />
such situations. The prisoners from the block where<br />
there had been an escape were assembled. If the<br />
escaped prisoner was not found by the end of the day,<br />
as a reprisal, ten inmates would be executed by<br />
starvation <strong>for</strong> each escapee.<br />
On that July day, the escapee was not found. (He<br />
was later discovered drowned in a toilet.) The Nazis<br />
selected ten inmates from the escapee’s block to be<br />
starved to death. They included a 40-year-old Polish<br />
soldier, Franciszek Gajowniczek.<br />
On being chosen, Gajowniczek, pictured above,<br />
began to beg <strong>for</strong> his life, crying: ‘My wife, my children.<br />
I will never see them again.’ At that moment Maximilian<br />
Kolbe, a 47-year-old Polish priest, stepped <strong>for</strong>ward<br />
and offered to take his place. Kolbe had no wife or<br />
children, he explained, and he asked if he could die<br />
instead of Gajowniczek. Witnesses said later that the<br />
Auschwitz commandant was so stunned that he was<br />
unable to speak. Eventually, he sent Gajowniczek back<br />
to his place and Kolbe replaced him.<br />
Kolbe and the other nine men were locked in<br />
an underground bunker and left to starve to death.<br />
As the days wore on, there were no cries <strong>for</strong> mercy<br />
or sounds of weeping. In the bunker, Kolbe continued<br />
to com<strong>for</strong>t his fellow victims and it was their singing<br />
and prayers that were heard. The prisoners in the cell<br />
survived two weeks - longer than was normal.<br />
Eventually guards killed the final four with lethal<br />
injections on 14 August 1941. The last prisoner<br />
conscious was Maximilian Kolbe.<br />
26 HOPE FOR ALL
Survivor<br />
Franciszek Gajowniczek<br />
survived Auschwitz. He<br />
had joined the Polish<br />
army as a young man and<br />
had been captured by<br />
the Germans in 1940 and<br />
sent to Auschwitz, where<br />
he was branded with the<br />
number 5659. He spent<br />
more than five years in<br />
Auschwitz and in another<br />
Nazi camp, Sachenhausen.<br />
Gajowniczek died a free man in 1995, a greatgrandfather<br />
who never <strong>for</strong>got what the priest had<br />
done <strong>for</strong> him. He spent the rest of his life telling<br />
people about the man who had died in his place.<br />
Maximilian Kolbe is now remembered <strong>for</strong> his<br />
supreme sacrifice in dying in the place of another<br />
prisoner who had been condemned to death following<br />
the apparent escape of a fellow inmate. In laying down<br />
his life, Kolbe followed the example described by Jesus<br />
Christ in the Bible book written by John, where Jesus<br />
said, ‘Greater love has no one than this, that someone<br />
lay down his life <strong>for</strong> his friends’.<br />
Who was maximilian Kolbe?<br />
Born Raymond Kolbe in 1894 to a poor but religious<br />
family in Russian-occupied Poland, Kolbe grew up<br />
always knowing about Jesus. His parents were members<br />
of the Franciscan Order, a Roman Catholic group of<br />
Christian believers founded in the 13th century. Kolbe<br />
attended a Franciscan seminary at Lwow (now Lviv in<br />
Ukraine) – a school <strong>for</strong> young people who were<br />
interested in becoming priests. While there, he often<br />
wondered whether he would be better suited to being<br />
a soldier, but by the age of 16 he had decided that he<br />
was called to the priesthood. He was ordained as a<br />
novice in the Franciscan Order. As was the Order’s<br />
practice, he took a new name, Maximilian, after a<br />
famous Christian who had been killed <strong>for</strong> refusing to<br />
deny his faith more than 1,600 years earlier.<br />
After training in Rome, Kolbe became a full<br />
member of the Franciscan Order and was ordained as<br />
a Roman Catholic Priest in 1919. He returned<br />
to Poland to teach in a seminary and founded<br />
monasteries <strong>for</strong> male<br />
members of the Franciscan<br />
Order, first in Poland, then in<br />
India and Japan. In the Polish<br />
monastery near Warsaw, he<br />
also set up a printing press,<br />
producing magazines and a<br />
daily newspaper.<br />
When the Nazis invaded<br />
Photos: Shutterstock<br />
Maximilian Kolbe and the bunker<br />
where he died with nine<br />
other prisoners<br />
Nicky Gumbel, who presents the Alpha course, uses<br />
Kolbe’s story to explain why Jesus Christ died. On<br />
Alpha, a course which has been taken by more than<br />
25 million people around the world, Gumbel says:<br />
‘maximilian Kolbe died instead of someone else and,<br />
in an even more remarkable way, Jesus died instead<br />
of you and instead of me.’<br />
Find out more at www.alpha.org<br />
Poland in 1939, Kolbe<br />
assumed they would<br />
seize his monastery, so<br />
he sent most of the brothers<br />
home. He was arrested and imprisoned <strong>for</strong> a short<br />
time. After his release he began using his monastery<br />
as a safe house <strong>for</strong> refugees. More than 3,000 people<br />
were sheltered there, including 2,000 Jews. Although<br />
he had been ordered to stop printing, the presses now<br />
turned out pamphlets and newspapers protesting<br />
against the Nazi regime. Kolbe was arrested and jailed<br />
again in February 1941 <strong>for</strong> sheltering refugees. In May<br />
he was transferred to Auschwitz.<br />
Life in Auschwitz<br />
Despite his ill health, Kolbe and other clergymen were<br />
<strong>for</strong>ced to carry logs. If he slowed down, the guards set<br />
dogs on him. If he fell over, he was beaten up. Kolbe<br />
continued to act as a priest to the other inmates,<br />
sharing what little food he had and giving com<strong>for</strong>t<br />
in every way he could.<br />
Rudolph Diem, the doctor in the concentration<br />
camp infirmary, later recalled: ‘I can say with certainty that<br />
during my four years in Auschwitz, I never saw such a<br />
sublime example of the love of God and one’s neighbour.’<br />
HOPE FOR ALL 27
SPORT<br />
Photos: Shutterstock<br />
meet cricketing<br />
legend AB de Villiers.<br />
matt Thomas reports<br />
BATTING FOR<br />
GOD<br />
Abraham Benjamin de<br />
Villiers is a legend of<br />
the cricketing world.<br />
Known as AB de Villiers or AB,<br />
he has been described by fellow<br />
international cricketers as the<br />
most complete, most valuable<br />
and most loved cricketer on the planet.<br />
Since making his South Africa debut<br />
in 2004, de Villiers has had an incredible<br />
record-breaking career and has said that his<br />
success has been built on his Christian faith.<br />
Gifted athlete<br />
De Villiers grew up near Pretoria and was<br />
a gifted athlete from an early age, excelling<br />
in a number of different sports. He was in the same<br />
28 HOPE FOR ALL
school year as fellow South African international,<br />
Francois du Plessis and the two remained close friends<br />
as they progressed from playing junior cricket all the<br />
way up to playing in the national team together.<br />
AB made his international debut against England at<br />
the age of 20 and quickly became well-known <strong>for</strong> his<br />
entertaining batting and athletic fielding.<br />
His career went from strength to strength as he set<br />
a number of records including the fastest 50, 100, and<br />
150 of all time in One Day Internationals (ODI) by any<br />
batsman. He was also named as the International<br />
Cricket Council’s ODI Player of the Year three times<br />
during his 15-year international career and was one of<br />
the five Wisden cricketers of the decade <strong>for</strong> 2010-2019.<br />
'I am not afraid publicly<br />
to recognise God’s role<br />
in my life.’<br />
Former England captain Michael Vaughan has<br />
described him as ‘the definition of cricketing genius’.<br />
Building on his success with the national team, his<br />
popularity has soared since playing the Indian Premier<br />
League (IPL), the most-watched cricket league in the<br />
world. Former South African international Jonty<br />
Rhodes wrote that ‘Only a handful of international<br />
cricketers have seen their personal popularity extend<br />
beyond the boundaries of their homeland. AB de<br />
Villiers can be included in this very select group of<br />
globally acclaimed superstars.’ Rhodes goes on to<br />
mention how, while coaching in India, he saw that even<br />
opposition fans would cheer <strong>for</strong> AB, such was his<br />
popularity with local supporters. It is also a country<br />
where AB has a personal connection as he proposed<br />
to his wife, Danielle, at the Taj Mahal in 2012.<br />
He has become known <strong>for</strong> his entertaining batting<br />
style, nicknamed ‘Mr 360’ because of his ability to play<br />
unorthodox shots and hit the ball all around the<br />
ground. AB’s IPL teammate and India’s top batsman,<br />
Virat Kohli, has described him as ‘the best batsman<br />
in the world by far’.<br />
But AB has said that all of this success would not<br />
have been possible without his faith. He acknowledged<br />
that his talent and work ethic are God-given gifts, but<br />
also said that the impact of faith on his mentality and<br />
approach to the game has been crucial.<br />
mental health challenges<br />
It has been said that cricket is one of the most<br />
mentally demanding sports; there have been many<br />
instances of depression and mental health issues<br />
affecting players. It is no surprise when you consider<br />
the pressurised nature of the sport, the nomadic<br />
lifestyle of the players and intense scrutiny in the<br />
age of social media.<br />
Despite being a team sport, each player’s<br />
contribution to the team is objective and statistically<br />
measurable. This, combined with relentless analysis<br />
from pundits, press and fans, can put a lot of pressure<br />
on players. And due to the constant touring of<br />
professional players, there is little respite from this<br />
pressure. It’s not uncommon <strong>for</strong> international players<br />
to spend more than 40 weeks a year away from their<br />
homes.<br />
Former England internationals such as Marcus<br />
Trescothick, Andrew Flintoff and Jonathan Trott have<br />
all been outspoken about the mental health challenges<br />
they’ve battled with as top international cricketers.<br />
Trott gave a harrowing account of the mental<br />
torment he battled with while playing <strong>for</strong> England:<br />
‘I hadn’t slept, I hadn’t eaten, and I hadn’t been able<br />
to stop the throbbing pain in my head. The ef<strong>for</strong>t of<br />
constantly needing to justify my existence, of avoiding<br />
the slings and arrows thrown by commentators, by the<br />
crowd, by the opposition, by the millions on Twitter,<br />
it was starting to warp my thinking... I was scared of<br />
failing. I was scared of being made to look bad and<br />
letting everyone down.’<br />
The fear of failure and not wanting to let people<br />
down is something that has also affected AB and his faith<br />
has been key in overcoming this. He has said that faith<br />
allows him to play ‘like it doesn’t really matter that much’.<br />
He said that in his early 20s he was battling to<br />
establish himself in the national team and struggling<br />
with the pressure of not wanting to let people down.<br />
HOPE FOR ALL 29
Photo Alamy<br />
SPORT<br />
He then made a conscious<br />
decision to put God first. ‘I’m<br />
just here to entertain the<br />
people <strong>for</strong> you, and it’s not<br />
about me... that’s what<br />
changed everything.’<br />
‘You need to<br />
stay humble.<br />
You need to make time<br />
<strong>for</strong> the people who are<br />
close to you’<br />
Outspoken<br />
De Villiers has been outspoken<br />
about his faith. In his autobiography,<br />
he wrote, ‘My faith and my<br />
relationship with God are<br />
incredibly important to me... I am<br />
not afraid publicly to recognise<br />
God’s role in my life.’<br />
He also gave two accounts<br />
of times that he felt God spoke<br />
to him directly.<br />
The first was as a child when he was in the back of<br />
a truck as his family were driving home from visiting<br />
friends.<br />
‘Thinking about nothing in particular, staring at the<br />
stars, I suddenly started sobbing and then properly<br />
crying. It felt very strange. We were all Christians and,<br />
as a family, we generally went to church on a Sunday,<br />
but all of a sudden, lying on my back, I was overcome<br />
with a sense of God’s presence. Nothing like this had<br />
happened to me be<strong>for</strong>e.<br />
‘I tried to make sense of everything and decided he<br />
(God) was telling me what sort of person he wanted<br />
me to be. He wanted me to stay humble and always to<br />
appreciate what I have... it felt as if I was being brought<br />
heavily down to earth.’<br />
The second instance took place 14 years later on a<br />
boat in Sydney Harbour when, aged 24, he was a<br />
30 HOPE FOR ALL<br />
member of the South African<br />
cricket team celebrating a series<br />
victory over Australia. The day<br />
after the win, AB and some of his<br />
teammates went out on a fishing<br />
trip together. He was lying on the<br />
deck of the boat feeling<br />
somewhat worse <strong>for</strong> wear due to<br />
a combination of seasickness and<br />
the after-effects of the team<br />
celebration the night be<strong>for</strong>e.<br />
‘Then, all of a sudden,<br />
out of the blue, something<br />
hit me, and I began crying<br />
uncontrollably... once again<br />
feeling as if my body was<br />
being filled with the Holy<br />
Spirit... He seemed to be<br />
saying: “What on earth do<br />
you think you are doing?<br />
Who on earth do you think<br />
you are? Some kind of hotshot<br />
international cricketer,<br />
scoring runs and winning Test<br />
series... thinking you are<br />
special, getting drunk too often, taking yourself too<br />
seriously? You need to stay humble. You need to make<br />
time <strong>for</strong> the people who are close to you – and you<br />
need to appreciate what you have been given.”’<br />
The experience seems to have had a lasting effect<br />
on the cricketer. AB has been praised <strong>for</strong> his humility<br />
and bold approach to the sport. He believes that the<br />
key to his success has been his decision to always put<br />
God first, taking the focus and pressure to succeed off<br />
himself and concentrating on living <strong>for</strong> God.<br />
He has made his approach to cricket and life in<br />
general quite clear: ‘That’s why I’m here... to live <strong>for</strong> him.’<br />
Photo PA Images / Alamy<br />
SPORTS CHAPLAINS<br />
Sports Chaplaincy uK offers high quality support in<br />
the areas of pastoral and spiritual care through its<br />
chaplains to the wider community of sport.<br />
Find out more at sportschaplaincy.org.uk
ExPERIENCE GOD<br />
Answer me when I pray, O God, my<br />
defender! When I was in trouble, you helped<br />
me Be kind to me now and hear my prayer<br />
Psalm 4 verse 1 – a prayer first prayed<br />
by King David in the middle East about<br />
1000BC<br />
Talk to God and listen to<br />
him. Visit a church near you,<br />
or pray wherever you are.<br />
Visit hopespaces.com <strong>for</strong><br />
help with prayer.
Feeling a bit flat?<br />
Living on empty?<br />
Maybe it’s time to refill<br />
JOIN THE Wellbeing JOURNEY ONLINE AT<br />
WELLBEINGJOURNEY.ORG<br />
In the times that we are living in, the<br />
topic of Wellbeing has never been<br />
more relevant or important.<br />
– Simon Thomas, ex-Blue Peter<br />
& Sky presenter<br />
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