modern JESUS army Streetpaper No. 81 Page 1

modern Jesus army: bringing spiritual and social help to all people No. 86 FREE

ADDICT FREED

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MANY RACESPAGES 4 & 5

HAPPY FEETHAPPY FEETIs there more Is there more to life than to life than trainers? trainers? PAGE 7PAGE 7

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MEN UNITED

THIS IS REAL BROTHERHOOD GIVIN’ IT LOADS Lads live for the cause of Jesus

WE LIVE in stressful times. Worry is in the air, insecurity about the future. It’s easy to think “Does anyone care?” Jesus was a human being like you and me. He got tired. He felt stress. He wept. He was poor. But people loved to be near Him because they felt His warmth and love. He carried peace, friendship, care. He spoke words of real hope. Jesus is alive today. And still loving. Today Jesus’ people belong together and enjoy one another, joined in a cause. Young men, in particular, love to belong to Jesus. He’s the great role-model of what it means to be a man. Jesus People: there’s a place for you. Come and belong.

TEXT US0774 0774 200QUESTIONS? COMMENTS? CHAT? GET IN TOUCH

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modern JESUS army Streetpaper No. 862

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I WAS 17 and living in Lon-don and addicted. My drug addiction led to me getting mixed up with crime and prison followed. The only good thing about prison was that one day in the prison library a Bible fell out of the shelf into my hands. I read it and it got through to me. I be-came a Christian and after my release was baptised in a London church. After that, I went in and out of different churches – but I couldn’t get off drugs. Eleven years later, in 2003, it was fixed up for me to get out of London to do drugs-rehab in a hospital in Northampton. I was on a day out in town when a complete stranger gave me a leaflet inviting me to

an event at Northampton Jesus Centre. The Jesus Centre in those days was tiny. It was in a small converted shop next to the huge cinema where

the Jesus Centre is today. My first impression? Well, I thought it was wicked (re-ally good!) and I wanted to go back.

I’ve been going back ever since – that’s five years ago. I can tell you straight away what’s good about the Jesus Centre: you’re accept-ed there for who you are.

People there have a heart for the outcasts – just like Jesus did. It doesn’t mat-ter if you’re a criminal or a prostitute or a drug-addict

or an alcoholic or whatever – Christ came to give His life for people just like them – not for the ones who think they are goody goodies and alright people.

Being at the Jesus Cen-tre has given me more confidence in life be-cause people believe in me. I’ve got a job now. I go to the Scrabble ses-sions and maths and drama classes and I’ve found loads of friends. Three of my mates from outside the church have come with me to the Jesus Centre – and now they’ve been baptised as Christians, too.

Drugs, crime, prison... then freedom.Ben Lewis, 32, tells Streetpaper his story.

It doesn’t matter if you’re a criminal or

a prostitute or a drug-addict or an

alcoholic or whatever

WICKED (REALLY GOOD) Jesus Centre helped pull Ben through

ADDICT... ADDICT...

...FREED...FREED

For more on Jesus Centres and how you can help visit www.jesuscentre.org.uk

Hunted byyaxe-wieldingg terror ggangg

A BRITISH-BASED Muslim im-am’s daughter was hunted by an axe-wielding gang after she became a Christian. In a new autobiography, Han-nah Shah tells how her Muslim father sent a 40-strong gang to carry out her “honour killing”. At 16, Shah fl ed a forced mar-riage in Pakistan and became a Christian after staying with a Christian family. Shah says she wrote The Imam’s Daughter to speak out for British Muslim women who live in fear. When Shah reported her abuse, a social worker from her own community shopped her to her father, telling her “It’s not right to betray your community”.

Blair says be“pproud of

Christianityy”FORMER Prime Minister Tony Blair has slated “ludicrous deci-sions” where Christians have been disciplined in the workplace for expressing their beliefs. Describing our time as “an age of aggressive secularism”, he encouraged those with faith to have confi dence. He hoped that disciplinary cases like that of Christian nurse, Caroline Petrie, suspended for of-fering to pray for a patient, were “exceptional” rather than the rule. Society needs the contribu-tion of those with faith, he said, whether to promote peaceful co-existence between faiths and cultures or to “infuse” public life with “clear values”.

Britons back values of

ChristianityyMOST British people want religion and religious values to have an important role in public life, a new BBC survey has found. The ComRes poll of over 1,000 people found 62 per cent in favour of faith having a role in shaping British society. Around the same number (63 per cent) said that British law should respect and be infl uenced by the UK’s tradi-tional religious values. Despite secularist calls to “free” society from the views and beliefs of religious tradi-tions, the survey demonstrates public support for religious values.

TERROR Gang attack

DAFT Nurse prayer ban

TRUE DEFINITIONS #1 Words can change their meanings.Streetpaper wants to rescue a few.

RADICAL“A RADICAL preacher...” Guess the rest of the headline. “Gives all his money to the poor”? “Speaks out against hypocrisy?” No: “A radi-cal preacher jailed for inciting terrorism” (BBC, May 2009). In many minds today, the word “radical” throws up images of fuming imams or plotters in Afghan caves. It’s an angry word, a violent word. But being radical shouldn’t be about hatred and fear. A true radical is passionate for good; prepared to live for love, 100 per cent. Radical means “from the root” (from radix, Latin for root). A true radical is prepared to change everything – root, branch and all – and live for what really matters. Jesus Christ is the best and truest radi-cal that ever lived. He radically sided with the outcasts, welcoming them into His circle. He radically challenged the proud rich and the reli-gious bigots. He radically called people into the

new society that He was forming – people who would live to love and serve. He still calls people today, to give up every-thing else and follow Him, to join His love revo-lution – to be true radicals.

GOBBY But true radicals live love

MARK’S GOSPEL is part of the Bible and tells the story of the life of Jesus. Packed into 60 pages you can fi nd how one man bridged the gap between man and God.

FREEbestsellerFor your FREE copy cut out this coupon and send it to Jesus Fellowship, FREEPOST, Nether Heyford, Northampton, NN7 3BR. (Or text on 0774 0774 200, phone on 0845 123 5550 toreserve your copy.)

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CONTACT USALL GOOD armies have an HQ, and we are no exception. We will answer your queries, provide you with free literature or a Mark’s Gospel, even pray with you over the telephone if you are in special need.

You can call us: our National Helpline is 0845 123 5550 (local call rate), and generally there are real people to talk to, not machines.

Email us at info@jesus.org.uk Want to have a look at what the mJa is all about? Check us out from anywhere in the world on our website: www.jesus.org.uk

But in these days of hi-tech, we still have an address and lots of people write in.Jesus Fellowship, FREEPOST, Nether Heyford, Northampton, NN7 3BR

Across the UK you are welcome to call one of our local churches if they are near you. There are Jesus Army congregations and groups around the UK. They are not all the same size, they meet in different sorts of premises, but they are all made up of people who love Jesus and are ready to help you on in your faith too.

JESUS Fellowship Church is an evangelical Christian Church with a charismatic emphasis. It upholds the full historical, Christian faith, in particular it upholds the doctrine of the Trinity and the full divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus Fellowship Church is a part of the Multiply Christian Network and a member of the Evangelical Alliance. To receive Jesus Fellowship literature regularly, free, send the response form on page 6 to Jesus Fellowship Central Offices, FREEPOST, Nether Heyford, Northampton NN7 3BR. Tel. 0845 123 5550. modern Jesus army Streetpaper No.86 © 2009, published three times a year by Jesus Fellowship Church, Nether Heyford, Northampton NN7 3LB. Editor James Stacey. Photographs in this magazine are copyright Jesus Fellowship Church or royalty free stock photos from www.sxc.hu. Printed by BGP Ltd., Bicester, Oxon. Reproduction of any part of this newspaper in any form requires written permission. All Bible quotations are from the Contemporary English Version © 2000 Harper Collins unless otherwise indicated. All articles are contributed by members of the Jesus Fellowship Church, also known as the modern Jesus army. Some members live as part of the New Creation Christian Community. Readers wishing to contact authors may do so by writing to the Jesus Fellowship Central Office.

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modern JESUS army Streetpaper No. 86 3

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LET LOOSE FORLOVEGary Riley, 26, tells Streetpaper howhe has overcome Asperger’s Syndrometo become a lover of people.

NEW MAN Gary’s living for love

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“THEY JUMPED me and pushed me into the road in front of a moving car. I spun round, clipped the wing mirror and ended up on the curb. They ran off.” Gary found it hard to bond with people because he was born with Asperger’s Syndrome, a form of au-tism which makes communication confusing. But the bullying at school made things a whole lot worse. “I suppose, when you’re dif-ferent, people pick on that” he says. For Gary, Asperger’s meant constant trying, and often failing, to be accepted by oth-ers. Gary did begin to gain some friends in his late teens, but their circle was more about drink and drugs than anything else. “We’d get together to do drugs. I got into dealing a bit.” But a friend’s suicide stopped Gary in his tracks. Three grams of cocaine and he walked out onto a dual car-riageway. Gary found it hard to deal with and began to hate life. Leaving home, Gary got a room to himself. But he was developing a phobia of people. He didn’t go out

and spent a lot of time surfing the net. “I felt a lot of hate. I was bitter and twisted” he admits. It was at this time that Gary found a new hobby: “I took a perverse pleasure in going into Christian chat rooms on the internet and ripping Christians to shreds.” One day Gary received a chat room message which said, “You look like someone who needs a friend.” He

saw it as another opportunity to lash out: “I insulted everything about this man, Bob. But he just kept being friendly. He started showing me what real Christianity was about.” Later, they spoke on the phone and Bob prayed for Gary. But as they prayed, Gary had to stop. “I got this buzzing in my head, like a swarm of bees. I couldn’t concentrate. I didn’t know what was happening.” But Gary’s new Christian friend

changed his tone of voice and re-buked the evil that was swarming through Gary’s head and heart. It was Gary’s first experience of the power of God. “The buzzing stopped; I could pray again.” Four months later, Gary saw a Christian drama group performing on the streets and a man asked him if he knew Jesus. Gary had to admit that he really didn’t but that he want-ed to. And so the man invited him

back to his home – a houseful of Christians living together. The Christian community offered a crucial lesson in ac-ceptance for Gary. Gary found a spiritual family – and an op-portunity to know Jesus for himself. Now Gary is a university stu-dent in Bristol and a pivotal figure in the church there. He still has Asperger’s. But there

is something much, much more pow-erful at work in him, too. “Jesus is always there, irrespective of how I’m feeling, I know that He loves me and I know I love Him.” And he’s determined not to give up. “I might have Asperger’s, but it’s okay to be me. I want to be someone who understands, who cares. I want my life’s work to be to befriend peo-ple, to help them be the people they can be.”

“I took a perverse pleasure in

ripping Christians to shreds.”

ASPERGER’S SYNDROME: SOME FACTS

Asperger’s Syndrome is a form of autism which affects social interaction and imagination.

Some see Asperger’s as simply a different way of looking at the world around them.

People with Asperger’s often have a high IQ and gifts in art, music, engineering, computer

science, maths, and physics.

Asperger’s Syndrome affects four times more boys than girls.

Famous people believed to have had Asperger’s in-clude Albert Einstein, Isaac Newton, Jane Austen, Bill Gates, Bob Dylan, Michael Palin, Vincent Van Gogh and Woody Allen.

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modern JESUS army Streetpaper No. 864

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MANY FACEIn times of racial tension, the Churchof Jesus Christ stands for solidarity

THE UK’S favourite food is curry. We watch films imported from over the ocean. We wear clothes made on the other side of the planet. But will we ever be able to live as one? Just this year stunning Helen Lawal was crowned Miss York beauty queen and then found herself being threatened because she was black. Even darling of sport, Lewis Hamil-ton was the victim of racism at this year’s Spanish Grand Prix.

It is a prob-lem which r e a c h e s into every area of so-ciety. Even c h u r c h e s can still be

found to be mostly black

or mostly

white. But it is a fact that is chang-ing quickly and the Jesus Army wants to help lead the way. “There are more than 40 nation-alities represented in our London church” reports Jesus Army leader Tim Skene. “The result is a col-ourful, lively, imaginative church. Each new national ingredient has added to the flavour.”

Elsewhere around the country, Jesus Army churches have large numbers of other nationalities and non-white people in their membership. “We’re a church that has deliberately opened its doors to everybody, and everybody has come in” says Tschaka Roussel, another Jesus Army leader. “In fact the racial demographics of our church are roughly reflec-

tive of the balance between white British and other racial groups throughout the country.” But what has this got to do with God? Back when the first ever Chris-tian church started, something dramatic happened to launch it into existence. A bunch of com-mon people spilled out onto the

streets, miracu-lously speaking in many different languages. God’s Spirit had flowed into them. People from many differ-ent nationalities flocked to see what was going on – it’s one of the big rea-sons that the early church grew. It was a sign: church is for every

nation. The old barriers are being swept away. As far as God is con-cerned church is a place where all peoples must be welcome. Churches full of different coloured faces, where everyone loves each other, are proof that God is mak-ing it happen. “Invitations to Jesus Army events always say ‘All Welcome, No Prejudice’” says Tschaka Roussel. “And we mean it.”

“We’re a church that has deliberately opened its doors to everybody,

and everybody has come in”

Debby finds forever friendsFAITH ambassador, Debby 16, came to the UK for schooling from her homeland, Nigeria, when she was nine. “I found it hard and hated Lon-don when I first moved” says Debby. In a foreign country, away from her brothers and sisters, Debby moved with her father. Outgoing Debby soon got stuck in with new friends and tagged along to a Christian youth camp one summer. It changed her life. “God showed Himself to me” she enthuses. Debby began praying for her

friends to find Jesus, too. Out on the High Street one day, hanging out with pals, Debby met the Jesus Army – and the sisterhood she’d been long-ing for. “They were different and in-teresting – people you can talk to, people you can easily be yourself with” she says. Now Debby wants to see the church keep growing – especially with more teenage girls! “It’s good to be part of a church where anyone and everyone can belong.”

DEBBY Found sisterhood

TRUE DEFINITIONS #2 Words can change their meanings.Streetpaper wants to rescue a few.

MARTYRTHE WORD “martyr” has come to be associated with images of planes fly-ing into buildings and cars bursting into flames. A word for fanatical sui-cide bombers. But the word itself has been hi-jacked. It started out as the Greek word martys which means “witness” – someone who testifies in court. The first Christians adapted it to mean someone who “testified” that Jesus was alive and was their master. They often paid a high price for that testimony. Some paid with their lives. And so the word martyr came to de-scribe those who paid for their faith with their life. But these martyrs couldn’t have

been more different from suicide bombers who die for hate and venge-ance. The first ever Christian martyr was a man called Stephen. Surround-ed by murderers throwing rocks at him, Stephen died with these words on his lips: “Lord, don’t blame them for what they have done”. He died loving. He was following in Jesus’ foot-steps. As soldiers were nailing Jesus to a cross, He prayed: “Father, forgive these people! They don’t know what they’re doing.” Jesus died forgiving. In fact, the death of Jesus was one great big, cosmic act of forgiveness. God Himself soaked up human evil on that day and exhausted its power. That’s worth living – and dying – for.

FREE Worth living for

SATURDAY 11 JUL

LONDON JESUS DAY10.30am March to Trafalgar Square.12.30pm Jesus Festival on Trafalgar Square, LONDON

SATURDAY 1 AUG

UK JESUS CELEBRATION2.00pm & 6.00pmJesus Centre Abington Square NORTHAMPTON, NN1 4AE

THU 6 - SAT 8 AUG

RAW REAL & WILDUK YOUTH EVENT FOR 15-35’sJesus Centre Abington Square NORTHAMPTON, NN1 4AE

FRI 28 - MON 31 AUG

WINNING FESTIVALWEEKENDGiant Marquee, Cornhill Manor, Pattishall, NORTHAMPTON, NN12 8LQ

SATURDAY 26 SEP

JESUS CELEBRATION6.00pm NORTH The Sports Centre Preston College Fulwood Campus St Vincent’s Road PRESTON, PR2 8URSOUTH City Temple Holborn Viaduct LONDON, EC1A 2DE

SATURDAY 24 OCT

UK JESUSPRAISE DAY2.00pm & 6.00pmPonds Forge Sports Centre Sheaf Street SHEFFIELD, S1 2BG

INFO: www.jesus.org.uk/dates Tel: 0845 123 5550 Email: info@jesus.org.uk Write: Jesus Fellowship, FREEPOST, Nether Heyford, Northampton NN7 3BR

WHAT’S ON?ALL FREE ALL WELCOME NO PREJUDICE

modern Jesus army 2009 EVENTS

i

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modern JESUS army Streetpaper No. 86 5

E

S, MANY RACES

BROTHERS Christians from the Jesus Army in London

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Soldier Peter gets his marching orders

LIVELY lad, Peter, 22, was training for the South Korean military when one of his comrades told him about Jesus: “Jesus wants to give you a new life and new goals.” Peter, a searcher, had found the answer to his aimlessness. A few years later Pe-ter moved to London to study and learn English. He was looking for an ex-citing church to belong to. He found the Jesus Army! Peter was amazed at the mix of people he found in

the Jesus Army – from all walks of life – now loyal friends and joined in one Jesus revolution. Peter loves sharing Jesus with other people and helping the homeless and disadvantaged. “I want to spread the gospel in South Korea and, hopefully, one day in North Korea!” says visionary Peter. Now he is enjoying learning how to communicate better with people from other races to tell them about Jesus and the new life He gives.

PETER On mission

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Terry tears down racial wallsZIMBABWEAN-BORN Terry wants to see walls of prejudice broken down. “Although we are coloured differently and cultured differently we’re funda-

mentally the same” he says passionately. Terry says “Multi-ra-cial church breaks down preconceived unrealistic ideas about other races. Jesus teaches us to build real relationships with all kinds of people” And that is exactly what he wants to do. His dream is to stay close to Jesus and to share God with oth-er young men and spread the good news of Jesus. TERRY Passionate

Hannah takes brave step to live for loveHANNAH, 21, is one of nine children brought up in the Norwegian countryside. She experienced the power of Je-sus when she was only ten. From then on she wanted more from life than skiing and fishing. Leaving her family behind, she moved to the UK to live with the Jesus Army. She finds multi-racial church very exciting. “Some-times there can be misunderstandings and cultural dif-ferences, but most of the time it’s great” she says. Hannah wants to see more young teenagers finding Jesus and becoming a part of God’s new society. HANNAH Excited

Rebellious Ritesh quits rat raceMAURITIAN Ritesh has exchanged the rat race belief that education is everything for a passionate faith in Jesus. When Ritesh, 25, first heard about Jesus, he was amazed at His offer of love. “I went along to a Jesus Army event to find out more – and I found Jesus” he says with a smile. “Jesus’ final instruction was to make disciples from all nations” explains Ritesh. “So church needs to be multi-racial. It is so beautiful to see people from different backgrounds, cultures, continents united in praise of one God.” RITESH United

Survivor Ruth is blown awayHURRICANE Gilbert tore the roof off Ruth’s house, but it didn’t shake her faith in God. Survivor Ruth was brought up in Jamaica by Christian parents. Soon after she had moved to the UK, she met the Jesus Army in London’s Camden Town. Ruth now loves be-ing part of a multi-racial church. “Eve-ryone, regardless of colour or race has a deep care for each other” she enthuses.

Now her aim is to see more people of differ-ent races and cultures joining the church.

RUTH Enthusiastic

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modern JESUS army Streetpaper No. 866

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Living for Living for a causea cause

streetpaper@jesus.org.uk

HOW DO you make choices in life? Did you buy those trainers because you’d feel happier? Have you stopped talk-ing to that person since they hurt you? Choices. How did you end up where you are now? Surrounded by the friends you have and the comforts you love. How did you choose this life and not some other life? Christians aren’t supposed to live aim-lessly; just following life’s desires until they end up with the husband/wife and kids, car and semi-detached house (won-dering how on earth they got to that posi-tion). Christians are called to live another kind of life altogether. Jesus challenged people to follow Him and said that no one – that’s right, no one – would be able to do so unless they were willing to give up all they had. He called people out of lives of affluence and accumulation. But what are we sup-pose to live for instead? Jesus promised that the highest expres-sion of life was to give your life for others – to live a life of love. He told His followers to make a choice. To decide what it is they really wanted to live for. To choose something better. How about you – what you are living for? Take life and live it to the max, squeeze every drop of beauty out of it. Choose to know the pleasure of being alive and share that life with everyone else, even where it is at your own cost. If eternity is real we can’t afford to waste a moment.

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GOSPELTRUE DEFINITIONS #3 Words can change their meanings.

Streetpaper wants to rescue a few.

HAPPY HALLELUJAH What’s good about the gospel?

Photo by: Shane Kelly

GOSPEL. We’ve heard the word, but we’re fuzzy about what it means. Religious. Something to do with black choirs. Or with fundamentalists (more mental than fun). The word itself means “good news” (from the Old English god, good, spell, news): the good news of the Christian message. But – before we even get to whether or not it’s good – is there anything newsy about a mes-sage that’s been public for two millennia? “Christianity? Old hat, mate.” “Christianity? It’s do unto others – something”. Joe Public speaking. But here’s Joe Pious: “Believe in Jesus and you can go to heaven when you die.” (He’s not sure quite how that works, but it’s a nice idea, so he dusts it off every Christmas.) Is this the gospel? An afterlife insurance policy? Let’s face it; if “the gospel” is only about something “up there” it’s pretty irrelevant

“down here”. Unless you’re on your deathbed (or morbid) – forget it. Cue atheist bus posters: “There’s probably no God: stop worrying; enjoy life”. Applied to this thin gospel, they have a point. But there is far, far more to the gospel than “pie in the sky when you die”. The true message of Christianity is heart-arresting, stop-in-your-tracks, what-was-that-you-said – news! It’s about Jesus – and the vision of the loving, rescuing God we get when we look at Jesus. He lived love. He died for love. He shouldered the weight of all our loveless lives, taking them to the grave. But God raised Jesus from death and in do-ing so launched a project, led by Jesus, to heal the world. And Jesus is looking for recruits. The gos-pel is a call. “Come. Dump your loveless life. Follow Jesus. Be transformed. Live to love.” That’s gospel truth.

GIZ A GRIN Slovak kids

Swiss andSlovak newchurches

MEMBERS of the Jesus Army have been visiting the Basivilla Community in Berne, Switzer-land, which is part of the Jesus Army initiated “Multiply” network of churches. The Swiss community wants to express the radical Christian-ity of the New Testament and the Jesus Army are visiting to support them in this vision. Leaders from the Jesus Army also visited a Multiply church in Slovakia based among the pov-erty-stricken Romany commu-nity there. “It’s our identifi cation with the poor that has meant God can so easily bond us to-gether” commented Jesus Army leader, Andrzej Kurpiel.

JA founderissues an

untamed callTHE JESUS Army passed an historic milestone for the movement recently as its leader, Noel Stanton retired from public ministry. At 82 years old, he gave a fi nal message at Easter, call-ing on the Jesus Army not to be “tamed” or watered down, but to live out its calling as a radical church, an expression of God’s new society. He highlighted the need for the Jesus Army to both stand fi rm in the face of opposition and to love all people with warm humanity. He now hands over the lead-ership of the church to a team of fi ve, led by Mick Haines.

Cov doc sayys “It’s amiracle!”

A YOUNG Jesus Army member in Coventry, Bethan Scullion, testifi ed recently to a striking ex-perience of personal healing. Bethan, 17, was sent to the hospital when her GP became very concerned about a possibly cancerous lump. At the hospital she was ex-amined by a doctor then sent for a scan. Two hours later, when she came back to the original doc-tor for the biopsy, he told her the lump had totally disappeared, without explanation. The doctor asked Bethan if she had been praying, saying that he could think of no other explanation than a miracle.

WHAT’S UP DOC? Shock

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modern JESUS army Streetpaper No. 86 7

Oh Brother!When Jenny Hathaway, 32, found God, her wild child brother Andy, 34, was stopped in his tracks... Now they’re both running wild.

Real LivesReal Lives

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ANDY WAS covered in sweat. He’d taken too much cocaine and was having a panic attack, convinced he was going to die. Things had started to slide downhill for Andy at 16. When the rest of his family including his sister Jenny moved away from Milton Keynes, it seemed obvious for headstrong teen, Andy, to stay behind with his girlfriend.

But it was a mistake. Smoking cannabis led

to raves led to ecsta-sy. “All I wanted was to have a good time with my mates” says Andy “but I would often come

home drunk, lie on my bed and wonder why life seemed worth-less.” He had it all: the friends, the girl-friend, the flat, the car with the big music sys-tem. But life was a mess. 90 miles away in Norwich and surrounded by

her favourite videos, Andy’s sister Jenny’s

life was TV, clubbing, and drink-ing. But, u n l i k e

A n d y,

she’d go to church every Sunday morning. Her childhood Christianity had stuck somehow – though Jenny felt pretty remote from the people at the church. “No one ever said much more than ‘hello’” she recalls. Then an appeal was made to help a Christian youth organisation and Jenny got involved. Going to Jesus Army events with them was an eye-opener for Jenny, who started to see church dif-ferently: not dusty rou-tine, but true friend-ships. And God was more than a concept to these people; peo-ple experienced His power and love. Jenny began to see how shallow her faith had been. She decided that she wanted to trust God with her whole life and get baptised as a Christian. Andy came along to his sister’s baptism; witnessing it did something to him on the inside. Weeks later, shortly after the cocaine scare, Andy phoned Jenny in floods of tears. He felt desperate for a new start, but knew he was stuck. He wanted God in his life. Three months after Jenny’s baptism Andy was baptised too, in the bath, with his family and new church friends around him. The change was dramatic. Andy got rid of everything in his life which took him away from God. He even walked into the pub and told his friends that he’d smashed up his £1000 car stereo system (because

God had told him to – and it was stolen property). His friends thought he had gone crazy until Andy returned a month later with a prize letter awarding him a £2000 car stereo. That was ten years ago. Andy and Jenny have been determined ever since to show that God offers life that is real and completely different from the empty alternatives of entertainment or drink and drugs. When Christian friends talked of pooling their wealth as a sign of Christian love, Jenny jumped right in and became a founding member of “Liv-ing Way,” the Jesus Army’s Christian community house in Ipswich. Andy, too, joined “Living Stones”, a similar shared house in Northampton. Now they live to pioneer church growth. Andy travels down to Milton Keynes to meet teenagers there regularly. Training younger Christians in East Anglia to make posi-tive choices for God has become Jenny’s passion. “We both want to help people see that Christianity is not just a be-lief, but something – Somebody – to live and die for.”

Cain and Abel: the world’s fi rst siblings; the world’s fi rst murder. Not a good start.Noel and Liam Gallagher: made music. Made headlines.The Marx brothers: made fi lms. Made ’em laugh.The Brontë sisters: wrote novels.The Brothers Grimm: wrote stories.The Ugly Sisters: had an even more depressing name than their creators, the Brothers Grimm (see above).Tweedledum and Tweedledee: peas in a pod.

Brothers & sisters - siblingZeus and Hera: god and goddeand wife. (Mythical gods scored lLuke and Leia: a troubled childhDarth Vader), but they turned ouJack and Jill: he was a bad infl uto fetch that pail of water withoutThe Wright Brothers: everyonethey were Wright – and they inveBart and Lisa Simpson: norma

storiesss, brother and sister, husband ow on morality.)ood (it’s tough when your dad’s t ok. Helps being Jedi.ence. She should have left him her. thought they were wrong, but nted the aeroplane.l kids, but custard-coloured.

GOD WAS literally on dis-play in Oxford recently. The Jesus Army’s Chris-tian community house on Oxford’s Woodstock Road was transformed into an art gallery. Theme: God. Paintings, pottery and po-

etry were exhibited by church members as part of the Ox-fordshire-wide “Artweeks” festival. Visitors came from near (three doors down) and far (London). “Lovely paintings, lovely people” one comment-ed. Kids had their own zone, with free workshops in felting,

clay work and more. It had other effects too. One woman stopped to ask direc-tions to the bus stop and was so intrigued by the Christian art that she came back to ask questions, stayed hours and received prayer for neck pain. The next day she sent a text to say she’d been healed.

In the frameIn the frame

ARTY PARTY Creativity in Oxford

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IT’S CHURCH, BUT NOTAS WEKNOW IT

FRY AGAIN Daryl is determined to take the walls off Church

Young Christians boldly go out andabout taking church to the peopleWOULDN’T STEP foot inside a church? Young Christian enthu-siast, Daryl Coy, 25, has taken church onto the streets. And it’s not holy water and wafers he’s giving out, it’s burgers and cola – with prayers. “A lot of people see Christian faith as irrelevant to life” says Daryl “es-pecially if it all takes place in a big, ancient, stone building. But we want to share that Jesus is alive and totally relevant to everyone, everywhere.” So Daryl and his mates take their barbecue out onto the streets. Giv-ing out burgers for free and wearing

bright red crosses, they are obviously Christians. But they aren’t there to preach. “We don’t want to just shout ser-mons at people” says Daryl. “We want to make friends and invite people to be part of the amazing family of Jesus, the church. “And we offer to pray for people, and help them find healing and love. It’s not about ancient history; it’s about here and now.”

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