Feb 2010 Edition of The Christian Times

By Peter Wooding

Special to ASSIST News

Service

MANCHESTER, ENGLAND(ANS) -- UK Christian youthministry, The Message Trust, is

putting together a fundraisingconcert to raise funds for Haiti.

Joining the Heart for Haitifundraiser in Manchester, EnglandThursday February 4, are CelebrityBig Brother star Stephen Baldwin[pictured] and Christian bands

LZ7 and Blush. Message Trust director Andy

Hawthorne and local churchleader Anthony Delaney will taketo the stage to share about theirhumanitarian visit to Haiti...

STORY ON PAGE 15

RHEMAan all-singing, all-danc-

ing, all-acting Bible story!

— 4 (TCT2)

MISSION DIRECT

Using holiday trip to

make a difference in The

Dominican Republic and

Haiti

— Page 6

WELCOME TO

ISRAELOperation Exodus, a

ministry of Ebenezer

Emergency Fund has

been helping Jewish

people return to Israel,

assisting over 128,000

Jewish people from the

former Soviet Union

(fSU) to go back to

Israel.

— Page 9 (TCT2)

BOOK REVIEWS

. Destination of the

Species

. Eden: The Buried Treasure

. My Wicked Step Mother

— Page 15 (TCT2)

FEBRUARY 2010 TOGETHERNESS AND TRUTH www.thechristiantimes.org | 65p

INSIDE

Celebrity Big Brother StarStephen Baldwin, to joinUK Christian fundraisingconcert for Haiti

CHURCHES AND CHRISTIAN AID TO BENEFIT FROM NEW FUNDRAISING COOKBOOK: Devised by insurer Congregational & Generaland featuring 70 delicious recipes - Loaves, fishes and more is a 128-page fundraising cookbook, including recipes submitted bychurch leaders and members of the public, which is endorsed by Celebrity Chef Kevin Woodford. STORY ON PAGE 14

2 News FEBRUARY 2010 | The Christian Times

Mercy Ships, the internationalChristian charity that providesfree medical and humanitariancare to some of the World’s poorestpeople raised over £83,000 at itsannual Mercy Ships Africa Ball de-spite being in the midst of thebiggest recession for decades.

A host of leading doctors,business leaders and heads of themedical and shipping industriesjoined together at the prestigiousLandmark Hotel in London to cel-ebrate the work of Mercy Shipsand congratulate the selfless vol-unteers that give up their lives tohelp those less fortunate.

Don Stephens, the founder ofMercy Ships, attended for the firsttime and updated the guests onMercy Ships response to the Haitidisaster which includes partneringwith other charities to send med-ical teams to the devastated islandthis week.

Professor The Lord McColl ofDulwich CBE, Chairman of MercyShips UK and Emeritus Professorof Surgery at Guy’s Hospital inLondon, hosted the evening. Hesaid, “The ball was a fantasticevening enjoyed by everyone. Iwas overwhelmed by the generos-ity of the guests and was pleased tosee so many people come alongand show their support.

“The ball is a great opportunityto say thank you to all the selflessvolunteers of Mercy Ships whohave made the organisation sosuccessful. Mercy Ships wouldsimply cease to exist without thevital volunteers and all the peoplethat support the charity. This ballwas about recognising that, aboutsaying thank you to the volunteersand about sharing with old andnew friends what Mercy Ships isall about”.

A wide range of items were do-nated and auctioned on the nightincluding a three day trip to Dur-ban in South Africa donated bySouth African Airways and Fair-mont Hotels and Resorts with thelucky winners staying at the Fair-mont Zimbali Lodge in KuzuluNatal.

Part of the entertainment onthe night was a very colourful livedrum band called the Drum Cafewhich conducted the whole room

in an energetic bongo drum ses-sion.

The evening was also an op-portunity for guests to hear aboutthe Africa Mercy’s successful 10month outreach to Benin during2009. During its stay, medical vol-unteers performed 5,000 free sur-geries on board the ship, as well asover 33,000 eye treatments and10,000 dental procedures.

The evening of the ball alsomarked the next voyage of theAfrica Mercy, the world’s largestcharity hospital ship, which willset sail in February to begin aseven month outreach to Togo,one of the poorest countries in theworld and which is in desperateneed of humanitarian help.

Judy Polkinhorn, ExecutiveDirector of Mercy Ships UK said:“It was a delightful and thoroughlysuccessful evening enjoyed by all.It is very humbling to have somany people in one room togetherwho all care and support the workof Mercy Ships and who are will-ing to part with their money tohelp improve the lives of others.

“It was a great opportunity toshare with guests the successful 10months we have had in Benin andalso look forward to the ships ar-rival in Togo where we hope wecan be just as successful helpingthose people less fortunate.

“Mercy Ships is deeply sad-dened by the recent tragedy inHaiti and we have our AssessmentTeam already on the ground work-ing with our partners as well asmedical equipment and volunteerson-route to help strengthen thesupport in Haiti”.

Anyone interested in support-ing the Mercy Ships disaster reliefeffort is encouraged to visit ourwebsite www.mercyships.org.uk tomake a donation.

Mercy Ships, the internationalcharity has treated more than230,000 people in village medicalclinics, performed more than41,000 surgeries, 205,000 dentaltreatments and completed over1,000 community developmentprojects focusing on water andsanitation, education, infrastruc-ture development and agriculture.

Hospital Ship Charity Ball Raises More Than£83,000

The first of a number of MercyShips teams left the United States18th January to join the interna-tional relief effort, bringing withthem vital medical equipment. TheCEO of Mercy Ships International,Sam Smith and his staff are in theprocess of mobilising dozens ofMercy Teams who specialise in im-mediate disaster relief. Those doc-tors, nurses, construction workerswill come from around the world todeal with both medical and non-medical issues.

Judy Polkinhorn, Executive Di-rector of Mercy Ships UK, said,“Mercy Ships has extensive experi-ence in providing disaster relief.

Our Assessment Team is already onthe ground in Haiti, working withour partners to determine the vol-unteer need and location for sup-port. Medical equipment andvolunteers are on-route today andwill strengthen the support in Haiti.

There is an immediate need forfunding and Mercy Ships will con-tinue for many months and evenyears to support Haiti as it recovers.”The biggest need is financial sup-port. Anyone interested in support-ing the Mercy Ships disaster reliefeffort is encouraged to visit our web-site www.mercyships.org.uk to makea donation.

Mercy Ship’s VolunteersHead To Haiti

3News FEBRUARY 2010 | The Christian Times

A BID to distribute tens ofthousands of Bibles in Vietnam hasbeen launched by the ScottishBible Society.

There has been a rapid growthin the number of Christians in thecountry over the years, but a mas-sive shortage of Bibles.

The Scottish Bible Society,along with other Bible Societies,has funded work in the past 12years translating the VietnameseBible into modern Vietnamese.

The Old Testament has beenavailable since 2004, but work onThe New Testament was only com-pleted late last year.

Scottish Bible Society ChiefExecutive Elaine Duncan said theScottish Bible Society hadlaunched the appeal to raise fundsto print and distribute the revisedBible across Vietnam.

“The church is growing rapidlyyet lacks the basic tool, the Bible,

in sufficient quantities tostrengthen existing and new Chris-tians in their faith. This is where weneed help from Christians in Scot-land!” Elaine added.

As part of the Vietnam Part-nership, the Scottish Bible Societywill help in two projects that aimto distribute Scripture.

The first project, Good Newsfor a Thriving Nation, plans toprint and distribute 32,000 Biblesand 15,000 New Testamentsamong other Scripture materialacross the country.

Meanwhile, the secondscheme, Growing up with God’sWord (Scripture for Youth), willsee 30,000 children’s Bibles, 10,000Bibles and 115,000 New Testa-ments produced and distributed tothe young people of Vietnam.

Elaine explained: “By makingScripture available to the Churchesin Vietnam, we allow each Chris-

tian to own a copy of the Bible, andalso give them the opportunity toreach out to others with the Wordof God.

“The old Bible translation usedoutdated language and was diffi-cult to understand by the younggeneration, particularly those whoencounter the Bible for the firsttime.

“Now that the work has beencarried out on the modern transla-tion, it is important to produce anddistribute it to the growing num-ber of Christians in Vietnam. Toreach as many as possible, we needhelp in raising the funds to do so.”

She added that following a re-cent visit to Vietnam, she metChrisitans who used their Bibles tocling to their faith after the end ofa brutal communist regime thatpersecuted Christians,

Elaine said: “One of thosewomen, Thi, suffered terribly and

said she would never have copedwithout her faith, the certainty ofsalvation and her Bible.

“She told me that she longedfor her people to have easy, afford-able access to the Bible.”

To help raise funds for the ap-peal, contact the Scottish Bible So-ciety on 0131 337 9701 or [email protected]. Fur-ther details about the appeal can befound at www.scottishbiblesoci-ety.org.

The Scottish Bible Society is afully independent charity, regis-tered in Scotland, and a foundermember of the United Bible Soci-eties, which sees 145 Bible Soci-eties at work in some 200 countriesworldwide.

The Scottish Bible Society dis-tributes Bibles, New Testamentsand other Scripture-based materi-als, in a range of media, in Scotlandand throughout the world.

Scottish BibleSociety to distributethousands of Biblesin Vietnam

A new online fair trade shophas been launched to raise moneyfor child victims of trafficking andexploitation.

The innovative idea is the re-sult of a new partnership betweenEthic Trade and the campaigningcharity Jubilee Campaign. A full20% of the money (pre-VAT) gen-erated by sales from the shop willgo to the charity.

“This is a fantastic develop-ment and a win-win situation foreveryone,” said Danny Smith, Ju-bilee Campaign’s Founder. “Cus-tomers get first class products.They will also have the satisfactionof knowing that all their purchasescome from producers who pay fair

wages and do not exploit theirworkers or use child labour. In thisway, shoppers play a direct part inhelping to fight poverty. And everysale raises funds for Jubilee Cam-paign’s work to help Children atRisk. We’re delighted with thisbrilliant new partnership.”

The new online shop offers awide selection of clothing, jew-ellery, household items, crafts, gar-den accessories and creative giftideas. To access the shop, go towww.jubileecampaign.co.uk

For further information con-tact Joan Smith on 01200 430430or [email protected].

New online fairtrade shop set up tohelp trafficked andexploited Children

The Africa Mercy

“Watch Harry Christophersconduct and it is immediately clearwhy The Sixteen’s sound is de-servedly renowned for its expres-sive, richly coloured character.”Gramophone

“The Sixteen is a renownedgroup of singers with a formidablepedigree and a level of sheer classwhich enables them to appeal toall sorts of music lovers.” East An-glian Daily Times

This year Harry Christophersand The Sixteen celebrate theirtenth Choral Pilgrimage. First es-tablished as a millennium project,The Choral Pilgrimage has sincebreathed life into the stones of thegreat cathedrals and churchesacross the UK from Swansea toEdinburgh, with the music thatwas written for those spaces; andit will be reaching a bigger audi-ence than ever before with the in-clusion of new concert venues inCroydon, Milton Keynes and-Peterborough. The Choral Pil-grimage has expanded to includeworkshop events and, uniquely fora project of this kind, sign-lan-guage interpreted performances.The tenth Choral Pilgrimage willfocus on some of the finest musicby three leading Tudor composers:John Sheppard, Thomas Tallis andWilliam Byrd. All three composerslived through decades of religiousturmoil in mid-sixteenth centuryEngland and expressed, in differ-ent ways, their devotion to theCatholic faith.

Harry Christophers says:“these are exceptional works byany standard, and I am just sur-prised that it has taken me so longto finally perform them. Shep-pard’s Media vita in morte sumusis a staggering achievement notonly in its sheer size but also in itsexpression which, at times, is al-most overwhelming. But it isByrd’s Infelix ego which I found tobe a revelation; the text is a medi-tation on the famous Miserere meiDeus psalm written by the Italianfriar, Girolamo Savonarola (1452–1498), while he lay in prison only afew days before he was burned atthe stake. Byrd, living in constantfear of persecution because of hisdevout Catholic faith, responds insuch a personal manner, which isat times both reflective and explo-sive.

However, we also see Byrd’sebullient side in the joyful motetsLaudibus in sanctis and Haec dies,alongside hymns by Tallis andSheppard. One of the gems of thisprogramme is Tallis’s Miserere nos-tri; its brevity belies its complexity.It is based on a seventeen-notemotif to commemorate the seven-teenth year of Queen Elizabeth’sreign and is a work of technicalwizardry. It sounds complex and,quite frankly, it is – technical featslike this can, in the hands of mostcomposers, sound just that – tech-nical and, ultimately, rather boringand academic. In the hands ofTallis, however, the result is mes-merisingly brilliant.”

Behind the scenes of eachChoral Pilgrimage tour, there are arange of accompanying activitieswhich aim both to enhance theconcert experience for the audi-ence and to make the tour aswidely accessible as possible.Choral workshops will take placein London, St Albans, Blackburn,Norwich, Tewkesbury and Edin-burgh. An Insight Day, promotedby the National Centre for EarlyMusic in York, will include lec-tures from eminent musicologists

with members of The Sixteen pro-viding musical illustration. Inpartnership with the NationalCentre for Early Music, hundredsof school children will join TheSixteen for a series of matinée per-formances including pieces fromThe Choral Pilgrimage. As in pre-vious years Dr Paul WhittakerOBE will sign-interpret some ofThe Choral Pilgrimage perform-ances and run workshops foryoung adults and adults who aredeaf or hard of hearing.

Ceremony & Devotion: Musicfor the Tudors, the recording fea-turing the music from The ChoralPilgrimage 2010, will be releasedon CORO in February(COR16077). CORO is the livelyand successful record label of TheSixteen and Harry Christophers.Formed in 2001 and already boast-ing some 76 titles, recent CORORecent releases include theGramophone-Award-winningCoronation Anthems, Handel'sMessiah, which won the 2009MIDEM Award for Choral works,Bright Orb of Harmony which fea-tured works by Purcell andMacMillan and Sounds Sublime -The Essential Collection.

In an ambitious undertakingfor the tenth anniversary Harryand members of The Sixteen, ledby founder member ChristopherRoyall, will make a fundraisingpilgrimage walk following theNorth Downs Way and incorpo-rating some of Chaucer’s pilgrimpath. The total distance is 105miles and will take nine days (de-parting Guildford Cathedral onSunday 25 July 2010 and arrivingCanterbury Cathedral on Monday2 August 2010).

CHORAL PILGRIMAGE DATES

2010

Saturday 13 February 5.00pm SI

CE Leeds, University Great Hall

Friday 19 February 7.30pm Guild-

ford Cathedral

Friday 12 March 7.30pm CE Ox-

ford, University Church

Saturday 13 March 7.30pm Cam-

bridge, St John's College Chapel

Friday 2 April 7.00pm Aldeburgh,

Snape Maltings Concert Hall

Saturday 10 April 7.30pm CE St Al-

bans Cathedral

Thursday 15 April 7.30pm Leicester,

Church of St James the Greater

Saturday 17 April 7.30pm CE Win-

chester Cathedral

Thursday 13 May 7.30pm Green-

wich, Old Royal Naval Chapel

Friday 14 May 7.30pm CE Croydon,

Parish Church

Thursday 3 June 7.30pm Shrews-

bury, St Chad's Church

Friday 4 June 7.30pm SI CE Liver-

pool Metropolitan Cathedral

Saturday 5 June 7.30pm SI CE

Blackburn Cathedral

Saturday 12 June 7.30pm CE Nor-

wich Cathedral

Friday 2 July 7.45pm SI CE Milton

Keynes, City Church

Friday 16 July 7.30pm SI York Min-

ster

Friday 3 September 7.30pm CE

Southwell Minster

Saturday 4 September 7.30pm CE

Peterborough Cathedral

Thursday 16 September 7.30pm CE

Swansea, Collegiate & Parish

Church of St Mary

Friday 17 September 7.30pm SI

Wells Cathedral

FOR SEPT & OCT DATESAND OTHER ENQUIRIES:

Tel: 01904 651 485 Email: [email protected] Website: www.ncem.co.uk

Harry Christophers AndThe Sixteen Celebratetheir tenth choral pilgrim-age with music for the tudors and a pilgrimagewalk

4 Life NEW YEAR EDITION 2010 | The Christian Times

Can youimagine living

on only $1.25 per day? That iswhat half the population of Nepalmust do! I felt like a very richman, even though, back in Oz, myincome is quite modest.

But then what was I doing inNepal, so far from home? Thestory began some three years agowhen like Paul, a cry for help hadreached me – “Come to Nepal,bring your college; we need yourhelp in our churches … pleasecome…” It was the kind of emailI have received so often but thistime the plaintive cry from RevPeter Karmelshwa in Birganj, asmall village on the Nepali/Indianborder, struck a chord with me, itwas a “God Moment”.

Birganj? A small, dusty servicetown with little to command inter-est and yet that call had to be an-swered. And so in 2006 I went tomeet Pastor Peter and established asmall local church Bible college.Political upheaval, economic disas-ter, and persecution, all combinedto see the college close … But Godhad started something he was notabout to finish.

Nepal is an isolated and land-locked country famous for the Hi-malayas, Mount Everest, and, until2008, the only officially Hindu Na-tion. Nepal is the world's youngestrepublic. It is bordered to the northby the People's Republic of China,and to the south, east, and west bythe Republic of India. With an areaof 147,181 square kilometres(56,827 sq mi) and a population ofapproximately 30 million, Nepal isthe world's 93rd largest country byland mass and the 41st most popu-lous country. Kathmandu is the na-tion's capital and the country'slargest metropolitan city

Some 50 odd years ago therewere 200 (perhaps) Christians inNepal. The church is now finding ameasure of freedom in that nationafter centuries of severe persecu-tion. Today there are reportedlyover 1,000,000 Christians in manydenominations. But astoundingly,the growth of Christianity in Nepalis almost entirely due to localhome-grown evangelism.

In spite of, or perhaps becauseof, this incredible growth an enor-mous need has arisen -- a need forteaching and training in the local

church. While they are good menand women of God, many of thepastors, especially in the rural areasor in independent churches, havelittle or no training. Many have dif-ficulty handling the New Testa-ment, others can do little morethan deal with the Gospels andbook of Acts. Some of the pastorsare illiterate and can only ministerfrom sermons and teaching theyhear.

While there are several of BibleColleges in Kathmandu, outsidethe city there are few colleges ortraining centres. The need is great-est in the countryside, where alsothe growth of the church is thestrongest, and the level of persecu-tion of the church is the greatest.

“Come to Nepal, bring yourcollege, we need your help in ourchurches….”

The terrain of Nepal is breath-takingly beautiful, magnificent be-yond my limited capacity todescribe. Yet it is as remote andharsh as it is beautiful. The remote-ness reminds of my time in PapuaNew Guinea and the stugle ofChristians to find opportunities tobe taught and ministered to.

To give you an idea … The tripto Birjanj from Kathmandu re-quired a 12 minute flight -- it wassimply down the mountain -- fol-lowed by a six-hour trip by road toBirjanj itself. To do the whole tripby road would have taken up to 24hours.

Another pastor friend of minescales a cliff face to his village. Forhim to go to the next town for sup-plies he has an 8-hour trek, fol-lowed by a 6-hour climb down asheer cliff face, and then another 30minute trek to the town, all by foot,14 hours one way…

In Jiri – the Gateway to Everest-- students wanting to get to atraining centre must travel by footacross the mountains for severaldays. There they hope to complete5 months in the training centre,and then return, without support,as pastors of small local churches.

The people are hungry for theword of God and will sit and lis-ten for hours on end, workingthrough interpreters who arelearning as they turn the messageinto Nepali. Extra time is needed,since I am teaching the hungryand training the trainer at thesame time.

I had the privilege of sittingwith many of the church leadersin Nepal and discovered a very re-freshing system and unity. Thereare many denominations, inde-pendent works, and mission bod-ies throughout the nation.

Geographically and politicallyNepal is divided into 75 districts.In each district there is at least oneChristian body that oversees thework of the ministry, somethinglike a “Ministers’ Fraternal”. Thetask of these bodies is to keeppeace among the pastors, andunder their watchful eye, andwithout interfering with the min-istry of anyone, these bodies haveencouraged the churches to growin harmony with each other.

Effectively, each of thesegroups is responsible for hun-dreds of thousands of Christiansthroughout their district. Thesebodies joined their voice withPeter ... “Come to Nepal, bringyour college, we need your help inour churches….”

We have already begun, inKathmandu city, in KathmanduValley, and in Jiri, four colleges,and interest in our college pro-gram is growing rapidly on thefoundation we have establishedwith the Nepali pastors.

Can we translate the materialinto Nepali? Yes! Indeed, we en-courage them, as they become fa-miliar with the books, to developtheir own cultural version ofChristian doctrine.

Any church that desires to runits own Bible College, for its ownpeople, or for a group of churches,is welcomed by Vision.

For the present, students muststudy in English, which meansthat they learn the same subjectsand sit the same exams as anyother student anywhere else in theworld. So they also earn the sameawards with the same level ofrecognition. Nepali students in aremote village are learning along-side students in Sydney, (Aus-tralia), or New York (USA), orLondon (England).

These men and women inNepal, or any other nation, arebeing equipped to present thegospel, or trained to be pastors,

teachers and evangelists, minis-ters of the word of God, who willchange their world, one day at atime, one soul at a time.

Despite the tyrannies of dis-tance and remoteness, Vision isworking with the pastors inNepal, educating them, and train-ing and equipping them to de-velop the existing church and toestablish new ministries through-out the nation. From my desk inSydney we work with localchurches and pastors around theworld, teaching them to teachtheir people, in their community,in their time, and in their circum-stances.

So why call on Vision? Visionis a unique Bible college program.We operate by distance educationmethods -- by mail order, throughthe internet, and through estab-lishing local church-based BibleColleges. The Vision ChristianCollege ministry has functionedin this manner since it was estab-lished in Tasmania in 1974, andnow, 35 years later, we have col-leges and students in over 150countries around the world, someof them in very remote locations!We have gained some expertise inremote Bible college education,and we are not afraid to entrustthis ministry to the hands of like-minded men and women of God,no matter who they are or wherethey are. Rev. Dr. Denis Plant is CEO/Princi-

pal of Vision Colleges who have

been invited into Nepal for the pur-

pose of establishing a network of

local church Bible Colleges in that

nation.

The Word Christian Fellowship

Internet Bible College

Vision Christian College

PO Box 84 Macquarie Fields

NSW 2564 Australia

Mob 0414 337 520

Ph. 02 9829 1340

Fx. 02 9829 1420

By Rev. Dr.

Denis Plant

Journey toNepal

Hatmandu life

Everest

6 Mission NEW YEAR EDITION 2010 | The Christian Times

Lawrence Jones is the US di-rector of Mission Direct. For overfive years they have been workingin the Dominican Republic. How-ever, one day he received a plea forhelp from an orphanage across theborder in Haiti.

Lawrence recounts a missiontrip outside his comfort zone. Andhe reflects on how a terribletragedy may be bringing to tworival nations closer together atlast…

I felt like a diver jumping offthe motor boat in search of sunkentreasure. The sort you see in ad-venture movies: “Listen, if I tug onthe cord twice it means I’m in bigtrouble – pull me up immediately!”

I was in the Dominican Re-public with my colleague Sean, twotonnes of food and boxes of med-ical supplies bound for the otherside of the Haitian border. Ourfinal destination was the EbenezerGlenn Orphanage. Hanging in thebalance was the welfare of a hun-dred children and staff, bulked outby an ever-growing band of earth-quake refugees. The building wasundamaged, but the quake hadtaken out much of Haiti’s fragileinfrastructure and supply lines, sono supplies had been forthcomingin a fortnight.

We have been working withHaitian refugees since 2001, but al-ways based in the bordering Do-minican Republican. It was onlythe quake that finally persuaded usto cross over the border to offeraid.

But Haiti is not the safest placeto operate right now. So I wasn’ttoo surprised when the local Do-minicans took a lot of convincingto drive us across the border. “Notone Dominican driver in a hun-dred would chance this trip” re-marked Pedro our minibus driver.

Finally we set off, with 2 tonnesof food on board along with boxesof antibiotics and medical supplies,not to mention 50 gallons of petrol,two Haitian translators and, after

much persuasion, two Dominicandrivers. Then, after only a fewminutes into the journey a tireblew.

It was at that point I was readyto tug on the metaphorical cordand tell God firmly “OK, this isn’tworking – pull me up now please!”But we were in too deep now, andbesides, God clearly had otherideas…

Tire fixed, we set off for Port auPrince without major incident. Butonce inside the capital the storiesof murdered Dominicans startedcirculating. Our drivers were anx-ious.

To say that relations betweenDominicans and Haitians havebeen tense hardly does justice totheir fraught history. Haiti repeat-edly occupied the DR during the19th century, helping themselvesto resources along the way. Do-minicans, meanwhile have longlooked upon the Creole Haitians asuncivilised and aggressive, com-pared to their own Hispanic cul-ture. The two countries regularlyfall out and the border is oftenclosed. Closed, but always porousfor those seeking to cross it.

Refugees have poured acrossthe border in their hundreds ofthousands over the years. Theywere clearly expecting a better life.What they found was scarcely anybetter than what they left behindthough. Mission Direct has beenworking with Haitian refugeessince 2004. We have now bought aplot of land, and agreed to build1,200 homes over the next fewyears. We are housing Haitians andsome Dominicans too.

Before they moved into properaccommodation, home was usu-ally an unsanitary shack built fromscraps of waste. One settlementborders the local rubbish tip,which the refugees regularly scav-enge from. Amazingly, one womanI met described her life in one ofthese makeshift settlements as“paradise”. The reason: her family

had escaped the ever present threatof violence that hung over them inHaiti.

Dominicans have traditionallybeen suspicious of these migrants.On the one hand they are resentfulof the influx, on the other, they arereliant on the cheap labourHaitians provide – often less thanone U.S. Dollar buys a day’s work.

There are some half-heartedattempts at repatriation: I ap-peared at a settlement one day tofind it all but deserted. “Where iseveryone?” I asked. “Oh, it’sThursday” remarked one of theremaining women casually. TheHaitians were rounded up anddriven by the truckload to bedumped back over the border. Atwhich point they bribed the driv-ers to drop them back in the DR.

But relations between the na-tions are at last thawing. Whenthe hostel owner in the DR dis-covered why we were there sheimmediately waived her fees.Many Dominicans are bringingaid to the border. The quakeseems to have put matters intoperspective on both sides, re-minding them of their sharedhumanity, over and above theircultural differences.

How Dominicans will re-spond to any fresh influx of Hait-ian refugees is another matter.Right now, the flow of Haitians isback across the border, in searchof family and loved ones. Thenthey will most likely return, quitepossibly with families in tow.

When we have finished de-livering aid, our focus at MissionDirect will return to these mi-grants. With the help of UK vol-unteers who give up two weeksof their annual leave, we arebuilding a series of basic housesto replace the migrants’ rat-in-fested shacks. Each time a newhouse is finished, we hand overthe keys to another grateful fam-ily. A proper house means accessto electricity, sanitation, educa-tion and training. It is the chanceto settle in a land they had barelysurvived in before.

Against all earthly odds, Godfinally responds to my ‘tug’ forhelp. After a soul-sapping threehours of pleading with officials,the U.N. Civil and Military Co-ordinator, Col. Nuñez calls usover. Upon hearing of our re-quest for armed guards, he re-sponded: “First and foremost, weare working to provide for mil-

lions…not just one hundred…hmm …now … where is it youwant to go?”

At 8:00 the next morning, 4heavily armed soldiers brought atruck up behind our little armada.In front, were the 50 gallons ofpetrol and four thousand poundsof food; behind us, a 50 caliber ma-chine gun and four U.N. peace-

keeping troops. This was not thesort of mission work I was used to!

Eventually we reached the or-phanage where we were greetedwith smiles and hugs – the cavalryhad arrived. Two nations dividedby race, history and religion hadpulled together in the face oftragedy. Having heard our call forhelp from the depths, God wasn’t

going to let us – along with a hun-dred orphans - drown.

To find out more about Mis-sion Direct’s work in the Domini-can Republic and learn how tovolunteer yourself, go to www.mis-siondirect.org/dr or phone JackieJohnstone on 01582 720056.

MissionDirect...a difference inThe Dominican Republic andHaiti

Life as it is

Lawrence Jones

Rescue Helicopter


Partnered with hu-

manitarian relief

agency Convoy of

Hope, Ben Cerullo

Ministries provides

water, food, and

medical supplies in

the aftermath of

the January 12th

earthquake.

Charlotte, NC, USA – As reliefefforts for the people of Haiti haveentered their third week, the crisisshows few signs of diminishing.The devastating earthquake thatstruck Port-au-Prince on January12 continues to claim victims, withtens of thousands known to bedead. In spite of unparalleled as-sistance from governments andagencies, the need for collabora-tive support remains crucial to re-lief efforts.

Ben Cerullo Ministries isamong the organisations that re-sponded immediately followingthe quake by working with Con-voy of Hope and ministry partnerson the ground. “Humanitarian aidis a strategic component of ourministry,” noted BCM founder,Ben Cerullo. “More than threemillion people in Haiti have beendirectly affected by this tragedyand many of them will not surviveunless we continue to reach out.Additional water, food, medicine,

tarps and tents are desperatelyneeded.”

In addition to meeting physi-cal needs in Haiti through theirpartnership with Convoy of Hope,BCM is providing spiritual sup-port. “You hear about riots andgangs, but tremendous ministryalso is taking place,” noted Cerullo.“We have received many prayer re-quests through our website fromfamilies who have not yet heardfrom loved ones in Haiti. We arepraying for everyone: victims, or-phans, relief workers and militarypersonnel.”

Secure, online donations for

Haitian relief efforts can be

made by visiting

http://bencerullo.com/haiti.aspx

All donations will be directed to

the immediate needs of earth-

quake victims and will continue

to meet humanitarian needs as

they arise in the coming

months.

The UK's two leading mis-sion training colleges, allnationsand Redcliffe College, have an-nounced that they have agreed tothe principle of merger. The newCollege will build on the currentstrengths and rich heritage ofboth to become the foremostcentre for mission training in theUK and around the world.

While talks regarding issues

such as name and location arestill in the early stages, it is envis-aged that the merged college willoperate from the current Red-cliffe and allnations campuses inGloucester and Hertfordshirefrom September 2010, and onone site from September 2011.Short courses, undergraduateand postgraduate studies willcontinue to be available and thecurrent emphasis on academicrigour, practical training andspiritual development will be

maintained.Allnations and Redcliffe have

been the centres of choice formission training in the UK formany years, and also serve awider European and Global con-stituency, often having 30 na-tionalities in each of theirstudent bodies. They have sharedmany of the same values of an in-tegrated approach to training

men and women for effectivecross-cultural service and believethis offers a firm foundation forthe future.

Richard Clark, former Na-tional Director of Interserve(England and Wales) and amember of the board said, "Thenew College will give us the op-portunity to respond to the cur-rent social, economic andChristian climate and create aworld class training institution.There will be better stewardship

of resources, a greater capacityfor incisive research, and astronger platform upon which tospeak into the vital issues sur-rounding global cross-culturalmission today."

Martin Lee, Director ofGlobal Connections, is also amember of the board.

"Having had a long associa-tion with both colleges, I am very

excited aboutseeing the newcentre for mis-sion training thatwill be createdfrom the merger,"he said. "The newbody has the po-tential to be a

world leader in the areas ofcross-cultural training and mis-sion. This is a strategic andtimely decision which will fur-ther the development of innova-tive and effective mission in the21st Century."

For more information aboutRedcliffe College and allnations,visit their websiteshttp://www.redcliffe.org/ andhttp://www.allnations.ac.uk/

Exciting newsabout the futureof mission training

E iti b t th f t f i i t i i

Ben Cerullo Ministries providespractical and spiritual supportto the people of Haiti

While every teenager strives tobe different, workers with Opera-tion Mobilisation (OM) have pio-neered a ministry that isimpacting youth from SouthAmerica to Sydney. In less than 20years, the TeenStreet programmehas taken root on five continentsand in 2010 thousands of youngChristians are expected to attendthese weeklong discipleshipevents.

Adapted for variations in localculture and language, each Teen-Street revolves around creativeteaching sessions from the Bible,small group discussions, interac-tive workshops and worship.Taken together, this programmehelps the young participants havea real friendship with Jesus and re-flect Him in their world backhome. For some teens who comeform a Christian family, Teen-Street provides a safe environmentfor them to explore their faith in-dependently. Where it is appropri-ate, OM workers and volunteerswho lead the small groups are alsospecifically trained to provide

counselling in subjects rangingfrom eating disorders to abuse.

Allister Fugill co-ordinates theinternational TeenStreet pro-gramme and he is excited to seethe opportunities God is openingto expand into new destinations.“However, the needs and chal-lenges that teens in Asia face arevery different to Europe,” he be-gins. “We cannot just export apackage with the hope that itmight have some value! But,through locally led TeenStreet ini-tiatives and in partnership withthe Church in those places, wehave seen young people grow intheir faith to become the next gen-eration of youth workers andchurch leaders.”

The 2010 TeenStreet scheduleinvolves events in Uruguay, Brazil,Germany, South Africa, Malaysiaand Australia. Future opportuni-ties to run programmes in severalother countries are also being ex-plored. For more information and2010 events dates, visit www.teen-street.om.org.

Writer, broadcaster and self-declared ‘critical polymath’ Ziaud-din Sardar is to address theUniversity of Glamorgan in Feb-ruary 2010. Trained as a scientist,and expert in the workings ofmodern means of communication,he has written widely about hispersonal journey through differentschools of socialist and Islamicthought, and will bring his experi-ence to bear in giving the 2010Chaplaincy Lecture, “Rethinkingthe contemporary relevance ofIslam”.

The University of Glamorganattracts large numbers of studentsfrom the Islamic world. ProfessorSardar has been invited to give thisyear’s Chaplaincy lecture to en-courage a fresh look at Islam. It isall too easy to make negative as-sumptions about Muslims andtheir beliefs in the presence of thelingering threat of internationalterrorism. But the Chaplaincy lec-ture will be an invitation to take adeeper look, and to discover thecommon ground which Islamshares with the philosophical her-itage of the Western world.

University Chaplain, RevdVaughan Rees, said: “When I firstheard Professor Sardar speak, Iwas struck by the wide variety ofexpressions of Islam and Westernthought which have been part ofhis own journey. I am confidentthat his lecture will make an in-sightful and challenging contribu-tion to our thinking aboutmulti-faith and multicultural is-sues.”

The University’s Chaplaincyencourages students to exploreideas and beliefs from all theworld’s great religious traditions,and its “Open Churches Sunday”to showcase Christian faith duringInterfaith Week was recently high-lighted by the BBC. In anotherChaplaincy initiative during the

same week, retiring First Minister,Rhodri Morgan AM, spoke can-didly at the University about therole Christian faith and the localchapel played in his childhood.Now, in this year’s Chaplaincy lec-ture, the Chaplaincy is highlight-ing the diversity of beliefs andopinions within Islam, and its in-fluence on a leading criticalthinker.

The Chaplaincy Lecture will beheld on Monday 8th February atthe Glamorgan Conference Centreon the Treforest Campus of theUniversity of Glamorgan, begin-ning at 7:00 pm.

Ziauddin Sardar was born inNorthern Pakistan in 1951; hegrew up in Hackney, London,where he was educated at BrookeHouse Secondary School, going onto read physics and then informa-tion science at the City University,London.

He is a Visiting Professor inthe School of Arts at City Univer-sity, London, a contributing editorof New Statesman, and editor ofFutures, the monthly journal ofplanning, policy and futures stud-ies. Professor Sardar has authoredmore than 40 books, including thehighly acclaimed DesperatelySeeking Paradise and Balti Britain.

His official website is at:www.ziauddinsardar.com

The Chaplaincy to the Uni-versity of Glamorgan [email protected] exists to servethe spiritual needs of students ofall faiths and none. Sponsored bythe main Christian churches inWales, it offers a team of full- andpart-time Chaplains available tomeet with students and staff, sup-ported by advisors from the majorworld faiths. The Chaplains oper-ate an on-line database of places ofworship in South-East Wales,www.glamfaith.org

Critical Polymath rethinks Islam in Glamorgan


When Katharine Gray left herfull time job working with com-munities in deprived areas to runher ‘hobby’ as a full time occupa-tion, little did she realize how per-tinent this verse would be.

Katharine set up friends1st –the UK Christian friendship anddating agency in 1999 in responseto Elaine Storkey’s (the well-knownChristian academic and broad-caster) challenge to the church todo something about single people.Elaine recognized that for Chris-tians who wouldn’t compromisetheir faith by settling down withsomeone who didn’t share thatfaith, that decision often meant ex-

tended singleness and, for many,significant loneliness.

Over the years of talking totens of thousands of ‘single’ people– not only those who’ve not yet ornever married, but also those whoare widowed or separated and di-vorced – Katharine has seen thetruth in this and the extent of lone-liness that exists amongst ‘single’people in the church today.

It is easy to think that thechurch provides a safe, cozy familyto reside in, but this isn’t many ‘sin-gle’ peoples experience. In fact re-search shows that many ‘single’people feel marginalized, out ofplace or left out – almost as if thereis something ‘wrong’ with themjust because they are single.

It is common knowledge thatthe number of single people in oursociety is rising – people are get-ting married later, many marriagesfail and people are living longerand facing years of widowhood.

But there is no doubt that thehuman desire to find love andcompanionship hasn’t changed onebit since God created Eve forAdam.

And this is where friends1sthas stood the test of time. It’s nowone of the longest running andmost successful Christian friend-ship agencies in the UK and overits ten years it has been instrumentalin no less that 60 couples gettingmarried to date with more to follow.

The friends1st couples span theage groups from young people intheir 20s and 30s to those moremature in their 70s and 80s (witheverything in between). Each cou-

ple has a unique and heart warm-ing story to tell but one commonthing is that very often God usesfriends1st to answer both generaland very specific prayers.

Hayley and Chris [picturedleft] were one of friends1st’s earli-est (and youngest) couples to getmarried. Hayley, an attractiveyoung lady, was actively involvedinside and outside her church butfound that everyone she met waseither already married or too oldfor her. She tried other agencieswith no success and then triedfriend1st where she was given thedetails of a rather lovely soundingmusic teacher who worked strangehours and found as a result thatmaintaining a normal social life(especially one conducive to meet-ing others) rather difficult. Theymet up, took an instant liking toeach other, and very quickly fell inlove. Four months later they were en-gaged and the rest is history.

When you are that age, per-haps it’s not so difficult to findsomeone. But when you are a wid-owed vicar aged 47, running aparish and realizing you want thatspecial companionship a wife canbring, it isn’t necessarily so easy tofind her – as many church leadersrelate. Of course being widowed(or divorced) bring with it a wholehost of difficult issues that have tobe worked through, not least won-dering if it’s OK to marry again, letalone whether you’ll ever findsomeone. Bernard was persuadedby good friends to join friends1stin March 2004. It wasn’t easy atfirst and when Bev called him, he

was just about to go out for an ap-pointment. However they talkedand arranged to meet at the end ofApril. Sixteen weeks later that weremarried and are still recommend-ing friends1st to their friends.

Eric was also a widow when hejoined friends1st but he was differ-ent – having been married for 56happy years and now being 86.Could friends1st help him he won-dered. He joined and wrote to alady who never replied and henearly gave up. But then ‘Godshowed his hand’ as a lady, also onfriends1st books and living veryclose to him, answered his letter.When they met it was love at firstsight and within a month theywere married. Of course at theirage (Margaret was 76 then) therewas no time to lose.

Another young couple to findeach other through friends1st wasBrian (31) and Ruth (28). Onceagain they both found themselves

in churches with few young people.Brian’s pastor gave him friends1st’sdetails and when he saw Ruth’sprofile he was certainly interesteddespite the fact she lived 155 milesfrom him. Well there’s no stoppinglove and they met up regularly anda year later were engaged. Theyknow God’s hand is on their meet-ing and marriage.

With every story that friends1sthears of couples who get together –as well as the friendships that peoplemake – friends1st sees how god isshaping people’s lives – bringing tofruition his (and their) hopes andplans – giving them a future just as ispromised in Jeremiah 29 verse 11.

“It’s a great privilege to be in-volved in this work” saysKatharine. “I believe absolutelythat God doesn’t’ want people to belonely on their own. So many peo-ple are looking for someone specialand many people think they’llnever find them, but I know thisisn’t the case. I really do believethere is someone out there foreveryone if they want a relation-ship – and maybe the first step istalking a step of faith and startingto believe it. That is what all thepeople who’ve joined friends1sthave done and why we’ve had somany success stories. Praise God.”More heartwarming stories can be

read on the friends1st website

www.friends1st.co.uk/marriages.htm.

Friends1st works completely off

line and provides a very personal

service to all types of single people

looking for friendship or more. Call

Katharine on 0121 427 1286 for

more information.

Christian friendshipagency promoting agood future for singles

Hayley & Chris Bernard & Bev Brian & Ruth

OM Youth MinistryGoes Global

2

In an amazing fulfilment of Bibli-cal prophecy, Jewish people fromall over the world are returning toIsrael after being scattered fornearly 2000 years! Over three mil-lion have returned since thefounding of the State of Israel in1948. There is no parallel or prece-dent in the history of mankind forthe in gathering of a people afterbeing scattered from their countryfor so long. This is a miracle thatonly God could do!

Since 1991 Operation Exodus,a ministry of Ebenezer EmergencyFund has been part of this miraclehelping Jewish people return to Is-rael, assisting over 128,000 Jewishpeople from the former SovietUnion (fSU) to go back to Israel.

How we began

In 1982, God showed GustavScheller (a Swiss businessman liv-ing in Bournemouth), that it wasHis plan and purpose to bring theJewish people back to Israel andthat He would use him to help doso. In 1991, in Jerusalem, the Lordagain spoke to Gustav saying:‘Now is the time to start helpingmy people to return from the landof the North’. Gustav understoodthe Biblical “land of the North” re-ferred to Russia and all the coun-tries of the fSU. The Head Officewas established in Bournemouthand Operation Exodus was born.In the UK

We seek opportunities to teachin Churches about God’s ongoing

purposes for the Jewish people andhow we as Christians can be in-volved through intercessoryprayer, giving and serving.

Last year we partnered withthe Jewish Agency* assisting over160 Jewish people to go to Israelfrom the UK. This year with theLords help we anticipate in help-ing many more return home totheir Promised Land. (*JewishAgency — an organisation whichhelps Jewish people emigrate to Is-rael)

To find out more about the ex-citing plans and purposes the Lordhas for the return of the Jewishpeople to the land of their forefa-thers, sign up today! The first 150to respond will receive a FREEcopy of our book “Operation Exo-dus – prophecy being fulfilled.”

See the advert opposite for de-tails about our forthcoming con-ference at The Hayes ConferenceCentre, Swanwick, Derbyshire.

Isaiah 43:5-6 (NKJV)“I will bring your descendants

from the east, And gather you fromthe west; I will say to the north,‘Give them up!’ And to the south,‘Do not keep them back!’ Bring Mysons from afar, And My daughtersfrom the ends of the earth.”

Welcome to IsraelProphecy being fulfilled

By Michael Ireland

Chief Correspondent, ASSIST

News Service

HAITI (ANS) -- An Israeli De-fense Force medical crew has re-turned home from Haiti.

The 200-plus members of theIDF Home Front Command med-ical mission to Haiti were given ahero's welcome when they landedin Israel on Thursday afternoon.

Israeli Prime Minister Ben-jamin Netanyahu told the IDFteam that: "We who are familiarwith the IDF.we were not sur-prised. Precisely during these days,during which there are those whoconspire against us and distort anddegrade the name of the IDF andthe name of the State of Israel, youshowed the world the true spirit ofthe IDF. The entire world is full ofappreciation for your work."

The first Lutheran Church -Missouri Synod Haiti disaster re-sponse teams also recently re-turned to the United States fromHaiti and the Dominican Republic.

One team, comprised of volun-teer medical professionals fromthroughout the United States, re-turned Tuesday, Jan. 26, after serv-ing some 1,500 injured Haitianrefugees at Good Samaritan Hospi-tal in Jimani, a Dominican Repub-lic city near the Haiti border.

Additional LCMS teams, in-cluding a second volunteer medicalteam, will arrive Saturday, Jan. 30,for a week-long stay.

The medical team will takesupplies and medications into theheavily damaged city of Jacmel,south of Port-au-Prince. They willset up a clinic of tents and canopieson the grounds of an ELCH churchthat will provide general care,wound care, and nutritional serv-ices. Two more medical teams arescheduled to serve in Haiti in thecoming months.

In addition to medical treat-ment, the LCMS is also coordinat-ing shipments of aid to Haiti fromthe Dominican Republic, whereLCMS World Mission has recentlyrelocated additional missionariesto help assist the Haiti relief effort.

A boat carrying 22,000 poundsof food and medicine will be dis-tributed through ELCH congrega-tions. Additional shipments arescheduled for the next two weeks.

The LCMS teams deliveredmoney, food, supplies, medicalcare, pastoral care, and prayers tothe Haitian survivors, their care-givers, and the group's Lutheranpartners in the Caribbean nation.

Despite the quake's destruc-tion, members of returning LCMSrelief teams said their message fo-cused on love and hope.

The LCMS is committed tohelping its Lutheran partners, in-cluding the Evangelical LutheranChurch of Haiti (ELCH), an LCMSpartner church since 2001, and theHaitian people for the long-term.Additional LCMS teams leave thisweekend.

"I am so thankful to God forour staff and volunteers who aregiving selflessly and tirelessly tohelp the hurting Haitians, as well asfor our members and others whohave given money to make our re-sponse possible,'' said LCMS Pres-ident Dr. Gerald B. Kieschnick."They are truly demonstrating theloving mercy of Jesus Christ, ourLord and Savior.''

News reports do not comeclose to capturing "the sights,sounds, and smells of the devasta-tion in Haiti and the struggles thepeople are going through,'' saidRev. Glenn Merritt, director of dis-aster response for the LCMS mercyministry, World Relief and HumanCare.

Merritt recently spent five daysin Haiti and the Dominican Re-public. The search-and-rescue andlaw enforcement veteran will leadthe relief team returning to HaitiSunday, Jan. 31.

"We saw people trying to bendbars with their hands and trying tobreak cement with a little hammeras they tried to get to people be-cause they heard sounds comingfrom the buildings,'' Merritt said."Certainly, this was devastation ona scale that I had never seen be-fore.''

In Jimani, a pastoral care teamspent time comforting the injuredand their loved ones as well as pro-viding support to the medicalworkers.

Pastoral care team leader Rev.Matthew Harrison, executive di-rector of LCMS World Relief andHuman Care, recounted how a vet-eran emergency room doctor weptas she told him about her first Hait-ian patient, a young woman whobled to death on the operatingroom floor.

The dying patient lost her fam-ily in the earthquake, and the doc-tor struggled to find words tocomfort her. When the worrieddoctor said she didn't know how tocope with so much tragedy, Harri-son listened and shared words tohelp her "begin to process the mat-ter in the context of the cross ofJesus," he said.

Helping make the LCMS Haitirelief effort possible are gifts toLCMS World Relief and HumanCare, which has received donationsand pledges to date totaling $1.6million to assist the quake victims.

Financial donations are re-quired for the long-term Lutheranresponse in Haiti. To make a gift,visit www.lcms.org , call toll-free888-930-4438, or mail checksmarked "Haiti Earthquake Relief "to LCMS World Relief and HumanCare, P.O. Box 66861, St. Louis,MO 63166-6861.

The LCMS, working coopera-tively through LCMS World Reliefand Human Care and LCMSWorld Mission in St. Louis,Lutheran World Relief in Balti-more, Concordia PublishingHouse, and other U.S. and Haitianpartners, is striving to serve the on-going needs of the people of Haitiwho have lost loved ones, homes,possessions, and means of liveli-hood as a result of this devastatingnatural disaster. For up-to-theminute news of the LCMS re-sponse to the earthquake in Haiti,visit www.lcms.org.

The St. Louis-based LutheranChurch-Missouri Synod, foundedin 1847, has nearly 2.4 million bap-tized members in some 6,200 con-gregations and more than 9,000pastors. The church body, whichranks as one of the largest Chris-tian denominations in the UnitedStates, owns and operates KFUOradio, two seminaries, and 10 col-leges and universities. Its congre-gations operate the largestProtestant parochial school systemin America.

The LCMS has relationshipsand active mission work in 88countries around the world and, inthe last five years, has awardedmore than $35 million throughmore than 900 domestic and inter-national grants for emergency re-sponse and disaster relief.

Today, the LCMS is in full doc-trinal fellowship with 32 other con-fessional Lutheran church bodieson six continents and is a foundingpartner of Lutheran Services inAmerica, a social ministry organi-zation serving one in every 50Americans. For more information,visit www.lcms.org

First Israeli and LutheranHaiti Relief Teams Re-turn Home FollowingQuake Response


Turkey – a land so evocative ofBiblical history and with a spiritualheritage stretching right back toGenesis. Many places named inthe Bible can be found in modernday Turkey – Ephesus, Laodicea,Thyatira – the names conjure up inour minds the missionary jour-neys of the Apostle Paul and thechurches that were founded there.Sadly, the Church today has all butbeen extinguished and 99.8% ofthe 72 million population is Mus-lim.

Many Christian agencies areworking to support the strugglingTurkish Church. One of theseagencies is SAT-7, a satellite televi-sion network broadcasting Chris-tian programmes across theMiddle East and North Africa. It’sTurkish language service, estab-lished in 2003 as TURK-7, in Jan-uary 2010 became the latest in thefamily of SAT-7 channels – SAT-7TURK - adding to its existing Ara-bic and Farsi language services.

SAT-7 TURK’s broadcasts are,in many instances, the only waythat many Turkish people will beable to hear the Christian messageexplained in their own language.The programmes cover everygenre – entertainment, drama,

children’s programmes, documen-taries, magazine shows and Bibleteaching programmes.

Impacting lives

The programmes are having alife-changing effect on viewers. Aman in Istanbul wrote to say, “Lastnight I watched the ‘Words ofHope’ programme. What the hostsaid really affected me. My systemof belief—the way I’ve been bur-dened all my life with living underpunishment because of the way re-ligion was explained to me—hasbeen turned upside down. I wouldbe very happy if you could help mein this matter, the matter of find-ing God.”

And a mother emailed to say,“There just isn't anything like thison the other channels we get here.The programmes provide a won-derful opportunity for me to ex-plain to my children what webelieve as Christians in ways theyunderstand. Living in a stronglyMuslim country, it really is a pre-cious thing to have this channel.”

For more information, pleasevisit www.sat7.org or the channelwebsite in Turkish atwww.sat7turk.com

Supporting the Turkish Church by Satellite

Church EditMany churches have struggled

to create or maintain their ownwebsite. The complexity and a lackof time is often a factor as to whymany churches do not have effec-tive websites. Yet websites are es-sential to today’s church and canprovide a vital way of communi-cating with church members andthe local community as well asbeing a key way that Christian’s lo-cate a new church.

Church Edit is a powerful websolution which has helped manyhundreds of UK churches to createeffective websites. It is extremelyeasy to use which means that any-one in the church from the pastorto a church member can be giventhe authority to update the webpages. Church Edit has been de-veloped for churches which meansthere are a great number of tool es-pecially useful such as calendars,daily bible readings and memberfeatures.

With restricted budgets, many

churches do not want to pay largesums of money for their website tobe developed and then continuallymaintained by a web design com-pany. The Church Edit solution isprovided on a low yearly subscrip-tion and gives the church controlover updating its website via theweb-based admin system.

Kyle Cottington of ChurchEdit says “Many churches come tous wanting an easy solution afteryears of struggling to get theirwebsite created themselves. Wealso have many churches who’vehad a website for years but wantmore advanced features at a clickof a button and that is whereChurch Edit has been able to help”.

Based on years of experienceworking with churches, ChurchEdit also runs free seminarsaround the UK to help churchescreate successful websites.

Details of these seminars andhow you can try Church Edit forfree can be found on the website.

www.churchedit.co.uk 0121 320 25 30[See ad on page 8]

A new Principal has been ap-pointed at International ChristianCollege, Glasgow following theretirement of Rev Dr Tony Sargentin 2009. Richard Tiplady [pictured]will take up the postfrom the summer of 2010.

Richard currently serves asBritish Director of EuropeanChristian Mission, which he joinedin 2004. Prior to this he worked asa consultant for several Christianorganisations including Tearfund.He also taught theology at SamuelBill Theological College in Nigeriawith Mission Africa, and was As-sociate Director of Global Con-nections from 1996 – 2002.

Richard is no stranger to Inter-national Christian College. Hecompleted his undergraduate de-gree in Divinity at the Bible Train-ing Institute in Glasgow, one of thecolleges which merged to formICC in 1998, and he is now in-volved in teaching on the college’sMTh in Ministry in an UrbanWorld programme. He also holdspostgraduate degrees in Theologyand in Management.

To date he has published threebooks: Postmission: World Mis-sion by a Postmodern Generation;One World or Many? The Impactof Globalisation on Mission; andWorld of Difference: Global Mis-sion at the Pic'n'mix Counter. Heis currently completing the manu-script of his next book, an intro-duction to mission to be publishedin 2011 in the Keswick Founda-tions series. Richard's academicinterests focus on the areas of lead-ership, Christian mission in con-temporary Western culture, and

the history of Christian mission.Richard says, "I am delighted

to be joining ICC. The task ofpreparing current and future gen-erations of Christians to developtheir understanding of their faithand relate it to the world aroundhas never been more important.ICC has a central place in doingthis for the church in Scotland, theUK, and the rest of the world".

International Christian Collegeis the largest independent Bibleand theological college in Scotlandand the north of England, offeringa variety of undergraduate andpostgraduate programmes. It wasformed in 1998 through themerger of Glasgow Bible Collegeand Northumbria Bible College.The college offers theological edu-cation at a variety of levels, frominterest level classes, to undergrad-uate and postgraduate degrees.

Further information can befound online at www.icc.ac.uk

New PrincipalAppointed atthe largest independenttheological college in Scotland


A Fresh Image forWycliffe Bible Translators

From January 2010, WycliffeUK will be known publicly asWycliffe Bible Translators with afresh look and a new logo. Thetitle will reinforce the aim ofWycliffe, to see a Bible translationproject begun in every languagethat needs one by the year 2025, aswell as positioning the organisa-tion within a competitive market-place.

Explaining the reason behindthe change, Eddie Arthur, Execu-tive Director of Wycliffe BibleTranslators in the UK says, “Thischange is a response to frequentpublic confusion between our-selves and other organisations thatuse the Wycliffe name. By intro-ducing Bible Translators into ourtitle we are quickly able to estab-lish who we are, what we do andwhy we exist.”

The challenge for an organisa-tion such as Wycliffe Bible Trans-lators, is not just making surepeople are aware of why they exist,but also recruiting the right peo-ple to the myriad of roles that suchan operation has to fill to be effec-tive.

As Phil Prior, Head of Market-ing and Communications says,“The danger with the WycliffeBible Translators title is being seen

as an organisation that only needsto recruit people with languageskills. The reality is that we arecrying out for qualified account-ants, personnel staff and commu-nications professionals willing togive two or three years to work asvolunteers, on a full-time basis, atthe Wycliffe offices in the UK.”

The old logo will still bearound for some time. Wycliffe arenot planning to spend largeamounts of money replacing ma-terial that is perfectly useable. In-stead, as stocks run low the newlogo will take the place of the old.

Wycliffe Bible Translators, theUK's biggest Bible translation or-ganisation, works with partnersworldwide to ensure that everycommunity around the world hasaccess to a Bible in a language thatthey can fully understand. In morethan 70 years of history they havebeen involved in the translation of740 New Testaments and Bibles,reaching over 82 million people.Since 1999, Wycliffe has con-tributed to over 80% of translationprojects started in Bibleless peoplegroups. However there remains amassive need, as statistics showthat there are around 200 millionpeople from 2,393 languages stillwaiting for translation to begin.

EVANGELICAL ALLIANCEWELCOMES COMMON SENSEAMENDMENT TO EQUALITYBILL Christian organisations cancontinue to employ people to rep-resent them who are committedtheir ethos

"A victory for common sense"- that's the Evangelical Alliance'sresponse to the House of Lords'decision today on the EqualitiesBill.

Following engagement withthe Alliance and other Christianorganisations, the Lords have re-jected an ambiguous Governmentamendment to the Bill whichcould have prevented churchesand Christian organisations fromappointing practising Christiansto key roles.

The Lords voted by a signifi-cant margin for a differentamendment, from Baroness O'-Cathain, which will maintain thestatus quo.

There is much in the Bill thatpromotes justice, fairness andequality, all hallmarks of a mod-ern society that the EvangelicalAlliance enthusiastically supports.However, it is also important thatfundamental liberties, such asfreedom of religious belief and ex-pression are maintained.

Dr Don Horrocks, head ofpublic affairs for the EvangelicalAlliance, said: "We're grateful tothe Lords for this result. The Gov-ernment's amendment was un-clear and would have left churchesand organisations unsure whetherthey could prefer practisingChristians for the majority oftheir roles.

"Now, they can continue toappoint people who are commit-ted to the ethos of the organisa-tions they are supposed torepresent. It's a victory for com-mon sense. I hope the govern-ment will accept this and notprolong the issue by asking theHouse of Commons to challengethe Lords' vote."

The rejected amendmentstated that religious organisationscould only prefer candidates ifthey were applying for the job ofminister of religion or posts that"exist to promote or represent thereligion or to explain the doc-trines of the religion."

The Alliance was concernedit would be unclear how thecourts might interpret the word"exist" - few religious posts actu-ally exist wholly or mainly for thepurposes stated.

EVANGELICAL ALLIANCE WEL-COMES COMMONSENSE AMENDMENTTO EQUALITY BILL

ADVERTISE IN THE CHRISTIAN TIMES FROM ONLY 45.00

News FEBRUARY 2010 | The Christian Times12

Would you love tosing some contem-porary worship inyour church but haveno musicians? Or dothe musicians you dohave turn the beautyof a worshipful mo-ment into a painfulsacrifice of praise?

Musicademy, who have beenproducing practical worship train-ing DVDs for musicians for years,have now come up with a resourcefor churches who encounter thatvery issue. Worship Backing Bandis a backing track DVD that con-tains 54 well known worship songsfrom the likes of Matt Redman,Tim Hughes, Chris Tomlin, StuartTownend, Hillsong, Vineyard andothers, together with easy to read

on-screen words for thecongregation to sing alongwith. You can even turn thevocals off if you want tolead worship and use it asyour own ‘virtual’ worshipbacking band.

Where it differs fromother backing tracks is inexpensive top class studioproduction by some of theUK’s best Christian musi-cians, the automated wordson screen, and crucially 50themed set lists for publicworship, where songs areautomatically grouped to-gether like a play list.Themes cover commun-

ion, thanksgiving, repentance,hope, forgiveness, God’s love etc.,and there are even tag lines andad-libs built into the music to pro-vide a ‘live worship’ feel. Once theset list is activated, it seamlesslymoves from one song to the nextand each list has been thoughtfullychosen to suit different ages, stylesand demographics.

The DVD plays on any DVDplayer or computer so can be usedaround a TV in a home group orby using a projector in church withvirtually no technical abilityneeded to operate it. You don’tneed any specialist software or ex-pensive hardware like midi fileplayers, there’s nothing to down-load and the whole package is just£29.99 from the musicademy.comwebsite. Great value for 54 songs,words and 4 hours playing time!Musicademy is even doing dis-counts for churches wanting tobuy one for each of their housegroups so check it out.

“… they caught such a largenumber of fish that their nets beganto break. So they signalled to theirpartners in the other boat to comeand help them, and they came andfilled both boats.” (Luke 5:6,7)

Over the last nine years RhemaTheatre Company have been per-forming in Schools, Churches andFestivals throughout the UK togreat acclaim, and have developedand created a style of story theatrewhich has entranced and delightedhundreds of thousands of childrenand adults alike.

“Stories and music are the per-fect tools for conveying the Gospelmessage - and the experience oflive theatre gives it a lasting im-pact. In today’s multi-media cul-ture we have to find more andmore different ways to get ourmessage across. In an age wherefew people go to church and onlya tiny percentage know anything

about Christianity or the Bible,there are many people out thereare looking for answers – they justdon’t realise that they’re to befound in Jesus. We aim to helpbridge that gap.”

“We are looking for churchesto partner with us so that we canhelp ‘catch fish’ with you in yourcommunity! We are offeringchurches a ‘tailor-made’ missionpackage to work with local schools,church groups, running work-shops or holiday clubs or puttingon an exhilarating performance forthe whole community! We willplan the days/ week according toyour needs. A hassle-free way ofdoing mission and seeing thechurch reap immediate results!

“Everything that Rhema The-atre Company did was outstand-ing. They brought the Bible alive tothose who are not used to comingto church, they performed some of

the most engaging and challengingshows that I have ever seen and weare still reaping the fruit of theirvisit…. If you are thinking mis-sion, then I couldn’t recommendRhema Theatre Company morehighly”

Rev’d Martyn Shea, St.George’s, Stamford

Rhema’s unique style seems tobe going down a storm in PrimarySchools! But it’s not all about thefun…

Each production has been de-vised to work in conjunction withthe key stage 1 & 2 RE, Citizenshipand PSHE curricula and we offer afree Teachers Pack as a resourcewith follow-up ideas and work-sheets that clearly fit in with thosecurricula. Schools responses fromthese mission weeks with localchurches have always been ex-tremely positive…

“A thoroughly entertaining andinformative performance that en-hanced the children’s understand-ing of the Bible.”

“You were stupendous. It alsohas helped us develop links withGrosvenor Church productively inour locality. Please do contact us tocome again soon.”

As well as linking with schoolswe have found putting on a pro-duction at church at the end of themission extremely productive. Thisis a chance to get new facesthrough the doors and to offer aquality, professional evening at thetheatre for the whole family.

“Zinging, bright, fast-movingand fun…Family fun with depth tosuit all ages…The children in frontof us watched transfixed for thewhole hour.” The Scotsman Re-view, Edinburgh Festival 2007

Rhema can also run holidayclubs for your church, taking up to100 children to put on an all-singing, all-dancing, all-actingBible story!

We have the greatest moralteachings in the world, and it’s allabout finding new ways to pass iton and make it memorable. We’dlove you to partner with us so wecan visit your community andmake a real and lasting difference!

Rhema Theatre Company wasfounded in Manchester in 2001 topresent the Christian message andteachings in an accessible and en-gaging way. Since then, the com-pany has performed to over half amillion people nationwide inchurches, primary schools andmission events. They are also regu-lar contributors at Spring Harvestand are broadcast on Christian tel-evision both nationally andabroad.

Rhema Theatre Company is

contactable on:

Telephone: 0870 421 4565

E: [email protected]

www.rhematheatre.org

Rhema-Partners in mission!

Right AngleAndrew Halloway

Hebrew writing discoverybacks Bible

News FEBRUARY 2010 | The Christian Times 13

The life of a worship leader

is a happy one. These peo-

ple get all the fame, the roy-

alties, the best-looking girls

(or boys), they get to travel

around the world and sing

their carefully crafted com-

positions to lots of loyal fol-

lowers. They are perfect in

every way…

By Marie Page

musicademy.com

No. The truth is they get irrita-ble, they have bad breath andsometimes they do write somequite awful, cringe-inducing songsthat sound like palid impressionsof (most) Coldplay tunes. They areimpatient, egotistical, insecure andmost of the time they can’t playtheir instruments properly. Theyare normal... like us.

So, in a bid to help these poor,wounded souls along the way,here’s our Top Ten Worship LeaderDo’s and Don’ts. If you are a wor-ship leader this collection of gemswon’t make you a nicer person, buthopefully it’ll make you even bet-ter at helping your congregationpraise and worship Jesus withgusto and integrity.

1. Do… make yourself clear.We have said this time and

time again, but agree a set of (ob-vious) signals. By osmosis the wor-ship-leading ‘trade’ appears haveadopted an almost masonic, yetwell-known set of ticks and tricks.A leg-cock tends generally meansa chorus is about to happen, acocked leg with a shaky foot meansa bridge is imminent and an obvi-ous guitar chop means it’s time toend. The ending is important andyou have to pre-agree the format.Are you going to end with a slow-ing ‘rout’ or a definitive final noteat the end of a bar? Communicatewhat method you plan to executeduring the rehearsal. Of course,there should be room for improvsolos and numerous repeats withinthe body of the song but do make itclear to the individual musicianwhat you want from them withoutthem having to perform some kindof David Blaine-esque mind-read-ing technique.

2. Don’t… keep playing yourown songs

There are plenty of reasons toplay your own songs at church – it’spersonal, it underscores yourchurch’s sense of community and itcelebrates God’s creativity. There is,however, an unavoidablepoignancy when you are singingyour own songs and, withoutdoubt, you will have more affec-tion for them rather than others sobe careful not to be your own pub-licity machine. Repeated medleysfeaturing your own ‘hits’ couldprompt dreams of lucrative recorddeals, worldwide fame and housesin the country. That may be God’swill for your life, but it’s not for you

to force it – he’ll open the doors forthat if he wants it.

3. Do… provide printed in-formation to musicians

A set list is a given, but print-ing out the songs with lyrics andchords helps everyone. Don’t ig-nore the drummer – he or shewants to know how many versusand choruses there are. If there’s arhythm pattern change on certainchords, it’s easy to refer to theprinted matter without having toembark on a long conversationabout where and when it comes.Don’t ignore musicians who sight-read: they need charts and it’s yourjob to find out beforehand if theydo and provide them with the ap-propriate material at the rehearsal.

4. Don’t…stick to a tried-and-tested formula

The worst thing that can hap-pen during a service is the feelingthat this is a just a ‘job’ for the wor-ship leader and that the congrega-tion is simply fulfilling a routine.Read the Bible – there’s no routine.One day David was looking after afew sheep then he was beating uplions and felling giants. Sometimeslaziness creeps in, promoting anunhealthy reliance on tried-and-tested favourites. Congregationswill tire of singing the same tuneseach week and that leads to apathy.Bring the congregation into newplaces without having to rely onstandards and formulaic set listsand sounds.

5. Do…choose the correct keyCongregations want to sing

without having to think aboutstaying in tune and if they are, youhave chosen the wrong key. It istempting to choose the key thatsuits your voice and makes yousound good, but try to be sensitiveto others and the limited rangethey may have. The key that’s listedon the official lyric chart might befine for the writer but not neces-sarily for you or the congregation,so don’t take that as ‘gospel’. It’s al-ways a horror when your congre-gation sounds like they’ve suckedon a helium balloon, or that theyare singing a funeral lament.Sound out the rest of the musiciansin the rehearsal if you have anydoubts about the key you havechosen.

6. Don’t…. overcomplicatethings

Stops, starts, key changes,slowing down, starting up, solos, acappella, medleys, loops are all inthe worship leader’s chocolate box,but it is important not to gorge onthem all at once. Stops are the mu-sical equivalent of the carameltruffle and they can be irritating ifused with gay abandon. Repeatedstops confuse the congregationand let’s face it, they are unrelent-ingly dull. This is a practice thatonly musicians enjoy because it de-mands precision and if it comes offit gives them licence to pat them-selves nicely on the back, contentwith a job well done. If the stopsdon’t come off they sound terrible– it’s just loud Morse code.

7. Do… learn basic musicaltheory

Your main vehicle as a worshipleader in a contemporary churchsetting is music. Now that sounds

extremely simplistic but there arestill worship leaders out there whodon’t know what a bar or a timesignature is, or indeed anythingabout note values and why they areimportant.

You don’t have to be a virtuosoto be a worship leader, but a fewbasics that allow you to communi-cate properly in this context will doyou no harm at all. A worshipleader who is able to count a fewbars is like finely honed gold andone who is able to transposequickly and effectively is, well, aGodsend. If you are the traditionalacoustic guitar-leading worshipleader, learn some simple skills onother musical instruments and, ifyou are feeling particularly saucy,learn a few scales. If you do, thelead guitarist, who looks at youquizzically every week, will be-come a new-found friend. Thatcould be a bad thing…

8 Don’t… expect the band tosecond-guess what you are doing.

This is wholly frustrating, par-ticularly for drummers. The staplesong-ending sign for a guitar-play-ing worship leader is to perform asort of chopping action. Now youdon’t have to bash the headstockon the ground, but a centimetre-length solitary ‘chop’ isn’t going todo the job. If you want your drum-mer to end the same time as youand not make the finale sound likea drunk falling down the stairs,then make this action much moreobvious. Nor is a nod and a winksufficient – it looks like you are upto something dodgy and bandmembers genuinely don’t knowwhether you have a straight-from-the-horse’s-mouth tip about thenext winner at the Cheltenhamhurdles or whether you are plan-ning to repeat the chorus.

9. Do… think outside of thebox

When you are putting togetheryour set list be prepared to extendyour boundaries and try not to re-peat the songs that you played theprevious week. Every song sufferswhen it is overplayed so it’s impor-tant you keep its metaphoricalpower dry. Shake things up a bit –drag out an old hymn or chorus.How about starting off with a ten-der song rather than a rip-roarer?Look in your diary – is this a per-tinent date in history and is theremessage to be drawn from that?God loves creativity, and in yourpreparations, be creative.

10. Don’t… take the musi-cians for granted

Playing for a grumpy, unappre-ciative worship leader is like drag-ging a dead horse through softsand. Even the most gifted, accom-plished musician likes to be toldthat he or she has made a valuablecontribution. Don’t overdo theplatitudes – breathing requires lit-tle talent – but a kind word or a‘well played’ will always be well re-ceived. If a musician has ideas for asong and you’ve had to reject thembecause it simply doesn’t fit, en-courage them for trying somethingdifferent - maybe you can use it inanother context. Try not to soundlike a cheesy Christian with all this– there’s nothing worse than ram-paging insincerity.

Top ten do’sand don’ts –Worship Leaders

Musicademy Top 10s

A recent discovery of theearliest known Hebrew writingsupports the accuracy of Biblehistory.

Professor Gershon Galil ofthe Department of Biblical Stud-ies at the University of Haifa inIsrael has deciphered an inscrip-tion on a pottery shard that wasdiscovered in the Elah valley.The shard dates from the 10thcentury BC (the time of KingDavid's reign), making it the ear-liest Hebrew writing ever seen –a thousand years older than theDead Sea Scrolls.

This discovery marks abreakthrough in biblical re-search in two ways. First, the factthat Hebrew writing existed atthis early date makes it possiblethat at least some of the books ofthe Old Testament part of theBible, which are written in He-brew, were composed close tothe time of the events they de-scribe. Previously, the majorityof sceptical Bible historians hadassumed that the oldest Biblebooks must have been writtencenturies later because there wasno evidence that Hebrew was awritten language so early in Is-rael’s history. This discoverychanges all that.

Secondly, the inscriptionsupports the Bible’s assertionthat Israel was a kingdom in ex-istence in the 10th century be-fore Christ. Critics havepreviously argued that the greatkingdoms of David andSolomon were at best smalltribal communities at that time,and at worst never existed at all.

Explaining the significanceof the inscription, Professor Ger-shon Galil says it “indicates thatthe Kingdom of Israel alreadyexisted in the 10th century BCEand that at least some of the bib-lical texts were written hundredsof years before the dates pre-sented in current research.”

The inscription is written inink on a six inch pottery shardfound in 2008 during excava-tions at Khirbet Qeiyafa led byProfessor Yosef Garfinkel. The

inscription was dated to KingDavid’s reign, but the earliness ofthe script made it difficult toread and no one was sure if itwas really ancient Hebrew or an-other language.

But language expert ProfGalil has now successfully deci-phered the inscription andshown that it is indeed early He-brew. He has shown that the in-scription uses verbs particular tothe Hebrew language, and con-tent specific to Hebrew cultureand not adopted by any othercultures in the region.

“This text is a social state-ment, relating to slaves, widowsand orphans. It uses verbs thatwere characteristic of Hebrew,”Prof Galil says. “The inscriptionprovides social elements similarto those found in the biblicalprophecies and very differentfrom prophecies written byother cultures,” he explains. Italso refers to worship of theLord.

Prof Galil also believes that itis significant that the shard wasfound in a provincial town inJudea. If Hebrew writing wasgoing on in such a peripheral lo-cation in David’s kingdom, thenit make it even more likely thatthere would be Hebrew scribesin the more central locations andthe capital, Jerusalem. He says:"It can now be maintained that itwas highly reasonable that dur-ing the tenth century, during thereign of King David, there werescribes in Israel who were able towrite literary texts and complexhistoriographies such as thebooks of Judges and Samuel." Headds that the complexity of thetext of the inscription, alongwith the impressive fortificationsrevealed at the discovery site, re-fute the claims denying the exis-tence of a strong kingdom ofIsrael 3,000 years ago.

The details of the inscriptionare also similar to certain Bibleverses, as if they were passing onthe teaching of the Bible – whichpoints to the existence of certainBible books centuries before the

late dates commonly touted bycritics. The words of the text ex-press care for the weaker mem-bers of society, and for foreignersliving within Israel at the time,and indicates that the kingshould be involved in such care.It is highly reminiscent of suchBible verses as Isaiah 1:17,Psalms 72:3, Exodus 23:3 andothers.

Translated into English, theinscription says: “You shall notdo [it], but worship the [Lord].Judge the slave and the widow.Judge the orphan [and] thestranger. Plead for the infant,plead for the poor and thewidow. Rehabilitate [the poor] atthe hands of the king. Protectthe poor and the slave; supportthe stranger.”

Those historians who are stillsticking to the unsupported (butwidely accepted in academia)hypothesis that the historicalbooks of the Old Testament arebaseless inventions had betterstart reassessing their views.They contend that stories likeDavid and Solomon were in-vented by religious leaders whilethe Jews were in exile in Baby-lon, more than 400 years afterthe time of David – the aimbeing to encourage a despon-dent nation with legends of agreat past and to consolidatetheir own religious power.

As time goes on, discoverieslike this Hebrew inscription ex-pose the foolishness of such anti-biblical myth-making.

----------------

Andrew Halloway is a

freelance editor and writer. He

is also Editor of Good News

(goodnews-paper.org.uk),

a monthly evangelistic

newspaper that churches

across the UK use for community

outreach, and he writes for the

Christian news and comment

website, Lifebite

(lifebite.co.uk). For more about

Andrew’s editorial service see

christianeditor.co.uk.

By Peter Wooding

Special to ASSIST News Serv-

ice

MANCHESTER, ENGLAND(ANS) -- UK Christian youth min-

istry, The Message Trust, is puttingtogether a fundraising concert toraise funds for Haiti.

Joining the Heart for Haitifundraiser in Manchester, EnglandThursday February 4, are CelebrityBig Brother star Stephen Baldwinand Christian bands LZ7 andBlush.

Message Trust director AndyHawthorne and local churchleader Anthony Delaney will taketo the stage to share about theirhumanitarian visit to Haiti to de-liver medical supplies to hospitalsstruggling to cope with the highvolume of injured.

They returned on Mondayfrom their mercy mission, whichsaw them take 1,000kg of suppliesto an emergency surgical unit setup in devastated capital Port-au-Prince and a ruined hospital onthe island of La Gonave, filled tothe brim with refugees from themainland.

Said Hawthorne: "We had totransport two young people withbroken backs in a flat back truckover roads ripped apart by the

quake. One of them, paralyzedwhen his house fell on him, wascarried to us on a door by hisfriends."

The team, which includedmembers of the Lemon Aid char-ity, evacuated a nine-year-old girlwho had been buried for threedays and had to have half her footamputated.

Hawthorne recounted: "As weflew on a small missionary planeback to the mainland we werepraying that amid the chaos wecould find an orthopedic surgeon.When we landed, the first peoplewe saw was a group waiting to flyout. They were an orthopedicteam. We have to say that alongwith the misery, we saw miracles."

Concert details: 'Heart forHaiti' will feature Celebrity BigBrother star Stephen Baldwin,Manchester bands LZ7 and Blush,with eyewitness contributionsfrom Andy Hawthorne and An-thony Delaney/. Venue: Wythen-shawe Forum (tbc) Date and time:Thursday 4 February, 7.30pm

UK Christianfundraisingconcert forHaiti


Surrounded by fresh fish andtasty bread loaves, celebrity chefKevin Woodford was joined by DrDaleep Mukarji, Director of Chris-tian Aid, to help launch a uniquecookbook.

Devised by insurer Congrega-tional & General and featuring 70delicious recipes - Loaves, fishesand more is a 128-page fundrais-ing cookbook, including recipessubmitted by church leaders andmembers of the public, which isendorsed by Kevin Woodford. Itcontains a wide range of recipesfrom a traditional game pie toSpanish style fish stew and a deli-cious citrus tart.

Available now from independ-ent booksellers and high streetbookshops including Waterstonesand Borders, it is the first publica-tion of its kind involving some ofthe UK’s key church leaders. Forevery book sold a donation will bemade to Christian Aid.

Included within the recipessubmitted by nine church leaderswere the Baptist Union of GreatBritain’s succulent salmon withhoney sauce, a wholesome ‘BaraBrith’ fruitcake supplied by ThePresbyterian Church of Wales andThe Church of England’s recipe fordelicious ginger biscuits, providedby The Archbishop of Canterbury.

Margaret Slater, MarketingManager at Congregational &General, said: “Like many compa-nies we are often approached bychurch communities and charitygroups to help with their fundrais-ing initiatives*. Loaves, fishes andmore is a not-for-profit publicationdevised to help these groups gen-erate funds, whilst making a dona-tion to Christian Aid.

“We received a huge number ofsubmissions and are grateful toKevin Woodford for his time -which he has given freely - for pro-viding some of his own recipes andmaking the final selections for thebook, which we hope will appeal toall cookery enthusiasts.”

Kevin, who has appeared on anumber of TV shows includingPlanet Cook, Ready Steady Cookand Songs of Praise, added:“Loaves fishes and more is a fan-tastic fundraising initiative and Ihave been delighted to lend mysupport during its production.

“The book contains an eclecticmix of dishes and it’s great that somany people took the time toshare recipes with us. It is a col-

laboration of favourite familyrecipes brought together in an easyto follow cookbook and I am sureit will be very popular.”

Dr Daleep Mukarji, Director ofChristian Aid, concluded: “Flawedglobal systems and structures - in-cluding those of trade, taxationand the responses to climatechange - will result in more than abillion people going hungry thisyear.

“This book's central message ofnourishment and sharing is madedoubly pertinent by the support itwill give to Christian Aid in ourmission to overcome globalpoverty.”

For more information on thebook, please visit www.loavesfish-esandmore.com

A list of all the church leaders’who submitted recipes is below:

1. Baptist Union of GreatBritain (Revd Jonathan Edwards,General Secretary)

RECIPE: Salmon with HoneySauce

2. Church of England (TheArchbishop of Canterbury, RowanWilliams)

RECIPE: Ginger Biscuits3. Congregational Federa-

tion (Rev Wayne Hawkins, Presi-dent Elect)

RECIPE: CongregationalCasserole

4. Methodist Church (RevdDr Martyn Atkins, General Secre-tary)

RECIPE: Banana Cake5. Presbyterian Church of

Wales (Rev D Haydn Thomas,Moderator)

RECIPE: Bara Brith6. Religious Society of

Friends (Quakers) (Gillian Ash-more, Recording Clerk)

RECIPE: Breakfast Bars7. Salvation Army (Com-

missioner John Matear, TerritorialCommander)

RECIPE: Bread and ButterPudding

8. Scottish EpiscopalChurch (Sheila Redwood, Provin-cial President of Mothers Union inScotland)

RECIPE: Mum’s Tablet9. United Reformed

Church (Revd Roberta Rominger,General Secretary)

RECIPE: Apple & Leek SoupDiscounts are available to

churches and charity groups wish-ing to sell Loaves, fishes and morefor their own fundraising. Prices

are available upon quotation. Formore details, please visitwww.loavesfishesandmore.com orcall 01274 700762 (Monday-Friday9.00am- 4.45pm)

Congregational & General In-surance (C&GI) is one of the

country’s most respected insurersof homes and churches with over£9 billion household assets and al-most £5 billion church assets cov-ered in the UK.

More information is availableat www.congregational.co.uk

Churches And Christian Aid To Benefit From New FundraisingCookbookCongregational & General links with TV chef to launch ‘Loaves, fishes and more’

A poll has revealed thatover half of Brits believe thatcreationism should be taughtalongside evolutionary theoryin the classroom.

The research, commis-sioned by the British Council,found that only 21 per cent ofBritons believe that evolutionshould be taught, while one inten felt it shouldn't be taughtat all.

What do you think? Shouldcreationism be taught along-side evolutionary theory?Should evolution be taught atall? Do we have a duty to teachchildren the whole range of de-bates surrounding an issue?

Email comments to:

[email protected]

Is there a place for creationism inthe classroom?

MICHAEL MEACHER

For a year, from when the date wasset, I had been looking forward to Fri-day 29 January, until it was rathersoured a fortnight ago by being namedas the time when Blair would defendhis infamous record over Iraq at theChilcot Inquiry. On, I hope, a rathermore uplifting note, my book 'Desti-nation of the Species: the Riddle ofHuman Existence' is being publishedtoday by o-books, which seeks to an-swer some very fundamental about theuniverse and the meaning of humanexistence.

It is a systematic review of all thescientific evidence which shows thatthe Dawkins and neo-Darwinian viewthat the universe is driven by pitiless,directionless chance is seriously wrongand misleading. The evidence shows:astronomically precise fine-tuning inthe construction of the universe; earlylife driven for billions of years by sym-biotic and cooperative networking, notblindly by mutations; and the sponta-neous transposition of matter and en-ergy into new higher organisationalstates at certain thresholds of complex-ity both in biological and cosmologicalsystems.

Instead of an analytic, reductionistand arbitrary model of the universe, ituncovers a dramatically different sub-jective, holistic and purposeful one.The book is not parti pris, not writtenfrom the propagandistic viewpoint ei-ther of science or religion, rather thatof a spiritual agnostic. It is written as asceptical searching after how all thecomponent parts of human experiencefit together within a single indivisiblereality, and what that totality means.

The book comprehensively analy-ses the scientific evidence from the ori-gin and development of the universe,the origin and evolution of life formson Earth, the absurdly unlikely butprobably inevitable evolution of thehuman species, and the intellectual,cultural, moral and spiritual unique-ness of humans. It repeatedly asks thecentral question: what does all thismean? What is it telling us?

The evidence shows that religionand science, so far from being incom-patible, are in fact mutually comple-mentary, though based on verydifferent paradigms of experience. Thebook reveals how the latest scientificfindings about a designed and pur-poseful organisation of the universeand of life forms within itpoint to an ul-timate reality, not of the human race asthe summit of evolution, but of anoverarching cosmic plan of which wemay be a key part.

-------------Michael Meacher ’s book Destina-

tion of the Species comes out in Janu-ary. In it Michael puzzles over theriddle that is human existence and triesto answer some fundamental questionsabout the purpose and meaning of ex-istence. He challenges RichardDawkins notions of a godless universeas he weighs up the evidence for the ex-istence of God. This book reveals thereligious convictions and ideas about

the universe that underlie Michael’sviews of society and politics. He does-n’t shy away from big questions, far big-ger even than those he tussles withdaily in the House of Commons. Not alight read, but perhaps one tostrengthen a New Year’s resolution, toread deep thought and quality argu-ment in preparation for this summer’sGeneral Election.

...Interesting and challenging Tony Benn, Politician and

former Labour Party MP

...powerful and topical The Most Rev and Rt Hon the

Lord Carey of Clifton, former Arch-bishop of Canterbury,

...sometimes controversial, alwayswell-written

Sir Crispin Tickell GCMG KCVODirector of the Policy Foresight Pro-gramme at Oxford University

...challenging, informed and veryreadable

Keith Ward, Reverend Professorand ex Canon of Christ Church, Ox-ford

There is only one question thatmatters. What is the purpose of exis-tence, and what are we here for?

This question has underlain reli-gious conviction and philosophic in-quiry throughout human history, andis one to which scientific rationalism inrecent centuries has added importantinsights. Destination of the Species high-lights two contesting views of reality: isthere a purpose behind the universe,and if so, is the evolution of man some-how related to that purpose, or is it amechanistic universe driven by blindnatural forces in which there is no ulti-mate purpose and no meaning of life?

What is one to believe about theultimate purpose of human existence?Michael Meacher seeks to assess theevidence without a predeterminedworldview as a premise, and to decide,as objectively as possible, what the ev-idence points to.

Michael Meacher was first electedto Parliament in 1970. He served asjunior minister under the Prime Min-isters Harold Wilson and JamesCallaghan, and was one of the longestserving ministers in Tony Blair'sLabour government, from 1997 to2003, and gained a reputation for beingable to master a complex brief. Sincethen he has attacked the governmenton a number of issues, particularly ongenetically modified food and the Iraqwar. He stood for the leadership of theLabour party in 2007. A long termcampaigner on the issue of climatechange, he bring both passion and in-telligence to the question of our desti-nation as a species and the purpose oflife.

15Books NEW YEAR EDITION 2010 | The Christian Times

EVE WOOD-LANGFORD

In the age of science, thebeautiful Genesis creation story ofAdam and Eve set in a magicalGarden of Eden complete with aspeaking serpent is something ofan enigma. Because the story isseen as non-factual it can be dis-missed as fiction or fairy tale: butthat throws an important babyout with the bathwater, for thisimportant biblical creation ac-count is myth, and myth is a formof history. Because I was raisedas a Unitarian, one who acceptsJesus as a human being, a prophetand sublime teacher of ethics, Iwas not presented with the Edenstory in terms of literal truth, oras a biblical illustration of the ori-gin of human sin. On the con-trary, the story was seen as animportant and memorable cre-ation myth long misinterpreted inthe Judaic Christian tradition ofmonotheism.

As Eve is my namesake, I wasdelighted to learn that the storywas not deemed illustrative of ahuman fall into sin at the hand ofEve, and though Unitarians areexpected to question for them-selves all aspects of their beliefs,and take an interest in the beliefsof other religious movements, itdid not occur to me to look fur-

ther into the misinterpreted story.It was not until much later in lifethat I read some of the world’soldest literature: the epic poem ofGilgamesh. Though this work cir-culated in Abraham’s country ofMesopotamia – present day Iraq– centuries before Old Testamentwas set into written form it never-theless preserves almost all the el-ements of the Eden creation story.

To my surprise the ancientpoem included the creation ofnaked man fashioned - as wasAdam - from earth or clay. Thisman spoke to his deity as Adamspoke to the Lord in Eden. An-other section tells of the conse-quential meeting of a nakedcouple. Here too is the record ofthe first man to enter the gardenparadise, and a reference to a ser-pent guardian of the Tree of Life.Other biblical parallels includethe building of a vessel in whichto save the seed of all life in an im-pending world flood, and the life-story of a strongman whosemistress seduced him with the de-liberate intent of subduing hisstrength – as Delilah seducedSamson.

Amazed by these coinci-dences, and remembering myUnitarian introduction to theEden story, I sought help and in-

spiration from Unitarian litera-ture from my youth. There Ifound a reference to the Edenmyth as an account of a process‘out of which have arisen all thedistinctive achievements and pos-sibilities of human life.’ Here wasa revelation: buried in the gardenwas an inspiring record from theancestral world having nothing todo with the human fall into shameand disgrace, but something en-tirely opposite. From that mo-ment I wanted to know how, why,when, where, and by whose ac-tions these stories became misin-terpreted.

Where we stand determineswhat we see, and the man in theoriginal garden paradise wor-shipped unethical deities of theMesopotamian pantheon. Conse-quently, he was separated fromAdam in Eden by more than thepassage of centuries. ToMesopotamians the nature deitieswere as unpredictable as nature it-self, and heroes were sometimesobliged to defy their gods in thename of human progress. In therevolution of Judaic monotheism,however, that religious philoso-phy was turned on its head: Yah-weh, the single, just but jealousLord of the Israelites promisedHis people all good things in re-

turn for obedience. This huge al-teration in religious culture andunderstanding separated the manin the original garden paradisefrom Adam in Eden not only bytime, but by radical differences inreligious philosophy. Thus whenancient stories, possibly havingsurvived in the oral traditionfrom the time of Abraham, finallyentered the written Old Testa-ment they were interpreted froman entirely different standpoint.Moreover, the new monotheist re-ligion excluded all equality forpossibly the oldest deity wor-shipped throughout the polythe-ist Ancient Near East: the GreatMother Goddess.

Look into the pre-biblicalworld of Gilgamesh with an openmind to see that behind the nakedfigures of Adam and Eve standsan earlier naked couple. Their‘history’ does not proclaim theorigin of sin, but preserves andenshrines the myth-history of anuplifting and earth-changingevent. Buried in Eden is a price-less treasure in the form of one ofthe most beautiful anthropologi-cal records from the pristineworld of our human ancestors, amyth-history of inspirationalvalue to all human beings.

Eden: The Buried Treasure

Destinationof theSpecies

A primary school teacher haspenned a critically-acclaimed chil-dren's book about ''love and forgive-ness'' and the Christian faith.

Karen Langtree, 40, wrote MyWicked Stepmother in her 'spare'

time while teaching part-time andraising two young children.

Despite a hectic work schedule,which included launching a newtoddler group, she managed to com-plete the novel in just 12 months.

The book, which has received astring of rave reviews, tells the storyof divorce through a child's eyes.

Her ''stunningly brilliant'' title isalready being hailed as the 'next bigthing', while Karen has been likenedto the bestselling children's authorJacqueline Wilson.

Karen, who has an English de-gree, admitted that juggling life as anaspiring author, teacher and parenthad been ''tough''.

But she said seeing the book inprint was worth the graft, and that it

proved ''we can all live our dreams''.Karen, who lives with children

Rachael, 10, and Jack, seven, in York,said: ''Finding the time to run ahousehold, raise a family and workas a primary school teacher can bedifficult in itself.

''So finding the time to write anovel, and a debut novel at that, wasunderstandably tough.

Karen, who attends Haxby andWigginton Methodist Church inHaxby, near York, penned her firstshort story as a schoolgirl, and camerunner-up in a WH Smith writingcontest at the tender age of 10.

But her passion for creative writ-ing returned ''like a revelation'' in herlate-30s, when she decided to write achildren's novel.

Last year, she took the plungeand decided to publish the work her-self. Described as a ''poignant tale offamily break up, love and forgive-ness'', My Wicked Stepmother tellsthe story of sisters Lou and Nat amida family crisis.

The girls' lives come crashingdown when their father walks out foranother woman - a 'wicked' step-mother.

Despite their feelings of resent-ment and hurt, the sisters learn toadjust to a new way of life.

Karen, a divorcee, credits theChristian faith for getting throughher own turmoil - and as the drivingforce behind the book.

She said: ''My Wicked Stepmotherdeals with a number of important, but

difficult, life-changing events.''I wanted to tackle the subject of

divorce head-on and in a way thatchildren can understand.

''The Christian faith really in-spired me in so many ways, and Iwanted the book to reflect its coreprinciples - those of love and for-giveness.''

The 115-page book has gone onto win the hearts of critics and read-ers alike.

Sarah Brown, an English teacherat Rydale Secondary School, de-scribed it as: ''A great book about thecommon but traumatic event of par-ents splitting up and meeting newpartners.

''It has a plot that many childrenwill identify with, and gain reassur-ance from, in this gem of a book.

''Children will enjoy the subver-sion of the traditional fairy tale andthe unexpected twists.''

Now Karen, who has alreadybegun work on a second book, ishoping My Wicked Stepmother willsecure her a deal with a mainstreampublisher.

She runs a series of popular writ-ing workshops in schools across theUK, and is also a successful song-writer with a number of musicals toher name.

''The fact that My Wicked Step-mother is in print is an amazing feel-ing,'' she said.

''If I can find a mainstream pub-lisher then that's great, but for themean-time I'm happy just writingand holding workshops for schools.''

My Wicked Stepmother is available

now on Amazon priced £4.99.

Signed copies can be ordered from

www.karenlangtree.com

My Wicked Step Mother

16 ...and finally FEBRUARY 2010 | The Christian Times

WESTWOOD + CHRISTIAN + CENTRE

The Centre is spectacularly situated within a Grade2 Listed building, high above Slaithwaite, 4 miles west of Huddersfield. We provide accommodation (self catering) for individuals, families or Groups.Up to 50 people can be accommodated, either in the Hall (cheap and very cheerful!) or in one of ourfive beautiful, self-contained Flats within the original church building. You will receive a great welcome,at any time of the year - and whatever the weather!

Westwood Edge, Golcar, Huddersfield HD7 4JY(01484 845042) E-mail :[email protected]: www . westwood-centre . org . uk

Holy Socks announce theircontinued sponsorship and sup-port of Dumfries and Gallowayrally crew Jock Armstrong andKirsty Riddick. The pair will againbe contesting the Hankook MSAScottish Rally Championship,which is decided from the best sixscores of eight rounds.

The Earsman/Holy Socks rallycar will compete in rallies fromNewton Stewart in South WestScotland to Aberdeen in the northeast, sporting the now familiar"Rallying with Holy Socks" stick-ers. The campaign begins in In-verness with the Snowman Rallyon February 20th.

Said Margaret Wyllie, founderof Holy Socks: “I'm very pleased tobe continuing our relationshipwith Jock and Kirsty and verymuch looking forward to the newseason. I'm planning a lot for thewebsite before and after each rallyand I'll have my work cut out keep-ing up with new designs and sto-

ries for the whole team - I mightstart them off with our new warm,winter weight Journeying Sock. Ifthe weather in Inverness is any-thing like the snow of last year, Ithink they might appreciate them."

Jock added, "We can only hopefor the good results that the sup-port of Holy Socks brings in 2010."

In the 2009 Championship, theArmstrong/Riddick combinationfinished 5th overall and 3rd inGroup N, a result which earned thepair an entry on the Rally of Scot-land, the final round of the Inter-continental Rally Challenge - andagainst international opposition,fourth place overall was a very sat-isfying result! A win on the Arm-strong Group sponsored GallowayHills Rally rounded off an eventfulseason of "Rallying with HolySocks."

Further infomation contact:

Margaret Wyllie

[email protected]

01671 404043 07918 18 45 39

Holy Socks announce theircontinuedsponsorshipand support of Dumfriesand Galloway

Holy Socking Jock

Kirsty and Jock with the Galloway Hills Trophy

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Feb 2010 Edition of The Christian Times

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