Jesus Life 87 - Jesus Army

JESUS 

Issue 87 FREE 

two / 2011 

www.jesus.org.uk 

LIFE 

The magazine of the 

modern Jesus army & 

Multiply Christian Network 

JOY ON AFRICAN STREETS 

INSIDE: WINNING ‘YOOF’ FOR JESUS UK JESUS CENTRES RANT AND RAVE

CONTENTS 

Old vows, new 

promises 4-7 

A look at old and 

new monastic 

promises 

Spiritual 

Search 12-15 

Wilf Copping tells 

Jesus Life the story 

of his search 

Multiply 

Zambia 16-19 

Ian Callard reports 

on a recent Multiply 

Cenference in Zambia 

Talking to... 

22-26 

An interview with 

Mark Powley on the 

Breathe network 

I 

Me 

30-31 

A 2-year-old teaches 

Laurence Cooper (36) 

a lesson or two 

Finding 

Father 32-34 

Jane Darling tells 

her moving story of 

finding God’s love 

and... 

History Makers 8-10 A look at the 

Salvation Army’s ‘Hallelujah Lasses’ 

Winning Yoof 11 A young man blogs 

on winning young people for Jesus 

Jesus Centres 20-21 Progress 

towards a forth Jesus Centre in Sheffield 

Real and Wild 27 

Forthcoming Jesus Fellowship youth event 

Rant & Rave 28-29 

Boiling with rage... buzzing with passion 

Keep in touch 35 

Phone numbers for Multiply churches 

throughout the UK 

The Jesus Fellowship Church, which is also known as the Jesus 

Army and includes the New Creation Christian Community, upholds the 

historic Christian faith, being reformed, evangelical and charismatic. 

It practises believer’s baptism and the New Testament reality of 

Christ’s Church; believing in Almighty God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit; 

in the full divinity, atoning death and bodily resurrection of the Lord 

Jesus Christ; in the Bible as God’s word, fully inspired by the Holy Spirit. 

This church desires to witness to the Lordship of Jesus Christ 

over and in His Church; and, by holy character, righteous society 

and evangelical testimony to declare that Jesus Christ, Son 

of God, the only Saviour, is the way, the truth and the life, and 

through Him alone can we find and enter the kingdom of God. 

This church proclaims free grace, justification by faith in Christ 

and the sealing and sanctifying baptism in the Holy Spirit. 

© 2011 Jesus Fellowship Church, Nether Heyford, Northampton NN7 

3LB, UK. Editor: James Stacey. Reproduction in any form requires 

written permission. The Jesus Fellowship does not necessarily agree 

with all the views expressed in articles and interviews printed in this 

magazine. Unless otherwise indicated, all scripture quotations are taken 

from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. Copyright © 

1973, 1978, 1984 International Bible Society. Used by permission of 

Hodder & Stoughton Ltd, a member of the Hodder headline Plc Group. 

All rights reserved. Photographs in this magazine are copyright Jesus 

Fellowship Church or royalty-free stock photos from www.sxc.hu. The Jesus 

Fellowship is part of Multiply Christian Network. Both the Jesus Fellowship 

and Multiply Christian Network are members of the Evangelical 

Alliance UK. Jesus Fellowship Life Trust Registered Charity number 1107952. 

2 

Jesus Life 

www.jesus.org.uk

JESUS ON 

THE STREETS 


A word from Mick Haines, 

apostolic team leader of the 

Jesus Fellowship. 

ON THE COVER you will see a “Jesus march” 

in Kitwe, Zambia, during a recent Multiply 

International Conference there (see pages 16-19). 

On 25 June, the Jesus Fellowship/Jesus Army will 

be marching in London from Hyde Park Corner, 

past the Eros statue in Piccadilly Circus, and then 

on to Trafalgar Square. It’s part of our colorful and 

enjoyable “Jesus Day” celebrations. Come and 

join in! 

As UK society becomes more secular and the 

church increasingly marginalised, we must be 

unafraid and unashamed to stand for Jesus. We 

must show his freeing life, his transforming power 

and his relevance to this spiritually starved nation. 

How good it was to read of the 27 Christians 

baptised in open-air baptisms in York Minster on 

Easter Saturday. 

This is a time for reaping the harvest. More 

and more people are realising that the idols of 

consumerism, sex, money, drugs, alcohol, just 

don’t deeply satisfy the human heart. We are 

made for more than this. 

Financial cuts and fears of unemployment are 

causing people to cry out to the one who can really 

help them. With half our children experiencing the 

breakup of mum and dad during their childhood, 

through either divorce or cohabiting couples 

splitting up, there is growing insecurity. Anxiety 

and loneliness grips many lives; people settle for 

social networking and entertainment rather than 

real, raw, heart relationships. Let’s be warm, 

friendly and large-hearted as we reach out to 

people: friends, neighbours, work mates, family 

members, the guy in the park... 

This year, the Jesus Fellowship has been 

experiencing fresh faith and new anointing in our 

national celebrations as well as in our regional and 

local gatherings. This new anointing will move 

increasingly into our evangelism as we are led 

by the Holy Spirit and gain new boldness, taking 

more risks. 

It was sad to hear of the recent death of David 

Wilkerson in a car crash in Texas, USA. He wrote 

the famous book, The Cross and the Switchblade. 

As well as demonstrating the powerful 

transformation that comes through the baptism 

of the Holy Spirit, David’s fearless outreach to 

the gangs of New York has influenced our Jesus 

Army outreach over the years. We give thanks for 

a gospel pioneer. Determine to be a pioneer of the 

gospel wherever you are located. 

JL 

Jesus Life 3

OLD VOWS, 

NEW PROMISES 

4 


Old vows 

www.jesus.org.uk

Jesus Life editor James Stacey takes 

a look at the challenge of “new 

monasticism”. 

BOOK was published last year, featuring 

A the Jesus Fellowship. It’s called Totally 

Devoted – the challenge of new monasticism, 

by Simon Cross, and it explores ways in which 

Christians in the UK today are exploring how 

to follow God more closely – in ways that are 

similar to some of the ancient ways of monks 

and friars. 

Centuries ago, the Church defined the three 

main enemies they were up against in a godless 

world: the desire for wealth and possessions, 

the lust for sex, and the desire to dominate. 

Putting it simply: money, sex and power. 

The ancient Church responded to these assaults 

on its devotion to God with three, now 

ancient, vows. They were the vows of poverty, 

chastity and obedience. Poverty – the abandonment 

of personal wealth; chastity – self-denial 

and sexual purity; obedience – the letting go of 

personal power. 

Pioneers, such as Anthony of Egypt and 

Benedict of Nursia and their followers lived 

together in communities called monasteries. 

Later, friars such as Francis of Assisi and his followers 

embraced the same vows, but lived a life 

of mission on the open road. It was the friars 

who specifically defined their vows as poverty, 

chastity and obedience. 

Today, we can see the traces of these devoted 

Christian movements around the UK, not just 

from ruins on historic hills (even if that old 

wife-chopper, Henry VIII, did do his best to 

wipe out all the monasteries in the 1500s). Nor 

is it just the names of some old streets and 

roads either. There are some monastic communities 

still alive and well to this day. 

Yet some Christians today, while not monks 

and nuns, are exploring what it means to make 

promises of purity and commitment to God 

and to each other in today’s society. Some have 


called this a “new monasticism” and this is 

what Simon Cross’s book surveys. 

Some members of the Jesus Fellowship make 

promises that are a little bit similar to the ancient 

vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. 

Some live together in residential Christian community. 

Some make vows of lifelong celibacy, 

remaining single in order to serve God more 

freely. Some make a covenant pledge to live 

true to God together. 

A key monastic founding father, Benedict 

of Nursia, wrote a Rule (a way of living) for 

monks in the 6th century. It is packed full of 

deeply spiritual – and thoroughly down-toearth 

– wisdom for living and sharing together 

in Christian community. 

Sister Catherine, a Benedictine nun from 

Holy Trinity Monastery in East Hendred, Oxfordshire, 

explained to me the vows Benedictines 

make. “Our vows are stability, conversion, 

and obedience,” she says. “Stability binds us to 

our community, for better or worse. Conversion 

means promising to live monastic life as 

it should be lived, which includes the radical 

renunciation of any form of private ownership, 

whether of people or things; it’s the daily turning 

to Christ that I personally find so helpful 

and so challenging: it’s a daily commitment to 

being changed. Obedience means following 

Christ, who was obedient unto death.” 

Continued overleaf 

There are 

some monastic 

communities 

still alive and 

well to this day 

s 

s 


These “modern monks” live 

in community – but their 

communities are more likely to 

be on a council estate 

New promises 

6 Jesus Life 

www.jesus.org.uk

s 

s 

Continued from previous page 

The vow of “stability” is a challenge to 

today’s “consumer Christianity”: the commitment 

to remain committed to a single call for 

life – unless God spoke to the community (the 

community, note, not the individual) about 

a calling to something else. We need to hear 

the call to this kind of rugged commitment: a 

promise to stay and build, through thick and 

thin, with the same people in the same place; 

not to “feel called to move on” when things get 

tough or an attractive job offer comes up. 

Part of the Jesus Fellowship covenant, 

which some members make, includes a 

promise like this. Such promises may not suit 

everybody and not all the members of the 

Jesus Fellowship make them. Yet they provide 

signposts for what it means to be a devoted 

Christian today. 

These “modern monks” live in community – 

but their communities are more likely to be on 

a council estate than a remote Welsh hill. These 

“modern friars” are on the streets telling others 

about Jesus – but they are wearing Jesus Army 

jackets, not habits. 

It’s not just the Jesus Fellowship, either, not 

at all. Many Christians today are determined to 

be a real alternative culture, showing God’s new 

society in such ways as this. 

Join in – there’s a place for you. 

JL 

Totally Devoted by Simon Cross is published by 

Authentic Publishing 

authenticmedia.co.uk 

For more on Christian Community visit: 

newcreation.org.uk 

To read the blog of Sister Catherine’s 

community visit: 

ibenedictines.org 

This article is an expanded version of a post 

that first featured in the Jesus Army blog: 

jesus.org.uk/blog 

For an older article by James Stacey on new 

monasticism visit: 

jesus.org.uk/short/newmonks 


James is a leader in the Jesus 

Fellowship. He lives in Coventry 

with those he loves - ‘wife, three 

kids and friends forever’ - in a 

Christian community. 

READ HIS BLOG: 

man-with-the-mop.blogspot.com 


7

WOMEN WITH A 

WARCRY! 

8 


www.jesus.org.uk

HISTORY 

MAKERS 

Think Victorian women were all 

stiffness and starch? Think again. 

Trevor Saxby writes about the 

Hallelujah lasses, “shock troops of 

the early Salvation Army”. 

THE GREAT question in most churches 

which are at all earnest in their work is how 

to reach the masses.” 

This isn’t some present-day church growth 

article; it comes from an English newspaper, 

The Northern Daily Express, and was written 

in March 1879, as part of a report on early 

Salvation Army meetings in Gateshead in the 

Northeast of England. 

The audience at these meetings was comprised 

of “the section of the community that 

lies outside the usual compass of religious life,” 

writes the Victorian journalist. More unusual 

still, “the work which experienced ministers 

and the ordinary agencies of churches had 

failed in, has been attempted by a few young 

women.” 

These young women were the “Hallelujah 

lasses”, the shocktroops of the early Salvation 

Army. 

“Some six or eight weeks ago, about half-adozen 

young women made a raid under the 

banner of a Gospel mission among the lowest 

classes in the town,” reported the journalist, 

“and they have succeeded in the most remarkable 

manner.” 

These women, mostly in their twenties, hired 

music halls for their meetings. Despite sneers 

from all sides, within a short time these places 

were filled to overflowing for three hours, and 


hundreds were unable to gain admission. 

“They have got such a hold upon the masses 

as to tame some of the worst of the characters,” 

continues the reporter. “A thorough transformation 

has been effected in the lives of some of 

the most thoughtless, depraved and criminal.” 

What can have enabled these Salvation Army 

girls to achieve such breakthroughs? In part, it 

comes down to the “first love” and fire of a new 

movement in the flower of its vigour. 

Yet we must see in action here the twin elements 

of “blood and fire” that were to become 

the Army’s motto. A total conviction of the 

power of Jesus’ redeeming blood to save even 

“the worst”, together with the freshness of the 

Holy Spirit’s filling (for which Salvationists 

spent whole nights in prayer) kept them pressing 

into territory where other feared to go. 

And they expected results. 

They also used the power of personal 

testimony. The journalist tells of the roughest 

and most criminal of people glorifying 

God for their soul’s salvation. And the Army 

used the passion of youth: “One youth, who 


s 

s 

Despite sneers from 

all sides, within a 

short time these 

places were filled to 

overflowing 


s 

s 


is evidently not more than 14, is quite a 

phenomenon, and certainly has a marvellous 

utterance for one so young and inexperienced. 

On Saturday night, we were told, he 

spoke for 20 minutes, and carried the audience 

so fully away with him, that in the midst 

of his address three or four persons went up 

to the penitent form” (“penitent forms” were 

benches, placed at the front of the hall, where 

people could come and kneel, pray, repent 

and receive personal prayer). 

The journalist concludes, perceptively, 

“What is needed in the work now is consolidation 

– some agency to carry the converts 

beyond the few simple truths they have got 

hold of, and to give them an interest in the 

work when the excitement of the change and 

the effort has passed away.” 

One thing is certain: the Hallelujah lasses 

were a force to be reckoned with. 

To read the 19th century journalist’s full 

accounts of the Hallelujah lasses’ meetings 

online, visit: www.vision.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/ 

revival/archive.html 

JL 

The Hallelujah 

lasses were a force 

to be reckoned with 

Trevor is a senior leader in the 

Jesus Fellowship. He says, “I love 

learning from God’s movers and 

shakers in history, because I want 

to be a history-maker now!” 

READ TREVOR’S BLOG 

radical-church-history.blogspot.com 

OR VISIT: jesus.org.uk/short/passionate-past 

Photo: brizzle born and bred, flickr.com 


www.jesus.org.uk

BLOG 

WINNING YOOF 

From the blog of young Jesus 

Fellowship leader, Aidan Ashby. 

WAS asked by an older friend, a leader in our 

I church, for four things that today’s 15-30 yearolds 

need to find if church is to work for them. 

I’ve been leading a teenagers’ cell group, 

with others, since I was in my mid-teens, and I 

thought it might be worth sharing my thoughts: 

First – love. Always the first word and the 

bottom line. 

Second – cell groups. It’s so important to have 

something that people feel part of – more than 

friendship alone, but still relaxed. 

Third – challenge. Young people (young men, 

in particular) need it. Make them dizzy with all 

the trust you show them. I can’t stress this one 

enough. 

Lastly, but importantly – teenagers don’t need 

older folk to get all “yoofy” (baseball caps and 

skateboards) they need the security, stability and 

integrity of older friends. Love is always relevant. 

That sums up what won my heart. 

Aidan Ashby is a young leader in 

the Jesus Fellowship. He lives in 

Christian community in a house 

with the musical name ‘Anthem’, 

in Northamptonshire. 


morethanbrothers.blogspot.com 

JL 

Make them dizzy 

with all the trust you 

show them 



WIZARD WITH 

WORDS, PASTOR 

WITH PEOPLE 


www.jesus.org.uk

Wilf Copping, Jesus Fellowship 

pastor, poet, and one-time wannabe 

prog rocker, talks to Jesus Life. 

DESPITE THE fact that he is regarded as 

something of a spiritual guru, creative 

wizard and all round good geezer by many, 

there’s nothing pretentious about Wilf. He 

refuses to take himself too seriously, whether 

he’s talking about medieval mysticism or what 

makes a good poem. 

The son of a working-class family, Wilf was 

brought up in Chesterfield in a happy home. He 

was an only child, but had good friends and was 

happy. His conversion to Christianity wasn’t in a 

“crisis”, nor did it happen at once. 

“Aged 18, I saw a guy in a music magazine 

wearing all this white kit (Raja Ram of Quintessence, 

if you’re interested!)” remembers Wilf. “I 

thought, ‘I want to look like you.’ All the songs 

his band played were about God, though they 

certainly weren’t a Christian band.” 

Wilf’s spiritual search had begun. To some 

extent, he reflects, it was part of the style of the 

70s. “Looking for God was the sort of thing you 

did in those days, for a bit anyway, until you gave 

up and became a business man,” he smiles wryly. 

Wilf met some Christians who took him to 

evangelistic meetings. There, he asked questions 

and became a Christian. The presence of Jesus in 

his life soon started to change things. 

“Soon after,” he says, “I finished with a girl I 

had been going out with for two and a half years. 

She wasn’t a Christian and I just instinctively 

knew it wasn’t going to work.” It was around this 

time that Wilf knew he had to surrender to God 

the desire he felt to get married. Now he felt that 

he was free to make a choice: to be married or 

to stay single. It was several years later, in 1980, 

when he was 26, that Wilf was praying and felt the 

call to accept the gift of celibacy, a choice to embrace 

a way of life that he describes as “brilliant”. 

Shortly after his conversion, when Wilf had just 

finished his studies at teacher training college, 


he visited Bugbrooke Baptist Chapel (where the 

Jesus Fellowship began) – and was terrified! He 

vowed he would never come again. 

“It was the all-out commitment and nowhere 

to hide,” Wilf confesses. “Everything was going to 

have to be Jesus-centred. It freaked me out.” 

Yet the initial shock receded, leaving Wilf aware 

that he was witnessing something amazing. 

“It was like watching a dream come true. It 

seemed to me that this was how life was supposed 

to be – heaven on earth, people loving one 

another, sticking together, not being diverted by 

jobs or careers. Something I could give myself to 

100 per cent.” 

Initially, it was too scary to conceive of living 

the life himself, but in the end God whittled down 

his fears and arguments and, 18 months later, 

after several visits, Wilf moved in to a community 

house in Northampton called “New Life”. 

“Each visit I had made to the church was 

like an explosion – I was left with loads to work 

through and in the end I wanted to live the 

dream. The early days of community were great 

and the honeymoon period didn’t wear off for a 

long time.” 

What has sustained Wilf on his journey in 

community? “Friends are everything to me,” 

he replies. 

As well as rubbing shoulders with living saints, 

Wilf has found inspiration from spiritual heroes of 

the past. 

“Something resonates within me when it 

comes to the old monks n’ that,” he says, adding 


Each visit I had 

made to the 

church was like 

an explosion 

s 

s 


s 

s 


wryly, “Something definitely does not resonate 

as well – I don’t like the old rigid, structured set 

up they had. But reading their stuff is like reading 

the exploits of some explorer; you think ‘I want to 

go where they went’, because the place they are 

describing sounds almost mythical.” 

Whose way of living was Wilf particularly attracted 

to? 

“Francis of Assisi, St John of the Cross, John 

of Ruysbroeck...” His interest in Ruysbroeck, a 

little known 14th Century Flemish mystic, was 

initially inspired by the title of one of his books: 

The Adornment of the Spiritual Marriage. “The 

title sounded like a pretentious progressive 

rock album,” grins Wilf, “just like the ones I 

used to listen to! John of Ruysbroeck is just 

completely far out really – unintelligible to the 

modern ear! But, reading him, I felt, ‘This bloke 

has gone somewhere, he’s got somewhere, he’s 

found something in God and I want it.’ You 

cannot help but be attracted. 

“What John seemed to be talking about was 

very simple, a relationship with God that went beyond 

all that we do that identifies us as Christians 

– the prayer, the bible reading, the sacraments. 

The activity we do is all part of it, but the real 

thing is something invisible; you can’t pin it down 

to any of those things. 

“I have found a very real, simple contentment 

in following Jesus. I get distracted, can’t pray for 

very long without thinking of something else – I 

have a messy mind – but beyond all that is a 

simple walk with Jesus.” 

Wilf describes his ministry in the church as an 

“axle” ministry, meaning he’s in the middle of 

things, enabling the whole to work properly, and 

engaging people in what they should be doing. 

Others call him an intercessor – but he doesn’t 

think he fits the bill. (He does, however, admit to 

praying a lot.) 

Being a pastor to many people means he has 

14 


www.jesus.org.uk

This bloke has 

gone somewhere, 

he’s got 

somewhere, he’s 

found something in 

God and I want it 

to do a lot of listening and, says Wilf, “you have 

to have a secure relationship with God and the 

church or you just trot out pat answers to people’s 

issues. You have to have a robust soul as well, to 

avoid responding negatively when people take 

out their hurts on you. You have to care for people 

genuinely as people – not as a well-meaning 

social worker.” 

And this pastor is also a poet: childhood is a 

theme of his poetry at the moment. “Recovering 

the good things of childhood as an adult; wonder; 

not taking things too seriously; having the ability 

to trust and to laugh at yourself. These attributes 

of childhood should be carried with us into adulthood, 

but often are not. As an adult you can fit 

into a mould, and get blinkered to new things.” 

The Jesus Fellowship’s current focus on “fresh 

faith and new anointing” excites Wilf because it’s 

about God expanding our vision and horizons. 

“Traditionally, groups get blinkered,” says 

Wilf, “I want us to have God’s new ideas and not 

see the vision draining away. God has to break 

through our barriers, so our dependence is on 

Him and not on our ‘way of doing things’. 

“Oh, and we’ve all got to read John of Ruysbroeck!” 

he adds – with a twinkle in his eye. JL 


POEM BY WILF 

‘The child is father to the man.’ 

No wonder then 

That hardly anyone grows up properly: 

Being wrenched from childhood 

Before it has matured 

Into that peculiar wisdom 

That only grown up children have. 

Somewhere between childhood 

And what comes next, we are made 

To jump over a chasm so wide 

We can carry little with us, 

So we are unprepared for the next stage 

Of our journey. 

It is called – adulthood – so they say. 

We are called – adults – so they say. 

Trouble is we’re not 

And for most of us 

Life is a limp and stumble 

From one false security to another. 

If you can, if you dare, 

Go back, 

Retrieve what you left behind 

You might just become a father of men 

And not just another insecure teacher 

Of stumblers and pretenders. 


15

DANCING 

RAINBOWS AND 

COLOURFUL CHOIRS 

An impromptu march round the market place 

WHAT IS MULTIPLY? 

Multiply Christian Network is a worldwide 

apostolic stream of churches, initiated by 

Jesus Fellowship Church. 


CONTACT MULTIPLY: 

www.multiply.org.uk 

Contact Multiply Director, Huw Lewis, 

Tel: +44 1327 344533 

Email: huw.lewis@jesus.org.uk 

Write to: Jesus Fellowship/Multiply, 

Nether Heyford, Northampton, NN7 3LB, UK 

www.multiply.org.uk

Jesus Fellowship apostolic team 

member, Ian Callard, and Multiply 

Coordinator, Iain Gorrie were special 

guests at the first Multiply Zambia 

conference in South Africa. Ian 

describes their experience. 

S WE STEPPED off the plane, Stephen 

A Mwakabinga, our Zambian Multiply 

apostolic man, there to meet us, was full of 

excitement. Just before we left the UK, Stephen 

had sent us a wish list of 11 presentation topics. 

When we discussed exactly how we’d squeeze 

them into the conference sessions, it looked 

impossible! Stephen and another local Multiply 

leader, Austin, left us to knuckle down to some 

intensive preparation. We’d brought a projector, 

but needed an audio link to play videos. So, we 

hoped for an early start in the morning. But this 

was Africa, and Stephen had lots to sort out before 

the next day’s events, too. 

Stephen’s church building in Kitwe is a 

spacious former warehouse along a typical 

Zambian pot-holed road. When we arrived, the 

band and choir were in full swing – and at full 

volume. The techies did an inventive job of wiring 

up our audio-visual with a random length of twocore 

flex and some clingfilm. Iain introduced the 

Multiply vision, and Stephen reminded us of the 

important of relationships. I spoke about Jesus 

Fellowship’s radical community experience. 

That first night, despite the early nightfall, 

when life in the tropics winds down (there’s no 

street lighting), both Iain and I were restless. He’d 

discovered that malaria tablets can trigger off 

exotic dreams; I worried about the aggressivelooking 

fish we’d risked for our meals. Then there 

was the gecko that ran up the walls and over the 

ceiling above the mosquito net. 

At our second conference day we found pastors 

and friends attending from Tanzania, Malawi and 

Congo (DRC). And the choir had swapped their 

smart white shirts for pink ones. We managed to 


hold the fine line between presenting Multiply 

as an inclusive “rainbow” network, and speaking 

with conviction of important distinctives. We 

decided to focus the whole of the next afternoon 

– Saturday – on the youth generation. Iain had 

already engaged with a good number, playing 

frisbee in the car-park with them. 

We expected our biggest numbers on the third 

day as more local Christians joined us. The choir 

were now in blue. Iain showed the video of the 

Jesus Fellowship’s 2010 London Day event and 

march. The response was rising excitement. It 

only took one invitation from him for the whole 

church to spill out into the bright afternoon 

sunshine and to head off singing round the local 

market areas. When they all danced back in, the 

band took up the tune, and it looked like we’d 

never stop. We finished with a tender time of 

consecration and foot-washing. 

On Sunday, the choir had doubled in size 

(and were wearing yellow). Later, Stephen 

showed us round the orphanage the church 

has set up in some first-floor rooms that were 

formerly offices. The church looks after 26 

children, squeezed into four bedrooms, with 

just a bunk sleeping space and a suitcase 

for each child. There’s a small pile of toys to 

be shared. Four women volunteer to get the 

children up and off to school, cleaned and 

washed, and to make sure they’re fed. The 

inspiration came from the Jesus Fellowship’s 

Jesus Centres, where we daily meet basic needs. 

Iain and I were now gearing up for the second 


s 

s 

The church looks 

after 26 children, 

squeezed into four 

bedrooms 


s 

s 


Victoria Falls’ 

viewing path is like 

plunging through 

dancing rainbows 

18 


Ian washes a delegate’s feet 

Some of the conference delegates 

Food, fellowship and African hospitality 

half of our Zambia visit. First we’d be travelling 

nearly 600 miles south to Livingstone, and then 

heading back to Lusaka for our flight home. In 

both places we’d be holding half-day conferences, 

with some time scheduled in between to meet 

pastors. Stephen arranged for us to travel by car, 

making a 6am start on the Monday morning. 

We were up at 4.30am to pack, and grab what 

we could for breakfast. I was in the shower when 

Iain checked his phone and found that Stephen 

had texted just before midnight to say the plans 

had changed, and we’d be aiming to leave by 

coach at 11am, accompanied by Austin. African 

time works differently. 

Some time after 1pm we were finally on the 

road. With an hour’s break at Lusaka, I couldn’t 

see how we’d reach Livingstone that night. 

At Kipiri we slowed down to cross the Tazara 

railway line that runs 1,200 miles north-east to 

the Tanzania port of Dar es Salaam. The coach 

was surrounded by women with trays of bananas 

balanced on their heads (and babies on their 

backs), hoping to attract a quick sale. Later, we 

overtook a chugging open truck: in the back were 

eight people, a goat and a pig. 

Our driver’s technique was to thunder down 

the middle of the road and blow his horn at 

everything in his path. We reached Livingstone at 

an eerie 2.30am. Iain tells me that as he fell asleep 

he heard a cock crowing. 

The next day was our chance to see the 

Victoria Falls. They’re obviously used to Western 

tourists, because you can canoe, bungee jump, 

or fly by helicopter or microlight if you’ve got 

enough dollars. Austin, who was looking after 

the finances, looked worried. Much to his relief, 

we settled that we’d just take a walk through the 

viewing area. 

You can see the clouds of spray rising from the 

Falls six miles away in Livingstone’s centre. The 

unique feature of Victoria Falls is that the river 

Zambezi cascades 300 feet downwards into a 

gorge that runs right across – not in line with – the 

direction of flow. Beyond a small downstream 

www.multiply.org.uk

gap, the water has nowhere to go. So it bounces 

back up again in huge clouds of spray (and with 

its tremendous roar). We were there at almost 

peak flow, three-quarters of a million gallons per 

minute. Walking Victoria Falls’ viewing path is 

like plunging through dancing rainbows, with 

the mesmerising wild tumble of water that you 

almost want to reach out to touch. 

Next day, we held our conference in a local 

Pentecostal church. We got a warm reception and 

people weren’t in a hurry to leave. However, we 

had the coach to Lusaka to catch, and based on 

previous experience, we couldn’t hang around. 

Iain and I had little to go on in what to prepare 

for the next day’s conference, but we prayed 

about it, and the 50-plus delegates enjoyed our 

presentation. We ended with the priority of 

sorting out church finances through practical 

sharing and generating income that makes all 

members able to contribute. Austin followed 

by relating how his members rented a field and 

collaboratively bought seed and fertiliser. They 

have one corner that’s “the Lord’s field”. When 

the crop was sold the money went to church 

funds. He hopes to extend this principle to 

community-style shared accommodation. 

Suddenly, it was all over. So what did we learn, 

and what did we contribute? We tasted enthusiasm 

for prayer, but we felt we’d barely scratched 

the surface. Certainly, these nations still welcome 

our input, and their emerging church leaders 

need fathering. There’s no embarrassment about 

faith, but there’s not yet a lot of church development. 

Poverty takes a heavy toll in many ways: 

resources, health, education, and family life. 

Kingdom businesses and wealth creation come 

into focus much sooner than you’d find in a UK 

church’s ministry agenda. 

I was frustrated that we couldn’t stay around 

and get to grips with some of the prophetic 

stirring we’d experienced. Iain would have 

particularly liked to have given youth motivation 

more of a blast. There’s plenty more for the 

Multiply network to begin to expand into. Thank 

you, Zambia saints, for making us so welcome. JL 


Red crosses and street marches 

Worship at one of the conference events 

Poverty takes a 

heavy toll in many 

ways: resources, 

health, education, 

and family life 

Ian Callard is a member of the 

Jesus Fellowship’s apostolic team 

and a key strategist for the Jesus 

Fellowship nationwide. He and his 

wife Mary live in Sheffield. 

FOR MORE ON MULTIPLY VISIT: 

multiply.org.uk 


19

FULL STEAM 

AHEAD IN 

SHEFFIELD 

The cross at the Sheffield Jesus Centre 

WHAT ARE JESUS CENTRES? 

Places where the love of Jesus is expressed 

daily in worship, care and friendship for every 

type of person. 


WHERE ARE JESUS CENTRES? 

There are Jesus Centres in Coventry, London 

and Northampton. One will open in Sheffield 

soon and Birmingham after that, with vision for 

further locations. 

MORE INFO: 

www.jesuscentre.org.uk 

www.jesuscentre.org.uk

Viv Callard reports on the progress 

toward opening a fourth Jesus 

Centre, in Sheffield. 

WORK steams ahead on the Sheffield 

Jesus Centre! 

Despite a number of setbacks and delays (the 

snow over Christmas included), the contractors 

should be handing over the completed 

site to the local congregation in the summer. 

Then it will be all hands on deck for wheeling 

in the office chairs and arranging desks and 

filing cabinets, stocking up the freezers for the 

café, making sure there’s an adequate supply of 

paper clips on the help desk and so on. 

The excitement is growing, and people are seeing 

where they fit in, and working through the details 

of services on offer. More importantly though, 

we’re allowing it to intrude on our lives and we’re 

being a bit inconvenienced by it all - a sense of the 

project coming to land in our realities. 

Members of Jesus Fellowship Sheffield 

recently had a tour of the site (with full complement 

of hard hats and high-vis jackets), which 

helped gain a sense of ownership of the project. 

We’re thanking God for progress. A number 

of grants secured for renewable energy projects 

within the building: the southern roof of the 

main hall is well covered with solar panels, and 

we’re getting the windows of the hall replaced, 

too to keep the warmth (and sound) in. There’s a 

real sense of identity within the volunteer teams 

running the various services and good networking 

is opening up connections within the local 

community. We’re on target for capital funding. 

But there’s plenty we’re continuing to pray for 

– like protection for the contractors on site and 

that they’d finish the final stages of construction 

in good time. We need to source the scheduled 

equipment at good prices, or preferably as gifts 

in kind. And we – always – need good teamwork 

and communication among volunteers. 

Pray for us; it’s an adventure – and God is 

with us. 

www.jesuscentre.org.uk 

It’s an 

adventure – and 

God is with us 

Here’s what some Jesus Fellowship 

Sheffield members said: 

“I’ve been out of work from my main job 

for just over two years now, and although 

I’ve been doing a bit of cleaning, I’ve 

wanted to explore other interests. I’m 

looking forward to being involved, and I’m 

glad to see everybody’s pulling together.” – 

Mike Petherbridge 

“I didn’t really see that I’d have anything to 

do in the Jesus Centre, because I have four 

young children, but I’m getting envisioned to 

run a really good parents and tots group to 

include lots of people.” – Harriet Lane 

“I’ve been looking forward to working 

in the Jesus Centre as it gives me an 

opportunity to help people who need it.” – 

Colleen Jones 

“Many people in this community will get 

a lot of benefits from using this Centre.” – 

Jonny Crawford 

“I’m glad we don’t have to go to the other 

side of the world to be able to take part in 

mission – we can do it here where there’s 

spiritual poverty.” – Vicky Hadfield 

“Each person is able to find their place 

– being volunteers in the Jesus Centre, 

everyone is valued.” – Liz Whittington JL 

Viv Callard is one of a rising 

generation of leaders in the Jesus 

Fellowship. An ICT wizard, he 

also plays guitar and cracks jokes. 

His big passion is to see people won for 

Jesus in Sheffield. 


talking to... 

MARK POWLEY 

Mark with his wife and children outside their Leeds home 


www.jesus.org.uk

Jesus Life editor, James 

Stacey talks to Mark Powley, 

co-founder of Breathe, a 

Christian network for simpler living. 

Mark, tell me a bit about yourself and your 

background. 

I grew up in Bury, near Manchester. My dad 

was a social worker who became a vicar; I got 

serious about God when I was a teenager. 

Around that time, I also changed my diet, 

started running, avoided drinking – even coffee, 

let alone alcohol! I was a bit of a teenage 

Pharisee, really. But in it all, I grew a passion 

for justice and I saw that lifestyle change was 

important if you’re going to follow Jesus. 

At Nottingham University, I met my wife, 

Ailsa; we’ve been married 13 years in July 

and have four kids. I was a youth worker for a 

bit, then an R.E. teacher. After I trained in the 

ministry, we were in Croydon for three years, in 

Hammersmith for three-and-a-half years, and 

now I’m a leader in a church here in Leeds. 

How did Breathe get started? 

At university, I was part of a prayer group in 

which God did some powerful things. Out of 

that quality of fellowship came an important 

conversation which revolved around this 

question: when we’ve got money what are 

we going to do with it? We knew we needed 

to learn about sharing, about having a vision 

beyond being comfortable. We tried to face 

honestly the challenges of living as Christians 

in the UK’s consumer culture. 

We started sharing our budgets with each 

other, exploring real accountability. We 

wondered what had happened to the vision 

of simplicity set out, for instance, in Richard 

Foster’s book Freedom of Simplicity. “Who’s 

doing it now?” we asked. 

I started to dream of a movement for simple 

living. But, as I often said to Ailsa, if there was 

such a movement, I wasn’t sure if I could be part 


of it – “I’m not good enough, I’m not living simply 

enough”. Then the thought came: what if the 

movement wasn’t for people who had “arrived” 

at a simple lifestyle, but for people who want to 

get there or at least want to start getting there, or 

even just wanted to ask the question, what does 

Christian simplicity look like? 

I said to Ailsa, “We could call it ‘Choke’ 

because Jesus said our possessions choke 

us”. She said no-one would want to be part 

of something called ‘Choke’. She was right of 

course; we called it Breathe. 

Within six months, a friend and I found 

ourselves at a Make Poverty History protest 

in Edinburgh, standing by a stall and inviting 

others to join Breathe. 

And you had a slogan! 

Yes. “Less stuff, more life.” That was in 

2005. We had about 100 people sign up on 

the day; now we have nearly 1,000 people on 

the e-mailing list and the blog gets plenty of 

interest. We produce e-newsletters, tell stories, 

give personal accounts, undermine adverts 

– we try to be creative and stir ideas and 

inspiration. 

Undermine adverts? 

Well, take the ticket sales company, 

Lastminute.com. They promoted travel breaks 

with the slogan “Life: book now.” Okay, it’s 

catchy and witty, but when you actually think 

about it, this slogan stinks. What if I can’t 

afford to book “life”? That must make me, 

what? Dead? And even if I do go away, this 

seven to 14 day break is “life”. What if it rains 

when I get there? And when I return, what 

about the other 50-odd weeks of the year? Are 

they non-life? The whole advert works on the 

lie that quality of life can be bought and sold 

– with the threat of “not living” hovering in the 

background. 

So we started an “ad-watch” – critiquing 

adverts, unmasking their lies. It might not 


s 

s 


We’re after the 

mainstream, the 

middle people: 

interested, 

maybe 

passionate – 

but clueless 

Who needs foreign holidays to simply surf? 


www.jesus.org.uk

s 

s 


seem all that radical, compared to, say, living 

in an intentional community, but it starts where 

an awful lot of people are actually at. 

It starts helping people question the consumer lie? 

Christians are on a spectrum on this issue. 

It’s like a wedge. Some Christians, like some 

of you in the Jesus Army or Shane Claiborne, 

are on the radical edge, the thin edge of 

the wedge: they’re doing simple living and 

intentional community; it’s amazing and 

inspirational – though there’s the danger of 

superiority creeping in. 

At the other extreme, there’s the “prosperity 

gospel” (the fat end of the wedge!) 

Through Breathe, we’re after the 

mainstream, the middle people: interested, 

maybe passionate – but clueless. What does 

simplicity mean for them? 

There can be a lot of defensiveness in this 

area – so we’ve tried to use humour; we’ve 

tried to be creative; we’ve tried to offer options 

and be gracious. 

I guess there can be a tension between not 

wanting to be heavy and yet having something 

serious to say? 

That was where we started six years ago. 

Actually, these days I’m seeing that you do 

have to require something of people; there’s got 

to be challenge. 

I sometimes worry about what I call 

“radicalism by proxy” – someone else does 

the radicalism on my behalf. I read their book, 

buy their badge – I’m a fan of Shane Claiborne 

or I’m a fan of the Northumbria Christian 

Community – but I don’t change my life. It’s 

too easy to look on and say, “Woah, it’s so 

radical” and somehow feel that this makes a 

bit of radicalism rub off on me. But it doesn’t. 

Is that where your book, Consumer Detox, 

comes in? 

The book came out of where we were going 

with Breathe. In 2008 and 2009 we held 

Breathe conferences, then last year we did 


something called Conspiracy of Freedom and 

produced four short films, one of which has 

been seen by more than 5,000 people on 

YouTube, which is encouraging. 

The time came when I felt I’d learnt enough 

to have a first stab at the book. It’s in 12 

chapters – 12 steps for starting to walk away 

from “addiction to stuff”: how it affects our 

relationships; how it affects the environment; 

how it affects our spirituality, our relationship 

with God. 

So how are you personally doing simplicity? 

Good question… Complicatedly! 

We try to maximise our giving, so we keep 

a careful budget to stay in control of money 

and increase the amount that we are giving. 

We’ve looked at lifestyle choices. We don’t 

go for foreign holidays. We try and live more 

sustainably, growing food in raised beds; we’re 

getting better at our composting! We’re trying 

to reduce our heating; we insulated the house, 

stuff like that. My shoes are from a charity 

shop, my watch was given me, my t-shirts are 

old (I don’t know what that tells you). We’ve 

just disconnected our TV for nine months. 

But it’s the deeper things, too, the attitude 

things – like cultivating gratitude, simply saying 

grace before meals. This is what I try to get in 

the book: aiming at a more thankful life. On 

Saturdays, I only pray prayers of thanks. It’s 

part of being consumer resistant. 

Earlier, you mentioned intentional community 

as part of the radical edge of Christianity. 

What do you make of community? 

I think it’s vital and it’s prophetic. Christians 

are called to live in ways that anticipate the 

kingdom. Those who give up their possessions 

or share possessions demonstrate the koinonia, 

the sharing, that we’re all called to. 

Funnily enough, when we moved here, we 

rented this house and we didn’t realise our 

neighbours are Christians in our church. Now 


s 

s 


Breathe is a Christian network for simpler 

living, connecting people who want to 

live a less consumerist, more generous, 

more sustainable life. The Breathe blog 

says: “We aim to be non-judgemental, 

realistic and simple to be part of. We want 

to appreciate life more fully; refuse the 

consumer dream; connect with others; 

and choose a more generous lifestyle.” 

Visit the Breathe blog at: 

breathenetwork.org 

For the Conspiracy of Freedom website go 

to: conspiracyoffreedom.org 

Consumer Detox is published by 

Zondervan. Visit: Zondervan.com 


Christians are 

called to live 

in ways that 

anticipate the 

kingdom 

s 

s 


we share stuff, they baby-sit for us at lastminute 

notice and so on. 

Accidental community? 

Yeah… and even the most intentional 

communities can only ever be a glimpse of the 

kingdom, actually, but it’s such a vital glimpse. 

That’s why one of the things Breathe is trying 

to do is take the stories of those on that 

particular edge and tell it to others: to remind 

us what we’re all supposed to be about. 

What would you say to a community like New 

Creation Christian Community and the Jesus 

Army? 

I think I would say “Thank you”. Thank you 

for taking the bible seriously, and for being a 

prophetic sign. Keep faith with that because 

the pendulum is swinging back towards 

community. 

My hope is that intentional communities, 

like the Jesus Army, don’t isolate yourselves, 

but allow yourselves to speak to wider church 

– because otherwise you’re not serving your 

prophetic function. Keep asking the question 

“How can what you’ve learnt be shared to the 

wider church?” 

Any suggestions how? 

I think someone in the Jesus Army should 

become a blogger on the Breathe website! 

Share the stories of what you guys are learning 

and bring it into the wider conversation. Maybe 

Breathe can help the Jesus Army to fulfil its 

prophetic role – and the Jesus Army could 

help Breathe to fulfil its role in widening the 

conversation. 

JL 

Mark Powley is 35, and is 

associate rector of St George’s, 

Leeds, where he lives with his 

wife, Ailsa, and his four young 

children, Jonah, Zach, Nathan and Sophie. 

He co-founded Breathe in 2005 and wrote 

Consumer Detox in 2010. 

www.jesus.org.uk

ealandwild.com 

WEB 

www.realandwild.com 

EMAIL 

raw@jesus.org.uk 

FACEBOOK 

facebook.com/realandwild 

TWITTER 

twitter.com/realandwild 

REAL AND WILD 

THE UNMISSABLE YOUTH EVENT 

www.jesus.org.uk03 - 06 AUGUST 2011 

JESUS CENTRE, NORTHAMPTON NN1 4AE 


RANT 

Boiling with rage... 

READ AND COMMENT ON 

MORE RANTS AND RAVES: 

jesus.org.uk/short/rantrave 

28 


Anna Hartley 

BULLYING 

I 

’LL TELL you what makes me 

angry, what makes me really 

angry. Seeing children at school 

get bullied, for no reason. For 

the colour of their hair, the colour 

of their skin or eyes, for freckles, for 

their size and shape, because they’re 

clever, or because they’re not, or the clothes 

they’re wearing that day. It doesn’t seem to 

matter what the reason is, they’ll find one. 

They may wait unexpectedly outside the gates 

after school and chase you home, they may laugh 

at you in class for good achievement, and they 

may dunk you under water in the swimming pool 

lesson or trip you up in the school playground. 

This is the kind of endless taunting children have, 

do and unfortunately will experience. 

All these things and many more can truly 

cripple a person for life and their self-worth goes 

out of the window, making them feel insecure, 

unworthy, intimidated, crushed, and lacking in 

confidence. 

But, through the grace, love and healing power 

of God, people are completely set free, and 

through the spiritual family that you can find in 

church, that sense of self-worth is restored. 

All these things 

and many more 

can truly cripple 

a person for life 

www.jesus.org.uk

RAVE 

...buzzing with passion 


WORD RAVE 

OUR FIRST glimpse 

of God in the bible 

captures His awesome 

title as universal Creator of 

everything. It’s His most 

basic, yet most thrilling 

attribute: the author of 

life has such authority 

that His words obey and create whatever 

He commands. He literally speaks things 

into being! Throughout history springs the 

testimony of God as author, architect, builder, 

Father, lover and restorer, who excels and 

continues to excel in the art of creation. 

It’s a privilege to be a part of a church 

that is committed to making room for God to 

be who He is. I haven’t known anything as 

exciting as hearing God speak directly and 

strategically into situations where we’ve been 

clearly stuck and release movement. A silent 

God is a terrifying prospect. 

It’s like watching the “Word becoming flesh” 

before your very eyes. Seeing empty seats 

filled and former rebels lost in worship never 

gets boring. The other night I paused and 

thought, “These four guys praying in our cell 

group didn’t know God two months ago – now 

they’re irreplaceable brothers.” 

It’s constant proof that the Word produces 

results – that God actually exists! What’s more 

exciting is the sense that the best is yet to 

come. God isn’t done creating. He’s not done 

speaking. Building heaven on earth requires 

obedience, courage and faith but it’s the 

God-sourced faith that comes from hearing the 

current apostolic and prophetic word. That’s 

what creates something out of nothing. JL 

Jon-Jon Hilton 

Seeing empty 

seats filled and 

former rebels 

lost in worship 

never gets 

boring 


29

BLOG 

I 

ME! 

30 


www.jesus.org.uk

From the blog of Jesus Fellowship 

leader, Laurence Cooper 

SO, I’M in the kitchen of my friends’ house, 

chilling with my homeboy, Jack, who is two 

years old and learning words. 

Word for today is “me” and Jack is really 

enjoying that word. 

“ME ME ME ME!” he screams as he yanks 

open the fridge door. 

“ME MEEE ME MEEEEE!” he yells as he pulls 

himself up on the table to fall face first into the 

toast. 

“ME ME ME MEEEEEE!” he shouts as he rubs 

a nose-full of snot lovingly across my new jacket. 

“ME ME ME!” he declares, smiling, in the 

middle of the kitchen. 

He is two, he is triumphant, he is enjoying his 

possession of the word ME; he is discovering his 

personhood. I enjoy his moment of unashamed 

and entirely appropriate glorification of self. And 

then I feel a sermon coming on. 

“Jack, Jack. I am very glad that you are 

enjoying ME so much. It is right that you should 

do. But, without wanting to rain on your parade, 

there are one or two words of caution I would 

like to urge on you.” 

Did his little smudgy face look a fraction more 

serious of a sudden? 

“Much as you may delight in ME at present, 

in years to come you’ll find that ME may 

become more problematic. It’s ME, you see, that 

struggles to come to terms with himself. It’s ME 

that comes between us and an experience of 

unselfish love. It’s ME who throws hard words at 

others, who cheats and sneers and hurts others. 

It’s ME who finds it hard to quit and finds it 

hellishly difficult to finally have to admit that it’s 

ME who has a problem. 

“So enjoy ME Jack, you’ll spend the rest of 

your life wrestling with him.” 

But Jack had left the room some time 

previously to destroy an eight-wheeled excavator 

next door in the lounge. 

JL 


He is two, he is 

triumphant, he 

is enjoying his 

possession of the 

word ME 

Laurence Cooper is a leader in the 

Jesus Fellowship. He lives in a 

Christian Community house, 

a very big house in the country 

stuffed full of Jesus radicals like himself. 


laurencecooper.wordpress.com 


31

FINDING FATHER 


www.jesus.org.uk

For years, Jane Darling struggled to 

believe God really loved her. Now 

that’s all changed; she tells Jesus 

Life her story. 

WHEN A bright light came and rested on 

the end of her bed, Jane says she “knew 

instantly that it was God”. 

“I heard an audible voice say, ‘Jane, I can lead 

your life better than you’,” she recalls. “God 

had met me. I had met God.” Jane became a 

Christian on that day, in November 1988. 

Yet for many years, Jane has struggled with 

the concept of God, as a father, loving her. 

“I could tell others that God loved them, 

but for me it didn’t sink in,” says Jane. “When 

people tried to tell me that God loved me, it was 

like speaking to a brick wall. It just didn’t register. 

I wasn’t even sure God liked me, let alone 

loved me.” 

Jane’s childhood was full of love and acceptance 

– to this day, she has great relationships 

with both her parents. So why could she not 

feel God’s “fatherly” love? 

The final straw for Jane came in February of 

this year. “I just kept asking God to show me He 

loved me,” explains Jane, “but – nothing. I was 

getting angry and disappointed.” 

Jane decided it had to be sorted once and 

for all. 

At a Jesus Fellowship event in Birmingham, 

Jane decided to ask a married couple she knows 


I wasn’t even 

sure God liked 

me, let alone 

loved me 

s 

s 

www.jesus.org.uk Jesus Life 

33


well to pray with her. 

“I shared my fears and my friend told me to 

imagine I was climbing onto Father God’s lap. 

I pictured me, as I am now, 43 years of age, 

climbing onto His lap. He was much bigger 

than me so I comfortably snuggled in.” 

“And something – very simply, very definitely 

– changed. I felt God’s pleasure in me.” 

Jane stayed where she was in that meeting 

hall a long time after the prayer, soaking in the 

life and love she’d just been introduced to. 

“The rest of the week I kept calling God ‘Abba 

Father’ and grinning like an idiot,” confesses 

Jane with a smile. “God was in me. Beautiful: I 

was accepted, loved, He loves me!” 

And that was not the only thing that was 

healed in Jane during that weekend – she found 

she had been healed of IBS, after 15 years of 

suffering with the illness. 

But it was the new love that was the richest 

change. 

“Whatever happens, I know that God loves 

me unconditionally,” says Jane, “and that will 

never, ever change.” 

JL 

s 

s 

The rest of the 

week I kept calling 

God ‘Abba Father’ 

and grinning like 

an idiot 

Jane is a celibate in the Jesus 

Fellowship. She loves to see 

people’s lives change through 

love, acceptance and the power of 

Jesus. She describes herself as ‘always up 

for a challenge’. 

34 


www.jesus.org.uk

KEEP 

IN TOUCH! 

Multiply churches and groups meet all over 

the UK. Get in touch with your locals and 

find out what’s going on in your area! 

BELFAST 

Jesus Fellowship Church........................0845 123 5552 

Birmingham 


BLACKBURN 

Hyndburn Christian Fellowship............. 0170 622 2401 

Blackburn 

Rishton Christian Fellowship................0125 488 7790 

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The Bridge Community Church............0165 665 5635 

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CHATHAm 

House Of Prayer For All Nations...........0163 466 9933 

King’s Church Medway........................... 0163 484 7477 

Coventry 


gloucester 

Living Word Fellowship.......................... 01452 506 474 

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High Wycombe 

Church of Shalom...................................0149 444 9408 

Kettering 


Leeds 


Leicester 


Liverpool 


London CENTRAL 



London N 

Glad Tidings Evangelical Church..........0208 245 9002 

London S 

Bible Life Family Ministries...................07932 938 911 

London SE 

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London SE 

Flaming Evangelical Ministries ...........0163 420 1170 

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London SE 

Life For The World Christian Centre....07956 840 002 

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Mission Together for Christ................... 07737 475 731 

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Jesus Fellowship Church .......................0845 166 8161 

Norwich 


Nottingham 


OxFOrd 


RAMSEY HOLLOW (Hunts) 

Christians United.....................................0148 781 5528 

Sheffield 


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www.jesus.org.uk

Jesus Life 87 - Jesus Army

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