Jesus Life 87 - Jesus Army

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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. 16 Jesus Life 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 www.multiply.org.uk 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 Continued overleaf s s The church looks after 26 children, squeezed into four bedrooms Jesus Life 17
Page 1 and 2: JESUS Issue 87 FREE two / 2011 www.
Page 3 and 4: JESUS ON THE STREETS www.jesus.org.
Page 5 and 6: Jesus Life editor James Stacey take
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Page 9 and 10: HISTORY MAKERS Think Victorian wome
Page 11 and 12: BLOG WINNING YOOF From the blog of
Page 13 and 14: Wilf Copping, Jesus Fellowship past
Page 15: This bloke has gone somewhere, he
Page 19 and 20: gap, the water has nowhere to go. S
Page 21 and 22: Viv Callard reports on the progress
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Page 27 and 28: ealandwild.com WEB www.realandwild.
Page 29 and 30: RAVE ...buzzing with passion www.je
Page 31 and 32: From the blog of Jesus Fellowship l
Page 33 and 34: For years, Jane Darling struggled t
Page 35 and 36: KEEP IN TOUCH! Multiply churches an

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