Streetpaper 79 - The Jesus Army

HAVE YOUR SAY
TEXT US NOW
07969 679 501
streetpaper@jesus.org.uk
INSIDE:
God
poll
shock
see
p4&5
www.jesus.org.uk
tug of war
for sam’s soul
see p3
modern JESUS army Streetpaper No. 78 Page
modern Jesus army: bringing spiritual and social help to all people No. 79 FREE
happily ever after?
Special Feature >>
see p2, 4, 6, 7, 8
A THROWAWAY SOCIETY
A load of rubbish: if everyone in the world was as wasteful
as the UK we would need 8 worlds to keep going
people
extra
HEROIN
ADDICT’S
HERO
see p7
Wasted
On the scrapheap? Many lives are being wasted
ON AVERAGE each person in
the UK throws out their body
weight in rubbish every three
months.
Ours is a careless, “throwaway”
society.
Today our rich society throws
out what it no longer likes and has
a “spend, spend, spend” philosophy.
Wasted food. Wasted packaging.
And disposing of all this socalled
rubbish presents an ever-increasing
challenge. Land-fill sites
become harder to find. Dangerous
waste from manufacturing processes
means waste becomes not
only a burden but also a hazard.
Wasted lives
Yet much more important is the
sad fact that numerous men and
women, often young men and
women, are “going to waste”.
Many feel they are being left to
rot in an uncaring and unjust society.
Addictions consume many
lives. Sexual diseases flourish. The
prisons are overflowing. Family
breakdowns with all their casualties
are everywhere. The old neglected.
Gays and lesbians vilified.
Racial prejudice common. Domestic
abuse frequently reported. Children
mistreated, bullied, abused.
The modern Jesus army exists
to reach today’s broken, lonely
people with God’s love; to help
them in the name of Jesus Christ,
the friend of the poor, the rejected,
the deprived. Please contact us
if you need help on 0845 123 5550.

modern JESUS army Streetpaper No. 79 Page
THE GOSPEL of Mark
is part of the Bible and
tells the story of the Life
of Christ. Packed into 60
pages you can find how
one man bridged the gap
between man and God.
Read about angry Jesus
driving out money changers. Read about
compassionate Jesus healing people. Test for yourself
the claims of Jesus.
The Bible in its entirety has now been translated
into 414 languages, and parts are now available in
over 2,000 languages. If listed in the bestsellers, it
would regularly top the list in all its versions.
For your FREE copy of Mark’s Gospel contact us
(see address below). Or text on 07969 679 501 or
phone on 0845 123 5550 to reserve your copy.
ALL GOOD armies have an HQ, and we are
no exception. We will answer your queries,
provide you with free literature or a Mark’s
Gospel, even pray with you over the telephone
if you are in special need.
%
You can call us: our National Helpline is 0845
123 5550 (local call rate), and generally there
are real people to talk to, not machines.
Get a bestseller
FREE
Jesus Army HQ
@
But in these days of hi-tech, we still have an
address and lots of people write in.
Jesus Fellowship, FREEPOST,
Nether Heyford, Northampton, NN7 3BR
Bit more hi-tech? Email us at info@jesus.
org.uk Want to have a look at what the mJa
is all about? With the internet, you can do
this from anywhere in the world using our
website: www.jesus.org.uk
Across the UK, though, you are welcome to
call one of our local churches if they are near
you. There are Jesus Army congregations
and groups around the UK. They are not all
the same size, they meet in different sorts of
premises, but they are all made up of people
who love Jesus and are ready to help you on
in your faith too.
Belfast .....................................................0845 123 5552
Birmingham............................................0845 166 8153
Bournemouth..........................................0845 123 5558
Brighton..................................................0845 166 8151
Bristol .....................................................0845 123 5339
Coventry..................................................0845 166 8154
Croydon..................................................0845 226 1972
Chester/ North Wales.............................0845 123 5561
Hastings..................................................0845 123 5551
Huntingdon.............................................0845 166 2697
Ipswich....................................................0845 166 8156
Kettering.................................................0845 166 8157
Leeds .....................................................0845 166 8167
Leicester.................................................0845 644 9705
Liverpool.................................................0845 166 8168
London Central.......................................0845 166 8152
London West...........................................0845 833 1319
London South.........................................0845 226 1972
Manchester.............................................0845 166 8169
Milton Keynes.........................................0845 166 8159
Newcastle-upon-Tyne............................0845 166 8187
Northampton..........................................0845 166 8161
Norwich...................................................0845 166 8162
Nottingham.............................................0845 166 8163
Oxford .....................................................0845 166 8164
Preston....................................................0845 123 5554
Sheffield..................................................0845 166 8183
Stoke-on-Trent........................................0845 123 5334
Swansea..................................................0845 123 5556
Wolverhampton......................................0845 123 5563
JESUS Fellowship Church is an evangelical Christian Church with a charismatic
emphasis. It upholds the full historical, Christian faith, in particular it upholds the
doctrine of the Trinity and the full divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus Fellowship
Church is a part of the Multiply Christian Network and a member of the Evangelical
Alliance. To receive Jesus Fellowship literature regularly, free, send the response
form on page 6 to Jesus Fellowship Central Offices, FREEPOST, Nether Heyford,
Northampton NN7 3BR. Tel. 0845 123 5550. modern Jesus army Streetpaper No.79
© 2007, published three times a year by Jesus Fellowship Church, Nether Heyford,
Northampton NN7 3LB. Editor James Stacey. All photographs supplied and copyright
by Jesus Army Photo Library unless stated otherwise. Printed by BGP Ltd., Bicester,
Oxon. Reproduction of any part of this newspaper in any form requires written
permission. All Bible quotations are from the Contemporary English Version © 2000
Harper Collins unless otherwise indicated. All articles are contributed by members of
the Jesus Fellowship Church, also known as the Jesus Army and Jesus People. Many
members live as part of the New Creation Christian Community. Readers wishing
to contact authors may do so by writing to the Jesus Fellowship Central Office.
Lake attack
brings life
When Donna Stockall, 32, was rescued from
death, she became aware just how real Jesus is.
LYING in the mud, bleeding,
her clothes torn, Donna
remembers thinking it was
very unfair she should die
so young.
She was 16
Donna: saved
and had been
running alone,
round a huge
lake in a local
park, when a
man attacked
her with a knife
and pulled her
into the bushes.
“I was very
fit and sporty
and I’d taken up martial arts in
a big way, so I felt I could handle
myself and no-one could touch
me” she remembers. “I put up
a good fight and made a lot of
noise, but he overpowered me
and squeezed my windpipe till I
started to go unconscious.
“Suddenly, my attacker was
dragged off me. A man fishing in
the lake had heard me scream and
bravely ran over to save my life.
“That night I heard Jesus
speaking to me personally, for
the first time, telling me to read
Psalm 124. I looked it up: ‘We are
like a bird escaped from the snare
of the fowler – the snare has broken
and we have escaped!’
“Those words really brought
home to me the fact that God
cared about me and that I had
a purpose on this earth. I’d had
some faith in Jesus before, but
this whole experience seemed to
strip away a lot of the old confidence
and cockiness and my
trust turned from trusting myself
to trusting Jesus.”
Shortly afterwards, Donna met
a group from the Jesus Army.
Now she finds plenty of purpose
in living as a radical, up-front
Christian.
Brush with death brought a new lease of life
Special Feature >>
BACK TO
THE FUTURE?
TITANIC TOPS the list
of films in the All-time
Worldwide Box Office
takings chart, with
£1,835,300,000.
ALSO in the top ten
are Pirates of the Caribbean:
Dead Men’s Chest,
four Harry Potter movies,
two parts of The Lord of
the Rings, Jurassic Park
and Shrek 2.
Why, in the 21st century,
a post-modern,
cynical era, do other
worlds of fantasy and
adventure, prehistoric
monsters and pirates,
bravery and love, still
fascinate us? What do
we want that we can’t
get from the rational
world? Streetpaper investigates
with a tour
through some wellknown
(and less wellknown)
fairytales...
See page 3 >>
Gospel
singer
imprisoned
ERITREAN Helen Berhane,
a gospel singer, was jailed
without trial for 30 months
recently after producing a CD.
Ms Berhane had refused to
deny her Christian faith. She
spent some of her captivity
in an unventilated shipping
container and was admitted
to hospital after receiving
beatings to one of her legs.
Christian Solidarity Worldwide
director Alexa Papadouris
said, Ms Berhane
“appears to have suffered the
most appalling mistreatment
simply because of her faith”.
Since an Eritrean government
crackdown on Christians in
2002, almost 2,000 believers
have been imprisoned.
Teenagers
believe in
life after
death
ALMOST a third of 13- to 15-
year-olds believe it is possible
to contact the dead, according
to a new survey of 34,000
young people.
The research indicates that
belief in the paranormal is associated
with lower psychological
well-being, higher anxiety,
greater alienation and less
socially conforming lifestyles.
Revd Prof Leslie Francis, who
led the research project, challenged
the Church, pointing
out that young people are “affirming
the lasting connection
between life beyond the grave
and the here-and-now”, but
from a largely non-Christian
perspective.
Christians
shout
about
climate
change
BISHOPS have been ranting
against climate change.
The Bishop of Liverpool,
Rt Revd James Jones, described
the climate change
caused by developed nations
as “an offence against God”.
Bishop Jones said he had
visited rice fields where children
“drowned in the floods”
because of the carbon emissions
of the rich world.
The Bishop of London, Rt
Revd Richard Chartres, has
said that it is “time for individual
and collective action” to
face “the unsustainable way
we are exploiting the earth’s
resources.”

modern JESUS army Streetpaper No. 79 Page
Tug of war
for Sam’s
soul
Self-harm and drugs
v.
God and loving friends
“I PRESSED the scissors down on my arm hard,
held it for about ten seconds and then pulled it
fast. The blood came out quite quickly.”
Sam Cullum, 17, had grown up in a secure, happy,
Christian home.
Yet when he was 15, after splitting up with his girlfriend,
he began to self-harm, cutting himself with
scissors.
“Why did I do it? In a strange sort of way, I guess
the physical pain took away some of the emotions I
was feeling – it made me forget about
my problems.”
Sam started to hang around with
other young rebels in his home town
of Coventry. The “Lady Godiva” statue
was a well-known place for alienated
“Goths, skaters and grebes” to hang
out.
“I felt accepted there’ says Sam, “because
I wasn’t the only one who self
harmed.”
It was around this time that Sam was
invited to a Jesus Army event.
Sam had experienced God for himself
at a Christian camp, years earlier so he
decided to go along. He was unprepared
for the power he encountered.
“I told them that I self-harmed and
was prayed for. It blew my head off.
Throughout the prayer, I was screaming,
but at the end of it I felt so joyful.
“When I went to cut myself the next
day I found I just couldn’t. Something
was physically stopping me. I was
amazed. God had done something real.”
With his parent’s blessing, Sam started
to come to the Jesus Army more and was baptised
as a Christian. At his baptism someone said that he
would “do battle with the devil”.
True enough, a tug of war was to follow. Sam was
“experiencing more of God”, but he was still hanging
around at the statue.
“I started smoking a lot of weed. I was worrying a lot
of people and told a lot of lies to cover my tracks.”
Things started to spiral for Sam as he began to
Last laugh: free Sam
dabble in other drugs with some of his
mates.
“After a while” he admits, “all we
cared about was how to get money for
drugs. We stole, lied – anything.”
Meanwhile, Sam’s family and his
friends at the Jesus Army were praying
for him – hard! One day, Sam
reached his turning point.
“I’d had this big fall-out with my
mates in town – the police had to split
us up. Later, I went to the
Jesus Army house. A friend
– one of the leaders – threw
a cushion at me and asked
if I wanted to talk.
“We went out into the
garden and I told him I’d
had enough of the lies
and the drugs. But I was
scared that God wouldn’t
want to forgive me. We
prayed together and I
started crying so much
– because I knew I had
gone against God.
“At the same time I
can’t describe how amazingly
happy I was to know
that I was forgiven. When I
went inside to tell people,
I couldn’t say anything because
I was laughing and
crying too much all at the
same time.”
It was Sam’s “breakthrough”
moment.
“I know I’ve messed around
enough. Now I just want to be
all out for God. I’ve seen just
the smallest part of His love –
and that’s enough to make
me realise I have to follow
Him through good and
bad times for the rest
of my life.”
Some facts on self harm:
Self-harm is when someone
deliberately hurts or injures
him or herself. This can take
a number of forms including:
cutting, overdoses, punching
oneself, throwing one’s body
against something, pulling
out hair, scratching, picking or
tearing at one’s skin, burning,
inhaling harmful substances
• Rates of self-harm in the
UK have increased over the
past decade and are amongst
the highest in Europe
• More than 24,000
teenagers are admitted to
hospital in the UK each year
after deliberately harming
themselves. Most have taken
overdoses or cut themselves.
• 1 in 10 teenagers self-harm
• Statistics on self-harm are
unreliable, however, because
many incidents will be treated
at home and will not reach
the attention of services or
professionals.
Useful websites:
www.selfharmuk.org: a National
Enquiry website
www.selfharm.org.uk:
website of the National Children’s
Bureau on self harm
www.selfharmony.co.uk:
website of Equilibrium an
award winning user-led
self-injury awareness organisation
www.self-injury.org: a Christian
website on self harm
Statistics from: National
Institute for Clinical Excellence,
2002; Samaritans &
Centre for Suicide, University
of Oxford, 2002.
I WOULD DIE FOR YOU
LOVE. Makes your heart
sing, the world go round?
Makes you do things
you’d never dream of?
Sleeping Beauty lay
in an enchanted sleep
for 100 years after pricking
her finger on a spinning
wheel. Many princes
tried to break through the
thicket to rescue her. But
the thorns and bushes laid
hold of them as it were
with hands, and there they
stuck fast and died miserably.
After many years another
prince came into the land
and was told the story by an
old man. “All this shall not
frighten me,” he said. The old
man tried to dissuade him,
but he persisted. As the 100
years were up that day, he
was able to pass the thicket
easily, and found his way to
the room where Sleeping
Beauty slept. The moment
he kissed her, she awoke.
And they lived happily ever
after.
The king’s son was not
afraid to die in the attempt
to win his beloved. In the
Bible it talks of agape love
– God’s love, sacrificial
love. Jesus showed this
when He died for us. “We
know what love is because
Jesus gave His life for us”
(1 John 3:16).
See page 4 >>
Special Feature >>

modern JESUS army Streetpaper No. 79 Page
oh my
Youngsters rank God as their tenth favourite thing.
Celebrity, good looks and being rich top the list.
Special Feature >>
A BEAST OF A
PROBLEM
A MERCHANT promised
each of his three daughters
a present. Two demanded
fine clothes and
jewels, but the youngest,
Beauty, asked simply for a
red rose. It was an expensive
choice. The rose her
father plucked belonged
to a beast and he demanded
that Beauty come
and stay with him. But all
ended happily, for when
she agreed to marry the
beast, of her own free will,
he was transformed into a
prince. A wicked fairy had
laid him under a curse,
and transformed him into
the shape of a hideous
beast.
We’re all under a
curse too. The curse is
sin. This started right
at the beginning of the
human race when Satan
engineered the first act
of disobedience to God.
Millennia later we’re still
disobeying God. And
Satan is determined
to kill us, fast or slow
– through addictions,
through the rat race of
overwork, or through
simple indifference. It’s
all the same to Satan,
just as long as we’re not
what we were created to
be: a lover of God.
But God has a plan
to save us. He sent H
is Son, Jesus. He can
deal with your sin problem.
In fact He already
has – when He died on
a cross, your sins were
put on Him; they died
with Him. And today He
is waiting for you to accept
the offer of forgiveness
and a new life.
See page 6 >>
“God spoke to
me in a dream”
IT WAS my fourth week in London. I’d been
eating from bins. One evening, in Leicester
Square, I met the Jesus Army, giving out
food, hot coffee – and love.
Later that night – back at the boiler outlet where
I was sleeping – I prayed before I went to sleep that
God would help me. That night I had a very vivid
dream of an orchard with apples on lines of trees.
At the end of that week, I met the Jesus Army
again and they asked me if I wanted to go and stay
on their farm in Northamptonshire. I decided to go.
When I arrived at the farm, I was amazed to see an
orchard with apples on lines of trees: exactly what
Dave Allen, 23, had
fallen on hard times
and was living on the
streets of London.
But he prayed to God.
And God answered –
beyond all Dave’s hopes.
I’d dreamt a few nights before!
That weekend I went to my first Jesus Army meeting.
Standing in that huge crowd of worshippers, I
felt a strange warmth inside. Suddenly I knew that
God was real and that He loved me. It felt like the
first time my heart had taken a beat.
When I was baptised a few weeks later, I had another
undeniable experience. Standing in the warm
water, everything went into slow motion as I was
immersed. Suddenly, under the water, I went cold,
covered in goose-bumps. I could feel all the evil in
me leaving. A second later, warmth returned. I came
out of the water, speaking in new tongues.
God drowned all my sin. He made me new.

modern JESUS army Streetpaper No. 79 Page
g
d
IS GOD going out of fashion?
A survey has revealed
that children think being
a celebrity is the
“very best thing in the
world” but do not think
quite as much of God.
The poll of just under
1,500 youngsters ranked
“God” as their tenth
favourite thing in the
world with “celebrity”,
“good looks” and “being
rich” at first, second
and third respectively.
And it’s not just kids.
Oxford professor, Richard
Dawkins, author of
the best-selling book
The God Delusion, has
set out to attack God
“in all his forms”. Faith
in God, according to the
professor is “a process
of non-thinking”.
After all, if you’re rich
or good-looking (or a
famous university professor)
you don’t need
God, right?
Wrong. The fact is
that there is within every
human being a hunger
for God – who made
them and from whom
they’ve been separated
because of human sin.
Everyone has a Godshaped
gap inside them;
a gap which can only be
filled by Him.
Of course, people
search everywhere to try
to find other things to
cram up the gap: career,
sex, sport, food, more
sex, an iPod full of tunes.
Or more subtle things
like family, friends or
even “doing good”. Such
things can never satisfy
the deepest needs of a
human being.
A comment on a BBC
message board recently
defined the meaning of
life like this: “You are an
arrangement of atoms,
and your diversity lies in
“If you’re rich or good-looking you don’t
need God, right? Wrong! Everyone has a
God-shaped gap inside them”
your genes.” But there’s
more to a human than
just physical stuff. We’re
made for love. Human
beings are spiritual.
You’ve experienced it
every time you look at
a sunset and realise it’s
beautiful (what’s beauty
to “an arrangement of
atoms”?) You’ve experienced
it whenever your
conscience protests at
evil (what’s good and
evil to “genes”?)
You want to take a
scientific approach? Hypothesis:
God. Experiment:
Pray – ask Him to
show Himself to you, to
come into your life. Result?
Just you wait…
Have your say:
streetpaper@jesus.org.uk
“I know God is real”
Joey Ridley, 14, thought God was
only for Sundays. That was before
he had a life-changing experience.
I WENT to church
when I was little. I got
bored of the “kiddy”
songs and stories and
was glad that God was
“only for Sundays”.
In the summer holidays
my brother invited me to
a Jesus Army event so I
went along. While we were
there, he prayed for me
and I started to cry, then
laugh. Then I started to
cry again. This time it was
a deep crying. Something
deep inside of me was being
touched by God.
Slowly I felt myself being
filled up with what
I can only describe as
warm liquid love. I felt fire
in me which slowly crept
up until it burst out my
mouth in words I didn’t
understand. I was “speaking
in tongues” like in the
Bible!
Tears were streaming
down my face. I felt
electric, truly alive and
touched deep down by
God. My whole body was
tingling.
Later, I kept bursting
out in this new language.
Two weeks later I was
baptised on my thirteenth
birthday.
Shock horror: is there nothing more to life than my iPod?
SOME QUESTIONS FOR TWO EMINENT SCIENTISTS
So are we merely soulless then, Mr Dawkins?
No divine spark in my selfish jean pocket,
no Platonic touch of the absolute?
No hint of a breath of any wind within
beyond the breeze of chance?
Are we, after all, mere specks
passing through the void?
Are we merely animals then, Mr Darwin?
No chink in the dark of eons of unlikeliness,
no Aristotelian reasonable soul?
Is my wife not ever so different, in fact,
from a cow? (Or from a rose?)
Is friendship, hope, and sex
a fortunate machine?
Should I thank my lucky stars
that I’m not all fingers and thumbs?
What is love, Mr D and Mr D?
Just a chemical soup in the brain?
When she said “I do” and my heart missed a beat,
did her molecules coincide with mine?
What are my thoughts, Misters D, and what are yours?
When did atoms decide they were atoms?
Did anyone ever decide anything,
does anything mean anything at all?
Poets
© NCCC 2007
Corner

modern JESUS army Streetpaper No. 79 Page
Controversy as
new Bible cuts
challenging
passages
A NEW BIBLE translation, the “Western Bible”, has been
released in the Netherlands which literally cuts out the
difficult bits, leaving holes in the pages.
The new version, released by the Western Bible Foundation
has created a storm by trying to make the Christian
gospel more acceptable. Parts of the good book (about
justice, possessions and money) are simply not there.
Chairman, Mr. De Rijke, says the new Bible is in
response to the growing wish of many churches to
be market-oriented and more attractive. “Jesus was
very inspiring for our inner health, but we don’t need
to take His naïve remarks about money seriously.”
According to De Rijke no serious Christian takes
texts about money or the poor literally. The foundation
wanted to “boldly go where no-one has
gone before” by cutting out the confusing texts.
“We don’t use them anyway! There’s no single Christian
selling his possessions and giving them to the poor.”
Hundreds of Western Bibles have been sold in
the first few weeks. Meanwhile anxious Christians
filled newspapers and web logs with their doubts.
Perhaps the names of the board, ‘De Rijke’ (meaning
‘the rich’) and ‘Fortuijn’ (meaning ‘fortune’), as well as
holes in pages hint to the truth: the Western Bible is a joke.
It is published by “Time to Turn”, a network of
Christian students and young adults in the Netherlands
“who want to choose a sustainable and
just way of life based on their faith in Jesus Christ.”
This is certainly a joke with a sting in the tail. Many
Christians do blindly accept the “Western lifestyle” with
its injustice and wasteful consumerism, only taking in the
“easy” parts of the Bible.
Perhaps the “Bible with holes” has actually been doing
very well for a good deal longer than anyone realises.
The Jesus Army aims to be a “church of the poor”. It
has some sixty Christian “community houses” in which
church members live a relatively simple lifestyle and
share their money and possessions to ensure equality.
In addition, the Jesus Army has opened Jesus Centres
which aim to help the disadvantaged in various practical
and spiritual ways.
For info:
www.newcreation.org.uk
www.jesuscentres.org.uk
Source: Ekklesia
Special Feature >>
ENOUGH IS
ENOUGH >>
IN A HOVEL by the sea
lived a fisherman and his
wife. One day he caught
a great flounder. The fish
said, “I am not a real fish,
I am an enchanted prince.
Let me go.”
The fisherman happily
agreed, but his wife was
angry. “Did you not ask it
for anything?”
“No, said the man, “what
should I ask for?”
“Ah,” said the wife, “we
live very wretchedly here
in this nasty stinking hovel;
do go back, and tell the fish
we want a little cottage.”
He did go back. And the
fish did give them a cottage.
But the wife was not
content. After a week or
two she was demanding
a stone castle. The fish
granted her request. Next
day, she wanted to be king.
Next, emperor. Then she
wanted to be Pope. Could
she ask for anything more?
Yes – to be lord of the sun
and moon. This was too
much! The flounder said,
“Go home to your hovel
again.” And there they live
to this day.
Enough is never enough
for many people. If you are
mean, greedy and envious,
if you have never used
your imagination on anything
but possessions, all
the money and luxury in
the world won’t make you
different – or satisfied, or
content.
Jesus told us not to worry
about food or clothes:
“Put God’s work first, and
these things will be yours
as well” (Luke 12: 31)
Ambition and greed
were the downfall of the
Fisherman’s Wife. We only
have one life. What will
you do with yours?
See page 7 >>
Revenge averted Bagpipes and
shopping bags
IN LIVERPOOL a man
came to a Jesus Army
meeting at the Caribbean
centre. He stood
just inside the door and
listened for a while. A
little later one of the
church members went
over to speak to him.
It turned out he had
been in a fight at the
centre the night before
and had come back to
take revenge but discovered
the church
there! (The centre
opens as a bar an hour
after we leave.) He felt
he had been touched by
God and went away in a
calmer and more peaceful
state.
THE JESUS ARMY in
Coventry sang their way
through Coventry town
centre on a busy shopping
day recently. Kneeling
at the cross in the
middle of the precinct,
the event was an upfront
call away from materialism
and into a Jesuscentred
life.
Various passers-by
stopped to watch and
chat and, as another chorus
of Amazing Grace
rolled out, the choir was
accompanied by a local
busker on bagpipes!
Jesus
Centre
shortlisted
for
award
COVENTRY Jesus Centre’s
Bond Scheme, a
system whereby the
Jesus Centre helps vulnerable
people on the
streets into local housing,
was recently shortlisted
for a national award. The
Bond Scheme made the
top five from over 500
nominations for the “Faithworks”
award.
Three representatives of
the Bond Scheme visited
the Houses of Parliament
to receive a certificate.
Nuns
visit
Jesus
Army
THE JESUS ARMY’S
house in the West End
of London used to be a
convent. Recently the
residents had a visit from
three nuns who knew
those who had previously
lived here.
The community was
able to show the sisters
how the home had
changed and discuss
their plans for a Jesus
Centre there to help the
homeless. One nun commented
“Perhaps our way
of life is on the wane to
make way for yours”.
FOR HELP & INFORMATION…
FREE SUBSCRIPTION
Please tick as appropriate
AND FILL THIS PART IN TOO
Please send to:
Jesus Fellowship,
FREEPOST,
Nether Heyford,
Northampton
NN7 3BR, UK
(No stamp needed in UK
or Channel Islands)
0845 166 8172
f: 0845 166 8178
www.jesus.org.uk
e: info@jesus.org.uk
Please send me
modern JESUS army
Streetpaper and Jesus
Life free.
Overseas (except Africa)
normally free by surface.
For airmail (3 issues) £6 p+p
please tick here
Please correct my
address/postcode
(see form, right)
Tell us your old address as
well.
I wish to continue
to receive Streetpaper
and Jesus Life
If re-registration is requested
Please send me a copy
of Mark’s Gospel
UK only, see page 2 for details
Please send me
Church Alive, an
introduction to the
modern Jesus Army
Please send me an
order form for Flame
leaflets on radical
Christianity
Please send me information
on how I can
support the “Jesus
Centres” project.
I enclose a
donation of £................
Jesus Army Charitable Trust
(Registered Charity no.
1091912)
Please send me details
of mJa national events
Please contact me /
arrange for me to
come to a meeting
I want to become a
Christian.
Please help me.
Please send me
details of how to
book for
Jesus Festivals
I would like to stay in
one of your houses
from ..............................
to ...................................
Short stay accommodation and
hospitality is free. Overseas
residents subject to status.
For you
Name.............................................................................
Address.........................................................................
........................................................................................
Postcode.......................................................................
Tel...................................................................................
For your friend
Please also send modern JESUS army Streetpaper
to:
(you can send other addresses with this form)
Name.............................................................................
Address.........................................................................
........................................................................................
Postcode.......................................................................

PEOPLE EXTRA
modern JESUS army Streetpaper No. 79 Page
Heroin addict
meets her hero
He’s German; she’s British. He grew up
comfortably middle class. She grew up
working class. He’s the squeaky clean
type and she spent years addicted to
heroin in a world of violence and crime.
AND THEY’RE every inch the
affectionate couple.
“I had three brothers who were into
all sorts” says Becki Huth. “They gave
me my first fag when I was nine.”
But things went badly wrong for
Becki when she was raped at the age
of 15. “I didn’t want to tell the police,
didn’t think they’d believe me.
“It wasn’t long after this that I met
the proper idiot”. She explains, “My
best friend, Jo, was going out with a guy
called Matt. His cousin was called Robbie
and I ended up with him. I needed
someone: fell in love at 16. I moved out
to live with him – and he smashed my
face up.”
What follows was a catalogue of two
years of beatings, robbing, a tangle with
some gypsy gunmen, Martini drinking
and, finally, heroin.
“It took away the pain basically. It
was good for toothache too.” Becky is
serious.
“I was doing two jobs, robbing at
lunchtime, robbing on the way home”
says Becki. “Mum and Dad had no idea,
‘cos I managed to hide what was going
on and make up excuses for the bruises.”
Things went from bad to worse, until
Becki’s twenty-fourth birthday, when
she spent the whole day “clucking” because
she’d ran out of money for drugs.
Desperate, she cried out to God: “If Y
ou’re real, get me out of this s**t”.
Two days later, walking into the Preschool
where her Mum worked something
totally unexpected and “awesome”
happened.
“I felt this amazing peace. I walked up
to my Mum and collapsed and cried. All
these kids were looking at me. I didn’t
care: God had answered my prayer.”
In the time that followed God showed
Becki how much He loved her.
She had to appear in court: her solicitor
cried in the courtroom and the hardfaced
judge let her off saying “I don’t really
know why I’m doing this”.
God had intervened and Becki had
what she calls “a healing time”.
But that wasn’t the end of heartache:
in April 1999 Becki’s Dad, Jim, died suddenly
of a heart attack.
Michael spoke at the funeral and Becki
found herself respecting his strength.
Over the next few weeks Becki sensed
God saying ‘Tell Michael you love him’.
Michael, 37, grew up in Stuttgart, Germany,
and describes the “worst thing he
ever did” as taking off with some friends
in their parents’ Porsche.
Aged 19, while on national service,
someone challenged Michael to become
a Christian. His new faith planted a hunger
in Michael. He came to the UK, on
placement from his University course
and quickly found what he’d been looking
for and became a leader in the Jesus
Army in Oxford.
Becki laughs as she remembers: “My
head’s done in, my Dad’s just died, I’m
just off drugs – and God wants me to tell
a leader of the church I’m in love with
him!”
“Our chances seemed very slim,”
Michael admits. Yet God had His plans:
Michael and Becki were married in June
2000, a day of celebration.
After seven years of marriage, Michael
and Becky still have the air of a couple
who are faintly surprised and very,
very happy at being together at all. As
Michael says “All I know is that God has
been amazingly good and amazingly
God in making it happen”.
(Becki’s friends’ names have been changed)
Special Feature >>
YOU BELONG
THERE ONCE was an ugly duckling, whose
feathers were dirty and grey. He was the last to
be hatched. Even his mother rejected him. He
was cackled at, and pecked at, and shunned,
and finally driven out of town. The other ducks
said, ‘Quack, quack, get out of town. Quack,
quack, get out! Quack, quack, get out! Quack,
quack, get out of here!”
When a year had gone by, and three beautiful
swans approached the ugly duckling, he shied
away, thinking they would laugh and peck at
him too. But they didn’t. They swam round him,
touching his neck with their beaks and admiring
him. You know what? He wasn’t ugly at all. He
was a swan – and a very fine swan indeed!
Hans Christian Anderson wrote about a
duckling who never quite fitted in. Maybe
you feel like you don’t fit in to this world.
Maybe you’ve been laughed at or rejected.
But the good news is you can fit into God’s
world. There’s room for everyone: the big
and the small, the rich and the poor, the old
and the young, people of every colour, every
nation.
See page 8 >>
In the swing: Michael and Becki reckon their marriage is a miracle

modern JESUS army Streetpaper No. 79 Page
TuFF ENUFF?
Young people face the challenges of Jesus Army training
Run for it: David, 23, Caleb, 24, Mary, 21 and Abi, 21, are living for a cause
“THE JESUS Army Training Year
was one of the most challenging
years of my life” says Steve Karma,
23, “a unique opportunity to grow
in character.”
The Jesus Army Training Year
offers young people a unique
opportunity to become trainees,
staying in a Jesus Army house
for up to a year being coached in
living out full-on Christian faith
and love.
“By sticking to the mJa Training Year, God
has been able to get in and do something
deep in me which He may not have been
able to do otherwise” says Mary Davis, 21.
Some Jesus Army trainees have found the
going tough, but all have found it rewarding.
“The toughest thing about Training Year was
facing up to the reality of my own attitudes
and reactions to people” says David Meakin,
23. “It was only once I began to open up
every part of my life to other Christians that
Jesus began to seriously get to grips with
me.”
How about you? Have you got what it
takes to survive the Jesus Army Training
Year?
Info:
@
%
training@jesus.org.uk
www.jesus.org.uk/training
0845 123 5550
SATURDAY
24 Feb
SATURDAY
17 Mar
FRI - MON
6-9 April
FRI - MON
25-28 May
WHAT’S
ON?
Jesus Army events around the UK
UK JESUS
CELEBRATION
2.00pm & 6.00pm Cocks Moors Woods
Leisure Centre, Alcester Road South, Kings
Heath, BIRMINGHAM
MEN ALIVE
FOR GOD
2.00pm & 6.00pm Jesus Centre,
Abington Square, NORTHAMPTON
ALIVE FESTIVAL
WEEKEND
Giant Marquee, Cornhill manor,
Pattishall, NORTHAMPTON
POWER FESTIVAL
WEEKEND
Giant Marquee, Cornhill manor,
Pattishall, NORTHAMPTON
ALL FREE / ALL WELCOME / NO PREJUDICE
Info: Jesus Fellowship, FREEPOST, Nether Heyford, Northampton NN7 3BR
t: 0845 123 5550 e: info@jesus.org.uk www.jesus.org.uk
HAPPY EVER AFTER?
We all know how fairytales
end. And they lived (all together
now) happily ever
after...
But most of us find that
real life doesn’t often work
like that. In fact, we’re suspicious
of anything that
seems “too good to be
true”. So the offer of free
forgiveness and eternal
life that Jesus offers can
seem like pie-in-the-sky
make-believe. (If you were
going to make up a religion,
you’d come up with
something a bit more plausible,
right?)
But the wonderful truth
is that it really is that simple.
God loves you. And
Jesus has dealt with all the
things that stand between
you and God. All we have to
do is let Him in, let Him forgive
and change us, and we
can live with God for ever. A
life that starts right now.
And that ain’t no fairy tale.
Pray (talk to Him) like
this: Jesus, I want the new
life that You can give. I’m
sorry I’ve messed up, hurt
people, hurt You. I want a
fresh start. I know I can’t
do it myself, so thank you
for dying to make a way for
me.
If you prayed like this,
get in touch with some local
Christians who can help
you on the next step (or
phone the Jesus Army on
0845 123 5550).
JESUS SAID:
“You cannot be my disciple
unless you carry your own
cross and come with me.”
Luke 14:27, The Bible
mJa UK: 0845 123 5550 (local call rate)
www.jesus.org.uk e-mail: info@jesus.org.uk
For further help/info: Jesus Fellowship, FREEPOST,
Nether Heyford, Northampton NN7 3BR
tel: 0845 166 8171 fax: 0845 166 8178
Newspapers
support recycling
Recycled
paper made up 75.5% of
the raw material for UK
newspapers in 2004
Special
Feature