Fire in our hearts - The Jesus Army

FIRE IN OUR HEARTSCOMMUNICATE!up with his hippy-trippy image and the rather ‘poncy’ sceneat drama school. The time had come to open a new chapter inhis life. But what? And where? Rufus encouraged Phil to getbaptised at Jesus Live. ‘No way!’ said Phil the cool. But insecret he was very encouraged that Rufus believed in him.The flurry of creativity ran straight into the August Festivaland by now Nathan was softening up. As the new band settheir kit up amongst the regular musicians, Jez was nervous.‘Techno, a stoned keyboard player and a computer? Will thisbe acceptable? Will God really be in it?’At the opening bars of the song ‘Jesus is Live’ the wholeaudience rose to its feet in excitement. Jez breathed a sigh ofrelief. Then as they launched into ‘So fed up with myself andreached the second line, ‘Longing for love that is real’, theHoly Spirit touched Nathan and he wept. That day the Betaband was born.Immediately after the Festival Nathan went up to the LakeDistrict and immersed himself in the beauty of the mountainsand lakes. As he sat on a hill in the moonlight, absorbing thestillness, he turned things over in his mind. He was young.Life was before him. Should he pursue his own wild path —or flow with the Jesus Army? Noel and Rufus were good friendsand the Beta band was taking off. A door had opened and itseemed easy now to just walk through. In the solitude of themoment Nathan felt the kiss of heaven.As summer rolled on a colossal amount of work went intothe preparations for the premiere of Jesus Live in November.Apart from all the prop-making, band practice and stage rehearsals,there was the sheer complexity of the programme.The 40-page script included graphics, background music, film368