Fire in our hearts - The Jesus Army

FIRE IN OUR HEARTSNoel: We have a charity budget and support financially afew evangelical organisations. We still find the main call ofGod on available funds is for direct charity or direct help. Wegive ‘relief of need’ gifts to members and non-members incash or kind. There’s also a lot of board and lodging that forone reason or another we never get paid. On top of that, payingoff the debts of people joining us amounts to many thousandsof pounds a year. We also have a bursary fund whichpays the costs of several overseas members who are stayingwith us. Altogether our outlay must be approaching £100,000a year.Roger: Have you given to third world charities or third worldrelief over recent years?Noel: Not directly. We are involved with a number ofchurches in Africa and elsewhere in the third world, but wefeel God’s main call to the Jesus Army is to reach the poorand marginalised of Britain.Roger: How has the Fellowship developed over recentyears?Noel: We now feel we’re an accepted part of the Christianscene and can concentrate on our particular mission. Godhas been refining our community houses. The call to sacrificialliving has been re-emphasised and we’re seeing a newgeneration keen to take us further.Most of our recent numerical increase has been outsidecommunity. Learning to flow with people in their pain andsearching has been the main emphasis. We’ve been tappinginto the modern youth culture. That’s meant a culture shockfor some of us, but has borne remarkable fruit.424