Quotes from the media

GOVERNMENT MINISTERS URGED TO CURB TRAFFICKING THREAT TO UKRAINE REFUGEES

Ministers in Westminster and the Scottish government are being warned of the trafficking risk to refugees coming to the UK from Ukraine.

The new humanitarian route opened up by the government allows Ukrainian refugees to come to the UK for up to three years and be housed in the homes of Britons…

Christian charity Care for Scotland has lauded the intention behind the scheme but also warned of the dangers in a letter to both governments in which it calls for a strategy to guard against exploitation by criminals.

The proposed strategy should discourage Ukrainians from seeking help on social media where Care warns of ‘unregulated groups and accounts’.

‘Human traffickers can masquerade on sites as genuine individuals wanting to help when they intend to “shop” for new victims to exploit,’ the letter says.

Over a thousand Ukrainians have so far applied to seek refuge in Scotland…

Care is calling for follow-up checks to prevent refugees from ‘falling off the radar’.

It also said that training should be given to those carrying out the checks so that they can spot the signs of exploitation, ‘which aren’t always obvious’.

Christian Today

SALVATIONIST

salvationarmy.org.uk/salvationist Issue No 1854

EDITOR Lieut-Colonel Jonathan Roberts

MANAGING EDITOR Ivan Radford

EDITORIAL ASSISTANTS Simon Hope, Melita Day-Lewis, George Tanton, Major Margaret Bovey

ART DIRECTOR Hannah Holden

GRAPHIC DESIGNERS Mark Knight, Louise Phillips

PROOFREADER Chris Horne

Published weekly by The Salvation Army and printed on paper from sustainable sources by CKN Print, Northampton. © The Salvation Army United Kingdom and Ireland Territory. ISSN 2516-5909.

NEWLY DISCOVERED HEBREW TABLET COULD PROVE BIBLE IS OLDER THAN INITIALLY BELIEVED

A Hebrew tablet found in Israel could prove the Bible is much older than initially believed…

Headed up by Dr Scott Stripling – director of the Archaeological Studies Institute at The Bible Seminary in Katy – the team discovered the small, folded tablet on Mount Ebal…

It’s believed the [message on the tablet] was inscribed in 1,500BC, making it 200 years older than any other Hebrew text in existence, and 1,350 years older than the Dead Sea scrolls…

Dr Stripling said… ‘One can no longer argue with a straight face that the biblical text was not written until the Persian period or the Hellenistic period.’

Premier

DIGITAL HELP FOR SUNDAY SCHOOLS

An online platform has been launched to help to take Sunday school digital.

The website RaiseUPFaith.com has been produced by a team of children’s ministry leaders and teachers working ... with content creators for CBeebies and CBBC.

The under-16 age group is the fastest declining demographic in the Church today. Yet … the Evangelical Alliance suggested that 24 per cent of churches had reduced or discontinued youth work during the pandemic, while 17 per cent had cut their children’s work…

The pandemic has also accelerated the trend towards multimedia and online learning for children and young people, but there has, until now, been a shortage of appropriate resources for Sunday school learning.

Church Times

CHURCH ‘REACHING THE LIMIT’ ON WHAT IT CAN DO TO ALLEVIATE POVERTY, SAYS DR INGE

The Bishop of Worcester, Dr John Inge, has criticised the government’s spring statement for not doing enough to alleviate pressures on the poor, and said that the Church was ‘reaching the limit’ as to what it could do to cover the shortfall…

Dr Inge said that the Church had been ‘very active in seeking to alleviate poverty and everything associated with it since the crash of over 10 years ago’, but it needed more support from the government…

‘My fear is that we are reaching saturation point on what remedial measures civil society can realistically take’...

Christians Against Poverty and the Children’s Society have been critical of what they regard as the government’s inadequate response to the cost-of-living crisis…

Dr Inge suggested that churches and other organisations would … be under ‘huge pressure’ to ‘step up and provide additional support to help more people, through things such as food banks’.

Church TImes

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CELEBRATING HOPE

MANY of us have attended Easter sunrise services over the years. Symbolically sharing the experience of the women who went to Jesus’ tomb ‘on the first day of the week, very early in the morning’ (Luke 24:1) and worshipping the risen Christ is a wonderful thing to do, even if it means setting the alarm clock to go off a bit earlier than usual on a Sunday morning.

All the sunrise services I’ve gone to have been meaningful, but one stands out. It was in 2014 in Estonia, where my wife, Jayne, and I were leading Holy Week meetings at various corps. Gathered early on Easter morning by the old city wall in Tallinn were corps folk and men from the Army’s Hope House rehabilitation centre, where they received support in dealing with alcohol or drug addiction. There was a tangible sense of joy and hope – and with the presence of the men from Hope House the message of new life and transformation seemed all the more real. As we greeted the rising of the sun, we worshipped the risen Son of God who had brought us light and life.

That same message of joy, hope, transformation and new life shines through this week’s issue of Salvationist.

In his Easter message, General Brian Peddle declares his ‘fearless confidence in the truth, power and need of the gospel message of Jesus Christ’. He outlines ways in which this good news is relevant today and challenges us to share it with others.

That challenge to share the message also comes through Major Margaret Bovey’s Bible study as she considers Mary Magdalene’s encounter with the risen Jesus. Mary is transformed through meeting him, and he commands her to go and tell others the good news that he is alive.

‘Living with hope’ is the title of Majors Chris and Liesl Baldwin’s Easter reflection. They wonder whether recent troubling events might cast a shadow over the Easter story and cause us to fear for the future. They remind us, however, that by ‘remembering rightly’ and ‘reframing our experiences’ in the light of the Resurrection we can live with ‘joyful hope’.

In an Easter meditation Major Alistair Dawson considers the cross and the Resurrection, relating them to our own experiences. Because Jesus was not abandoned to death but raised to new life, he says, we have the hope of eternal life if we commit ourselves into the Lord’s hands.

Major Phil Garnham begins a series in which different people explain what this year’s Candidates Sunday theme, Becoming, means to them. He writes movingly about becoming a disciple through times of bereavement as well as blessing.

A report of the thanksgiving service for General John Larsson is also included in this issue. It was a celebration of a life totally committed to God and wonderfully used in his service. And, as you would expect of this kind of Salvation Army gathering, it was marked by joy and hope in the Lord.

Wherever we are this Easter – at a sunrise service or an Easter breakfast, worshipping with others or in the quietness of our own home, or even away on holiday – may we know the presence of the risen Christ who brings joyful hope and the promise of renewal. And may we be faithful messengers of those truths.

From the editor Lieut-Colonel Jonathan Roberts

CONTENTS

Quotes from the media 2

The General’s Easter message 4

News 5 to 7

Prayer matters 7

News feature 8 and 9 Salvationists and friends give thanks for the life of General John Larsson

by Lieut-Colonel Jonathan Roberts

Feature 10

Sowing seeds of love

by Melita Day-Lewis

Feature 11

Becoming... a disciple

by Major Phil Garnham

Easter reflection 12 and 13

Living with hope

by Majors Chris and Liesl Baldwin

Meditation 14

Cross and resurrection

by Major Alistair Dawson

Viewpoint 15

Our just and merciful God

by Major Howard Webber

Bible study 16 and 17

Looking for Jesus

by Major Margaret Bovey

Through the week with Salvationist 16 and 17

by Major Sheila Smith

Poetry corner 18

New commitments 19

Adverts 20 and 21

Announcements 22 and 23

For everyone linked to The Salvation Army 70p / 16 April 2022

SALVATIONIST

TRUTH

A hardened soldier hangs his head in shame For, deep within, his conscience lights a flame. No other death has touched his soul this way; No other man could Heaven’s truth convey: Forgiveness is for all who will believe, Redemption flows for all who will receive; The soldier speaks, his dismal duty done, Surely this man was God’s unblemished Son!

COVER DESIGN Hannah Holden

POETRY Stephen Pearson