19 minute read
War Cry World
nSINGER-SONGWRITER Marcus Mumford told The Sunday Times that he had been helped by his Christian faith after being sexually abused as a child.
In an interview, the lead singer of Mumford and Sons, who declared that he loved Jesus at a church conference at the Royal Albert Hall in 2017, revealed how he had chosen to ‘lean into’ his faith in response to his experiences as a six-year-old.
Demonstrating what the article called ‘extraordinary grace’, Marcus said of his faith: ‘It makes me more compassionate to people condemned for the worst thing they’ve ever done… Because, typically, if you look at the science, there is something in their history that’s been done to them.’
Fire crew’s thanks for blaze support
A DORSET fire crew took to Facebook to thank volunteers from The Salvation Army for their support of about 90 firefighters tackling a huge blaze at Studland Heath.
Food and drink were provided from a Salvation Army emergency response vehicle, and the Swanage Fire Station posted: ‘Crews from across multiple counties have been working hard over the last few days to bring the fire under control and to dampen it down to stop the fire from spreading.
‘It has been very hot and tiring work, so it has been a massive help to have The Salvation Army be with us for the last few days providing us with food and drink. It has made the job so much better for us and given us the energy to get the job done. Thank you Winton Bournemouth Salvation Army.’
Do you have a story to share?
a
warcry@salvationarmy.org.uk
@TheWarCryUK
TheWarCryUK
CHRISTIANS in Afghanistan continue to live in fear one year on from the Taliban taking control of the country, according to broadcaster SAT-7.
The Christian television and digital media network surveyed its viewers in the country and received replies highlighting concerns about an increase in the number of child marriages and worries that women and girls were having their futures taken away.
Viewers talk of facing persecution, with one telling SAT-7: ‘Fear and dread have taken all of Afghanistan and have especially affected religious and ethnic minorities.’
Another respondent, who was dismissed from his job in the legal sector by the country’s new rulers, said: ‘There is an atmosphere of fear and intimidation that rules society. Every moment we live with the possibility of physical violence, arrest, humiliating and insulting treatment, and even summary executions.
‘The only hope we have is in the true God who grants us comfort and grace. This trust and faith in the power of God has caused me to live with peace in my heart and mind, without anxiety and fear.’
Launderette cleans up Salvation Army initiative
A LAUNDERETTE has teamed up with The Salvation Army in Coedpoeth, north Wales, to help families struggling to afford children’s uniforms for the new school year.
Super Suds has washed uniforms that have been donated to The Salvation Army’s charity shop.
One of the church leaders, Captain Sharon Hampton, had contacted the launderette to see if they could help ‘freshen up’ the uniforms which had been donated.
‘As this is a project helping the community, the owner of Super Suds kindly offered to wash all the uniforms for free,’ Sharon said, adding that the availability of second-hand uniforms can be vital ‘as more and more families struggle with their usual costs and branded school uniforms are expensive to buy’.
Sharon Hampton with Super Suds employee Carol Edwards
Most agreeable!
Readers celebrate Jane Austen
Feature by Claire Brine
FANS who ardently admire and love the likes of Elizabeth Bennet,
Marianne Dashwood and Emma Woodhouse are in for a treat when the Jane Austen Festival begins next Friday (9 September).
Held in the city of Bath, where the author lived and where she partly set her novels Northanger Abbey and Persuasion, the festival invites Jane Austen readers to experience the world a little as she saw it. The Grand Regency Costumed Promenade – which takes place Her works have next Saturday morning – is the perfect opportunity for participants to dress up, take inspired films, a turn about the city and show off their best bonnets (and breeches) to spectators. In the art and songs evening, those fond of dancing can display their best period drama moves by attending a ball at the Bath Assembly Rooms.
For fans preferring to leave the costumes and curtseying in the past, there are other agreeable events on offer, including talks on Austen’s writing, walks around key locations associated with the author and even embroidery workshops. ‘Here’s may what tranquillise every care, and lift the heart to rapture!’ as the Mansfield Park heroine, Fanny Price, might say.
Love her or not, for more than 200 years, Jane Austen has delighted readers with her stories of love and courtship, pride and prejudice. Her works have inspired theatrical productions, films, art and songs. Her characters are frequently analysed by members of the Jane Austen Fan Club on Facebook.
Her heroines ‘have flaws’, points out superfan Chitra, but they ‘evolve and emerge as better versions of themselves as the story progresses’.
Though a satisfying character transformation always makes for a good page-turner, it’s not just in fiction that people change and improve. In real-life stories, it’s also possible.
The Bible tells us that, with the help of God, we can move past any mistakes we have made and find a way to live as more loving, less judgemental individuals. If we feel we have lost the plot entirely and don’t know what to do next, he promises to guide us as we start a brand-new chapter with him.
No doubt about it, his friendship is certainly the finest balm. How delightful!
NO BARS TO LEARNING
Major EMMA KNIGHTS, the Open Learning programme co-ordinator at The Salvation Army, explains how prison residents are on course to discover more about the organisation and Christianity
Interview by Sarah Olowofoyeku
ACROSS the country prisoners are
joining with members of the public in learning more about Christianity and developing their educational experience through The Salvation Army’s Open Learning courses.
‘Open Learning is a distance learning programme,’ says Major Emma Knights, its co-ordinator. ‘We have over a hundred courses available for anybody who wants to develop their knowledge of Christianity or to learn more about The Salvation Army or church history.’ The programme has three levels – starter, foundation and award. ‘Starter courses are available for anyone, even those who have never studied before,’ Emma explains. ‘It just requires simple sentence answers to questions. Foundation courses require short essays of about 750 words, and our award-level essays go up to 1,200 words. Students receive a certificate at the end of each course.’ A further certificate is awarded to students when they complete any five starter courses, five foundation courses or four award courses.
Across the three levels, course topics cover Christian history, Christian living and more specific Bible passages, characters or stories. One course, for example, is about understanding the concept of God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Another is about the Bible character Samson and yet another another is about the Reformation, the period in history 500 years ago when Christians’ challenging of corrupt practices led to new churches being established.
One of the advantages of these courses is that all the learning can be done in students’ own time.
‘We’re not accredited, so we have no deadlines,’ Emma says. ‘Some people get through the courses very quickly, while others take their time. Some people have busy lives, or may become unwell, and they can take a pause if they need.’
While anyone can undertake the courses, one group of people in particular are experiencing the benefits of it. The Open Learning programme is currently available in 44 prisons, with 121 prisoners being registered as students. People in prison are connected to the course through their chaplains, some of whom are from The Salvation Army.
‘We have links with The Salvation
Army’s prison ministries,’ says Emma, which is exciting. ‘so we have contact with our prison ‘As our students, they are valued for chaplains. But we are also listed in a who they are. We don’t know what they booklet that goes to every prisoner in the are in prison for. Sometimes they will UK so we often get letters from people share it with us, but we don’t ask for that who are not able to speak to a Salvation information. Some of those students have Army chaplain.’ also encouraged and helped
For people inside, Lives have other residents in prison and have taking the course can be an important part of been changed shared their faith. We know that lives have been changed.’ their development and Such changes motivate rehabilitation. Emma to carry out her work of
‘Some of those in prison who have administering the present courses and studied with us in the past learnt to read developing new ones. and write while serving their sentence,’ ‘At the beginning of 2022, we released Emma explains. ‘So when they complete a brochure that contains some brand-new one of our courses, it can be their first courses,’ she says. ‘We’ve just started a successful educational experience, and stream of ministry courses, which cover they have a certificate to show for it. For how to preach, how to lead worship, how some of them, that really increases their to run a Bible study and how to run a self-esteem. prayer meeting. They will be accessible
‘We’ve also seen some of them move for our prison students, because we from the basic starter-level courses know that some of them will have those all the way through to award levels, opportunities within the prison chapel.’
Emma says she is glad to help people who want to find out more about faith and themselves. She is encouraged by the feedback she receives.
‘One of the students who wrote to us recently said, “The Bible study courses have been a massive source of hope, strength and purpose during my time in custody”, and he asked for materials so that he could encourage others.
‘What makes me stay in this work,’ Emma concludes, ‘is when I see people develop. And when I see those who have struggles with literacy become more confident. We’re not too bothered about spellings or formatting. With prison students, it’s all handwritten. Mistakes are fine. But to see people become more confident and to deepen their knowledge of Scripture is so exciting.’
l For more information visit
salvationist.org.uk/learning
JOHN and MAUREEN COLEMAN tell how their Christian faith sustained them after both their daughters were diagnosed with a fatal genetic disorder
Interview by Emily Bright
‘IN a different lifetime,’ says John Coleman, ‘my daughter Melissa would have probably gone to
university and become a teacher. My other daughter Jasmine was more arty.
‘Music played a big part in their lives. They loved Abba, the Spice Girls and S Club 7. They got into Madness and the Beatles, and I made compilations for them.’
Maureen, John’s wife, adds: ‘Jasmine went to ballet and tap when she was four years old. She loved it, and I think she would have ended up on stage. Both girls were brilliant at singing. They had beautiful voices.’
But John now retrospectively sees the warning signs of what was to come in his daughters’ lives.
‘When Melissa was in reception class, her teacher bemoaned the fact that she wasn’t coming along as she should have been,’ he says. ‘She hadn’t got the confidence to do things herself, which made you think that perhaps she couldn’t see properly even then.’
In 2000, when Melissa was eight, doctors diagnosed her with cone-rod dystrophy, a genetic eye condition. Two years later, at a checkup at Guy’s Hospital in London, doctors announced that Jasmine’s eyesight was deteriorating too.
‘That hit us like a train,’ remembers
Maureen. ‘I was getting used to the fact that we were going to have one daughter that couldn’t see well. Suddenly, we’d got two.’ Doctors found By 2003 Melissa had completely lost her eyesight, a defective which left the specialists bewildered. ‘They had told us chromosome it would be very rare if she lost her eyesight with cone-rod dystrophy,’ explains Maureen. ‘The girls had blood and urine tests, and doctors found a defective chromosome and realised they’d both got Batten disease.’ Batten disease is a genetic disorder that affects the nervous system and causes seizures, visual impairment, mobility loss and early death. There is no cure. In the toughest time of their lives, Maureen and John became dependent on their Christian faith and the support of their friends to see them through. ‘We wouldn’t have survived without the support and prayers of our church,’ says Maureen. ‘God also supplied us with wonderful carers and support workers for Melissa and Jasmine.’ Maureen found faith after her sister Shirley, who was a Christian, coaxed her into attending a church based in an infant school. She had suggested it was an opportunity for Maureen to scope out Melissa’s future school. ‘So one day, I went,’ says Maureen. ‘It was extraordinary – as soon as I went through those church doors, I felt like I was walking home. About a year later, I gave my life to the Lord.’ John also later discovered a relationship with God. ‘I’ve always believed in God,’ he says. ‘At school, when we were 12 or 13, we were given copies of the Gideon Bible. I read the
Melissa and Jasmine
The Coleman family celebrate Maureen’s birthday at Heather House
Maureen and John
Psalms regularly as I went through school, when I encountered bullying and namecalling. Reading them strengthened me.
‘When I went to Sheffield University, I fell away a bit. But there was a church
I used to walk past, with a poster saying: “Who is missing from our ch__ch. UR.” That always stuck with me. ‘When I graduated, I applied to an insurance company in West Sussex, where I met Maureen. I used to get these debilitating headaches, and I had to take to bed and fill myself up with painkillers. As the years went on, my career was suffering and I began to hate my job. ‘I went to a private hospital to sort my headaches out. I started to feel better, but something was missing. I explained how I felt to Maureen’s sister Shirley, and she said: “You’ve got a God-shaped hole in your life.” I thought: “That’s exactly it.” Within a week of me committing my life to the Lord, I’d been made redundant from my job, so I was able to go off and train to become a teacher, which I’d always been interested in doing.
‘I later managed to get a full-time job at a special needs school called Dorton House, which was run by the
Turn to page 10 f
Jasmine was baptised when she was a teenager
From page 9
Royal London Society for the Blind near Sevenoaks. Later, after her diagnosis with Batten disease, Melissa would go there. It was as if God was preparing me for that through my job.’
The couple would become even more reliant on God for strength when, as well as having to care for their daughters, they faced their own health challenges. In 2004 John had a stroke, and was placed in a medically induced coma to aid his recovery.
Melissa admits: ‘When John had a stroke, I prayed, “Lord, either heal him
completely or take him home, because I can’t cope with another disabled person in this house.” If John had died, I would have been devastated, I had two separate but I was confident that he would be in Heaven, bleeds in the brain and that gave me a lot of comfort. ‘He was later put on life support for at least two weeks, because he had to have a tracheotomy. He was really ill and we nearly lost him. His blood pressure was off the charts. But God healed him.’ John recalls that he felt, on a spiritual level, that ‘there was someone looking
John and Melissa on a day trip to Winchester
out for me and making sure I was safe’. But the road to recovery would prove be a daunting one.
‘When I came to, I couldn’t read any more or found it very difficult to concentrate on the written page,’ he says.
‘I lost other abilities as well, like working the television remote. Fortunately, things came back to me, but it was strange how the stroke affected me. I had two separate bleeds in the brain. To survive one is good going; to survive two is extremely rare. But thankfully the Lord was with me all the way.’
In 2007 the family was dealt yet another blow when Maureen was diagnosed with breast cancer. The family’s church became a crucial support to them.
‘They organised rotas to take me for radiotherapy and chemo,’ she says. ‘They supplied us with some meals as well.’
After her diagnosis, Maureen was resolute that she would survive with God’s help.
‘I knew I wasn’t going to die,’ she says. ‘I told God: “I can’t die, because I’ve still got too much to do.” I was determined to get through it.’
John says that he experienced an extraordinary peace during Maureen’s cancer treatment.
‘I felt God had it all under control, regardless of the outcome. I knew he would still be there for me. You could say this passive acceptance is a weakness, but I think it’s a strength. You’re gaining your strength from the Lord. You have to remember that he is the power of the universe. His resources are endless. He is good, and he can do anything. There are no boundaries to his abilities.’
Maureen recovered from cancer but, despite all her and John’s prayers, Melissa
Melissa at Heather House
and Jasmine continued to decline. The girls remained in mainstream education until they reached senior school, and then transferred to Dorton House, which at the time provided specialist education for the visually impaired and those with learning disabilities. As Melissa and Jasmine approached the end of their lives, they were placed in Heather House, a specialist nursing care home near Basingstoke for people with Batten disease.
Despite facing the unbearable pain of seeing their daughters’ health decline, Maureen and John held fast to their faith.
In answer to the unspoken question of how she reconciles a loving God with her daughters’ suffering, Maureen says: ‘God is supernatural isn’t he? We don’t understand it. Life is a mystery, but we’ve got to have that faith and hold on to it.’
Her two children responded differently to the progression of Batten disease.
‘Melissa was very bright, and she got frustrated as her condition started to deteriorate,’ explains Maureen. ‘Although she’d still talk at that time, she found it difficult to express her feelings. In contrast, Jasmine was more placid. As Jasmine’s Batten disease progressed, she wasn’t quite so scared as Melissa, although it was hard for both of them.’
They gradually lost their mobility and power of speech. But, just like their parents, they found strength in their Christian faith.
‘They loved the Lord,’ says Maureen. ‘Melissa once told us about a vision she’d had of Jesus wearing a purple cloak. And I’m sure God had, through their lives, been talking to them.’
‘Even when a child has no language,’ adds John, ‘can’t speak or has very little going on mentally, God can still communicate with them in some way. He loves them as much as anybody else. They’re all made in his image. The world is broken and disability has got in, but God still loves his children.’
Both children decided to make public commitments to faith, as Maureen remembers: ‘One day I was putting Jasmine to bed and she said: “Mummy, what is baptism?” And I said: “That just shows that you love Jesus.” She said: “Could I be baptised then?” So she was baptised as a teenager. The smile on her face showed she knew the significance of it all.’
A few years later, Melissa followed.
‘At Heather House, they’ve got a hydro pool,’ says Maureen. ‘And while Melissa was at a stage where she couldn’t speak, she still understood. She communicated with her face, and I knew her well enough to understand what she was trying to convey. When I asked if she’d like to be baptised, she smiled and really opened her eyes, essentially saying: “Yes please.” On her 21st birthday, she was baptised, and she too had a huge smile on her face.’
Jasmine died in 2015 at the age of 19, and Melissa 18 months later, aged 24.
Maureen and John doted on their daughters until the end, tirelessly supporting and praying with them.
John remembers: ‘At the very end, Melissa opened her eyes very wide and gave this huge gasp and then passed over. And we are convinced to this day that she saw Jesus, and maybe even Jasmine, because there was such a radiance in her face. It gave me such encouragement.’
Maureen says that the hope of her girls being in Heaven sustains her.
‘While you learn to live around the grief, you always miss them. But we made sure that their funerals were celebrations of their lives, and we have no doubt that they’re in Heaven.’
Throughout all the suffering they’ve faced, John and Maureen’s faith has been a rock in their lives.
‘The whole message of the Bible is that we are loved,’ says John. ‘We live daily in God’s grace and can’t live without it.’
We have no doubt they’re in Heaven
