Salvation is Free

I searched for Salvation in YouTube (as you do when you're bored and looking for videos to do with the Salvation Army), and came across this song with fascinating lyrics...

These are the lyrics:

To all those people doing lines:
Don't do it, don't do it.
Inject your soul with liberty;
It's free, it's free.

To all the kids with heroin eyes:
Don't do it, don't do it.
Cos it's not, not what it seems,
No it's not, not what it seems.

Salvation, Salvation, Salvation is free.
Salvation, Salvation, Salvation is free.

To all the parents with sleepless nights:
Tie your kids on to their beds,
Clean their heads.

To all the kids with heroin eyes:
Don't do it, don't do it.
Cos it's not, not what it seems,
No it's not, not what it seems.

Salvation, Salvation, Salvation is free.
Salvation, Salvation, Salvation is free.

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As The Salvation Army (and as Christians in general), we need to get a message out, and whilst hopefully we're not saying "don't do this, don't do that" to everyone, it's really important that we point out that the thing people are looking for is out there if you look in the right place, and is so much more fulfilling and satisfying than anyone could imagine, much much better than any drug.

And best of all, it's free!

Bradford and Leeds week - the East End Park community

After Saturday off it came to my final day in Yorkshire, and it was great to be able to meet up with Andrew Grinnell. It was through a lot of what he said at Roots last year that my thoughts came together about this, well, desire to serve the poor I guess. His Forgotten 5% presentations about the work of NEO Salvation Army centres in particular (an area of ministry for which he has overall control), demonstrated the stark need of many areas and pulled at my desires and many of the things I had been thinking about during my time in south London.

We met for a chat and a coffee and then headed back to his local area, East End Park, which apparently is in the bottom 7% of areas in the UK as measured by the Indices of Multiple Depravation. If it's that high I wouldn’t like to see those places below it. Row after row of back-to-back housing, which, to give a picture, unless you're at the end of the terrace then you're surrounded by three houses. Furthermore, I'm pretty sure you could fit about least three of these houses in my back garden. Windows boarded up, metal grids on most windows and doors, unswept streets and nowhere for anyone to play except for where a few houses had been knocked down.

One girl we passed was a friend of Andrew’s daughter and was sitting outside playing with a few friends. He told me how his daughter was shocked going round her house and discovering she had no toys, and set about trying to get her some. The starkest thing for me was seeing one boy walking through a field on his own, wearing, on Easter Sunday, his school uniform. Maybe I’m reading too much into it, but if someone has to wear their school uniform in the middle of the holidays then just how little must that family have?

We spoke about the possibility of me going there myself next year, and it seemed like it wasn’t necessarily the best option, but still a possibility. If nothing else it was good to have an idea of just how stark poverty can be in the UK. As Andrew said to me it’s nothing when compared to Africa, but when you see the relative luxury we have in many parts of the UK, it really does beggar belief how places like this can exist. I really pray that Andrew and the other Christians living in the community can bring the light of God into such a dark place and that He will be glorified on that estate.

Bradford and Leeds week - Holme Christian Community

Following on from my trip to CAP, I went along to Holme Christian Community (HCC), which is just down the road from where I'm staying and from the Salvation Army. HCC has an impressively varied programme of activities, with something for pretty much anyone in the community. In addition to their City Lights ministry, there's a cafe, a play centre, 'The Edge' youth club, a handyman service, training, an over-55s 'youth club', a financial advice centre, a management consultancy and an employment agency, and then you've got the church services and all that comes with that.

I was able to have a look around and get some ideas for what I could do if I moved to the area. HCC is particularly appealing because of the variety of the things they do. My annoyance with most churches is that they only really cater for under-18s and over-60s, with perhaps something for middle-aged women if you're lucky. But HCC is trying to impact everyone in their community, and that's a really great thing. It's great to see the difference they are making and to imagine the lives that have been and are being changed by God's power at work in them.

Bradford and Leeds week - 'City Lights'

On Sunday evening I headed to Holme Christian Community (HCC) where I got on the yellow bus, which we took down to the centre of Bradford, an outreach that is known as 'City Lights'. There we met around 90 homeless or otherwise-marginalised individuals and they were given coffee and a hot meal. It also provided a great opportunity to speak to the guys being served and find out how they were doing.

Having some small talk with a few people, my first in-depth conversation was with a gentleman who must have been in his 50s or 60s.  He started by saying we were angels, doing an amazing thing, and how he thought Christianity was a great thing, that God had clearly sent us to do His work. He also said he thought that people coming over from other countries should leave England as it is, that Christianity is the religion of this country and that's that. It was interesting to find out he was a Muslim and he came over from Southern Asia when he was younger. It was even more interesting when I tried to explore what he meant by all these terms and phrases. He seemed to think that not only was Christ real but that He was God, and yet when I questioned whether that made him a Christian he didn't seem to think so. We kept chatting, and I really just tried to encourage him to think about it more, tried to get across that Christianity wasn't a religion so much as a matter of putting your faith in someone and following them. I'm not entirely sure how able he was to take it all in anyway, not through substance abuse or anything like that, but he just seemed like a very nice and simple man. Just how do you explain to people that not all these 'religions' are the same, and it's not just about being nice?! But if nothing else, it was very amusing just to hear Mr. Khan every few seconds saying "God Bless you" before exclaiming "gorgeous!" every time he took a mouthful of his meal.

There was another guy I spoke to, extremely friendly, willing to chat, and I got the impression well known to people around. He said he worked at the university (similarly Mr. Khan said he had lectured - not sure how true either of these claims were), and was very interested in things to do with electrolytes, ACT, and synchronicity. I didn't really have a clue what he was talking about, but it was something to do with metaphysics I guess. When pushed he described himself as a universalist, believing that there was a God and that Jesus was "a top bloke, no doubt about it, a top bloke". I said that if I do move to Bradford in September it'd be great to continue the conversation further.

Finally, one other guy and I chatted for a fair while, and I asked him whether he had a faith, with him replying that he was a Catholic when he grew up (it seems to me that everyone was a Catholic when they grew up - or maybe that's just the homeless population).  He described how his father used to beat his mum and that really meant it was impossible for him to believe. I told Him how God was just and didn't think what his Dad did was right either, and explained how we all do wrong and need a saviour, but that God has provided that saviour Himself. He seemed fairly interested and though his mates wanted to go and drink he didn't seem in a hurry, but when I pushed the point, he said himself that he just didn't feel like he hadn't done anything wrong. I guess that's how a lot of people feel. I tried to explain that all of us have done wrong, and so it wasn't just me pointing the finger at him, and I think he may have started to get it, so it's my prayer that his eyes will be opened in days to come.

It was generally just great to see the ministry that is provided, a valuable ministry I am sure, both in terms of physical nourishment and in terms of building relationships and telling people the good news. It reminded me of the urgency of telling people this news as some people just haven't heard it before. They've heard about Christianity, God, or some particular denomination, but never what it's actually all about. It's my prayer that this ministry will help to break down those barriers and let these people know how they can be set free for everlasting life.

I've got my rights y'know!

For some reason society has decided that because we're fortunate enough to be born, we're owed some kind of debt. No-one knows exactly who owes it to us, but nevertheless, we have 'rights' and someone or something must see they are fulfilled and not infringed.

OK, I'm using hyperbole here, but essentially that's what it boils down to when you think about it, and it's been getting my back up for a while. The shift from annoyance to blogable material came this morning when I read the front page of The Times. It was with regards to David Cameron's remarks that a lot of social ills are caused be individual's decisions and actions. Or as The Times put it "David Cameron tells the fat and the poor: take responsibility". He suggests, quite sensibly, that whilst circumstance and other things beyond your control have a large bearing on your life, often personal choice has just a large an impact, if not larger (he gives an example of the decision to not exercise or to eat too much).

This fits nicely alongside the rights issue. We need to get out of this victim mentality and stop assuming that the reason we're in the mess we're is because of someone or something else, and that the solution will come, similarly, from somewhere apart from ourselves.

As I said at the head of this post, some seem to think that being born means we're owed something. I fundamentally disagree with this, but it's undeniable that every human has basic human needs. These could be listed as: clothing; shelter; food; water; heating; sanitation; education; basic health care. This should be the basis of any discussion, and so far all I have said is that they exist, I haven't said what the response should be, if any at all.

By shifting our phraseology from 'rights' to 'needs', this whole debate (including the sensible, much-welcomed discussion of 'basic human rights') becomes a lot more realistic and sensible and we can start to make real progress. It is no longer assumed that those basic requirements will be fulfilled, but there instead is a dialogue and consensus that needs to be created about what to do about these needs.

And this is the response we require: we must acknowledge that there are basic human needs, and from that we must agree, as a society, that these needs must be met for everybody everywhere in the world. This requires us as citizens to buy into some form of contract of shared responsibility to meet these needs. Of course, it may be that they are met by the individual themselves. I pay my own rent, buy my own food, pay my utility bills, etc. However, it might not be possible for some to be met by individuals themselves. I doubt whether I could have afforded my education costs, and perhaps would only have stayed for 7 or 8 years. Much more seriously, there are many in the world without access even to the most basic of needs, such as water and sanitation.

So we must agree that we'll have in place a safety net that says people will not fall below a certain level, they'll have their basic needs met, whether they're from down my road, in my country, or in the darkest recesses of the developing world. We'll rediscover the willful responsibility of paying taxes to help ensure no-one on this earth goes hungry, of giving up some time during our week to give something to those who otherwise would go without, and of taking action when we see that others need our help. We must admit that whilst I have needs of my own, others do too, and together we're deciding to ensure that they are met.

It's down to us to make this choice, only we can decide to stick up for those in need, and it's time we changed our mindset from "what can others do for me?" to "what can I do for others?".