Wow

Pretty much two full houses from where I sat. Maybe a handful free on Wednesday.
Tremendous sense of our young people growing up through this, growing into maturity and discovering gifts, talents, abilities, confidence and sometimes the 'nowse' to bodge through...

Great!

My email to praying friends

Stop the Traffik “Esther’s Story”

Thanks to those of you who heard my ten-minute presentation on Tuesday and later prayed for an audience to come to experience “Esther’s Story”.

We had a full house on Tuesday evening and only a handful of spare seats on Wednesday.

One of our church members prayed for a wave of response to the Spirit so that the anti-trafficking message would not end tonight.

CHASTE, CMS, Stop the Traffik, and TEAR Fund were promoted to those who attended with literature.

Stop the Traffik and Unesco had videos included as part of the performance.

Phil’s Story

Tonight I told two women the story Phil Evans told us, so movingly on Tuesday, of the difference that “Breaking the Chains” and the G8 lobby had made to people in Madagascar.

They said they had not signed cards for Stop the Traffik as they felt disconnected from any real result after Jubilee 2000 etc. They both signed petition cards then and there.

Our J Team of young people were ecstatic after the first night and euphoric after the second night.

Since Free for All and Big intent came several of them have advanced rapidly towards maturity and in discovering talents while taking on roles in the production.

Wonderful!

Just when I thought Jonny wasn't going to add us into his blog

I finally surfed the right search and here is his entry.

slavery 200 years on...

this coming sunday (25 march) is 200 years since the abolition of the slave trade bill was passed in uk law through the house of lords. i confess my knowledge of the history is pretty thin. but one of the groups heavily involved in the campaign were the clapham sect who also founded cms. william wilberforce is the best known member of that group. amazing grace the film that tells the story of the abolition through his life is out this coming weekend and the preview is tonight.

the current issue of yes magazine focuses on the issue of slavery (15mb pdf).

the irony is that there are more slaves today than 200 years ago with child soldiers, sex trafficking, and forced labour. this is tragic. lots of groups are making the most of the anniversary to focus attention on the issue of slavery today. these are a few things i am aware of. feel free to add any others in the comments and i'll paste them in...

african snow - a play that cms has sponsored
free for all - the cms youth team are undertaking a huge tour round the uk
ending slavery resource pack - education pack for cizitenship, RE, and history
the truth isn't sexy - i love this simple campaign to raise awareness of trafficking through some fairly full on beer mats in bars and pubs. there's a parliamentary launch tomorrow - well done guys!
stop the traffic - coalition of organisations, with a particular campaign focused on chocolate.
chaste - churches alert to sex trafficking across europe
set all free - churches together site
anti-slavery
rowntree uk slavery report

all this can be a bit overwhelming. find something that touches you, or grabs you and get involved. an example of a group getting involved that inspired me is a youth group from st pauls and st barnabas in oldbury who are working on a production esther's story. as part of the promotion for it they put a video together and it got aired on channel 5 news - amazing! the play blurb is...

Shocked by the imprisonment of young women in a nearby brothel a group of teenagers from an Oldbury Church are actively and creatively highlighting the modern day evils of human trafficking and sex traffiking through a youth theatre production at Leasowes Community College Theatre, Kent Road, Halesowen, B62 8PJ.
The performance will be on 27th and 28th March at 7.30 p.m. with doors open at 7.00 p.m. Tickets are reasonably priced at £2.00 for adults and £1.00 for under 16’s.
Tickets from Paul and Barnys 0121 4226700

Meetings at P&B 1st March

Meetings continue with the young people and older helpers planning the publicity.

A synopsis has now been completed and now the script, too.
Colourful banners as part of the stage set have been made also.

The first advertising poster went up in to Quinton Library today 3rd March.