Freestyle Part 3

Part 3 of our Easter Freestyle Series
By Trust Administrator Dr Jenny Cousens


John 12: 35-36.
Then Jesus told them, “You are going to have the light just a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, before darkness overtakes you. The man who walks in the dark does not know where he is going. Put your trust in the light while you have the light, so that you may become sons of light.”


One of our favourite weekend getaways is to the Dunstan Hill campsite in Northumberland. Last time we went we arrived quite late, owing to the roadworks on the A1, but we thought we had just enough time, after eating our fish and chips, to take a walk to the beach. The campsite is about a 15-minute walk from the sea, through woodland, around fields, through gates and finally over the sand dunes. 

For a girl brought up by the sea, arriving on any beach is a re-acquaintance with my roots, and not something I wish to hurry. It became clear, however, that our assessment of the amount of daylight left to make the return walk to the campsite had been overly optimistic, and the light was fading fast. By the time we reached the wooded area it was dark, and without a torch or even a mobile phone to light the way, we were tripping over tree roots and searching for the right gate to get back to the campervan.

Jesus told his disciples to walk while they had the light – don’t linger and look at the scenery; don’t sit down in the middle of the road; keep your eyes on the light – because walking with Jesus is always a journey. The biggest risk to our faith is to be content to stay where we are. Sometimes the journey is a straight road as far as the eye can see; sometimes it is a series of twists and turns and full of the fear of the unknown. That’s why we have to keep moving, staying as close to the light as we can, otherwise we won’t know the way to go and are liable to trip over tree roots along the way. 

If we sincerely want to ‘become sons of light’ – taking light into dark corners - we have to walk with the light. Just as we couldn’t magic up any light to make our walk back to the campsite any easier, we cannot reflect God’s light if we are not in it. God is the one and only source of that light and we have no power to manufacture it from within ourselves.

Walking with the Light, and not knowing what might be around the next corner, can be exciting, scary, sometimes even terrifying………. but Jesus never promised that life would be comfortable.

Freestyle Part 2

Part 2 of our Easter Freestyle Series
By Project Worker Julia Leech

The Owner of the Donkey

As with many parts of the Bible, the Easter story has several ‘behind-the-scenes’ moments which are only mentioned in passing, and not fully explained. 

One of these moments happens when Jesus is about to enter Jerusalem, and he tells his disciples to go on ahead where they will find a donkey, which they should untie and bring to him, and if anyone asks they should just say “the Lord needs it”. Sure enough, they find the donkey and say this to the owner, who then willingly lets them take the donkey off back to Jesus with no further questions. 

Why does the owner do that?? It’s the kind of thing that’s easy to gloss over in a familiar story, but the owner has just given away a valuable animal to the people he found ‘acquiring’ it simply because they gave a good enough explanation. None of the gospels fully explain the owner’s thinking, but there are several possibilities. 

Did God tell him? He might have had a word from God beforehand, saying that he’d find some people untying his donkey that afternoon because ”the Lord needs it” and that he should let them. If that was the case, he might have dismissed it at first, thinking it was an unlikely and strangely specific scenario and he was probably making it up. It might have been quite a surprise when it actually happened – a surreal moment, but at the same time very real, a tangible realisation that God knew who he was and had a plan for him. If that’s what happened, it was a pretty significant day for that man.

Or maybe it wasn’t that the owner knew it was coming beforehand – maybe it was the moment when he realised who the donkey was being taken for that brought out the best in the owner, when he realised he had enough faith and trust in Jesus that he would gladly give anything Jesus asked for. If that was the way the owner felt, he must have felt honoured to have the opportunity to contribute to God’s plan. If that’s what happened, then what a beautiful gift it was when God enabled that man to give.

We can’t really know how accurate these possibilities are, or whether there is a whole other explanation entirely. What we do know is that God involved the owner of the donkey in his plan, and subsequently the owner was given a fundamental part to play in the Easter story. We don’t even know the man’s name, but whoever he was, God did a wonderful thing for him that day.

Perhaps this is similar to when John says, “Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.” (John 21:15). There is always more to stories of God’s action and love in the world, because God’s work is much too extravagantly detailed to summarise in a paragraph, and touches far more people than we can comprehend.

Luke 19: 28-40
Matthew 21: 1-11
Mark 11: 1-11
John 12: 12-16

Freestyle Part 1

Part 1 of our Easter Freestyle Series
By Trust Director John Froud

Recently, I was asked to talk about my role models, my heroes when I was a teenager; the people I looked up to and tried to be like. It’s quite a long list, but I settled for Martin Luther King, a man who stood up for the lowest in society but without violence, Denis Law, a footballer admired and respected for his genius and Bob Dylan who writes songs that change minds.
 
Although I read a lot about them and kept albums full of press cuttings, I never actually met any of them and I have only seen Denis Law and Bob Dylan from the cheap seats at the back, from where, it must be said, neither of them look like giants.

When Jesus was arriving in Jerusalem everyone wanted to see him because they knew he was something special. He did amazing things with bread and fish, not to mention water; he fixed people who were in a bad way; he talked so well people forgot to go home. 

Have you ever thought how much trouble the young people, particularly, of Jerusalem were risking on that Palm Sunday, as we call it today?
Asking parental permission to go to the city and stand with the crowd was not ever likely to go well. I would not recommend ignoring your parents’ wishes but I know it happens…
Arriving without something to wave may lead to a hasty decision to strip branches from trees…
The cheering was sufficiently loud for the “posh” people to tell Jesus to stop those children making so much noise (not that he took any notice, other than to quip something smart about shouting stones)...
And then there’s the coats. It’s one thing putting your coat down for royalty to walk on (Sir Walter Raleigh famously did so much later for Elizabeth I), but for a King riding a donkey? Really? Donkeys are famous for leaving things behind - from their behinds in fact. Imagine having to explain that to your mother. 

“It was a donkey - but Mum, Jesus was on the donkey.”
“And where were you?” Angry Mum eyes, met with embarrassed, found-out hesitation.
“Er…”
“You’re a disgrace. The lady next door saw you pulling branches off the trees. I thought I told you not to go…” And so on, towards the inevitable punishments.

Not good. 

But were those risks worth taking to be able to get close to your hero? How much effort should we make to get a good look at Jesus?

Luke 19: 28-40
Matthew 21: 1-11
Mark 11: 1-11
John 12: 12-16

Be There...

Be There
© John Froud 2000
First featured on the Be There album, recorded by John Froud & the PKs in 2000
Listen to this track now on the Zephaniah Trust website - click here

Let me tell you, love can be hard,
Let me tell you, love can be hard,
There are times you don't want to go there,
Times you don't want to care,
Let me tell you, love can be hard.

You gotta be there when the one you love's in pain,
Be there when the one you love is in pain,
When the tears are falling down,
You still gotta be around,
Be there when the one you love's in pain.

You gotta be there when there's nothing you can do,
Be there when there's nothing you can do,
When they just don't wanna know
'Bout the love you've got to show,
Be there when there's nothing you can do.

You gotta be there when the one you love lets you down,
Be there when the one you love lets you down,
When the slap comes across your face
It's time to show some grace,
Be there when the one you love lets you down.

Let me tell you, love can be hard,
Let me tell you, love can be hard,
There are times you don't want to go there,
Times you don't want to care,
Let me tell you, love can be hard.

He was there and the nails tore through his hands,
He was there and the nails tore through his hands,
Taking all the pain
So I can live again,
He was there and the nails tore through his hands.

Posted Good Friday 2014

The simple constant message...

It was a struggle, but I eventually conquered the urge to call John ‘Mr Froud’. I first saw
the Zeph team – or some of them – in my primary school assemblies, and I loved everything in them. I remember one Thursday morning how the rumour went round that it was going to be ‘A Mr Froud Assembly’ (we were that excited it needed capital letters), and as my class walked in the whispers went back along the line that it was true…

Those assemblies were amazing: everyone had fun, we sang songs I know people still haven’t forgotten, and the simple constant message of God’s love always came through. I don’t have a particularly dramatic conversion story, but it was things like these assemblies that taught me enough about God to be able to decide, one day, that I wanted to follow him for myself.

So you can imagine how happy I was to get stuck into working with Zeph as a teenager, having experienced first-hand the good stuff they did. They always seem to have something on – holiday clubs, Re:wind and Fast Forward, the Light Party, Refugee Voices – always something to join in with and have a bit of fun while shining God’s light.

I have to admit though, this last holiday club was not without its hazards. Firstly, a child taped me, by my hair, to a cardboard time machine, requiring three different leaders to attempt to free me before eventually cutting off some of my hair. Later, I was asked to be in a drama, told I was to be a German solider and had to sing in German, before being handed a very large sausage. The sausage was never explained. I feel these experiences somehow sum up the wonders of working with Zeph: laughter, the unexpected and the downright odd, all in the name of sharing Jesus with kids in ways which will make sense to them. Because really, that’s what Zeph is all about, and they do it brilliantly­ – and hopefully will be for a long time to come.

Rosemary Leech is, as her blog testifies, willing to do just about anything to share God's love with children, which is a quality we greatly admire. She is currently studying at Trinity College Oxford but has already proved more than happy to revisit Zeph in her holidays - about which we are very happy! She's a sucker for a cup of tea and a cake, and an all-round lovely lady.

Truly Inspirational...

My involvement with the Zephaniah Trust started four years ago with work experience, but my memory of them takes me back to primary school days, sat in the hall on a Thursday morning! The excitement in the playground on those days over the sight of John's van was amazing! 

It has been a pleasure and a privilege to be able to work with John, Julie and the team over the past few years. Their enthusiasm is infectious, whether its leading assemblies, holiday clubs, workshops or lessons - their ability to bring the

Bible alive to young people who may not hear it anywhere else is amazing. 

The Zephaniah Trust is truly inspirational to me and their achievements and work over the last 20 years is immense... Here's to another 20 years of inspiring, touching hearts and opening up the Bible to so many more young people!!

Dan Breeze is another of our wonderful volunteers who began working with us as a work experience student. He is also an inspiration to us, as possibly the only person we've met who approaches re-setting chairs to the scarily specific instructions of different churches with the same cheerfulness as eating a curry. Dan, we salute you!

Hilarity & Hope...

When I was in primary school, some of the most beautiful mornings were when Zephaniah Trust came in for assembly.  You’d know as soon as you heard the sounds of a guitar striking up some catchy and ambitiously fast-paced song coming from the hall, and along the line every child would confirm to every other child that “IT’S MR FROUD!”.  And then we would sing and we would do actions and we would hear stories and we would be happy.  I liked those times.

I did not know that a few years later I would get to befriend these wonderful people and get involved in what they do. It turns out the children’s holiday clubs that they run are equally fun when you’re a “grown up”, and you get to drink tea! I have now spent many a hilarious hour involved in such events, preparing activities for the kids, perfecting actions to “My God shall supply”, praying, eating, and generally enjoying the unique and often slightly odd sense of humour of the other Zephaniah workers and volunteers.

The thing that really makes Zephaniah Trust special isn’t just what they do - it’s the spirit they do it in. Every story, action song, short film featuring a butternut squash or similar or in fact any Zephaniah event is done with a beautiful sense of joy for life, and a passion for spreading light and hope. I have participated in and been introduced to many things through Zephaniah Trust – dramas, building time machine forts, great stories, and the discovery of bizarre Gaelic cartoons – and I think all it points to the happiness and joyful abundance of life at the heart of the Christian message.

Julia Leech is studying theology at York St John University. She combines her own odd sense of humour with a warmth and openness that make her an excellent Zeph volunteer. She is a dab hand with a ukulele and has an extraordinary talent for dancing around dressed as a cyberman. She would probably never forgive us if we ended this blog post without pointing you in the direction of "bizarre Gaelic cartoon" Fraochy Bay, broadcast on BBC Alba...