GOOD NEWS FOR EVERYONE
ISSUE 2, 2019
INTERACT
A New Path Exploring the beatitudes in Australia Watch the Horizon Opportunities for innovation
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CONTENTS 04 08 10 12 14 Watch the Horizon Opportunities for innovation
News
The latest news from the Lifewords global family
A New Path
Exploring the beatitudes in Australia
A Year in the Life
A look back at Lifewords in 2018
Lifewords and you Sharing the Bible all over the world
Issue 72 / 2–2019 Editorial team: Jess Bee Steve Bassett Kris Calver Photographs: Lifewords unless otherwise stated Design: S2 design & advertising Ltd Print: Yeomans Creative
Lifewords is the operating name of Scripture Gift Mission (Inc), registered charity in England and Wales, 219055. Registered office: 1A The Chandlery, 50 Westminster Bridge Road, London SE1 7QY. Interact is free, available three times a year from your nearest member of the Lifewords global family of organisations (see page 15).
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WELCOMe “No one puts new wine into old wineskins. For the old skins would burst from the pressure, spilling the wine and ruining the skins. New wine is stored in new wineskins so that both are preserved.” Matthew 9:17 NLT
Welcome to this edition of Interact. In this issue you’ll read
Jess Bee Editor
about the old and new as we look back at 2018 and also consider where Lifewords is exploring new territories and forging new paths. Steve Bassett and Beverley Agyeman talk about this tension between the past and the future, between tradition and innovation, in our feature on pages 4–7. This partnering of the old and new continues to be a key value for Lifewords: we stand firm on our heritage yet push forward into different ways of sharing good news. Thank you for your support – 130 years and counting! – as we seek to live out and share God’s Word, and are guided by him to find new wineskins for new wine.
Jess Bee Editor
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Watch the Horizon I wait for the LORD, my whole being waits, and in his word I put my hope. I wait for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning. Psalm 130:5–6 NIV Psalm 130’s image of watching and waiting is a good picture of Lifewords. Scanning the near and distant horizon of where Bible, culture, and mission collide, Lifewords is always ready to spot the gap and seize the opportunity. Here, Beverley Agyeman and Lifewords Creative Director, Steve Bassett, talk about the way Lifewords uses these points of collision to create ways in to the Bible, and bring change. Beverley: Steve, can you help us understand what these points of collision look like? Steve: In terms of how the Bible impacts life, and culture, and the everyday “stuff of life”, I think this is where Lifewords does some of its most effective work. These collision points are where different things meet. Lifewords watches for these and then spots the gap – to produce something that will go into that gap.
B: So, what are the resources, or projects that you’d consider to be where Lifewords has stepped into a new space, or is filling a gap. S: If we’re putting Scripture out there to both the church and wider culture, it has to resonate with people’s lives. Take our resource Little Book of Chaos. We teamed up with mental health charity, Think Twice, to produce an effective resource that responds to the
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issue of mental health in young people. Here’s a real issue, and a resource created specifically to relate Scripture to that issue. For youth workers like David Heller from Kingdom Faith Church, Little Book of Chaos has made it easier for him to open up conversations with young people regarding topics that are sometimes tough to talk about. We’ve also heard from young people who’ve expressed how transformative, authentic, and genuinely helpful Little Book of Chaos has been for them. Then, there’s NINE BEATS. We’re living in a world that is so broken. And Jesus’ words in the beatitudes speak right in to this brokenness, inviting us all into a new way of thinking and being. NINE BEATS – and the Ninefold Path – is an arts and theology response that creates ways for people to explore the impact and relevance of these sayings. Of course, a major response to a “collision point” has been our longstanding work among vulnerable children through Pavement Project, which has brought the Bible’s message of God’s acceptance and love to children’s lives for over 18 years. B: This sounds like something beyond simply mass producing booklets. S: Yes, working where Bible and church, faith, theology, and culture meet is hard, nuanced work. Lifewords exists to create ways in to the Bible that chime with real lives. For us, the Bible is good news. And we want to help people to experience it as good news instead of something toxic, which is what
NINE BEATS live
many see it as. The way people look at the Bible and its message is often that it’s hostile, weaponised. We create resources that help change these perceptions offering a new – and sometimes disruptive – way of looking at faith and the world. B: So, where does Lifewords traditional literature work fit in today? S: We enjoy pulling our heritage and legacy through into contemporary contexts. Our core range of literature goes on year by year, adding and revising, and reprinting and making new resources. We’ve now worked in over 1,000 languages, including many pioneer languages, so we were always at the forefront of translation. We’ve created over a billion pieces of Bible literature. It’s an extraordinary story that continues today through our Global Bible Resource website and local distribution, with 1.25 million copies of printed resources distributed in 2018 alone. Annually, two massive collision points for our literature work are
Little Book of Chaos
A Pavement Project worker helps a vulnerable child
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the Easter and Christmas season. We love helping churches tell the story back into their church and wider community at these times. For 2019, Day Three: Believe the Women tells the Easter story from the perspective of the women who went to the tomb and discovered that Jesus was not there. The men back in the upper room didn’t believe them. We think it’s a really important re-telling of the story at this time. VerseFirst on Instagram
B: Lifewords has produced resources one can read, listen to in audio formats, watch through animations, and there’s braille, and more. This is another gap that Lifewords has entered, especially through partnership.
S: Yes, that’s a really good point. If you are hard of hearing, or have impaired vision, or are blind, how can you access Scripture? Through OUTSIDE/IN and now in partnership with specialist agencies, we’re committed to making Scripture as accessible as possible to as many as possible. WAVE in London is a great example of a church using our resources to serve those with learning difficulties, and hearing what a difference it makes to them. It’s encouraging to have someone affirming us, and saying, “That helped us.” I think across all our projects, we need to look at accessibility a lot more. B: Lifewords does a lot of work with churches – how do these newer projects sit with this more traditional audience?
Sharing Bible booklets in India
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S: As an organisation, we’re serving the whole church. Our core work is to produce resources for Christians, and for people who are sympathetic in a Christian community setting, to help them access and share the Bible better. A large section of the church will use our resources in evangelistic, pastoral, counselling, teaching, worship and other settings. It’s a key audience for us. The church supports us with prayer and finance so that we’re able to keep making Bible resources freely available to people around the world. So we’re serving the church, but if there was nothing culture-facing, I don’t think the mission would be as effective. For 131 years, this has been a very faithful ministry. It only exists because people partner with us in mission, and use our material. We believe the Bible contains life words, so we hugely appreciate that connection with people who share that heart. Like those on watch in Psalm 130, we continually watch and wait, and stand ready to go where we see the opportunity.
PRAY Give thanks for Lifewords history – for over 130 years of producing Bible resources. Praise God for new opportunities to reach people with his Word. Ask that God would continue to guide Lifewords and help it wait.
FILLING THE GAPS NINE BEATS – exploring the beatitudes “I remember learning about what it means to truly be a peacemaker,” says Anthony. “It spoke to me so strongly and challenged me to really practice compassion … Whether we’re young or old, Christian or not, there are essential truths in these nine beats that we can all grab hold of, delve deep into, learn from, and grow with.” Consider the Wildflowers – working with vulnerable women “We reach out to local women in prostitution and those who are being sex trafficked,” says Becca who leads an outreach for vulnerable women in Birmingham, UK. “We were looking for resources that could help us support women who have experienced trauma, and when I saw Consider the Wildflowers, I thought it was incredible. Lifewords has helped us as a church reach many people and bless them with God’s love and kindness.” Pavement Project – new life for children-at-risk “I thought street children were very hard and would never change,” says Rev Solomon, a 70-year-old youth worker in Zimbabwe, “but Pavement Project is unique. I have been able to use the green bag and have witnessed the great transformations the picture and Bible story resources bring.”
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world NEWS Compassion and care in Indonesia
In 2018, the islands of Java and Sumatra in Indonesia, suffered a major tsunami and hundreds lost their lives, their homes, and their livelihoods. Teams of people on the ground were able to bring comfort and help to survivors through Lifewords booklets that have been specially designed for traumatic contexts such as this. Pastor Niga leads a church in Pandeglang, Java. Although he and his family were safe during the tsunami, he soon learned that some of his church community had lost their lives. “This disaster was an opportunity for us to show Jesus’ love and compassion to our neighbours whose lives had been affected,” said Pastor Niga. He visited the Lifewords Jakarta Training Centre where he received a range of Bible booklets, including Picking up the Pieces and Who Cares About Me, that he shared with communities in crisis. Please pray with us for Pastor Niga, and others like him, who are bringing God’s hope to communities in poverty and devastation.
Marching for children Last February in Columbia hundreds of children, young people and parents marched for children’s rights. Pavement Project Columbia joined those who gathered in Bogota to stand up for change and share God’s love. “Tracks of Tenderness” is an initiative that is taking place across several Latin American countries between 2018 and 2019. Through protest marches in large cities, it is campaigning for the rights of children, by calling for an end to violence and encouraging better treatment for young lives. Marisol Vargas, coordinator of Pavement Project in Colombia, together with eight workers from partner organisations, participated in the march. Pavement Project was also invited, alongside 16 other organisations, to take part in the exhibition area where they met 200 children and shared a Bible story. The children coloured in the pictures from the story and played origami paper-play. The Pavement Project team was also able to share about its work with the many adults who also visited the exhibition. 8
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Believe the Women This year, Lifewords produced a brand-new Easter resource – Day Three: Believe the Women. Thousands of copies were shared in schools, prisons, services and events. Using compelling illustrations, the booklet connects with themes of courage, justice, and protest through the women of the Easter story – women who were first entrusted with the news of the resurrection, but who were not believed. Lifewords Bible Engagement Coordinator, Marielle Adeaga, explained the concept behind the booklet. “Something stood out to us as we read the Easter story again,” says Marielle. “Even though the women had played an integral part in Jesus’ life and journey – and were first to see the miracle of the resurrection – they weren’t believed. How that narrative played out has real resonance for today’s culture.” Revd Helen Paynter is the Director of the Centre for the Study of Bible and Violence. After receiving her copy, she said: “This account of Resurrection Sunday placed a particular emphasis on the extraordinary role of women in the story. It sheds a fresh and vivid perspective on the old story, which continues to be meaningful in every new generation.”
God’s healing for girls in Kenya Komesi Women’s Network (KWN) is based in West Pokot, a remote, rural village in Kenya. It exists to educate and empower girls and young women, supporting them to live free from cultural oppression. In June last year KWN partnered with Lifewords to bring Choose Life to the women they work with. Part of the work KWN do is around the practice of female genital mutilation (FGM) which is practised in West Pokot. This harmful procedure is usually performed on girls aged 12–18, but they can sometimes be as young as 5 years old. As a result of FGM, women very often encounter serious health complications and experience emotional trauma. According to UNICEF there are at least 200 million girls and women alive today who have undergone FGM. KWN uses Choose Life as a community rescue tool. “It has made our work easier,” says Susan, Chairwoman of KWN. “The girls say they now feel confident and equipped to make good choices when faced with issues like FGM. Choose Life’s Bible-based curriculum has also enabled us to help educate young boys about negative beliefs and making more informed choices.” 9
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A New Path Lifewords NINE BEATS project has opened up an alternative perspective on the beatitudes. Now a companion set of resources invites people in to a new way to practise a Jesus-centred way of life. Jess Bee reports. Over the past few years, Lifewords NINE BEATS initiative has been inviting theologians and thoughtleaders into an exploration of how the beatitudes present a framework for understanding the way of Jesus in contemporary culture, often reaching into spaces where formal church activities may not reach. “Our passion has been to help people apply Scripture – in particular the teachings of Jesus – to the struggles of everyday life,” says Mark Scandrette, theological advisor and companion of NINE BEATS. “Over the years, we have designed and facilitated experiences, retreats and workshops that help people put the life-giving words of Jesus into practice.”
PRACTISING JESUS’ WORDS Now a practical set of resources and training events have emerged from this deep work, including the Ninefold Path Notebook and Learning Lab Group Guide. These are becoming effective tools for communicating the essential message of Jesus in diverse audiences, cultures and ethnic groups around the world. From church leaders in Bristol (UK), to indigenous communities in rural Australia; recovery groups in California to aid workers in Bangladesh; so many are learning to put Jesus’ words into practice in a way that they haven’t done before. Training has been a key component of making this project successful. Whenever possible,
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Mark meets with a local team who will invite and host a training event. Local leaders are empowered and trained to take the resources back to their own community and lead people in a full, practice-centred engagement in the beatitudes. NEW PERSPECTIVES One group of people who have connected with the Ninefold Path resources is an Aboriginal community in Port Augusta, South Australia. Like many indigenous people groups worldwide, their experience and Christian heritage is rooted in “white patriarchy” and has often been at odds with their own traditions and culture. The Ninefold Path offers a Jesuscentred practice that reflects their own deep spirituality. Auntie Denise, one of the Christian leaders of the community, said that this was one of the first times a Jesus-message had come from the “white” people that made sense in their own culture. “The Ninefold Path helps us see Jesus in a new light,” says Auntie Denise. “Where Christianity arrived to tell us the ‘correct’ thing to think, the Ninefold Path helps us to see the way Jesus wants us to live. For us Aboriginals, that’s a much more powerful understanding of faith and practice.” For this group of Christians, the ideas of justice, mercy and radical love found in the beatitudes reflect an image of Jesus who enters a community with love rather than a sword, with liberty rather than oppression. This was the Jesus she had come to know over many years, but had never been able to articulate in a
way that made sense to both her culture and the Bible. FORGIVENESS AND HEALING Dan Hardie, Lifewords Australia Director, talks about his time with this group of people: “When Mark led the community through the Ninefold Path’s exercise on forgiveness and ‘The Way of Compassion’ the conversation hit a personal level where the community talked about broken relationships, marital betrayal, and financial conflict. It went deeper when someone raised the national crisis and issue of the way first nation people have been treated, and how the land has been stolen from them, ravaged and disrespected. This is a reality that is often never spoken about, so to engage with it in the beatitudes context was a wonderful opportunity. Here was a path which allowed for acknowledging harm, for lament, forgiveness, reconciliation – and a way to love and live together following Jesus. “The Ninefold Path is not an intellectual exercise – it is a way to be lived, a path to be walked. And for this particular community it has encouraged them in a practice-centred approach to faith. This approach has already helped bring healing and renewed understanding of what Jesus means in their context and culture.” To find out more about the Ninefold Path and to discover more about the album Nine Beats to the Bar by NINE BEATS Collective, visit www.9beats.org
Auntie Denise
PRAY Give thanks for NINE BEATS and the Ninefold Path, for the way they are changing perspectives. Give thanks for the way the Ninefold Path is impacting lives and bringing fresh understanding of God’s Word. Pray that more and more people would find peace, reconciliation and healing through following the Ninefold Path.
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A Year in the Life We are very thankful for all that God has done over the past year. Here are some of the highlights of our work in 2018. INDONESIA We trained 1,200 pastors to use our Bible booklets, The Visible Story and other Lifewords resources, reaching over 10,000 children, 3,000 of whom heard the Bible’s life words for the first time.
BIBLE LITERATURE Lifewords freely provided 1,222,524 copies of printed resources around the world in 2018 reaching 73 countries in 46 languages. We also added 20 new titles to our global language range, reflecting a 40% growth in orders from 2017.
OUTSIDE/IN We partnered with Biblica, Livability, and Torch Trust to develop a new and more accessible version of OUTSIDE/ IN, along with a BSL animation film. These partnerships led to a total of 132,000 copies of our Christmas resources being distributed.
“We’re so blessed and grateful for the generosity of people who donate to Lifewords, because it gives us an opportunity to freely receive these Bible booklets and help bring transformation.” Prison chaplain, Lesley 12
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EMERGING GENERATIONS Our NINE BEATS project continued to grow and develop, including the launch of the Ninefold Path Learning Lab Group Guide.
KENYA PRISONS Our summer appeal raised over £18,000 for our work in Kenyan prisons. Over 250 UK Lifewords supporters wrote personalised prayers to prisoners, which were of great encouragement to those who received them. “After reading the message from Isaiah 41:10 sent to me by Hilary, I felt that I can cope with this harsh life here in prison.” Kenyan prisoner on receiving messages from Lifewords supporters AT-RISK CHILDREN: PAVEMENT PROJECT We launched the Pavement Project app which is now being used in 11 countries by 38 trainers.
The Ninefold Path has been an amazing resource for our community. The combination of group and individual practice in the way of the beatitudes has been a transformative experience for our community of faith.” Revd Vince Anderson, Citylights Community, New York City, USA
INCOME AND EXPENDITURE IN 2018 Income: £2,009,977 Expenditure: £1,873,985 The full 2018 annual review, and annual report and accounts will be published next month. If you would like a copy of one or both of these please contact us. It will also be published online here: www.lifewords.global/about/ annual-reports/ Thank you for your ongoing support through sharing resources, prayer and financial giving. Join us as we continue in prayer for the next 12 months of Lifewords. 13
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GET INVOLVED LIFEWORDS AND YOU
Increasing accessibility “But with God, there are no outsiders. Everyone is invited in. Welcome into the story.” – Text from OUTSIDE/IN Last year, Lifewords set out to create more inclusive Bible resources, helping extend God’s invitation of welcome to everyone. “In an increasingly divided world, the story of Jesus’ birth is the demonstration of the gospel as an invitation to all,” says Lifewords UK Development Manager, Matt Currey. “We used Christmas as an opportunity to consider how many people might feel excluded from church services if the building, service or content simply wasn’t accessible. The challenge became an opportunity for us to get involved and do more.” Teaming up with Biblica, Livability, and Torch Trust, Lifewords produced a new and accessible version of OUTSIDE/IN. “Often Torch Trust finds that people with sight loss feel excluded, left on the edges of the action,” says Julia Hyde, CEO of Torch Trust. “It’s our mission to change that. So what better partnership than OUTSIDE/IN, which brings home just how important the people on the edges really are.” Over 132,000 copies of OUTSIDE/IN were ordered and shared last year in schools, prisons, services, hospitals, and events. Using an increased font size, OUTSIDE/IN is now in line with the Royal National Institute of Blind People standards. There are also resources in braille and super-large print, an audio CD, and a downloadable animation with voiceover and BSL signing. “By using more accessible resources like OUTSIDE/IN, churches can do so much to create a place of welcome for all,” says Colin Pilling, Assistant Director of Community Engagement for Livability. “With its careful consideration to invite all into the story, making for an accessible narrative, these resources will support more people to celebrate the Christmas story.” Thank you to all of you who ordered, shared and gave financially towards OUTSIDE/IN.
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CONTACT US
Building hope in the Philippines At times when we feel alone or excluded, God’s message of love and welcome can make a big difference. Lifewords supporters and partners all over the world are key to bringing this message to those who need to hear it. Jamaica is the director of Village of Hope orphanage in Bohol, Philippines. She ordered over 1,000 copies of Lifewords booklets, including An Invitation. “When we read this together, the kids said they felt like they were receiving an actual invitation to a party with God!” says Jamaica. “They all wanted to take a copy, and one asked me for extra copies to give to their teachers and classmates.” According to UNICEF there are almost two million orphans living in the Philippines – many of whom have been abandoned, abused, or exploited. “There is such an urgent need to bring God’s hope to our communities,” says Jamaica. “I’m so thankful for Lifewords creating and providing such engaging materials. They really speak to the children.” The team also shares Bible booklets in far barangays and islands, in cemeteries where people often visit, and in Muslim communities. “What was first a gift to us from Lifewords, is now a gift to them,” says Jamaica. “People are so touched and can follow the flow of each story through the simple photos and our story-telling sessions.”
Get in touch with the Lifewords global family. Find us online at www.lifewords.global, or contact your local office. AUSTRALIA
+61 437 705 947 australia@lifewords.global BRAZIL
projectoc@lifewords.global CANADA
+1 905 683 6482 info@sgmcanada.ca KENYA
+254 20 2730100 kenya@lifewords.global INDONESIA
+62 816714983 indonesia@lifewords.global INDIA
+91-80-25296587 india@lifewords.global POLAND
europe@lifewords.global UK & INTERNATIONAL OFFICE
+44 (0) 20 7730 2155 uk@lifewords.global 15
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NOTEBOOK
Mark Scandrette with Danielle Welch
“There’s a longing inside of us for another world, something better 14/06/2018 09:28
than what’s here right now – the beatitudes say there is a new way to
N I N E B E AT S C O L L E C T I V E
be human, another world is possible.”
MARK SCANDRETTE with Danielle Welch
MARK SCANDRETTE “The combination of group and individual practice ... has been a transformative experience for our community of faith.” REV VINCE ANDERSON, CITYLIGHTS COMMUNITY, NEW YORK CITY, USA
An initiative of
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