Interact Jan 2016

SGM Lifewords — Freely sharing the Bible’s life words since 1888

Life to the Full Supporting HIVpositive young people in Kenya

Issue 1 2016

Flowers on the Rubbish Dump Life words at the margins in Brazil

Contents

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Life to the Full Supporting HIV-positive young people in Kenya

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News The latest news from the SGM Lifewords global family

10 Flowers on the Rubbish Dump Life words among the marginalised in Barrio dos Flores

12 Life-shaping Words The vision behind VerseFirst

14 Five Stories About ‌ The impact of literature ministry across the world Interact Issue 63 / 1 - 2016 Editorial team: Jess Bee Danielle Welch Steve Bassett Design: S2 Design & Advertising Ltd Print: Yeomans Creative Interact is published in the UK by SGM Lifewords Ltd, CN. 05908817 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 SGM Lifewords global family of organisations (see page 14)

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‘‘

Accept the word God has planted in your hearts, for it has the power to save your souls.

But don’t just listen ... You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves.

Danielle Welch Executive Director SGM Lifewords

‘‘

James 1:21-22, NLT

So I’m delighted to read the stories on pages 4–7 about how our Choose Life programme has helped young people in Kenya apply the values they read about in the Bible to their lives.

Read how teenagers like Nancy – living with HIV – have taken very practical steps as a result of exploring the Bible: “I learnt that I can choose life or death,” she says, “I chose life … Now I take my medication faithfully, I’m healthy and stronger.”

On pages 12–13 you can read about how our VerseFirst programme is shaping up, engaging young people in reading the Bible every day via social media. Again, our aim is not just that young people read the Bible, but that what they read shapes their day, their minds, their hearts, and who they are in the world. “Don’t just listen … do what it says.”

Thank you for all your support and involvement – please keep praying with us for the impact of the Bible’s life words around the world.

Welcome

Welcome to another edition of Interact. As you read, I hope you hear echoes of this verse from James in the stories that are told. We are really passionate about this one thing: that the Bible brings life when we put the teaching and truth it offers into practice in our lives. It is never simply a book of knowledge to be learnt in our heads; it is a library of stories, conversation, poetry, history, wisdom … which we pray inspires all who hear it to faith, love, service, and relationship with the living God.

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Life to the Full

Jane Magondu

In Kenya, where many children find themselves orphaned as a result of HIV/Aids, one special project is helping them choose to hold on to life. Sammy Kamore reports.

Sammy Kamore

“The virus can cast a long shadow: alongside the physical symptoms comes low selfesteem and selfcondemnation”

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“God is great. I am alive today because of Choose Life. I learnt that I can choose life or death.

God gave me a chance to choose – I chose life.” Nancy* Nancy lives in Nairobi, Kenya, she is 16 years old and is HIV positive. The virus can cast a long shadow: alongside the physical symptoms comes low self-esteem, self-condemnation and, in Nancy’s case, a reluctance to take her antiretroviral medication in the hope that she would die sooner.

But the light of God’s love and hope expressed through the Choose Life Bible programme has offered Nancy and others like her the chance to live life to the full.

HIV IN KENYA Since the first case of HIV was diagnosed in Kenya in 1984, the epidemic has evolved to become one of the major causes of mortality in the country, placing huge demands on the health system and the economy.

HIV/Aids affects all sections of society: children, youth, adults, women and men; and is responsible for an estimated 29% of annual adult deaths and 15% of deaths of children under five. At the end of 2013 around 1.6 million Kenyans (3.6% of the total population) were living with HIV. Kenya has an estimated 88,620 new HIV infections among adults and about 12,940 new infections among children annually.**

A PLACE OF HOPE Nyumbani (Swahili for “home”) was one of the very first orphanages set up to care for children living with HIV/Aids.

Started in 1992 in the southern part of Nairobi, Nyumbani aims to provide comprehensive care and support for children, their families and communities. As the scale of the pandemic has steadily worsened, what began as a small home housing just three children has grown into a centre caring for over one hundred, ranging in age from newborn to 23 years old.

The home takes in children from all over Kenya, and some from neighbouring countries too. Younger children are cared for in “families” of 14, with

children from 6 months to 11 years old. Male and female carers act as “fathers”/”uncles” and “mothers” in cottages that represent a “normal” family and home environment. When they reach their early teens the children move on to single-sex youth accommodation within the Nyumbani compound. Here they learn how to look after themselves, cooking and doing household chores. The very young children attend a preschool at Nyumbani while the older children go to local schools.

The adult carers are carefully recruited to assume a parent role in the lives of the children and to act as mentors, seeking to develop self-esteem and dignity, as well as supervising them to take their medication, and caring for them if and when they fall ill. The children at Nyumbani are orphans, having lost their parents to HIV/Aids and many having then been abandoned by the rest of their families because of their status. The carers offer support as the

“Many young people face the daily challenges of living with HIV: losing their parents to Aids, being abandoned by their families, dealing with the stigma of the disease”

Ash Wednesday at Nyumbani

PHOTOGRAPH: HUGO CHITTENDEN: WWW.THEVOLUNTEER.COM

Many young people face the daily challenges of living with HIV: losing their parents to Aids, being abandoned by their families, dealing with the stigma of the disease. But an orphanage and its dedicated team of carers is giving hope and a reason to live to these young people.

WORKING WITH THE COMMUNITY The orphanage found it was unable to provide direct support for the growing number of HIVpositive children in the Nairobi area, so Nyumbani launched a communitybased outreach programme, Lea Toto (Swahili for “to raise the child”) in 1998. Lea Toto workers established a comprehensive support programme which enables HIV-positive children to remain with their caregivers in their communities. Among other things, they provide medical and nursing care, counselling and psychological support, spiritual guidance, and practical help for those families struggling with basic needs.

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young people deal with all that has happened to them and work with their families to re-establish relationships.

“What we do here is to give children hope and to show them they have somebody”

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SOMEBODY, SOMEWHERE Jane Magondu is one of the “mothers” at Nyumbani with specific responsibility for the older girls. She talks about the life-giving work they do: “What we do here is to give them hope and to show them they have somebody, somewhere, because they are the children who don’t have parents. We care for them from when they are babies.

Some come when they are in a very bad situation, they are very sick, they cannot even move. But

by God’s grace they are growing well and have a positive life.”

Part of the support and education Jane and others at Nyumbani provide is through Choose Life. The SGM Lifewords’ programme is used to help the carers address some of the issues facing the children they work with. Originally designed for classroom use – and with the HIV pandemic in mind – this curriculum-based series of resources looks at biblical values and how they are reflected in everyday life. One particular concern at Nyumbani is helping the younger children uphold the values of Choose Others, showing care for each other and living in peace together. Another key issue is helping the older children deal with their status and their place in society.

Jane uses Choose Life with the older girls at Nyumbani.

They work through the material in an informal, peer-to-peer setting where the girls can chat and socialise while discussing the issues and challenges that are addressed through the

material. “They have a lot of faith and hope [as a result of Choose Life],” says Jane. “They no longer see death; they see progress and long life. They even aspire to become significant people in the future.”

A LIFE WORTH LIVING The Choose Life themes have also helped create a positive culture at the home: “It’s common practice for the boys and girls to remind one another to choose life, choose peace, choose right as they go about their day-by-day business,” says Jane. “Even the community around us, including their schools, envy our children – they have become so orderly and humble.”

But it’s not just a change in day-to-day attitudes – these teenagers are looking to their futures. One headteacher told Jane that no one would be able to tell that the Nyumbani children have a life-threatening disease after hearing about how one of the girls declared to her class that she believed she would become a doctor and have a family in the future.

Referring to some of the young women attached to the school, he said, “My girls now live ordinary happy lives. I am not surprised they are dreaming and making ambitious declarations – all I can say is their dreams are valid. They will live long to achieve them!”

The consequence of these positive choices reverberates not just at the home and at school but also in the local churches where the young people help set up, and participate in the services. One churchgoer said, “They exude restored self-worth and selfconfidence.” Another said, “I can

see the healing demonstrated by their restored dignity, open interactions and glowing faces.”

A BRIGHT FUTURE But the real testimonies to the power of God’s Word are heard from the children themselves.

Young people who once had very little to live for and whose futures were bleak. Choose Life has given them hope and a sense of responsibility for their lives and those of the people around them. Choose Life helped Nancy change her perspective and hold on to life: “I learnt that I have to love myself as I love others,” she says. “I now take the medication faithfully, I’m healthy and stronger.”

Another girl, Grace*, shared that she has chosen to let boys know that her focus is in her studies not sexual relationships.

She knows every choice she makes has consequences: “I want to be like Joseph,” she says. “He refused and ran away from Potiphar’s wife.” She says there is high peer pressure at her school as many girls and boys are sexually active. She opts to read that passage (from one of the Choose Life booklets) again and again to remain strong.

Tom*, a young teenager, says he is careful about his love life because he wouldn’t want to infect someone by not disclosing his status. “I have a girlfriend,” he says, “but ours is not a sexual relationship because I fear the Lord and Choose Love has taught me that cool love waits.”

THE ONWARD JOURNEY Choose Life is part of the legacy that Nyumbani offers its children. It is empowering more and more young people as they transition in life and journey through the different phases of their daily experiences, including sickness and recovery. Through the dedication of both staff and residents, Nyumbani hasn’t lost a single child to HIV in the past seven years. The partnership of the caregivers and Choose Life, and the tenacity of the children, has sown the seeds of possibility at Nyumbani and set the foundation for changed lives.

“They are dreaming and making ambitious declarations. Their dreams are valid – they will live long to achieve them!”

Go to www.youtube.com/ lifewords to see Jane talking about life at Nyumbani.

* Names have been changed. ** Information and statistics taken from Kenya HIV Country Profiles (National AIDS Control Council, 2014); Kenya AIDS Response Progress Report (National AIDS Control Council, 2014).

PRAY WITH US I

Give thanks for the amazing work of Nyumbani. Thank God for all the children who have hope for the future as a result of this special place.

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Praise God for the impact of Choose Life and the way it is instilling biblical values into the hearts of the children at Nyumbani.

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Pray for the ongoing programme that it would raise more and more children to follow Jesus.

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World News

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Spiritual healing SGM Lifewords has been approached by one of the leading Christian hospitals in India to use its resources with patients and staff. Christian Medical College Vellore, in Tamil Nadu, has 2,300 beds with recent daily outpatient numbers exceeding 8,000.

The hospital’s mandate is to care for patients’ physical needs; but the doctors, nurses and healthcare workers are also involved in sharing the good news of Jesus, and find that using Bible literature is an effective means of reaching out to patients. In addition to one-to-one interaction with the patients there are resource racks in areas where patients and their relatives wait for diagnostic tests, treatment or operations.

“Since we have patients from different parts of the country and from neighbouring countries, language is often a handicap,” says Dr Chandra Singh who is part of the hospital’s missions department. “We are in need of good quality literature in Bengali, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and English so that we may effectively communicate the gospel.”

Translation of new material – including Finding Hope in Hindi and Way To Life in Tamil – is underway.

Please pray that the Bible’s life words will bring hope and truth to patients and staff alike.

Serving the elderly Teenagers at Thrive Church, Sydney have inspired SGM Lifewords Australia to launch a campaign of serving the elderly. The youth group visit a local nursing home to sing, read Scripture, play cards, and pray with the people there. Dan Hardie, SGM Lifewords Australia Director, says: “This act of service makes a huge gospel impact and we want to help others do the same with our Serve-a-Senior campaign.”

Serve-a-Senior invites supporters to identify people in need and offer practical help – for example mowing the lawn or some light DIY, or a chat or a game of cards. Then also to share God’s Word through reading the Bible together and offering relevant booklets.

People are already reaching out to the elderly in their communities. Rob from Campbelltown, NSW, visits an elderly gentleman: “He loves the Scriptures but is losing his sight,” says Rob. “So I’ll often read to him.” Bec, from Victoria, and her Bible study group visit a retirement home once a month.

“We felt that there’s no point studying the Bible every week if we never do anything about it,” says Bec, “so we study for three out of four weeks and then go and love some elderly. Many are widows and never have visitors.”

Find out more about the Serve-a-Senior campaign visit www.sgmlifewords.com/australia.

As stories about the refugee crisis in Europe fade from the news cycles, on the ground the situation remains unchanged.

Every day thousands of migrants are leaving their homes in search of a better, safer, more stable life.

Many of these travellers are leaving behind war, famine and poverty. They have suffered loss, trauma and despair.

Across Europe SGM Lifewords supporters are offering these vulnerable people love and hope through practical help and God’s Word. Pastor Viktor from Subotica, Serbia, says: “Every day thousands of migrants from the Middle East and Africa are moving towards the West through our city. We are helping them with food, water and other needs.” They have also been offering the refugees booklets from the SGM Lifewords current Arabic range: An Invitation, Jesus: An Introduction and Daily Strength.

In Haaparanda, Sweden, Jouni and Sirkka Leinonen have been using these same booklets to reach out to refugees from Iraq and Syria. The SGM Lifewords UK office has also received calls from supporters wanting to order resources to include in relief efforts alongside practical aid.

We are translating and printing new material in Arabic – Picking Up the Pieces and Who Cares About Me? – both designed for one-to-one use with those who have suffered severe trauma. There is still time to offer your financial support for this. Find out more about how you can help by visiting www.sgmlifewords.com.

PHOTOS: © TINY.CC/SYRIA FREEDOM

Supporting refugees

Training for mission Last September the SGM Lifewords team in Indonesia had a busy month travelling all over the country training pastors and leaders in how to share the Bible in their communities.

At the beginning of the month they took a mobile mission to Sanggau, West Kalimantan where they met many pastors, teachers and church leaders. “We were able to train them to use our booklets,” says Gunar Sahari, SGM Lifewords Indonesia Director. “Many of the pastors face difficulties in their ministry; some of them serve among very poor people in rural places, so it was a great time of encouraging each other.”

Gunar also trained around 35 pastors from West and Central Kalimantan where Gereja Kristus Yesus Synod (Jesus Christ Church) runs a training programme for pastors. “This was a good opportunity for us to share our booklets and programmes,” says Gunar, "and many of the pastors want to invite us to do the same thing in their villages.”

Later in the month Gunar and the team took another mobile mission to South-East Timor where they visited several high schools to share the gospel as well as visiting some very poor villages.

Gunar was also able to train SGM Lifewords board members, pastors and people from other organisations in how to use The Visible Story.

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Flowers on the rubbish dump On the outskirts of a Brazilian town a marginalised community is being welcomed into God’s family through Christ-like compassion and practical help. Jess Bee reports.

Jess Bee

“David tells me that his dream is to learn how to read” BAIRRO DAS FLORES Residents of Bairro das Flores make their living by scavenging rubbish from the nearby dump. They collect shoes, clothing, bottles, paper, cardboard and metal to sell. They earn around £2.50 a day. They also survive by eating food that they find in the dump.

The environment is a dangerous one, with criminals regularly targeting the community, stealing their vehicles and possessions.

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“David*, an eight year old boy sits down next to me before our church service starts,” says Holly Vieira. “He tells me that his dream is to learn how to read and that he already knows some of the letters of the alphabet. He tells me that he sometimes gets sad because he’s the only one in his family that wants to know God. He shares that he doesn't like it when his mom drinks and he worries about his six-year-old brother who is only interested in playing and not even in going to church.

“I tell him the story of King Josiah, who became king when he was 8 years old. Josiah decided to walk in the way of the Lord. I tell my young friend that even though he only is 8 years old too, that he can also know God and serve him, and choose to do what is ‘right in the eyes of the Lord’. We pray for his family and that God would help him

walk in the ways of the Lord, starting now.”

LOVING THE MARGINALISED Holly Vieira, and her husband Marcelo, work for Projeto Mãos Que Criam (Project Creative Hands). This ministry serves the people of Bairro das Flores (the Neighbourhood of Flowers), a community based around a rubbish dump in the small town of Benevides, Brazil. Through various ministries and SGM Lifewords resources, the team reach out to children like David and their families.

Creative Hands was started in 2006 to share the gospel and also to improve the living situation in Bairro das Flores, which is marginalised by the town. While many churches do not welcome people from the community, one is reaching out to them and including them as

LEARNING TO READ There is a low literacy rate in the community but Holly and the team are seeing the situation improve with many children now attending school and even some adults returning to complete their grade school education.

SGM Lifewords resources are a huge help in engaging people with the Bible and also in helping them improve their literacy. “Many of the participants of our ministry struggle with reading comprehension,” says Holly, “so we are beyond thankful for SGM Lifewords Bible booklets.

The easy to understand truths shared in the material and the illustrations help capture readers’ attention.”

DISCOVERING GOD’S LOVE Creative Hands uses Bible booklets in various areas of ministry, from distributing material while doing outreach events, to handing them out in church services as part of the teaching. “When we visit the recycling cooperative and the garbage dump,” says Holly, “we read the booklets as a group, opening up discussion about the Lord and his desire to have a relationship with us. We are always overjoyed when people approach us afterwards asking if we can spare a booklet for them to pass along to a family member or neighbour.”

For children like David whose living situation could point to an uncertain future, Creative Hands is offering hope and life beyond the rubbish dump. Through compassion and practical help the people of Bairro das Flores are learning to read, discovering Jesus’ love and being included in God’s family.

Holly Vieira

“SGM Lifewords resources are a huge help in engaging people with the Bible”

PRAY WITH US

* Name has been changed.

PHOTOGRAPHS: CREATIVE HANDS

part of their family. Espaço Emanuel works with Creative Hands to serve the people of Bairro das Flores through a preschool group, Bible studies, soccer training, English classes, children’s clubs, men’s and women’s groups, one-to-one discipleship, home visits, and church services. “Our hope and prayer for the community is to see many transformed by the love of Christ, to see people confident in the Word of God, active in prayer, and in meaningful fellowship with other believers,” says Holly.

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Praise God for Creative Hands and Espaço Emanuel. Give thanks for their compassion and welcome to the people of Bairro das Flores.

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Please pray for all the initiatives that the project runs to serve the community. Pray especially for what they’re doing in helping and encouraging people to learn to read.

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Ask God to speak to the people of Bairro das Flores as they read his Word – pray that they would know his love, hope and transformation in their lives.

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Life-shaping Words After a successful UK launch of VerseFirst with new people signing up every day, Danielle Welch asks, what’s the point of a daily verse?

Danielle Welch

“What if we could plant one thought in our mind out of which to live each day?”

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Last summer a team from SGM Lifewords UK took VerseFirst to Soul Survivor, introducing it to a crowd of young festival-goers.

This daily Bible-sharing tool – which features Instagram-based snapshots of the Bible – has grown rapidly since launching on Facebook and Instagram 18 months ago. Its mix of striking images and creatively presented Bible verses got young people at the festival connecting with and sharing God’s Word online.

VerseFirst has emerged at a time when Bible engagement among young people is statistically in decline; yet it’s also a time when millennials are interested in exploring spirituality, seeking authentic ways of living out their faith.

As a starting point for deeper encounters with the Bible, the

project taps into this sense of spiritual hunger. Emma Braund of VerseFirst says, “For young people the Bible is often thought to be irrelevant and boring: that’s a huge hurdle for them to overcome if they are going to engage with it. Through the Soul Survivor launch, we were able to invite more young people to get involved in reading and sharing the Bible, both on and offline.”

At the time of writing there are 14,500 followers on Instagram and Facebook. The numbers are growing all the time with more and more people reposting, sharing, commenting, and interacting with the posts.

THE BIG IDEA The “get your inspiring verse in the morning” kind of approach to the Bible can be easy to

knock: it encourages a fragmented view of the Bible; it doesn’t clue us in to the big story; it turns reading the Bible into a series of positive motivational messages, and it just picks and chooses the “nice” verses.

So what are we doing with VerseFirst?! Well, firstly, we all start somewhere, and VerseFirst began in one youth group in Sydney, with a leader who wanted to get his young people started with reading the Bible – by texting them a verse to think about each day. For young people who have never picked up a Bible (and when they do, put it down again pretty quickly) this seemed a good place to start. It’s not the only way we want to read the Bible, but it’s somewhere for us to begin. That text message quickly turned into a social media message … and VerseFirst was born.

STARTING THE DAY Many of us look at our phones and check our social media feeds before we do anything else in our day, so now

VerseFirst is a way to make the Bible part of the first thoughts in our day. A simple – even single – Bible verse becomes a potentially powerful thing. What if we could plant one thought in our mind out of which to live our day? What if that was a reminder of how Jesus calls us to be in the world? Or a challenge to the false scripts in our head, re-setting them afresh each day. “Love one another”, “What good is it for you to have faith if your actions don’t prove it?”, “Jesus said give money to the poor and you will have riches in heaven.”

Here begins reflective practice – engaging with a thought or teaching, and letting it shape our lives.

It’s not the only way to read the Bible. It’s not necessarily the place to stop and be satisfied.

But it’s a good place to start – with a verse a day, and a resolve to put what we read into practice. Join in at www.instagram.com/versefirst or www.facebook.com/versefirst.

PRAY WITH US I

Give thanks that there are many ways that we can read and engage with the Bible. Praise God for new technologies that allow us to share the Bible with more and more people in a variety of ways.

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Pray for the young people who are encountering the Bible for the first time through VerseFirst – ask God to speak to them and guide them in their journey with him.

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Pray for the artists and designers who are involved in the project (all young adults). Pray that they will be inspired by the words they read, and ask for the Spirit’s inspiration as they interpret the text with the images they create.

HOW WE DO IT We spend time thinking about the verses we post. We try to post things that are uncomfortable and honest, as well as things that are easier for us to hear and good for our souls. We try to build a picture of what it means to live as a disciple of Jesus.

“Post-literate” generations are primarily visual in the way they think and feel and interact with the world – so the images are not just “extras” – they’re an integral part of how we engage with the thoughts and emotion expressed in the text.

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stories about… sharing the Bible BRAZIL Felix Albuquerque is a port chaplain in Brazil working at Port of Santos with seafarers from around the world. “I have the privilege of evangelising people from countries which are closed to the gospel’, says Felix. “Your resources help me to take the good news to these closed countries.”

INDIA Samuel Mani Kumar reaches out to Hindus and Muslims in India. He also takes the gospel to every college student in his area using our resources. “Literature was distributed in schools and colleges,” he says. “Nearly 100 students and 10 teachers responded wanting to know more about Jesus Christ.”

FRANCE One supporter from France gave Daily Strength to an elderly man who was due to have an operation in hospital. He continues the story: “The man was so happy and gave his life to Jesus. When I saw him two months later he said to me that the doctors said there is no need for further treatment. The old man is looking better and better every day.”

POLAND Mariola Fenger shares our Bible resources in a centre for victims of crime. She told us about the impact they have: “People are more willing to talk, they are motivated to change their lives and their families.”

UGANDA A group in Uganda give our resources to Congolese refugee pastors and evangelists who use them for outreach among the Congolese refugee community there.

A lot of people have been encouraged and touched mainly because the community (more than 100,000 people) have very limited access to Bible materials in French, Swahili and Lingala.

CONTACT US Have you got a story to share of the Bible’s life words at work? Get in touch with the SGM Lifewords global family. Find us on the web at www.sgmlifewords.com, or contact your local office.

Australia: +61 437 705 947

Canada: +1 683 6482

Indonesia: +62 816 714 983

Poland:

australia@sgmlifewords.com

info@sgmcanada.ca

indonesia@sgmlifewords.com

europe@sgmlifewords.com

Brazil:

Kenya: +254 20 2730100

India: +91-80-2529 6587

UK (International office):

projectoc@sgmlifewords.com

kenya@sgmlifewords.com

india@sgmlifewords.com

+44 (0)20 7730 2155 uk@sgmlifewords.com

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RESOURCES IN ACTION

A closer look at our Bible resources and how they make a difference

Easter Resources Maybe you’re wondering whether there’s something your community could do at Easter this year? Or perhaps you want to make sure that no visitor leaves your Easter services without understanding Jesus’ death and resurrection. Take a look at our Easter resources to see how you can share the Bible’s life words.

“We showed the films in church, instead of a Bible reading.

The different format helped people sit up and notice.”

EASTER JOURNEY A series of one minute films depicting the journey from Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday. They can be viewed one a day or together at the end of Holy Week. Available on DVD or online at www.youtube.com/lifewords.

Postcards also available to go with the films.

MESSIAH: THE EASTER STORY A beautiful booklet for Easter services. Written with church visitors in mind, this is a moving account of Jesus’ last week on earth, using the Bible’s own words.

WITNESS: EASTER VOICES A brilliant conversation-starter with student and youth groups, this pocket-sized resource powerfully brings together quotes from those involved in the Easter story – from Pilate to Judas Iscariot.

ONE FRIDAY Working in partnership with ONE FRIDAY, this new booklet tells the story of Good Friday through the stations of the cross. Designed to give away at public performances and events. Find out more about the campaign at www.onefriday.info.

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“I laid copies of Witness out in the refectory and invited students to say which quote they most identified with. They engaged with it really well and we had a great discussion.”

ONE FRIDAY is encouraging local inter-church and community groups to do something different in 2016; something unique and public that will engage your community in retelling and reflecting on the story of the Passion of Jesus. Visit www.onefriday.info to find out more about how you can get involved.

Order resources, browse our free downloads and find out more at www.sgmlifewords.com 15

A PASSION FOR YOUR COMMUNITY What is your church doing to bring the Easter story to life?

On Good Friday the story of the Passion will be told in new and challenging ways in the streets and communities of the UK. From exhibitions to performances or processions, ONE FRIDAY can help you do something unique and public that will engage your community with the Easter story.

SGM Lifewords has partnered with ONE FRIDAY to produce a brand new Easter booklet that tells the Easter story.

Visit www.sgmlifewords.com to order the One Friday booklet.

Visit www.onefriday.info to inspire your mission project and download resources to adapt to your context.