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21 September 2019 • WAR CRY • SPORT 3 Japan score a try against South Africa during the 2015 World Cup
IN
POSSESSION OF
HOPE D
REAMS of global glory kicked off for rugby fans yesterday (Friday 20 September) with the start of the World Cup. Twenty teams are in the running for the coveted Webb Ellis trophy. The 48-match tournament, which will be broadcast on ITV, includes fixtures for England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland, and runs until 2 November. Reigning champions New Zealand, who have won the last two tournaments, will aim to consolidate their success. But it seems this World Cup will be one of the most closely contested to date. Retired England women’s rugby player Maggie Alphonsi explained to ITV: ‘This is going to be the most competitive, unpredictable and entertaining World Cup we have ever seen. It will be a tough one to call. Many teams have already shown they are capable of winning the Webb Ellis cup, but, come tournament time, anything can happen.’ Host nation Japan will look to make their mark after causing a major upset in the last World Cup in 2015. They beat strong contenders South Africa 34-32 in the group stages, scoring their winning try in the last minute of the game and shocking followers of the
r Rugby underdogs try fo Emily Bright World Cup title, writes sport across the world. Rugby fans may have been surprised, but – outside South Africa – many will have enjoyed the spectacle. We can often sympathise with and even support life’s underdogs, cheering them on as they face impossible odds. Their achievements are all the
Many teams have already shown they are capable of winning more remarkable when their humble beginnings are considered. They make for amazing stories. One underdog story chronicled in the Bible is that of an ancient Israelite called Gideon. He was an ordinary man, but God called him to do the extraordinary job of rescuing his fellow countrymen, who were struggling under oppression from an enemy people.
Feeling as if he did not qualify for the task, he was understandably reluctant to tackle it. He asked God: ‘How am I supposed to deliver Israel? My family is the weakest in the tribe of Manasseh, and I am the least of my family.’ But God asserted: ‘I will be with you’ (Judges 6:15 and 16 The Voice). With God’s support, he was able to overcome the challenges he faced. In our lives, it can feel as if circumstances kick any hope for our future into touch. It can seem that, no matter how hard we try to tackle our problems, we are getting nowhere. We may feel unqualified to defeat the challenges that we face. However, God offers us all a relationship with him. If we let him into our lives, he can be on our side, working in our weakness. He will provide love, peace and strength when we need them the most. God can convert us from a state of helplessness to one of hope.
8 INTERVIEW • WAR CRY • 21 September 2019
‘Children in Syria are as precious as my own’ SARAH OLOWOFOYEKU
SAMARA LEVY talks to Sarah Olowofoyeku about following the tug on her heart to help people in Syria willing to die in Syria if that’s ‘ILevy’Mwhatsaid you want.’ That is what Samara to God, a few years after
Samara Levy
Children were wearing flip-flops in the snow
starting an aid organisation. ‘I’d been praying about whether to go,’ she says. ‘I said to God: “I’m sure you don’t want me to go and die there, but if you do I’m willing. As long as I know it is your will and not just some crazy idea that I’ve had.”’ Some years earlier, Samara, a mother of two young children, began to feel unsettled about what was happening in Syria. ‘At Christmas in 2013, I was shocked by reports of children wearing flip-flops in the snow,’ she says. ‘I looked at the pile of clothes that my baby had outgrown and thought I should be sending them to Syria.’ Convinced that she needed to take action, Samara sent out old clothes from her home in the UK, but knew that it wasn’t enough. She decided that she would gather clothes from other people, but hit a wall when it came to sending them out to Syria. Samara became frustrated when she
could not get the clothing into the country, and so decided to put the idea to one side. But she could not get away from thoughts about helping Syria. ‘I’d think about sending the clothes again, but feel frustrated because I didn’t know how to do it,’ she recalls. ‘The last straw came when I saw a photo of a baby that had been beheaded by Isis. I wept on my husband’s shoulder. ‘Later I cried to God, saying: “I don’t care what it takes, I don’t care what it costs me. Just use me.” I felt like he told me to start collecting,’ she says. ‘That was the third time in eight months I’d had that instruction, but it felt then as if God was showing me that the timing was right. ‘I sensed him promising that if I trusted him and took the step of faith to start collecting, he would open all the right doors and provide everything I needed. Suddenly I had this determination in my heart. And then it all snowballed from there.’ Samara’s Aid Appeal has now sent some one million kilograms of aid to Syria, and provided for half a million people. It has also sent medical equipment and ambulances. A small field hospital was
21 September 2019 • WAR CRY • INTERVIEW 9
Samara in Deir Ezzor, Syria, where bombings destroyed homes established to help those who couldn’t get to the one in the city. Now plans to build a multimillion-pound hospital, offering specialist services lacking in the country, are under way. About a year after the work had begun to develop, Samara wanted to visit Syria
Explosions are like fireworks, but you know they’re not fireworks and meet the people for whom her heart had been so wrenched. ‘People here told me not to be crazy. They said I didn’t need to go and people would understand because I had two young children. But I didn’t feel satisfied with that,’ she admits. ‘I felt in my heart that I needed to go, so I put it in God’s hands.’ As she made plans, though, nerves
began to settle in. ‘I felt quite anxious about it,’ she says. ‘As I sat with my children, the “what ifs” crept in. “What if something did happen? My children are so precious – what would happen to them?” But I knew that was why I was going – because those children in Syria had lost their parents. They were as precious as mine, and if my children were in that situation I’d hope someone would be willing to sacrifice something to help them.’ Since her first trip, Samara has travelled to Syria many more times. On one occasion, in addition to seeing the unthinkable situation Syrians were facing, she experienced something of it. Samara woke up one night to the sound of explosions. ‘They were so loud,’ she recalls. ‘They came closer and closer. I was terrified. It’s like going to a firework display. When you’re right underneath fireworks, they’re really loud. Explosions are like that but more so, and you know that they’re not fireworks. ‘I had this tightness in my chest all
night, and no amount of trying to make myself relax worked. It was humbling. I realised that when you’re in that situation, you don’t think straight at all. Many refugees flee without any documents, and before, I’d thought: “It doesn’t take long to pick up documents, does it?” But when you’re under attack, you don’t think about anything like that. You pick up your children and you go.’ Samara shares such personal lessons and the stories of her experiences in a book, Rebuilding the Ruins. ‘It’s easy to think that Christians who do this sort of thing are like saints and everything is perfect in their lives,’ she tells me. ‘But I’m definitely not a saint and I’m full of imperfections. I wanted to tell the story from a human perspective and give people the courage to step out and do what God calls them to do.’ l Rebuilding the Ruins is published by Hodder & Stoughton
10 INTERVIEW • WAR CRY • 21 September 2019
Living on a prayer Campaigner EMMA WEAVER explains to Emily Bright why she is encouraging people to try praying
T
HE Archbishop of Canterbury does it. So do film stars Chris Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence. In fact, according to a 2018 survey commissioned by Christian charity Tearfund, 51 per cent of the UK public admit they’ve given it a go. People of all faiths and none are praying. One Scottish charity, There is Hope, is helping people to pray by providing a step-by-step guide. Emma Weaver Founder David Hill wanted to create a resource for non-Christians, so he launched the Try Praying campaign ten years ago. just give one to a family member or ‘He came up with the idea of a work colleague.’ very simple, subtle seven-day guide,’ Try Praying has created books for explains Try Praying development primary school children, teenagers, co-ordinator Emma Weaver. ‘It’s a adults and prisoners, and has booklet which includes the stories of expanded into various sectors across people who’ve said a prayer, showing the UK. how God came in and helped them. When an army chaplain discovered There are Bible verses and stories that the guide, he arranged for 500 copies replicate each person’s testimony.’ to go out with a battalion that was Emma says that the campaign’s leaving for a tour of duty. A nightclub appeal lies in its accessibility. manager in Dundee approached the ‘By having a Try Praying book in their charity to come and pray for clubbers, pocket or handbag, people can easily and rival establishments have since share it at community cafés, food asked for prayer visits too. banks and church outreach groups, or The resource also made a dramatic
difference to someone’s life when a woman walking in a park heard a noise in the trees above. She spotted a man attaching a rope to a branch and
The campaign’s appeal lies in its accessibility learnt that he had a drug and alcohol addiction, having been living with a mental illness for a long time. He’d wandered out of a psychiatric ward, and the emergency services were called. Emma says: ‘When he was being
21 September 2019 • WAR CRY • INTERVIEW 11
Try Praying
Try Praying advertisements are going up across the UK put in the ambulance, the lady gave him a Try Praying book. She encouraged him to read it and said that she’d visit him in a couple of days. He told her he would use it for his roll-up cigarette papers. She said: “Fine, but read it first.” And she gave him a Bible as well. ‘The man read the booklet, and within two or three days he said that he wanted to be transferred to a specialist rehabilitation centre.’ He was told that he’d be on the waiting list for months, but a bed was found for him four days later. Within two weeks he was free from alcohol and drugs without any withdrawal symptoms. The campaign is steadily gaining recognition through its bus advertisements and posters placed across the walls of train stations and ticket barriers. According to a survey commissioned by Try Praying, more than half the people living and working in Edinburgh recognised its logo, banner and posters. In April, 500 churches across the UK took it upon themselves to promote the campaign. Next year, Try Praying is planning to extend its poster campaign into some of the UK’s largest cities. Emma is convinced that the availability of prayer to everyone is an essential message for today.
‘There is so much stress and desperation in the world,’ she says. ‘We need hope. We need to know that there’s something bigger out there that can help us. ‘When people see the campaign as they’re going about their daily business, I hope they think: “Maybe I should try praying, I’ll give it a go, I’ve got nothing else to lose.” When they read the guide, they begin to ask questions and start that conversation with God.’ But what happens when prayers don’t seem to elicit an answer? Emma believes that God does respond, just not always in the way that we’d expect. ‘Sometimes we need to step back and say: “Has God really not answered your prayer? Or did he just give you an answer that you didn’t want?” His answer might be yes, no or not now.’ So how exactly do you start a conversation with God? Emma believes that the key is to keep it simple. ‘Many people think that prayer is such a complicated thing,
We need to know there’s something bigger out there that you have to quote Scripture and come out with all these elaborate words when talking to God, which you don’t. God just wants you to talk to him like a friend.’ And Emma is keen to emphasise that, just like a friend, we can speak to God no matter how we are feeling. ‘God doesn’t mind if you shout at him – that’s all part of a relationship. It doesn’t matter if you’re angry, if you’re hurting, if you’re crying. Just come to him and know that he loves you.’
12 INNER LIFE • WAR CRY • 21 September 2019
Prayerlink YOUR prayers are requested for Hefin, who is in custody, awaiting a court case; and for Anthony, who hopes to be admitted into a rehabilitation centre on his release from prison. The War Cry invites readers to send in requests for prayer, including the first names of individuals and details of their circumstances. Send your requests to Prayerlink, War Cry, 101 Newington Causeway, London SE1 6BN. Mark your envelope ‘Confidential’.
Becoming a Christian There is no set formula to becoming a Christian, but many people have found saying this prayer to be a helpful first step to a relationship with God Lord Jesus Christ, I am truly sorry for the things I have done wrong in my life. Please forgive me. I now turn from everything that I know is wrong. Thank you that you died on the cross for me so that I could be forgiven and set free. Thank you that you offer me forgiveness and the gift of your Holy Spirit. Please come into my life by your Holy Spirit to be with me for ever. Thank you, Lord Jesus. Amen Extract from Why Jesus? by Nicky Gumbel published by Alpha International, 2011. Used by kind permission of Alpha International
Nigel Bovey gives chapter and verse on each book in the Scriptures
Zephaniah EPHANIAH is prophesying durZ ing the reign of Judah’s King Josiah (640-609BC). When he was 20 years old
(632BC), Josiah began to purge Judah of false idols (2 Chronicles 34:3) before introducing wider spiritual reforms. Zephaniah’s mentioning of the gods Baal and Molek (1:4 and 5) and of the future destruction of Nineveh (2:13), which occurred in 612BC, suggests that he prophesied about 50 years before the fall of Jerusalem. Zephaniah’s overriding theme is God’s judgment. Because of people’s wickedness, divine retribution will fall on the whole earth (1:2 and 3), on Judah (1:4 to 2:3), Jerusalem (3:1–7), neighbouring nations (2:4–12) and Assyria (2:13–15). The mention of God’s jealousy (1:18) echoes the Ten Commandments, where God reveals himself as ‘a jealous God’ (Exodus 20:5). In God’s case, ‘jealousy’ does not mean petty, pouting envy, but signals that he
expects single-minded and exclusive devotion from his followers. Worshipping other ‘gods’ is an offence in God’s eyes. The charge sheet on Jerusalem also includes oppression, rebellion, arrogance, treachery and profanity (3:1–4). God’s judgment is characterised by the concept of ‘the day of the Lord’. God’s day of sacrifice and punishment is near (1:7–9). It will be a day of ruin, distress,
In God’s case, ‘jealousy’ does not mean petty, pouting envy
darkness and death, when riches will not save the wealthy (1:14–18). It will be the day of God’s anger (2:2 and 3). It will be the day when God assembles the nations and when ‘the whole world will be consumed by the fire of my jealous anger’ (3:8). As well as retribution, it will also be a day of restoration. God will still be in Jerusalem (3:5). He will remember ‘the meek and humble’, who ‘trust in the name of the Lord’ (3:12). He will rid his people of their enemies (3:14–17). He will the ‘The Lord your God is with you, restore his people. God tells them: 3:17 niah ‘I will restore your fortunes before Mighty Warrior who saves’ (Zepha your very eyes’ (3:20). New International Version)
Key verse
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