War Cry 25 January: selected articles

FILM Lionsgate

David adapts his identiy to fit in with his environment

Poor relation A

N idyllic childhood spent enjoying summers on a houseboat with his housekeeper comes to a brutal end when David Copperfield returns home and discovers that his widowed mother has married the monstrous Mr Murdstone.

So begins A Personal History of David Copperfield, a film version of Charles Dickens’s novel, which was released in cinemas yesterday (Friday 24 January).

When he is struck by his stepfather, David (Dev Patel) retaliates, which results in his banishment from the family home. He works in poor conditions at a bottling factory and takes up residency nearby with the genial but destitute Micawber family.

One day, Murdstone (Darren Boyd) and his cruel sister visit the factory to deliver some devastating news. As a result, David has to forge a new path for himself. He meets new friends and reunites with old ones as he seeks to scale the heights of society and live a life of prosperity.

Wherever he goes, David eagerly chronicles the most memorable phrases, quirks and qualities of the people he encounters. Through this process, he adapts his identity to fit in with every new environment.

David Copperfield wants to turn over a new leaf in his life, writes Emily Bright David wants to reinvent himself.

Understandably, he is desperate to leave the most painful parts of his past behind him. But his contradictory experiences of poverty after his upbringing as a gentleman leave him

A person’s status can rapidly fluctuate wondering where his true identity lies.

When he meets the mother of his schoolfriend, Mrs Steerforth (Nikki Amuka-Bird), she interrogates him on his past, demanding: ‘What is your background, Mr Copperfield, who are your people? Your family, are they anyone?’

He baulks at this, fearing that he’ll have to reveal his past of poverty and family separation. But as his life progresses, David learns that a person’s status can rapidly fluctuate and it’s the relationships that endure

through the hardest times that shape identity.

Throughout the centuries, many people have sought to carve out their identity on the basis of material wealth, status or relationships. When the adverse circumstances of life hit, such as when we experience bereavement, redundancy or mental or physical health problems, it can make us dwell on what we value the most.

In such times, some people can turn to their faith to sustain them and help them through. Christians believe that, no matter how bad life gets, there is one thing on which they can rely: the unconditional love and compassion of God, our heavenly Father.

Bible writer John says: ‘Consider the kind of extravagant love the Father has lavished on us – he calls us children of God!’ (1 John 3:1 The Voice). God offers us all the opportunity to root our identity in him, and receive the compassion, hope and peace he provides.

If we make the decision to put our trust in God, we can write a new chapter of our lives.

25 January 2020 • WAR CRY • 3

INTERVIEW PA

Tomorrow (Sunday 26 January) the music industry’s Grammy awards ceremony will take place in Los Angeles. JOSH GRIMMETT, nominated as part of the group Goodboys, talks to Sarah Olowofoyeku about his sudden rise to fame

Let’s hear it for the boys ‘I

and beyond what we could have imagined it was going to be.’

Goodboys, made up of Josh and Ethan Shore, are nominated in the best dance song category for ‘Piece of Your Heart’, a track by Italian production trio Meduza, on which they feature. Released in March last year, the song reached No 1 in the UK chart, and has been streamed on Spotify more than 400 million times and viewed 30 million times on Youtube.

‘Life has gone from zero to one hundred,’ Josh tells me over the phone.

‘I’ve just flown back from Atlanta this

morning, I’m going to a session this afternoon, and then I fly back to Norway tomorrow at 5 am.

‘It can become challenging. Jumping off a plane and going straight into something high pressure – like DJ’ing to thousands of people or a writing session with someone who six weeks ago I wouldn’t have dreamt of being able to associate with – is definitely taxing on you mentally.

‘If I was doing this on my own, I’d probably be hating it by now,’ he admits.

‘But I get to travel and make music with my best mate, so it’s awesome.’

Before the Grammynominated song was written, the then unnamed Goodboys were friends and were working for their church, Hillsong Central London, in the kids, worship and creative departments.

Everything changed at a staff retreat, when a church leader said God had told him something of what lay ahead for the boys.

‘The pastor told us we were going to start writing chart songs and that God was going to bless us with success,’ says Josh. ‘So we wrote a bunch of songs, and sent them to one of our friends. He loved them. Then we wrote some more songs with him, and he sent them to one of his friends, a DJ. ‘The DJ and two others came to London from Italy for a week, and we worked on a couple of songs together. At the end of the week, we wrote “Piece of Your Heart” and they decided to

If I was doing this on my own, I’d probably be hating it by now. But I get to travel and make music with my best mate, so it’s awesome Ethan Shore and Josh Grimmett

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Josh performing at Capital’s Summertime Ball at Wembley last year

release it under this new project, Meduza.

‘We were just trying to write something that would be catchy. We weren’t going to be a group. As a writer, I often sing for the demo versions of songs, then they get the actual singer to sing the song. But the people we were working with said, “We’d love to keep your vocals on the track”, and they asked what our artist name was.

We didn’t have one, but I texted my friend asking if we should make it happen, and here we are.’

Before the chart success, Josh and Ethan had been writing songs for their church for about six years. Though the church and the charts are two different worlds, Josh says that his approach to writing for both is similar.

‘A lot of pop songs are designed simply to be listened to. But coming from a church background where songs are designed for people to sing together, I want to make music that people can sing.

We craft our DJ sets so that people can be engaged, whether that’s clapping or singing.’

His experience of being part of a big church has also prepared him in some ways for the platforms that Goodboys are stepping on to.

‘My church background has given me confidence,’ he says. ‘I’ve spent my entire adult life leading worship in front of thousands of people every Sunday, and I’ve been fortunate to lead at Wembley Arena and the O2 for Hillsong Conference.

Courtesy of the Recording Academy™

JOE GRIMMETT

WAS in the studio, working on a song, and my phone was on silent.

When I checked it there were about 50 messages and 10 missed calls,’ says Josh Grimmett of Goodboys. ‘I knew either somebody was unwell or we’d been nominated for a Grammy.’

Josh describes the moment he found out that Goodboys had been nominated for a Grammy award as ‘pretty surreal’.

The duo, who formed only last year, are in the running for one of the music industry’s most prestigious awards. ‘It’s totally crazy. Last year was so much above

So when it came to our fifth Goodboys gig being at Wembley Stadium for Capital’s Summertime Ball, I could step out in confidence.’

While they are now also creating music for audiences outside the church, Josh believes that God is still a part of what they do.

‘This rise from nothing to where we are now doesn’t happen without God,’ he says.

And Josh’s faith and music are closely

linked. ‘I grew up in a Christian household and when I was 14, I got plugged into a local youth group and joined the youth band. I fell in love with worship music and leading worship.

‘Music is what kept me in church.

People are people and there are the stresses of church life, but music and worshipping God are what I’ve always loved.’

25 January 2020 • WAR CRY • 7

INTERVIEW

‘Her story and bravery mustn’t be forgotten’

Jane with the schoolgirls

To mark Holocaust Memorial Day on 27 January, PAM MITCHELL tells Emily Bright about the courageous actions of Scottish missionary Jane Haining, who sought to protect Jewish schoolgirls in Hungary from the Nazis

A

N estimated 11 million people, including Jews, political opponents, minority groups and members of the resistance, were slaughtered by the Nazis during the Holocaust from 1941 to 1945.

To ensure the tragedy would not be forgotten, representatives from 46 governments met in Stockholm on 27 January 2000, where they signed a declaration to ‘share a commitment to commemorate the victims of the Holocaust and to honour those who stood against it’.

Holocaust Memorial Day was born.

This year the day is particularly marking

Jane Haining

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the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau.

And next week an exhibition set to run at Glasgow City Chambers focuses on the life of a matron at the Scottish Mission School in Budapest, Jane Haining, who sought to protect Jewish girls under her care during the Nazi occupation of Hungary and who died at Auschwitz. The exhibition features photographs, documents, letters and artefacts from her life.

Pam Mitchell, a member of the parish church in Dunscore, the village where Jane was born, tells me more about the matron’s life.

‘Jane had a great love of books and a hunger for education,’ she says. ‘When she was 18, she moved from Dunscore to Glasgow with her two sisters.

‘In 1932, she saw an ad in the Church of Scotland magazine Life and Work for a post in the church’s mission among Jews in Budapest, and she applied.’

Her application was successful, and after quickly learning Hungarian, she joined the Scottish Mission School as a matron.

‘Jane had a strong Christian faith and a sympathetic heart for vulnerable children,’ says Pam. ‘She saw them all as God’s children, needing her love and care.

‘She lived out her faith, and the children would have seen that. She loved the Book of Psalms and told them Bible stories in the evening. I think she had a great influence on those in her care.’

But by November 1940, Hungary had

Pam Mitchell

signed a pact to join the Nazi’s Axis Alliance and stepped up its antisemitic policies. In 1941, the Hungarian government deported approximately 20,000 non-Hungarian Jews to Ukraine, where they were killed by the

If the children need me in days of sunshine, how much more do they need me in days of darkness?

Einsatzgruppen Nazi SS killing squads.

As Hungarian antisemitism worsened, the Church of Scotland implored Jane to return home for her own safety, but she refused.

‘She once said: “If the children need me in days of sunshine, how much more do they need me in days of darkness?”

She knew where she needed to be,’ Pam says.

She was prepared to give the ultimate sacrifice for what she believed ‘Jane kept the running of the place stable and the girls were certainly sheltered. I guess the older ones were probably very aware of what was going on, but she maintained the sense of peace and calm and helped them to get on with their education.’

While at the Scottish Mission, Jane also taught the Hungarian Jews the skills of domestic service in order to help them get out of the country and find work in Britain.

In March 1944, the Nazis occupied Hungary. Soon after, Jews were forced to wear a Star of David on their clothing, their movements were strictly controlled, and Jewish property and businesses were confiscated.

Pam describes Jane’s reaction: ‘When they had to identify the Jewish girls by sewing the Star of David on their clothes, she cried while she was doing it. She was fearful and did not know what was ahead.’

Within weeks of the Nazis occupying

the country, Jane was arrested by the Gestapo. ‘She reassured the girls she’d be back by lunchtime, but she wasn’t,’ Pam explains. ‘She was charged with crimes such as visiting British prisoners and crying when she sewed the stars on. Jane was taken to a holding prison in Budapest, but was suddenly gone from that place.

‘The school later received a letter from Auschwitz, telling them that she had died of intestinal catarrh, but nobody actually knows what happened. I suspect that she was eventually gassed like millions of others.

‘I’m sure she must have been a tremendous influence to people in Auschwitz at the time of her death in 1944 because of the strength of her faith and her

life experience. I think she would have helped a lot of people, right to the end.’

Jane’s sacrifice was commemorated when in 1997 she became the only Scot to receive the accolade of being named as one of the Righteous Among the Nations by the World Holocaust Remembrance Center, Yad Vashem, in Israel. In 2010, she was also awarded a Hero of the Holocaust medal by the British government.

Reflecting on Jane’s legacy, Pam says: ‘It was in her nature I think, a life lived in service. She was prepared to give the ultimate sacrifice for what she believed.

‘Her story and bravery mustn’t be forgotten. Holocaust Memorial Day is a time to remember what people went through and what they were prepared to give.’

25 January 2020 • WAR CRY • 9

EXPLORE Prayerlink 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

Galatians

Nigel Bovey gives chapter and verse on each book in the Scriptures

AVING visited the region during his H first evangelistic tour (see Acts chapters 13 and 14), the apostle Paul wrote this

words of this Law by carrying them out’ (see Deuteronomy 27:26).

Because the Law can only condemn and not cure, Paul argues, salvation is not a legal process; it is a spiritual transaction.

Paul goes on to explain that God sends his Spirit into our hearts and we become his

circular letter to congregations in Galatia, in modern-day Turkey.

He writes it because some believers are ‘turning to a different gospel’ (1:6). Some Galatian church leaders are insisting that non-Jewish converts follow the Law, which Paul’s argument is about God had given to the Jewish people centuries earlier, to the extent of being circumcised as a salvation. Are we saved mark of their new-found faith in Jesus Christ.

Paul reminds them that he was a traditional by doing good or by faith?

Jew who, having encountered Jesus, had become a Christian (1:14–16). Essentially, children (4:4–7). Such a relationship brings his argument is about salvation. Are we saved freedom. The law that counts is the rule of by doing good works, he asked, by being reli- love (5:6). The letter explains that the presgious or by faith in Jesus Christ? ence of God’s Spirit within a Christian is the Paul frequently uses the word ‘justified’. dynamic that empowers them to fulfil the Theologically, it means to be made right intention of the Law. Because God releases with God. the fruit of his holy nature within them, they Paul is clear: a person ‘is not justified by are able to resist the temptations of their sinthe works of the Law, but by faith in Jesus ful nature (chapter 5).

Christ’, because ‘by the works of the Law no Ultimately, what counts is not whether a one will be justified’ (2:16). person has gone through a religious ritual, To support his argument, Paul quotes the but whether they are a new creation – one of Jewish Scriptures.

God’s reborn children – through putting their He highlights the founding father of faith in Christ (6:15).

Judaism, Abraham, who, although circumcised, did not live under the regime of the Law but by faith, and yet was considered righteous by God. Paul refers to the teaching of an Old Testament s prophet that ‘the righteous will r uncircumcision mean ‘Neither circumcision no ’ live by faith’ (3:11). He cites on ati cre is the new anything; what counts the Law itself: ‘Cursed is anyernational Version) Int w Ne one who does not uphold the (Galatians 6:15

Key verse

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