TELEVISION
HE two-time Olympic medallist and former T world champion javelin thrower Fatima Whitbread stepped away from everyday life and
became a pilgrim for two weeks for BBC Two’s Pilgrimage: The Road to Istanbul. In the first episode of the series, which was broadcast yesterday (27 March), Fatima was joined by journalist Adrian Chiles, former politician Edwina Currie, comedian Dom Joly, actor Pauline McLynn, broadcaster Mim Shaikh and TV presenter Amar Latif. The group members had differing faiths and beliefs but set out together on the pilgrimage across eastern Europe. They walked along the Sultans Trail – a 2,200km modern-day pilgrimage, which starts in Vienna and ends in Istanbul. Formed just over ten years ago, it retraces an ancient path taken by the Ottoman armies when they were attempting to expand their empire. The route has now been transformed into a path of peace, with the aim of promoting tolerance between people of all faiths and none. The pilgrims began their journey in Belgrade, Serbia, and travelled to a monastery and a mosque. Reflecting back on the multifaith aspect of the pilgrimage, Fatima says, ‘I felt at home and at ease with it all.
GOOD FOR THE SOLE
BBC/CTVC/OLIVER ROSE
Adrian Chiles, Fatima Whitbread and Dom Joly walk the Sultans Trail on eastern Europe
FATIMA WHITBREAD tells Sarah Olowofoyeku how walking for 15 days on pilgrimage was an enlightening experience
The other celebrities on the trip were wonderful, and I found it fascinating that, we all, despite being successful in our own walks of life, need religion and faith in our – it was important to each of us.’ Faith has always been important to Fatima. Having been abandoned as a baby, she was introduced to Christianity in the children’s homes that she grew up in. ‘It was really hard for us in the home,’ she says. ‘Everyone was emotionally disturbed, crying for mummy or daddy. But I took on a mother role and used to give love to the other children. One of the ladies who worked in the home was an inspiration to me. She taught me to look after the other kids and about prayer. She was a Christian and gave me a cross on a chain. We went to Sunday
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Fatima Whitbread 28 March 2020 • WAR cry • 3
Seven celebrities with different faiths and beliefs embark on a pligrimage together
From page 3 school and I started believing and praying, and that became a part of my life.’ She also believes that helping others is part of her role in life. ‘I was taught that in giving you receive, so it’s always been important for me to help others. And in the times we are living in at the moment, if anything can be learnt from the programme it’s that, as a world, we have to become one and work together to support one another.’ On the pilgrimage, it wasn’t always easy to work together, but Fatima recognises that is the nature of being with others. ‘It’s always a challenge when you have a group of people because we’ve got different likes and dislikes. People get “hangry”, and there are times when the accommodation wasn’t what we’d expect it to be at home. But we all rallied round each other. We all had our issues and our own ways of dealing with them, but when you learn how people tick, you can embrace them and that makes life a lot easier. ‘I feel I’ve lived a life with big challenges,’ she adds. ‘But I’ve grown as a person from them as I did from the experience of the pilgrimage.’ Fatima is grateful for the opportunity to have journeyed along the path with her fellow pilgrims. But walking the Sultans Trail also offered her a unique opportunity. ‘The journey took me back to my heritage. Both my biological parents were Turkish,’ she
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explains. ‘When I was an athlete I always actively avoided going to Istanbul, but part of what drew me to the pilgrimage was the opportunity to visit there. I asked to meet a family and it showed me what life might have been like if I’d been brought up in a Turkish family. I was quite overwhelmed and a lot of things came rushing back from my past. ‘I’ve lived with being abandoned and left to die as a baby for years, and so to go back to where my biological parents came from was a good thing. It gave
I’ve grown as a person from this experience me closure. I’m grateful to the programme because I’ve benefitted greatly from that.’ While she was almost sixty years old before visiting Turkey, she was able to cope with her difficult childhood experiences as she grew up through sports and her faith. ‘Sport was one of my saviours in school, it enabled me to compete on a level with my peers, and to feel confident and good about myself. My belief also balanced out what I’d been through in the fundamental years of my life and it has stayed with me since,’ she says. ‘I believe that God deemed it right for me to have my life start in the way that it did and I believe that each of us have to deal with our experiences in the best way possible. For me, religion is very much a part of that and always has been. I pray every day. It gives me peace within myself and serves my soul – for me that is the most important thing.’
INTERVIEW
‘We all thought we were going to die that day’ SHIRLEY DONOVAN tells Emily Bright about the horrific experience of being kidnapped at gunpoint CALAMITOUS crashing woke medical A missionaries Shirley and David Donovan in their remote accomodation
in the Niger Delta. For 14 years, the pair had run a medical mission for remote riverine communities through evangelical medical mission New Foundations. In all that time they had never experienced anything like this. In the pitch black of night, Shirley listened to the sounds of intruders as they marched closer and closer and raided the rooms of fellow missionaries Alanna Carson and Ian Squire. ‘We heard the horrific noise of banging and shouting as a door near us finally gave in. We knew we would be next,’ she says. ‘Their faces were covered with black balaclavas so we could only see their eyes. They came bursting through our door with torchlights which shone straight in our faces. They had huge AK-47s and pump action shotguns. ‘They were very aggressive and violent as they marched us all out of the compound. It was the rainy season, so we were squelching
through the mud,’ she says. ‘They pushed us through the fields to the riverside and put us on a boat. ‘I started praying inwardly. I couldn’t comprehend what was happening but a strange calm fell on us. We did what we were told, there was no crying and no speaking. We just thought: “Okay, there’s no way out of this, we’ll have to rely on God.”’ Racing down the River Niger, the speedboat eventually landed at a small jetty miles from any civilisation. Clambering onto the platform, the hostages collapsed onto mattresses covered with mosquito nets. Totally drained of all energy, they slept. As dawn broke, their kidnappers approached and asked them what they needed. The hostages asked for bread, nuts and biscuits. Ian boldly requested a Bible and reading glasses. Amazingly, their captors returned with all the items, including a small red pocket Bible. ‘They also brought Ian’s guitar, which was really odd. Someone suggested that we should sing a chorus to lift our spirits. Ian played “Amazing Grace” and we all sang it together,’ recalls Shirley. Suddenly, the unthinkable happened.
They had huge AK-47s and pump action shotguns
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28 March 2020 • War Cry • 5
From page 5 ‘When Ian stood to walk towards us, a volley of shots rang out. He fell forward into our laps. I thought he’d fainted and patted his back. Then I saw he had been shot.’ Ian was killed by the gang’s leader, who was known as the General. Diving from the platform into floodwater, the hostages tried to hide from their captors. But the General spotted them. ‘He came with the gun he’d shot Ian with and told us to get up out of the water and keep quiet,’ Shirley remembers. ‘For the rest of that day, we were lying on our backs with Ian’s blood all over us. They interrogated us and made threats that if David didn’t answer their questions, they’d shoot him in the legs. They were taunting Alanna that she’d become one of their wives.’ In the immediate aftermath of Ian’s death, Shirley says they all entered a state of shock. ‘It felt like our minds got wiped, and we couldn’t process anything. We were very angry at our captors and, if we could have got hold of a gun, we would have shot them.’ Their kidnappers later demanded an impossible ransom of 1 billion naira, the equivalent of £2.3 million. During this time the captives sought support from each other and the Bible. Shirley said that the Bible had a transformative impact on the three missionaries. ‘It is a supernatural book. When we read the Bible out loud, it was like our minds were cleaned and washed by God’s word.’ During their ordeal, the missionaries prayed fervently to God for their freedom. But, as Shirley remembers, God seemed to have other ideas. ‘Within 24 hours we felt God saying not to pray for deliverance from the situation but instead to pray for deliverance in it. ‘He was clear. We had to forgive our captors or we would not survive the ordeal. We consciously prayed out loud for forgiveness for them so they could hear us praying for them.
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‘It was a battle because the men were all on drugs and they were irrational, angry and threatening. But God said clearly: “Do not look away from them and do not be afraid.” So we turned to face them.’ When the gang toyed with the trio, threatening to shoot them, Shirley was emboldened by her faith in God to stand up to them. ‘I said: “Look, if you’re going to shoot us, shoot us. But don’t play with us like this.” ‘I also said: “We are freer than you are. You think you’ve got us captive but we’re free because we’ve got our God and we don’t feel afraid of you anymore.”’ The missionaries even felt compelled to offer Bible studies to their kidnappers, and by the 21st day of their captivity, they had shared the entire Bible with their captors. The missionaries quickly realised that they had nothing left to say. Their living situation was becoming increasingly untenable with food supplies running low. They heard nothing for days after they had met an intermediator who was going to try to negotiate their release. They had no idea whether the ransom demand could be met and they feared that the General would simply cut his losses and kill them. ‘We looked around and thought: “They can’t sustain us here, this is really the end. They’re either going to have to shoot us or let us go.” We all thought we were going to die that day.’ During the ordeal, their captors played sexualised music 24 hours a day on stolen phones. They often took drugs, which would wear off in the morning and create an argumentative and aggressive atmosphere. But suddenly, on the final morning of their 22-day ordeal, the atmosphere changed. ‘Out of the blue, everything stopped,’ Shirley remembers.
We had to forgive our captors or we would not survive the ordeal
INTERVIEW
Shirley and David held health clinics in Nigeria ‘Their music and arguments stopped and a clear beautiful voice, presumably coming through the phone’s music player, sung the Christian worship lyrics: “God will make a way today.”’ As twilight faded into night, the gang punted two boats towards the pontoon. As the three captives got onto the boat life, vests were thrust into their hands, a precautionary measure which Shirley thought strange after shooting one of the group. After about an hour, the boat stopped.
Shirley recalls: ‘They pulled the covers off our heads and removed our vests and said: “Go, go, go.” We hadn’t been allowed to stand up for the whole three weeks so we could barely walk. We scrambled up the embankment to people with their hands out and they pulled us up. ‘There were private army trucks and a big 4x4 with a leather interior and air conditioning waiting for us. And would you believe it, God had made a way that day.’ Last year, Shirley and David published a book called Counting the Cost to share how their faith sustained them throughout their ordeal. Shirley explains that they quickly learnt that they had to rely on God in their darkest moments. ‘When we were kidnapped, we lost our freedom, we lost our self-direction and we lost our choice. God showed us that we had to rely on him. He became our deliverer in that situation. ‘I want to give a testimony of how real God was during that time. He is enough and we can depend on the living God as a reality.’
l Counting the Cost: Kidnapped in the Niger Delta is published by Christian Focus
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t c e f r e p Pitch SING only their voices, five guys from Birmingham U have performed on stages all over the world. The boys, Midé, Joe N, Josh, Joe B and Joe H, first met at
THE SONS OF PITCHES talk to Sarah Olowofoyeku about the career that is just right for them
university when they all joined a singing society called The Sons of Pitches. In 2015, they entered BBC Two’s Naked Choir show with a group of the same name. The programme was hosted by Gareth Malone and singing groups went voice-to-voice against each other. What Naked Choir was specifically for a cappella made the show unique was that all the groups. It was also specifically about groups performed a cappella. arranging songs under pressure during the When they were on the programme, some show, which was something we were used to of the boys had graduated from university doing, so it was a no-brainer.’ while others were still completing their Throughout the process, they didn’t know studies. ‘I was doing my finals whilst we who they were up against as the groups were filming the show,’ says Josh. were hidden away from each other. They Despite having to juggle between studies also didn’t get to hear the other groups and singing, the boys are convinced their featured in the show or get to see any of the opportunity on the television came at just the programmes. right time. As a result, they had no idea how well ‘It was perfect for us,’ Joe B explains. they were getting on in the competition. It ‘We’d always thought in the past about was a considerable shock to them when they auditioning for other TV shows, but The were crowned champions. ‘It was a bit bizarre,’ says Josh. ‘I remember being told we’d won on stage and we were all speechless. A few of us were welling up. After that, it was the first time any of us had encountered the surreal feeling of of walking down the street and being recognised.
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It was absolutely life-changing, and the best thing that ever happened to us as a group.’ Although there was no offer of a record deal or a large sum of money for winning the show, the experience and exposure they gained were priceless. ‘We got a trophy and a nice cuddle from Gareth Malone, but the main thing is that it shot off our career,’ says Joe N. ‘We now get to do what we love and sing every day.’ Since hitting the right note on The Naked Choir, the boys have performed at the NEC Birmingham, the Hong Kong International A Cappella Festival and at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. They have also embarked on five UK tours. ‘We do a mix of covers and originals,’ says Joe B. ‘The tours we do are themed, so recently we did one called Around the World. The majority of those songs are covers, but it’s world music. And in that set, we do a traditional worship song called ‘King of Kings’ by Ladysmith Black Mambazo.’ While Joe B emphasises that they’re not a Christian group, he recognises the Christian faith as something ‘that’s important to a lot of us’. Midé, the group’s beatboxer, says: ‘I got a grasp on beatboxing when I was about 16 and I always prayed that I’d be able to use it. And then this opportunity came out of nowhere, and I don’t feel like I could have done that by myself. This experience has been one big blessing. ‘Music is one of the first things that anyone really comprehends,’ he adds. ‘From age zero, I think babies react better to music than they do to anything else. And you build up nostalgia with it, whether it’s songs from your childhood, or songs from a game. You study to music, you listen to it when you’re feeling sad. Music can have a really profound effect on people.’ ‘We don’t do religious performances,’ says Joe B. ‘But we love the community feel, so we have done Christian festivals and public performances in churches.’
INTERVIEW
Music can have a really profound effect on people Joe H says: ‘Our shows are very familyfriendly and inclusive. A lot of us have strong Christian morals so that has shaped where we are now.’ These values come through as the boys do more than just performances. ‘We do workshops with church communities and church choirs, as well as schools. We love to spread our gift with as many people as possible,’ says Joe H. Both passing on their talents and performing is something that the boys feel privileged to do. ‘Often we’re quite surprised that our music has affected people so much,’ says Joe B. ‘Coming off stage and hearing somebody say to you that a specific song or chord structure meant something special to them is amazing.’ Josh, Joe B, Joe N, Joe H, Midé
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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 Prayerlink requests to warcry@salvationarmy.org.uk. Mark your correspondence ‘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
Philemon HE apostle Paul’s letter to a man T called Philemon is personal and unlike his other letters in the New Testament.
Paul is elderly and he writes from prison in Rome. The story so far is that one of Philemon’s slaves, Onesimus, who originally came from Colossae, ran away from his master, met Paul while he was in prison and became a Christian. Although Paul would like to keep him, he is sending him back to Colossae and Philemon. He now writes, in effect pleading for Onesimus’ life. The Roman Empire was founded on the backs of slaves and supported by slavery. Under Roman law, a slave was the master’s property. An escaped slave was regarded as a fugitive and a thief (effectively stealing himself from his master). If caught, a runaway slave would be punished and branded, or, if the master chose, killed. Now that the slave and the master have experienced the same new life through faith in Christ, Paul asks Philemon to treat Onesimus not according to his legal right but rather with Christian mercy. Just as Onesimus has become as dear as a son to Paul (10), now that he is a brother
in the faith, Philemon, should treat him as a brother and not as a slave (16 and 17). Paul asks Philemon to welcome Onesimus as ‘you would welcome me’ (17). With a cheeky reminder that Philemon owes him his own life, Paul tells him that if he has suffered any financial loss because of Onesimus’ temporary absence, he will recompense him in full (18 and 19). To modern ears, the concept of slavery is appalling. Why, we wonder, did Christians have slaves? Why didn’t Paul teach that
An escaped slave was regarded as a fugitive and a thief
Christians should release their slaves and that slavery was an offence to God and to humanity? In other letters, Paul does challenge the status quo in his advice to Christian slave owners, reminding them that God has no favourites, they are to respect their slaves and not threaten them (Ephesians 6:9). They are to provide slaves with ‘what is right and fair’ (Colossians 4:1). Rather than deal with what modern-day readers would regard as a political or humanitarian issue, Paul focuses on the change in attitudes , us im es On n so my and actions that should be evident in ‘I appeal to you for s’ ain ile I was in ch the life of everyone who becomes a who became my son wh ) on ational Versi ern Int follower of Jesus Christ. w Ne 10 n mo ile (Ph
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