Here is an interview I did with Rev Andrew Brandon at the recent JEANS event in East London. Download Revandrew.mp3 (12286.0K) I asked him what the church could do practically about the current problem of gun and knife crime.
Here is an interview I did with Rev Andrew Brandon at the recent JEANS event in East London. Download Revandrew.mp3 (12286.0K) I asked him what the church could do practically about the current problem of gun and knife crime.
On Saturday I attended a conference in Leyton, East London run by the Adonai Amdassadors Assembly called "Make The Difference" The bit I attended was the launch of JEANS (Joint Effort Advocating New Society). It was great that they had managed to engage local community groups like the Police, their Local MP Harry Cohen and the deputy Mayor of Waltham Forest. The speaker for the day was Rev Andrew Brandon
who works with gangs, and he shared insights from his work. I also managed to interview a young rap band called "da fellowship" who are dedicating money from their latest EP to victims of the China earthquake. Check out their myspace page. All these interviews will probably come out on trax16 in October. On Sunday Irfana and I took our youth group to Clapham Baptist church where Pastor Les Isaac was preaching. He is a good friend of Andrew Brandon's and was responsible for setting up a street Pastoring scheme in south London. I chatted with him afterwords and he too will be included on October's trax16.
July 28, 2008 in CMS, trax16, Youth | Permalink | Comments (0)
On Sunday Mike North and I ventured down to Rochester Cathedral to interview young
people from the Rochester area at an event called Angel Space. Illyos and Vitalek, two Tajik breakdancers who are on tour with CMS over the Summer joined us and entertained everyone with their back crunching routines and a workshop for anyone who wanted to ache the next morning. It was also an opportunity for people to find out what Tajikistan and breakdancing have in common and how they have both been called into mission in this unorthodox way (excuse the pun) We will be featuring this event in trax16 next month.
In our 25th edition of trax16, we are celebrating our second anniversary! Join myself, Mike, and Anita as we look back over the last year, remembering the best interviews and other highlights. It’s also been a year of hearing from christian musicians, and this month we have new music from The Steels. Also check out etrax this month where we look at Paul's Urban Encounter in Athens and hear about an opportuntiy to have an Urban Encounter in Birmingham
April 01, 2008 in CMS, e-trax, trax16 | Permalink | Comments (0)
On our recent Free For All trip to Sierra Leone we took our MP3 recorders with us and interviewed Mohammed a YMCA volunteer who fled to Freetown during the civil war, children from our Free For All performance, Verity a CMS Missionary doing health work
as a physio and Zoe from the team who meets family from Sierra Leone she never knew she had. We also have footage of a trip to King Jimmy's market, a historical site where slaves were loaded on to ships 200 years ago. Check out Voices from Sierra Leone on tikhtak's youtube. You can also hear them featured on our trax16 for January. In this picture I am interviewing Mohammed, the YMCA volunteer while Anita interviews Verity. The interviews were not all carried out on the beach!
January 28, 2008 in CMS, e-trax, Free For All Tour, Sierra Leone, trax16 | Permalink | Comments (0)
Yesterday I visited the A Rocha offices based in Southall. A Rocha is a word for rock in Portuguese and the organisation combines their Christian faith with having a concern for the environment. John 3:16 "For God so loved the world (Cosmos) that he gave his one and only Son." I interviewed the UK director Dave Bookless and the education team who you can hear on February's trax16. Although it was my first visit to A Rocha in Southall I had visited an A Rocha project near Bangalore, India, where they manage an area where elephants and human both co-habit. It has been good to see two very different A Rocha projects at work.
January 18, 2008 in CMS, e-trax, trax16 | Permalink | Comments (0)
After spending a very enjoyable Christmas with my Mother and Father in law it was time to say goodbye. They were returning to an unstable Pakistan just two days after the assassination of Benazir Bhutto. Before leaving home for Heathrow we sat down to pray for the practicalities of the journey and especially being able to find transport from the airport in Lahore back to their home. Their school minibus driver was unable to get petrol as no petrol stations were open and with all public transport being halted; there was no straightforward way home.
With no options my wife Irfana drew our attention to her daily bible reading notes for that day 29th December as a source of encouragement:
“And the Lord said, surely I will be with you.” Judges 6 16”
We prayed together and took this verse as God’s promise that he would be with them. After a tearful farewell at the airport we parted with a little faith and apprehension. The next morning we received a phone call from them both praising God for his faithfulness. When they arrived at the airport there were some taxis still running and so they hailed one expecting to pay 4 or 5 times over the normal fare. To their surprise the taxi driver had no intention of over charging them and in fact he asked for 200 rupees less than they normally pay. They got home without any problems.
As we step into 2008, we too don’t know what lies ahead but we can all take God’s promise from Judges 6: 16 with us: “Surely I will be with you”
(This is my latest etrax post for 2008 inspired by recent events).
Perhaps one of the highlights of our time in Sierra leone was being shown around King Jimmy's Market in Freetown. It is situated on one of the best natural harbors in western Africa and hence the reason why it led to the city’s founding as a refuge for freed slaves in 1787. Now it is a functioning market but also situated in a very
deprived part of town. Anita, Mike and Myself were taken on an inpromptu tour by a few of the traders from another market nearby. Mike bravely snapped the pictures and you can see them on my flickr Otherwise check out this video, which gives a tour around the market with some of the history by local commentators. Also see all our pics of the Free For All project and our time in Sierra leone. Here is a picture of Nash one of our guides. As we travelled through the area we picked up more and more guides along the way, but we kept close to our trusted market guides.
December 10, 2007 in CMS, Free For All Tour, Sierra Leone, trax16 | Permalink | Comments (0)
Trax16 arrived at the greenbelt christian arts festival with press pass in hand, to
bring you as many top interviews as we could!
in this month’s podcast, you’ll hear from Tajik break-dancers to English buskers, from Greenbelt punters to pop stars, such as Delirious. We asked all the same question. What to them is Heaven in the Ordiinary. Check out both the trax16 podcast and etrax for this month to find out.
September 05, 2007 in e-trax, trax16 | Permalink | Comments (0)
How does ‘change’ make you feel? trax16 delves into the uncertain world of change this month, and asks young people around the country what changes they are going through. We find out about a book that helps you change the world for a fiver, and speak to two people from Derby about changes in their lives.
Get inspired to make a change in the world by hearing from Zach Hunter – a 15-year-old American lad who is making a real stand against modern day forms of slavery.
Music this month from Don Thomas. Also click on etrax to get the monthly thought that goes with Trax16.
July 30, 2007 in trax16 | Permalink | Comments (0)