| Back in the sunshine |
Ben Austin is 38, lives in the Canary Islands with his Christian wife and two children and serves in leadership at an  English-speaking church.
It sounds an idyllic lifestyle – but Ben’s come a long way from the dark times in his past.
Damaged by his parents’ divorce when he was young, drugs took over his life – but the father who walked out on his mother when Ben was only four was to be the means of his restoration.
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| Hungry for faith |
 The Bible has changed Jiang’s life: to be precise, his father’s Bible. “During the Cultural Revolution we hid it under the bed to keep it safe,” he recalls.
Today, everything’s changed. Forty-five-year-old Jiang Yuchun distributes 100 Bibles each month to churches from his Nanjing-based Christian bookstore. He stocks 1,500 different titles and even on a cold winter day, people are constantly coming in to buy. He says he could distribute far more Bibles a month i
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| Getting stuck in |
Bren Nixon became a Christian four years ago – but that was only the beginning of his story
I became a Christian in April 2006 during a Christianity Explored course and soon after I was baptised and became a member at Beacon Lough Baptist Church, Gateshead. Many things have happened over the last four years, but two in particular have been extremely important to me.
Not long after my baptism there was a Christian initiative in the North East called NE1. The aim was to mobilise Chris
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| Assault on poverty |
 They weren’t robbing from the rich, but they were certainly trying to help the poor and needy.
Sherwood Forest saw a band of merry men – and women – doing their bit for under-privileged children the hard way recently.
The project began when the Revd Andrew Spademan of Leamington Pentecostal Church organised an assault course challenge to raise money for children in Eastern Europe through Siloam Ministries. In the end Andrew and his team raised almost £800 for this
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| News in Brief |
S TREET PASTORS LAUNCHED IN TOWER HAMLETS RECENTLY.
The church-led initiative operates around London and in many other parts of the country. Volunteers hit the streets in the evenings when the pubs and night clubs are in full swing, and help support vulnerable people – especially young people. They’re trained in how to calm them down when they’re aggressive or upset, and they’ve been responsible for huge falls in the crime rate where they operate – a massive 95 p
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| Prayer |
God, thank you that even when 
I’ve reached the end of all I can do,
when I don’t know where to turn,
who to ask for help,
or how to get out of the mess I’m in,
you are still there for me.
When I see only endings,
help me see a new beginning.
When I feel only pain and sorrow,
help me learn how to rejoice again.
Lead me to your green pastures and still waters.
In Jesus’ name,
Amen.
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| Lurgashall |
I’d no plans except to live in a borrowed tent and write a book.
Presumptuous? Well, yes; but I was young; and a rebel.
After all, it was the Swinging Sixties and I hated the way work squashed you into a nine to five mould. It stole your identity and turned you into a number on a clocking-in machine. And all you did was to perform tedious tasks for someone else’s profit.
So I opted out. And, since dad was on his way to Chichester to sell office stationery, he offered to d...
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| Changing lives for good |
Alexander McLean is only 24 – but the charity he founded at the age of 18 has helped improve the lives of hundreds of prisoners in Kenya and Uganda, and throughout Africa.
Based in Uganda’s capital Kampala, the African Prisons Project (APP) has built or refurbished libraries, clinics and health centres in prisons throughout both countries and further afield.
Alexander was led to start APP when he travelled to Kampala to do some voluntary work in a hospital before studying law
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| Making sense of life |
N ow a Christian is a five-week, email-based introduction to the Christian faith. This study looks at our place in the universe.
A man fell over a cliff and, half way down, managed to grab hold of a shrub and break his fall. Dangling precariously, he looked first up, then down, and realised that if he was going to survive he would need a miracle. Lifting his eyes to the heavens, he shouted, ‘Is there anybody up there?’
To his amazement, a voice inside his head whispered, &lsqu...
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| Finding my faith again |
I am in my late forties, married with four wonderful children and a loving wife. In so many ways life has been good to  me.
I was born in the 1960s into a Roman Catholic family of eight. We lived in Dublin, Ireland and like most of our neighbours at that time attended Mass regularly. The rules of the Church and what it preached could not be questioned. I felt good as a child being Roman Catholic as it appeared that God was going to save only Roman Catholics.
In my teens, as the outside wo
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| Name that child |
 ‘What’s in a name?’ Shakespeare asked.
Well, quite a lot – and anyone struggling to find a name for a new baby knows how hard it can be. Writer Martin Manser has uncovered the Bible origins of many familiar names. Here are some drawn from the top 10 boys’ and girls’ names in 2010 so far:
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| ASK Y |
Where God-questions are put to the test This month’s question…
Christians claim the evidence about Jesus is solid – so why do so many people doubt it?
If we dig deep to look at why it is reasonable to trust what history says about Jesus we find lots of solid reasons to do so.
To name just a few: What was written was by those who were there at the time, or talked to those who were. It was written down close enough to the event for anyone to have been able to say &lsq...
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| Christians Against Poverty |
 While many people look forward to the summer, for parents this can present an annual challenge of how to keep children entertained without breaking the bank. Here are some suggestions for cheap summer activities.
1. If the weather’s good, take a picnic to the local park or wood. The novelty of eating outside can be enough to get your children excited! Take a frisbee, a football and some books, and you’ve got a whole afternoon of fun. Your local council’s website will have i
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| Cycling Challenge |
 They’ll be on two wheels or two legs – but either way they’ll be covering miles, and raising money for a good cause too.
Christian Aid is mounting two challenges this September.
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| Making time for your family |
 Research done during National Family Week last year seems to show that many of us want to spend more time with our families. Over 3,000 parents and children took part in the survey, with 62 per cent of children saying they spend less than 45 minutes a day doing things as a family – that’s less than five hours a week, including weekends.
When it comes to leisure, only five per cent of families say they play sports together, three per cent say they read together, and just two per c
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| Feeling Good |
Style guru Gok Wan is famous for his no-nonsense advice to women about how to look good. But a trainee Church of  England vicar has gone one better.
Sheila Bridge has written How to feel good Naked, with the subtitle ‘Learning to love the body you’ve got’.
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| Food, glorious food |
 Food is a great way to bring people together, and a group of women in Leicester have joined forces to bring their favourite recipes into one book.
Published by Christians Aware, Food, Festivals and Faith has mouth-watering dishes from Christians, Hindus, Jains, Buddhists and others.
Here is a recipe for kubbah, which is made by Christians in Iraq, and contributed by Mazin Farjo.
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| World Cup Star - Legrottaglie |
| Nicola Legrottaglie has been a rock in the centre of the Juventus defence for six seasons. His most memorable game  for Juve was in the Champions League. “We played Real Madrid in the Bernabeu and won 2–0. It was a wonderful match. I think that it will be remembered for a long time, and to have been a part of it brings me much joy and satisfaction.”
He is approaching 20 appearances for Italy. He has already played in South Africa in the 2009 Confederations Cup. “The ga...
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| God in the Changing Room |
Imagine! You love foot ball, you love your local club and you love God. So what could be better than becoming the club chaplain?
Derek Cleave lives in Bristol and, football-wise, Bristol is divided into Red and Blue – Bristol City and Bristol Rovers. Derek grew up in Bedminster, just up the road from Ashton Gate, the City ground. He’s a City fan.
He didn’t plan to be a chaplain but he’s been there for 27 years now, longer than any other personnel. He’s witnes...
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| CultureWatch DVD Review |
 An Education
Certificate 12
Invictus
THE MID-90s brought incredible change in South Africa. When Nelson Mandela became president in 1994, he was determined to work for reconciliation rather than taking revenge for the injustices of apartheid. Invictus tells the story of one part of his efforts to build the ‘rainbow nation’ during his first year in office.
As Mandela (Morgan Freeman) comes to power, the national rugby team, the Springboks, are suffering a string of humil
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