| Counting the cost of clothing |
 How one woman’s passion for justice is driving her business By Mark Woods Can what you wear really save the planet? Probably not – but, says Annette D’Oyley, it can help.
Our furry and feathered friends need all the help they can get nowadays, and the businesswoman and designer is doing her bit.
Her children’s clothing company Animal Tails was set up to provide garments that don’t just look beautiful, but which send a message – and help people in the d
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| Chatbible |
A brand new way of studying the Bible has been launched by a minister in Teddington. 
For people who haven’t got the time or have the inclination to wade through long books or sit through long meetings, Richard Littledale has launched Chatbible. It’s a weekly Bible study forum using Twitter, meaning that contributions must be 140 characters or less.
He says that the format could be a real advantage. “There’s no room to be deeply theological. It concentrates the min...
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| Patois Pentecost |
 A Jamaican Creole Bible hits the streets of Hackney, writes Richard Franklin
Elsa Palmer listens intently as a new audio version of Luke’s Gospel is played over the speakers at Christian Life City Church in Hackney in East London. Elsa is hearing the Bible in Jamaican Patois, the language spoken by five million people around the world, but until now never used for the Bible.
Forty-eight-year-old Elsa is a nurse who lives in Hackney, but is determined to stay in touch with her Jamai
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| Crafting a future |
Businesswoman Catherine Trillo is using her expertise in furniture and textiles to give damaged women a fresh start,  writes Grahame Anderson
A bohemian lifestyle in ’80s London certainly appealed to North Shields-born Catherine Trillo.
But away from the mix of talented musicians, free thinking artists and adventurous friends, the 21-year old had her darker moments.
“Taking a Bible, hammer and telephone to bed was a necessity living in a bedsit in a troubled part of the cap...
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| Safe into harbour |
Kieran Banks was a young sailor without a thought of God when his life changed
I left from the dockside in Belfast at the age of 16, desperate to realise an ambition I’d nourished all through High School – to join Her Majesty’s Royal Navy! Looking back now at the age of 50, I consider the five years I spent in the RN to be among the best in my life.
My first ship was HMS Ark Royal, an aircraft carrier, which I joined by helicopter from RAF Lossiemouth in 1975. The ship h
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| News in Brief |
It’s the most famous river in the Bible – and possibly in the world. But the river Jordan, where Jesus was baptised, is on  the verge of drying up completely, environmentalists say.
A joint Israeli, Palestinian and Jordanian scientific team says large stretches of the river could dry up by 2011. Much of what remains isn’t pure, but is made up of sewage and farm waste.
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| Little Children |
We were talking after a round of golf. Well, I call it golf; really we were just trying to hook and slice our way to the eighteenth in under ninety. I was telling Jim I had a column to write.
“Write about my kids, then,” he said. He’s got three; Cory, and the twins, Ozzie and Kim.
I stifled a yawn. “I’m not sure that’s the sort of thing...” But he was off; and I ought to warn you here; Jim’s a Christian. Actually, he’s a vicar too.
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| Canada to Kenya |
How one couple’s tragic early lives have led them to a ministry of hope
A Canadian couple who’ve “been there and worn the t-shirt” have sold all their Western possessions to live in Africa to steer youngsters away from drink, drugs and promiscuity.
Greg and Renee Plunkett didn’t even have a guaranteed home when they left for Kenya in March with the vision of setting up a youth centre and coffee house for some of the world’s most deprived people.
But
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| Sword of the Spirit |
 Christian author Kevin John Saitta has just published his first novel – and Sword of the Spirit is designed to raise funds for a leading charity.
Compassion UK works through sponsoring children in the developing world, and Kevin, a qualified youth worker, is donating at least £1 from the sale of every book to the charity.
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| A Prayer |
God, there have been good things and bad things in my life. 
Sometimes in the bad times I want to blame you, though it isn’t really your fault.
Sometimes in the good times I just forget you, and that isn’t fair.
Please forgive me for the times I’ve messed things up, and hurt other people or hurt myself.
Please come into my life and change me.
Fill me with joy, and help me to live a life that’s worth something.
Amen.
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| Cycling full circle |
Some people celebrate their 50th birthday with a big party. But Astrid Domingo Molyneux decided to cycle round the  world.
Three years later she was welcomed back to her home in Almondsbury, South Gloucestershire, by a cheering crowd including local MP Steve Webb, one of her supporters.
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| Blown away by God |
 Paul ‘Dayper’ Hill’s life was going nowhere – until he started to read his Bible
I grew up with two sisters and mother on the Alton estate in Roehampton. At 13,000 people it is one of the biggest in Europe.
I’d had a very dysfunctional relationship with my father, and at 13 my grandmother died, so I went off into sex, drugs and raving, ’cos rock n’ roll wasn’t my thing.
By the time I was 14 I wasn’t at school any more. I was hangi
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| ASK Y |
Where God-questions are put to the test
This month’s question…
Couldn’t the followers of Jesus have just imagined he was alive after the crucifixion
The claim that Jesus came alive after being crucified is too far-fetched. Perhaps his followers just imagined it because they were expecting it to happen.
There have been lots of attempts to explain away the resurrection of Jesus. And no wonder, because if sounds impossible to a sane mind!
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| Christians Against Poverty |
All of us have had the type of day when all we want to do is hide under the duvet and hope it goes away.
Gale Gable from Gillingham was burying herself in bed every time she got home from work. Overwhelmed by the reality that she could not make ends meet, she was completely desperate.
“I would go to work and when I got home I would go straight to bed because I just couldn’t deal with anything,” she says.
About three months before, she had left a high-paid job to go
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| The dementia rugby tackle |
That’s where you both go down, writes Louise Morse
They were having a cup of coffee and watching television, when Joy’s mother turned to her and asked, “Where’s Joy? I haven’t seen her for days.”
Without missing a beat Joy replied,“Oh that Joy! Now let me see, it’s Thursday afternoon; let’s see if we can remember what she does on a Thursday afternoon.”
The next few minutes were a sort of verbal ping pong as Joy tried out topi
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| God was protecting me |
 Derek Hiscoke survived 43 years military service without a scratch, and always put it down to chance – but now he believes God kept him for a reason I always called myself an atheist.
From childhood I unconsciously started to build a resentment towards religion and what I called ‘churchgoers’, based on the way they looked at me as I cycled past the church every Sunday on my way to work at the golf club.
On top of that were the comments they would make when they saw me d
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| From Shifting sand to Cornerstone |
David Phillips runs a successful Christian bookshop – but his life was once very different, writes Ian White
A man delivered from gambling and alcohol addictions after suffering a nervous breakdown is marvelling at divine providence as his ‘God-given’ shop celebrates its silver jubilee this month.
Seventy-three-year-old grandfather David Phillips said it was a milestone for Cornerstone Christian Bookshop in Llanelli, South Wales.
He was on sickness benefit when God c
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| Making sense of life |
Things money can’t buy
Pretty much without exception, people become followers of Jesus because they realise that Christian faith can improve their life in a way that nothing they could ever buy would improve it.
Sometimes it is a shock that makes them realise this – the loss of something such as a job, a friend or their health. Sometimes it is joy – such as the birth of children and the longing to give them a future full of hope. Sometimes it is disappointment that the p
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| CultureWatch DVD Review - The Blind Side |
Nobody thinks Michael Oher (Quinton Aaron) has much of a future. He’s a big, uncommunicative African-American boy  from a rough part of Memphis. His father has long since disappeared, his mother is a crack addict, and he has nothing besides the clothes he is wearing and a few things in a carrier bag. Then Wingate Christian School agrees to take Michael on, but the staff struggle to help him as he lacks any aptitude for learning.
One rainy night the Tuohy family drive past him on their w
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| Driving Force |
 Stewart Cink is a world-class golfer, who’s known the game’s highs and lows. But he copes with the peaks and troughs because Christ is in his life.
This year, golf’s Open Championship returns to the home of golf, St Andrews.
The Open is by some distance the oldest of golf’s four majors. Eight players played in the first ever Open Championship in 1860, competing over three rounds of the 12 hole Prestwick Golf Club. The winner was Willie Park by two shots, and the p
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