Hello, I'm Gavin Jones the voluntary apprentice here at BH. I do all the great jobs like chair moving and clearing the snow, when it does snow, which is all great fun and I wouldn’t change it for anything.
My story beings in a lovely village in Bedfordshire called Great Barford, it’s the village I spent my whole life in, I have many happy memories there I had a very good childhood. Many years of doing what I wanted, playing in the countryside on motor bikes and go karts.
But I didn’t know any thing of God back then, my parents aren’t Christians, but I had grandparents that believed in Jesus and what he did and I was very close with them, but I never wanted any thing to do with that side of there lives I always keep “religion” at an arms length. I was too happy doing what I wanted.
That was until I was 19, I just came out of a relationship and was taking it badly I was at a low point but then I had a bad accident playing rugby and had to have a very serious operation on my knee I had to be off work for 6 months unable to walk for most of it. So there I was alone a lot of the time and it made me depressed with low self-esteem.
I just felt I was on this downward spiral unable to do anything about it. I know now that wasn’t far from the truth, I was on a downward spiral to Hell. But then God being the generous God he is gave me hope in the form of a woman called Karen.
We started going out, I knew Karen was Christian but she wasn’t really walking closely with God. But then Karen moved down to Sussex to go to University and God really started working on her heart to bring her back close to him. God put in Karen’s path a really good old friend called Hugh.
Hugh started to really challenge the way Karen was living her life, and she realised that she did love Christ and was thankful to him for rescuing her but she wasn’t showing it so Karen made some big changes in her life.
The biggest was getting rid of her sinful unbelieving boyfriend but she didn’t want to and I didn’t want to lose her we were happy and very much in love. So we sat down and started to really think how we could make it work and that’s when Karen said to me you must look in to what Christ has done for you and then we shall see what happens.
>So I said I would and then all of a sudden strange things started to happen I realised that four of my close friend were Christians and my two uncles are Christians and they all wanted to tell me what Jesus had done for me so I started to listen and was very intrigued.
My friend then said to me it would be a good idea to go on an Alpha course where I could learn all the basics of Christianity and then make a choice at the end to take it or leave it in a manner of speaking.
So as I was on the course I was just firstly amazed of how sinful I was and that I was going to Hell for it, and secondly that God loves me personally he sent his own son to die in my place, it’s amazing.
Not even half way through the course I committed my life to God I was just blown away by his love for me. From that point my life has still been hard but God has continued to help me and Karen and helped grow our love for him and for each other.
That’s in the past now and what’s important is how we live for Christ now.
I was 17 when I took some drugs - the pyscaldelic light show was fun but what remained was a terrible darkness and an irrational fear. On the outside I seemed fine, but inside a light had gone out. It was horrible. I remember walking home from the pub and praying to God "I'm really sorry for what I've done - please make my life like it was before"Have you seen the Bishop Hannington Brighton bus?
The Brighton & Hove bus company have named one of their new fleet of buses after Bishop James Hannington. It operates on the number 5 routes, so sometimes it will stop outside church. From the bus website:
"Connections with Brighton and Hove : James Hannington was the first bishop of Eastern Equatorial Africa who was martyred in 1885 while trying to open up a route into what is now Uganda. Born in Hurstpierpoint in 1847, he came from the same family that started the former department store in Brighton but did not have any money. Hannington left school at 15 to work for his father’s counting house but six years later decided on a church career. After a slow start, he was ordained as a deacon in 1874 and rose rapidly. He joined the Church Missionary Society in 1882 and headed a team of six in Zanzibar but was forced by illness to return the next year. Hannington was then made a bishop and returned to East Africa in 1885 to open up the route. However King Mwanga of Buranda took exception to this and imprisoned all the missionaries. The King then ordered all his men to be killed before deciding Hannington should be stabbed to death as well. As he died he called out: "Go, tell Mwanga I have purchased the road to Uganda with my blood." Hannington and his companions were among the first martyrs of Uganda and his feast day in the Church of England is on October 29. A thriving church was named after him in Hove in 1938 and still stands at the junction of Nevill and Holmes Avenues."
In this book, 'Don't Waste Your Life', author John Piper is addressing the question of our purpose in life; where we invest our time, money, gifts, skills, our future - what is the focus of our lives?
The book has been described as “the best apologetics book for unbelieving teens", I think the bloke who said that has a fair point, but it extends beyond that, in fact it’s a call for everyone, young and old, to see and acknowledge the glory of Jesus and to give their lives to His service. More specifically this book includes a great challenge to be distinctive in the secular work, it's honest and realistic, and not simply saying ‘preach the gospel to your work colleagues’, which is generally unrealistic.
Piper addresses the older generation too - how can you avoid wasting your retirement? The book is well-written, it's easy to read, it's a passionate call to serve Jesus, to give your life to serve his glory. In the last chapter Piper gives a personal call to consider missionary work - quite a challenge!
A great book, a challenging book, and one which offers a challenge to all of us, Christian or not, young or old. Grab your copy at the back of church for £8.
I started going to church in 2006 at a church in Harborne (Birmingham) while visiting my girlfriend who was at University there - she would go every Sunday so I tagged along. Week in week out we went to church and I really started to get to enjoy the praise and the teaching. When she finished University and moved back to the South I then spend sometime looking for somewhere local and after trying a couple of churches in Brighton and Eastbourne found Bishop Hannington church.
It was Easter 2007 and after a great sermon the Christianity Explored course was advertised I took a flyer and a couple of weeks later found myself talking about the Bible and Jesus a completely new concept for me! After a number of weeks of great meetings, discussion and fellowship I realised I was on the path to building a relationship with God and started to ask the question - am I a Christian?
Then on the 19th June I was on my way home from a night out from work and prayed for God to help me and to provide some understanding, moments later I came across a complete stranger who needed some help - some how we got talking about God and in that moment everything fell into place, I realised I was a Christian and that I wanted to commit my life to God. Since then my life has become richer, I've met some great people and made some great friends and I praise God for this everyday.
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