Date: 2nd March ’25 Venue: Bath Forum A truly inspirational evening with the star of the hit TV show Gladiators. Warren Furman’s meteoric rise took him to the top of the celebrity world. With big muscles, fame, a page 3 girlfriend and stacks of cash – he had everything a guy could ever want, right? But he found out life wasn’t quite that simple. Join us for a fantastic evening, packed with laughs, games – maybe even a chance to let out your inner gladiator! Warren will share his story of the fame, fortune and faith, but also the futility […]
Many tears, few words in Burundi…
I got this email from Chantal*, a ministry leader GLO supports. Sometimes words aren’t enough… “Greetings from Bujumbura, Burundi! I am writing this email with tears in my eyes and a wounded heart as I see the struggle of my people, especially my staff. I wish I could go into a big hall or a valley and shout: Why all this Lord?! Yet I know he sees everything and He will change the situation at the right time! Simon, things are no longer as they used to be!!! There’s no fuel, no sufficient water, no electricity. People have forgotten what […]
Nobody came down…
In 1964, Kitty Genovese returned to her apartment block late one night after her shift working in a bar had ended. She was brutally attacked before she could get beyond the downstairs carpark, and her screams were heard by many people, who came out to peer down from above to see what was happening. They looked down from their various patios and windows, but nobody apparently actually did anything about it. At one stage her attacker ran off, thinking the police were coming. But then he returned and continued violating and stabbing her to death. It was later established that […]
Suffering for Christ
1 Peter 4:12-19 I was preaching at my local church last Sunday, and the passage in the series was 1 Peter 4:12-19 with the title ’Suffering for Christ’. They are very challenging verses. Most of us aren’t suffering for Christ in the West, though maybe more of us will as freedom of speech is steadily eroded. So we cannot take these verses and apply them directly to us. But we can learn from the persecuted church, that’s for sure. So I shared a number of stories of persecution. Here’s one, which this week’s mind-blowing podcast with Nik Ripken touches on […]
Good Health this Christmas
Widow Alice’s 6-year-old daughter died because she didn’t have the equivalent of the cost of a Starbucks coffee… how could that be? Her daughter was sick, and Alice had no money to get her treated. She asked her neighbours for a loan, but they were likewise destitute. So she set about making a clay pot as quickly as possible to sell, but during those lost hours, her daughter’s illness proved fatal. I’m shaking my head in disbelief as I write this… it is so wrong! We can stop something like that from happening again this Christmas for 5,000 of the […]
Content in Christ!
This talk is the fourth in a series I gave on the book of Philippians this past summer. To listen to it, click Below: Content in Christ – 3 Promises – Peace, Power, Provision Have you ever been through something really grim and been ‘comforted’ by someone who clearly hasn’t got a clue what they’re talking about? They haven’t been through what you’re experiencing, so it rings hollow and you actually just want to tell them where to go! But when someone listens deeply and you know they ‘get’ it, you really listen to them. I listen to Paul because […]
Mind-blowing, Sobering Stories for a Day of Darkness…
Halloween is here again, and it feels like each year the celebration of all things dark gains more and more traction in our culture. How should we engage with this day on the calendar as followers of Jesus? Can there be an element of innocent fun? Should I let my kids take part? Is there a Gospel opportunity somewhere under all the fake cobwebs and skeletons? Whenever we grapple with these questions, I can’t help but think of some of the stories of people who have been involved in the real world of witchcraft and spiritualism. My latest guest on […]
Journeying with Jesus
This talk is the third in a series I gave on the book of Philippians this past summer. To listen to it, Click Below: This chapter starts with faith, continues with resurrection power, and ends with glory! I’ll share some of the illustrations I used, and finish with some useful questions for reflection. A new convert approached Watchman Nee in deep anguish of soul, saying, “No matter how much I pray, no matter how hard I try, I simply cannot seem to be faithful to my Lord. I think I’m losing my salvation.” Watchman Nee replied, “Do you see this […]
Christ Likeness
This talk is the second in the series I gave on the book of Philippians this past summer. To listen to it, click the Audio Link below: I love to illustrate and quote people, and this is just one of the stunning stories I use of God’s Sovereign purposes coming to fruition in this message… and there’s some reflection questions to help focus our thinking. In Uvira, Democratic Republic of Congo, just across the lake from us in Burundi, I’ve preached there and seen the missionary graves. In 1921, David and Svea Flood went with their two-year-old son from Sweden […]
No Sting in Death!
It’s been a rough month, with two of God’s best troops taken out by cancer – but both of these friends have died well and impacted so many in the process. I’m going to Richard Garnett’s* funeral/celebration of life next week. Many of you will have heard of Steve Legg. I interviewed him with Carl Beech early last summer, just after he’d been given a couple of months to live. Well, he battled on for a full extra year, and ran his race beautifully. He continued touring, making people laugh and cry as he shared his comedy acts with the […]
WHAT A WOMAN!
Sometimes you hear a story and you get to be a part of totally changing someone’s life. That’s my invitation to you right now! Clementine has no legs and actually walks on her hands. My colleague Eloge drove past her this week, and felt prompted in his spirit a few minutes later to turn around and go back to talk to her. He asked her what her story was. Here goes: Clementine is an only child, and aged 4 she was struck with poliomyelitis and became disabled. Her father abandoned the whole family because of her, and she’s never seen […]
The Win/Win of Being All-in
Recently I preached this series of talks on the book of Philippians, so below is the first of four talks. Some thoughts / quotes / illustrations from the talk: The key takeaway for me is that Paul is totally out of control (in prison), and yet totally confident of God being in control! And so it is for me and you, whatever you’re going through, that’s the case. I need to hear that. Here are some of the juicy quotes I used, plus at the end some questions to reflect on: Eldredge talks along these lines: “Choosing to see life […]
5-year-old 4-hour Walkers in Burundi…
These 5-year-old boys are about to embark on a two-hour walk home from school to the second hill you can see. They make the journey twice per day – that blows my mind! It’s easy to take school for granted in the West, but for these kids, a decent education is their best hope of escaping the desperate poverty they have grown up in. This coming week, Burundian kids will be due to return to school en masse for the new year, but not all of them will make it! You see, even though education is apparently free, families still have to pay for […]
Keep the milk flowing in Burundi!
This 2-min film shows the beautiful community impact brought about through Milk For Transformation. It was pioneered by my friend Evariste with the idea of bringing in cross-bred sturdy and milk-rich Friesian cows into Burundi. As a result, about 5,000 people’s lives have been lifted out of extreme poverty, as it has created a chain of employment and empowerment all the way from production to distribution around the city. Stunning! That’s the good news… …the bad news is that now Burundi is on its knees because there has been a crippling fuel crisis for the last two years. I’m hoping this email will […]
Living in the Light and Living as Light
This is a sermon from a few months ago given at Spring Harvest in Skegness. My given title was ‘Living in the Light and Living as Light’ Ephesians 5:8-13 ‘For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord. Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. It is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. But everything exposed by the light becomes visible—and everything that is illuminated […]
Kingdom Commission! Isaiah 61:1-4
There is a Thomas the Tank Engine cartoon that pictures Thomas on his side, having fallen off the train tracks. He is shouting, ‘I’m free! I’m free at last. I’ve fallen off the rails and I’m free!’ Of course, the reality is that Thomas is far more ‘free’ when his wheels are on the rails and he is operating in line with how he has been created to function.’ I preached this sermon at All Saints Weston Sunday evening on the back of a massive sucker punch on my return from Burundi Thursday, and the combination of physical weariness from […]
Tough times and a cry for help…
It’s bad. Really bad… In the area around Thierry’s house, seven people have been killed by hippos. Then there are the crocs, snakes, mosquitoes, parasites, the open sewage leading to cholera… the list goes on. Thierry, my Anglican pastor friend, has lost his house (and his church) to the huge floods in Burundi. Lake Tanganyika has risen by twelve feet to its highest level since 1960, displacing 200,000+ people, many of whom are utterly destitute. Take a look at this clip filmed by my colleague Raissa from a dugout canoe. Lord, have mercy on Burundi! Staple foods like rice and beans have increased in cost by […]
Who is the Holy Spirit to you?
From my uncle Ross Paterson’s book ’The Antioch Factor’, I find this section very challenging: Walter Lewis Wilson was an American doctor born towards the end of the nineteenth century. He was a faithful Christian who hosted visiting missionaries to his church. One visitor from France didn’t mince words, asking him, “Who is the Holy Spirit to you?” Wilson’s answer was doctrinally correct, “One of the Persons of the Godhead… Teacher, Guide, Third Person of the Trinity.” But it was an empty and rehearsed response. His friend pushed him harder, challenging him, “You haven’t answered my question.” Wilson opened up […]
No more crashes this Easter!
I’m a man of faith. I believe in Jesus’ resurrection, which we will celebrate this coming Sunday. But some things are beyond resurrection! “One of the major challenges we encountered was the lack of adequate equipment such as computers.” Taken from an update by a GLO partner in 2023 So many of our amazing leaders, and their teams, struggle on, using tired laptops which are painfully slow, often crash and are barely able to handle the demands of opening a spreadsheet. We need to do something right now. I once lost three weeks of work when my computer crashed – for these key leaders […]
Tears and Bullets in Burundi
As I stood up to preach, I burst into tears in the pulpit. It was July 2003 and I had flown back from Burundi and on to the USA for my first preaching tour there. I was with a wonderful church called St Andrew’s in Mt Pleasant, South Carolina. Memories of this moment came flooding back a few days ago when I visited my old office on the outskirts of Bujumbura. It was a time of reminiscing and rejoicing. Back in 2003, I was distraught because at the very moment I was preaching at the midweek service, in Burundi rebels had attacked […]