Community

Welcome to the Community section of the Activate website. Here we would like you to join the Activate community, join in our forums, our discussions, and feel free to ask our community any questions you may have – please answer some too! We also have a supporters directory, so please add yourself in!

Recommended CD’s

CD’s I love at the moment…

Compassionart – Creating Freedom from Poverty – Various Artists
If you like Chris Tomlin, Tim Hughes, Michael W. Smith, Matt Redman, Amy Grant, TobyMac…, then you will probably love at least one of the tracks on here! Martin Smith (Delirious?) inspired these plus other major Christian musicians to get together and produce this CD, and give away every penny that they generated from it.

The result is a fantastic array of worship songs that should suit all tastes! I had to listen to it a few times before coming to love it, and now have several new favourite songs – depending on the mood I’m in.
There’s also a book that tells the story
behind the CD – ‘The Art of Compassion’.
And at www.compassionart.co.uk there is
a great video of the songwriters getting together.

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TREE 63 – Sunday
This is just great! We heard Tree 63 support Delirious? recently, and the kids loved their music too. Too many favourites to list them all, but if I had to choose a couple they would be ‘Sunday’ and ‘Alright’
There are some great lyrics –
In “World Undone” – ‘Now that I’ve met you, how can I keep still? For if I don’t speak your name, creation will.’
And in “Foolishness” – ‘What wisdom hangs a man upon a tree, as the only way to end my misery?’

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Michael W.Smith – A New Hallelujah
This is a great mix of new songs and some you’ll have heard before – like ‘Amazing Grace (My chains are gone)’, ‘Mighty to Save’ and Majesty’.
Several of the songs are accompanied by the African children’s choir, which inevitably means you’ll be dancing along, listening as you wash the dishes.

All CD’s available from Christian bookshops.

Recommended CD’s Read More »

JOIN ME – Book Review

Join Me –
Book review provokes faith reflections
by Faye Smith

Now here’s an interesting book.

Ask yourself how many people you think might have joined your church last year? Five… more? A hundred? Wow you’re doing well! Great rejoicing all round.

Danny Wallace, bestselling author of the book “Yes Man” recently released as a movie, had already written “Join Me”, subtitled “ the true story of a man who accidentally started a cult.”

At the ripe old age of 26, half-Swiss Danny’s great uncle Gallus dies on his farm in the Alps. At his wake, Danny learns his uncle had once harboured a dream of getting 100 people to join him on his farm as some sort of “collective”. He died alone having gained only three… and they were his family. Now Danny’s hooked! Back home in London in a moment of boredom, he places an advert in LOOT magazine, simply stating “Join Me”, asking people to send one passport photo to the contact details he provides. He’s after 100 people to join him like they never did his great uncle Gallus, in Gallus’s honour.

Astonishingly, he gets his first enquiry…more ads and more “joinees” follow. All they need to provide Danny with as a sign of their willingness to join is that passport photo. Incredibly, despite Danny’s hopeless inability to tell any of them exactly what they are joining, dozens start sending Danny their passport photos. Soon he has created a website where he can blog and they can all talk to each other and tell other Joinees their problems and triumphs.

Soon, forced to come up with a purpose to the group or risk losing the chance to gain 100 Joinees, Danny reads Gallus’s old letters and discovers he occasionally did nice things for an old man in the village. With that purpose in mind, he invites complete strangers all over the UK to start doing random acts of kindness for old people they come across on what Danny calls “Good Fridays”: a coffee for a Big Issue seller, walking a neighbour’s dog or baking them a cake, sending an old guy peanuts…and the Joinees love it. Danny says they just wanted to be nice all along, but needed him to give them a reason! What a thought.

Soon the “Good Fridays Agreement” to be nice is spreading to all people groups everywhere, and the Blog is full of tales of good deeds being done and the stunning results. Even Tony Blair and Prince Charles endorse it and Richard and Judy join up. Incredible. Danny starts to get into the press all over the shop. He gets invited to television stations all over Europe, even Australia, turning up usually in the capital city’s square simply with a sign saying “Join Me Oz” or whatever, and hundreds of people do!

He even starts being invited to meet City Mayors, go on primetime talk shows and mounts a campaign of radio phone-ins across the UK where whatever the bizarre topic under discussion, Danny turns the conversation to Join Me… and people do. Finally, having raised his sights to 1000 Joinees, the number of folk residing in Gallus’ village had they all joined him on his farm, Danny can relax! Only trouble is, the collective has gathered momentum all its own and now become something of a cult, which elects him leader, demands regular meetings around the UK and centrally in London and whose membership peaks at over 6000! Oh, and he gets so entangled in the lives of his Joinees as he starts to care just too much what happens to every one of his flock, plus the deceit to cover his tracks from his longsuffering Norwegian girlfriend Hanne, who already thinks he’s a nutter, she walks out on him!

I only expected a hilarious Christmas read after someone chose Yes Man for my last reading group book, but I found it spoke to me so much on a spiritual level. People’s desire to feel connected, to be part of a community, to have someone take an interest in them, to join something, it seems anything, to carry out random acts of kindness for complete strangers and urge and inspire others to do the same… it’s incredible.

Christians wrote in and told him it was like their religion, as did the Jews, the Buddhists and many more, in fact one of his first Joinees who remains a close friend is a vicar in Scotland! Danny professes no faith, but he does have 6000 followers, four bestselling books and a major A lister movie under his belt now!

If some nutty bloke in a London flat can invite 6000 people to join his “being nice club” when the early joinees didn’t even know what the heck they were doing, what can we do fellow Activators, with purpose and love in our hearts? Let’s stop being nervous of asking folk to join us, be bold, get those invites sent off, call your local radio to chat about what your merry band of Activators is up to and, radical I know here, turn up in the playground or office with a plackard that simply says “Join Me”. After all, it worked for Danny!

Oh, and did I tell you how lovely you’re looking today by the way, and your new haircut…gorgeous! In fact, this Wednesday I’m going to see Yes Man with friends, would you like to join me?!

Faye Smith – ‘Keep your fork’… there’s more to come.

Email: faye@keepyourfork.co.uk

Web: www.keepyourfork.co.uk

JOIN ME – Book Review Read More »

Lourdes 2008 – A Personal Reflection

As part of the Activate team, I wanted to write an article for this new website and at the beginning of a new year, I thought this would be a good time to look ahead and see if there are any new challenges we can take up. My cousin Roy once again travelled with a group to Lourdes and below he writes of his experience and all he learnt. It’s not possible for all of us to travel in order to experience new things or see God at work, but as you read his account, consider what you could do this year that will not only impact your own life, but that of others too.
It might be joining a new creative course at your local college (who knows what a difference it might make to one or more of the other students to have you there), volunteer for a local charity, go along to a local reading group or take up a completely new sport. A look at your local newspaper, notices in the library or leisure centre should give plenty of idea. Then let us all know how you get on.

Lourdes ’08 – A Personal Reflection

This was my second visit to Lourdes, both times as a helper on a Jumbulance. On this occasion I went with a group from Woodley near Reading. We were seen off from the local church, St John Bosco, with the enthusiastic support of schoolchildren from St Dominic Savio Junior School who all seemed to enjoy the experience of being shown around inside the coach and were intrigued by ‘beds in a bus!’ A number of the group travelling to Lourdes came from St John Bosco and there was immediately a good community feel as we were waved goodbye.

The group consisted of ten guests needing care and support (with various serious illnesses and/or disabilities), fourteen helpers, the local priest who was also helping, and two drivers. I was impressed by the love and care of the nurses and helpers, the loving commitment of the drivers and above all the courage of the VIPs. It was a great group of people to be with for these eight days.

The helpers included a core group who organise, fund raise, select and book appropriate hotels and recruit those who will go needing care. It is this group’s dedication that releases individuals to journey to a place that they could not otherwise get to.

It is a modern day pilgrimage with a mixture of people, expectations and faith. The whole trip reminded me of the story of Jesus on the road to Emmaus after His resurrection. In the story He was hidden for much of the journey but somehow He made Himself known as they shared together. This was how this trip was for me. We experienced God through Lourdes, the grandeur of the Pyrenees and each other.

As before, for me, the experience is difficult to describe as it works at so many different levels. Perhaps, this time, my emphasis was less on the personal challenges of finding my way around a new experience and more about a journey with a group in an experience which touches body, soul and spirit. Dom Antony Sutch speaking on Radio 4’s ‘Thought for the Day’ just twenty-four hours before we left on our journey described his own experiences of Lourdes. I was glad to be able to share his talk with the group during a Mass in the week. Dom Sutch reflected that Lourdes is:

“…… a place especially for the sick and disabled, but each pilgrim goes for their own reason: some because they are sick or helpers to them, some to pray for spiritual, physical or mental healing, some from curiosity, some for peace of mind, forgiveness, renewal of soul, some possibly not knowing why: one I know because his girlfriend was going. The effect on each is individual: one described it to me as “the most ghastly bazaar of Catholic tat and kitsch”; another as “a place of miracles, seen and unseen”; another as” touched by God where people don’t need to pretend.

…… I come back exhausted yet inspired. Inspired as the people are seen simply as humans, as Sons and Daughters of God: where human life itself is sacred whatever the scars, traumas, diseases and deformities of the body or mind: no distinction of person, even Cardinals are treated as human. The solidarity, mutual support and understanding engendered in Lourdes is to me, miraculous. The compassion and service to others palpable.”
(Thought for the Day, Radio 4, Dom Antony Sutch, 25 September 2008)

For me, this sums up the experience of Lourdes.

As we struggled to push wheelchairs through the crowded streets, with frequent pauses to make sure that the group was all still together, I reflected on how much Lourdes beneficially slows down the pace of life. We just had to ‘wait and be’ allowing God to be with us in the waiting and enjoyment of the place. Sometimes this was lost in the need to get somewhere, or ‘get to the front’. A sort of ‘consumer anxiety’ can take over but the story of Bernadette and her simple obedience to be in a place where God wanted her draws one back to just enjoying the moment. Lourdes and those who are ill can bring us back to that God-given quality of life of ‘just being’.

A day trip outside of the town of Lourdes was a visual aid to God’s presence in His Creation and we were given the gift of a beautiful sunny day. A Mass in the open air on a farm track by a mountain stream was special, somehow made even more so by the respectful walkers taking off their caps as they passed through our gathering and a post office delivery van causing us to quickly rearrange the seating arrangements to allow it to pass through! The improvised altar was the end of a trolley bed shared with a VIP and we just enjoyed God being with us anywhere, anytime.

Lourdes is a place where there are so many ways of being helped to find God. There must be something for everyone including non-Catholics like myself, or others who may possibly rarely or never attend church. There is the traditional expectancy at the Grotto, there are the big processions and groups with banners, there are the masses and benedictions, there is a quiet climb up the hill with the Stations of the Cross. There is water for anointing, the candles little and very large, the beauty of the small and large churches, the sense of a place of pilgrimage and prayer for one hundred and fifty years and, most of all, the people, the people, and the people. All languages, colours, sizes and ages. I found it an inspiration just to wander around and soak in the atmosphere of faith, hope, acceptance and love. A healing process in itself.

I found the daily procession of sick people most moving of all. It could have been only sorrowful and yet there was hope – hope that comes with the recognition that healing can be for the body but it is often more importantly for the soul and spirit.
In the Pope’s recent visit to Lourdes, he summarized this with the words:

“…… that the endurance of suffering can lead people to despair of the value of life. There are struggles we cannot sustain alone, when speech can no longer find the right words, we need a loving presence.”

For more details of the Jumbulance go to New Jumbulance Travel Trust Website http://www.jumbulance.org.uk/

Roy Gregory
October 2008

Lourdes 2008 – A Personal Reflection Read More »

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