Whenever I speak with people about what I do with CVM I get asked the same questions over and over again: Why do you do what you do? What is your driving force? Why on earth would you want to give up a really good, well paid job and go and work for Jesus?

As Elizabeth and I began to think about getting married and being a Christian, she obviously wanted to get married in the church. But I was thinking how can I do this? How can stand and make promises to some God that I don’t even know is real? This eventually led me to start attending church on a Sunday with her, but this didn’t help with the answers to my questions, in fact there were a few Sundays when I thought that the Minister was talking drivel!

Some of the people that I encountered in the church seemed more concerned with my occupation, the team that I supported or what was my preferred drink. I saw it more as a social club with little more to offer than I could find with my mates in the pub. But my questions remained, why were they coming together as church, what made them come along each and every week and more importantly who is this God that I am going to make these wedding vows to? What was I missing? What was I not getting?

Some people within the church organised an Alpha Course and I was invited along to hopefully answer some of my questions. Attending this course proved to be one of the best decisions that I made in my life. The Gospel was presented to me in a way that I had been searching for and choosing to follow Jesus seemed like a very logical decision to make.

When I made the decision to follow Jesus, I was caught up in a whirlwind of emotions. I was of course overjoyed but at the same time I was incredibly disappointed.

It seemed to me that the Church had this amazing secret that they didn’t tell me years before.

There and then I made a conscious decision to always share my faith in Jesus with everyone whenever the opportunity arises, to not be ashamed or shy about my faith no matter how counter cultural it may be.

I am constantly wondering how many other people are out there seeking like I was but failing to find the answers, the answer that we know is Jesus.

This is and always will be the driving force behind everything that I do!

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Have you ever noticed how things creep up on you? (Like Old age or Christmas). A while ago I became aware of all the gambling ads on the TV…Where did they come from?! I have since been in touch with a guy called Ian who was addicted to gambling and is now involved in campaigning and highlighting some of the associated issues. This blog is not the be all and end all on gambling, just some thoughts to get you thinking about it, and whether we can do anything to counter it.  Did you know …

“It seems that the bookmaking industry targets poorer areas of our society.”

Bethnal Green and Bow has 45 betting shops which took £243 million in bets on credit or debit cards. By comparison in Henley not a single betting shop licence has been issued. In the 50 parliamentary constituencies with the highest unemployment, there are 1,251 betting shops which took £5.6 billion pounds on 4,454 Fixed Odds Betting Terminals (FOBTs) last year. By comparison the 50 constituencies with the lowest levels of unemployment only have 287 betting shops with 1,045 terminals and takings of £1.4 billion last year.

“If you bet the maximum on every spin, you could lose £18,000 an hour.”  

Bookmakers are allowed 4 FOBTs per shop, each machine spins every 20 seconds with each bet up to £100 per spin. If you bet the maximum on every spin, you could lose £18,000 an hour. A staggering £12.5 billion was gambled via FOBT’s machines in William Hill and Ladbrokes in the first 6 months of 2012. It is estimated that £46 billion was spent last year on FOBT’s, contributing 49% of William Hills High Street takings.

“FOBTs have been called the crack cocaine of the gaming industry.”

Although legally only over 18s can use these machines, they are attracting underage and vulnerable people to betting shops, often without being challenged for ID.  There is no locking system on them, so they can easily be played without proof of ID.

Ian says ‘I have put forward a suggestion that each machine should have a locking system fitted, which can only be unlocked by the cashier on proof of ID. This simple measure would help to save a generation of young and vulnerable people from becoming the problem gamblers of tomorrow.  Without a locking system being implemented, the potential to reduce underage gambling is very limited because the lone staff member running a betting shop is often unwilling to confront a group of underage gamblers’

We are all aware that gambling has the potential to wreck lives and families, and it is something that most of us know little about.  Just think about the amount of ads on the telly!… Maybe we can join Ian in campaigning against this cancer in our midst ….

Last words to Ian: ‘As a Christian I have now learnt that I should place my hope in God alone, not gambling! Psalm 62 v 5 says “Find rest, O my soul in God alone; my hope comes from Him”. God has taught me so much over the past few months and continues daily to do so, I have so much to thank him for. Gambling provides a false sense of hope, participants place their hope in winning against astronomical odds. I am now determined to do whatever I can to stand in the breech against gambling in order to help the poor, young and vulnerable.’

If you or somebody you know has a problem with compulsive gambling please get in touch with one of these organisations:

Gamblers Anonymous / GamCare

Neither of these two organisations are explicitly Christian but they do offer very good quality help and support.

Alternatively support is offered by:

The Salvation Army / The Christian Centre for Gambling Rehabilitation / Grasp

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The subject of suicide amongst men hit the press again last week following the release of a report commissioned by The Samaritans titled: Men and Suicide: Why it’s a social issue

It says:

“Men in their 30s, 40s and 50s are at the highest risk of suicide as job markets change and families breakdown, leaving them in turmoil about their role in life”.

Other reasons cited in the report are:

• Cultural changes like the decline of traditional masculine jobs and breakdown of lifelong marriages have challenged the men’s sense of ‘masculine pride and identity’.
• Working-class men have been affected by recent rises in unemployment and the shift from manufacturing to a service economy which values people skills. They are ten times more likely to kill themselves than affluent men.
• The male role is less well defined than it was 20, 30 years ago and men have great difficulty responding to the challenge of how we define ourselves as men,”
• One of the problems for men is this need to aspire to a kind of gold standard of masculinity which is often very difficult to meet.

As Christian men, we have a gold standard of masculinity. His name is Jesus. How do we meet HIS standard? It’s all clearly laid out for us in that manual for life called The Bible.

Does this mean that life is always going to be plain sailing? No. We are told that the sun shines on the righteous and the non righteous and the opposite stands true. We are not immune to having the wheels fall off our own lives, and when that happens (and it does), what support mechanisms do we have in place? What focuses our attention back onto God’s word and promises during very difficult times?

One way is by cultivating a trusted Band of Brothers within our church that meet regularly ‘to do life together’. More so, it’s doing life with our non Christian mates. Men inherently suffer in silence when something is wrong and are not the best in asking for help, until it can be too late.

However, it’s not too late for us to make a difference to another man’s life.

CVM is all about supporting men from the local church to reach men for Christ. If you are willing to be a positive influence in getting men together, then drop us a line. We can help resource you.

The report can be viewed here: http://www.samaritans.org/media-centre/our-campaigns/were-your-corner/were-your-corner-research

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Have you ever heard a friend say, “I’d like to believe in Jesus but …”?

Perhaps you’re at the pub with your mates or having lunch with a colleague. The conversation turns to you and your faith and suddenly it feels like something a little deeper. You share a little bit, unsure of how far to really push it. And your mates, being mates, push back.

There are a thousand and one ways to find Jesus and just as many obstacles that can get in the way of Him. For some people they’d love to believe in Jesus, they really would, but they have this [intellectual barrier] [emotional barrier] [why-should-I-care barrier] (delete as appropriate).

Christian Vision for Men is all about introducing men to Jesus. To do that sometimes a little boulder removal is necessary. A little bit of heavy lifting is required to remove the obstacles that obstruct people’s view of Jesus.

That’s why CVM has set up the Demolition Squad.

1 Peter 3:15 instructs us to “Always be prepared to give a defence of the hope that you have to those that ask.” The Demolition Squad aims to help equip you guys on the front line to do just that.

Comedian Andy Kind and Apologist Jonathan Sherwin will be spearheading this new division of CVM. Over time resources, blogs, podcasts, talks – you know the drill – will be produced.

So, what do you think? Drop us a line if you’d like to set up a Demolition Squad training day in your area and stand by for announcements of new events and resources coming very soon.

In the mean time, leave a comment and help shape this new project.

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Knee deep in mud, gale force winds and hauling millions of chairs across a field in Swindon, was not how we were expecting our internship to begin.

OK so maybe we were only ankle deep, and it was probably more of a strong gust than a gale… and there were probably only 1000 chairs but you’ve got to have a dramatic opener for your first proper CVM blog. We were thrown in at the deep end and were told to expect the weekend to look like a lovechild of New Wine and Top Gear, which it really was. This is how two young men in their late teens survived The Gathering XII…

Jack Undrell: Diary Entry

Thursday was jam-packed, muddy but HOT! All the team started to look like tomatoes after a couple of hours. We worked from midday until late evening, washing up, putting up tents and marquees. At the end of play we had fish & chips before a well-earned sleep.

Friday morning was mental! The boss wanted us to sort out a lot of last minute preparation before 800 men arrived. My main duty was assigned to me: Managing the CVM stand, which was brilliant. It was amazing talking to everyone who came through check-in and later that evening, I got to listen to Jon Burns. As a football and rugby fan, his story was incredible.

Saturday, what can I say, the blokes must have got a lot out of the sessions as the resources were flying off the stand. Darrell Tunningley went on to give his testimony of how God transformed him from a heroin addict and a convicted armed robber to a church minister, which was incredible. However, for me, the best moment of the weekend was seeing around 40 men commit their lives to Jesus later that night.

On Sunday morning we all shared communion, (first time for some blokes) and quite a surreal experience for me. Before we set off for home, I knelt with hundreds of men to meet with Jesus in the mud.

Looking forward to next year!

Andy Cozens: Diary Entry

I couldn’t have thought of a more effective way of getting to know my colleagues than sharing a campsite and actively serving Christ with them. The type of bond that was formed between me, Jack and the team over the weekend would have probably taken over a month to form if we’d just been sat at CVM HQ.

Having such a close band of brothers and sisters made the kit-hauling, dishwashing, tea making and errand running so much more easy to cope with. Not to say that it wasn’t hard work, but it would have been much harder without the team’s general supportive attitude towards each other.

Within the CVM team was the camera-team, which I was blessed enough to be a part of. It was our job to capture all the main meetings, seminars and worship times with four old BBC cameras.

I had prayed a lot before joining CVM that I would be able to use the gifts and skills that God had given me to bring glory to him and already, on the second day, I was doing just that. What an answer to prayer!

Without doubt the best part of the weekend was 40 guys came to be prayed for after a Gospel message. It was at this moment when I realised how much God had been working over the weekend.

Who knows what happened when those men arrived home again but my prayers are definitely with them and their families. The Gathering XII gave me a new heart for men’s ministry and I am so glad to have joined a movement that is so effectively making Christ known to so many men.

All the Best,

Jack&Andy

Book Now for The Gathering 2013

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A few weeks ago I was discussing Christianity with a friend, and discovered that his understanding of the word ‘faith’ was different to mine.

It brings back the memory of a similar conversation with a Hindu uncle who said to me: “You must have faith to be saved!” For my uncle, what was crucial was having faith – who you had faith in wasn’t the issue.

If you look up the definition of ‘faith’ on the internet, you’ll get a variety of perspectives. If you ask others what they understand by the word faith, and dig a little bit at what is behind their understanding, you may discover, as I did in my recent discussion, that they include / exclude essential components of faith which you wouldn’t. But even different faiths, as well as those who reject faith, have different understandings of faith!

Closely linked to faith is the question of how we interpret what we experience.

When I visited a Hindu group in Wembley, a gentleman said to me: “When I first came here, this person walked in who I hadn’t met, and instinctively I knew that I should follow him. I didn’t realise he was the head of the centre. I’ve been part of this group for over 20 years.”

How do we check that our interpretation of an experience is valid? Or do experiences somehow authenticate what we believe about them? Just because we experience something, does that make our interpretation true? Just because we believe something, does that make what we believe in true? Does faith authenticate truth? Or is that just faith in ‘faith’?

When I was younger I was given a present, and intuitively I believed that if I kept it with me, it would protect me and help me do well in exams. However one day it was accidentally damaged, and I realised that it couldn’t look after itself, let alone me. It was my first lesson in developing an understanding of faith, what I would call ‘a reasonable faith’.

Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

- John 20:29

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A few weeks ago I was discussing Christianity with a friend, and discovered that his understanding of the word ‘faith’ was different to mine.

It brings back the memory of a similar conversation with a Hindu uncle who said to me: “You must have faith to be saved!” For my uncle, what was crucial was having faith – who you had faith in wasn’t the issue.

If you look up the definition of ‘faith’ on the internet, you’ll get a variety of perspectives. If you ask others what they understand by the word faith, and dig a little bit at what is behind their understanding, you may discover, as I did in my recent discussion, that they include / exclude essential components of faith which you wouldn’t. But even different faiths, as well as those who reject faith, have different understandings of faith!

Closely linked to faith is the question of how we interpret what we experience.

When I visited a Hindu group in Wembley, a gentleman said to me: “When I first came here, this person walked in who I hadn’t met, and instinctively I knew that I should follow him. I didn’t realise he was the head of the centre. I’ve been part of this group for over 20 years.”

How do we check that our interpretation of an experience is valid? Or do experiences somehow authenticate what we believe about them? Just because we experience something, does that make our interpretation true? Just because we believe something, does that make what we believe in true? Does faith authenticate truth? Or is that just faith in ‘faith’

When I was younger I was given a present, and intuitively I believed that if I kept it with me, it would protect me and help me do well in exams. However one day it was accidentally damaged, and I realised that it couldn’t look after itself, let alone me. It was my first lesson in developing an understanding of faith, what I would call ‘a reasonable faith’.

Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

- John 20:29

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You’ve probably heard the statistics: If a child follows Christ his family will also follow in 3% of cases; if a woman follows Christ, 17% of the time, the rest of the family will follow, and if a husband follows Christ, over 90% of the time the rest of the family will join him.

The work behind the statistics was done some time ago, but the figures are reflected today: many churches run children’s Summer clubs, which are very well attended, but their families don’t attend church. And almost every church will have some ladies attend without their husbands, but it is rare to find a husband attending church without his family. (I have come across a few cases where a husband does attend church without his family, but it is very rare.)

Recently I’ve been researching the stories of men who have followed Christ after their wives. I’ve interviewed husbands and wives to hear the story of how the husband came to faith.

What lessons can we learn? Are there any “stepping stones” that we can put into place to facilitate such journeys? How can a house group or men’s group play their part? Are there any “do’s” or “don’ts”?

I’ve already got some fascinating material, but I’ve only been able to get a handful of case studies. I’d love to get some more so that I can take the research further.

So fellas, if you’ve come to Christ after your wife, get in touch – I’d love to hear your story. Or if you know someone in that category, put them in touch or let me know and I’ll follow them up.

And if your wife regularly goes to church, but you don’t, then please also get in contact as I’d be interested in hearing from you. suneel.shivdasani @ cvm.org.uk

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I am two days post op for malignant melanoma with a large scar in my leg and a tender groin where nodes were removed: now the real work begins in working out my faith and moving forward.

Faith is not a passive slumbering thing, it is real and active, coming alive even more in challenging or life threatening circumstances. Some would say faith is blind (in the past psychologists and atheists described accepting Christian faith as a blind leap) but currently for me it helps clarify what life is all about.

Staring mortality in the face is not a popular past-time in modern culture; we are all busy, trying to get comfortable whilst constantly reassured by advertising that says “we are worth it” “we are in control”. However it doesn’t take much to get a glimpse of the reality lying just beneath the polished veneer of our fragile existence: a near miss on the roads, a friend has an accident, a natural disaster occurs or your own health or that of those you love, is called into question. Shocked, we are forced into taking stock, pausing to consider just for a short while what life is all about and what we really value, why we are here and what our purpose is.

Blind faith would speak platitudes into my situation and the future saying “it will all be alright”.

Real faith, as the Bible puts it, says “The assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things unseen” (ESV Hebrews 11v1) sees our fragile reality and in the face of uncertainty, real doubts and honest concerns, fights to believe that God has a purpose and has not left the building.

Those with real faith do not expect to be exempt from suffering: no-where in the Bible does it state that those who follow Christ will somehow magically avoid illness, accident, suffering and harm – even death; but that we should expect challenges in life; that in our suffering God is with us, carrying us and helping us to become stronger, learning to deal with human frailty and to understand more clearly his values and the eternal picture.

CS Lewis, Christian author and writer of the Narnia series watched his wife die of cancer and explained that “pain is God’s megaphone to a deaf world”. The illusion of control is so strong now that it takes a significant event like the Tsunami to help us realise what is really important and how we should spend our time and resources.

My chosen reaction to this bad news of cancer has a background; I had an excellent example growing up from my Dad who survived a near fatal car accident when I was one and was paralysed from the neck down. He was told he would never walk again, but through prayer, faith and determination he walked out of Stoke Mandeville Spinal Injuries Unit a few months later. He has written and spoken of his struggle with suffering and has fought to hold on to faith through it all. Recently he suffered another fall leaving him in a wheelchair and has fought for months to regain some walking once again. He has never complained and I admire his determination to fight on and believe that God is still with us.

So where does that leave me? Well it’s hard to deal with mortality and see the reaction to my news in those around me. I have been reminded of the fact that my life is still in God’s hands and that my earthly future is uncertain, but my eternal one assured. I would like people to acknowledge their reaction and to look into what life is really about; also to help others be more aware of preventative measures to reduce their own cancer risk.

My faith is now moving up a gear, more active as I hold in tension the reality of a potential for more suffering, loss and an increase in my risk of going to heaven in the next ten years, while still seeking God’s path for my life and trying to live like Christ, as he said “I have come that they may have life to the full”(John 10v10).

This means I am setting myself some goals over the next few weeks, months and years to remind me of what’s important and to focus on what is right.

1. To spend time with the people I love and develop my relationship with God.

2. To serve those I am called to in my role as a Doctor, Husband, Father, Brother, Friend and Son.

3. To make the most of my energy, time and resources to life live to the full.

4. To start training for a Triathlon to be achieved next summer once my wound heals.

5. To do all I can to raise awareness of preventable health problems.

6. To try to live every day to the max as if it were my last.

Another great verse puts all this better than I could, not hiding in denial but running the marathon of life with real faith :

“Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus”. (Philippians 3v14)

This complex syntax typical of St Paul basically states that he is focused by faith on what is unseen and wants to reach the goals set by Christ not those set by the material world around him. Amen to that.

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It was on Easter Sunday that Jesus rose from death. Jesus had told his disciples before he was arrested that he would be crucified and on the third day he would rise from the dead.

Sunday was the third day from Good Friday (Good Friday, Holy Saturday, Easter Day).

The second day after Good Friday.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Walter Raleigh

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