Monthly Archives: October 2009

Christian Aid’s Director Dr Daleep Mukarji and Evangelical Alliance’s Executive Director, Dr Krish Kandiah were amongst the speakers educating churches to pro-actively engage with their community at Love and Joy Ministries annual conference last Saturday.

The one day event began with the harmonious sounds of Love and Joy Gospel Choir before John Cavanagh lead the morning’s prayer and worship. LJM’s Senior Pastor, Dr Tani Omideyi was first to speak as he focused on the active and varied work of the Ministry. This was followed by Christopher Gibaud from North West Christian Business Forum who talked about the forum and how businesses can engage in the community projects that carry out God’s work. Our first keynote speaker, Dr Daleep Mukarji took to the lectern and gave a passionate, and inspiring international focused talk. Dr Mukarji is due to stand down from his position as Director of Christian Aid later this year and so for many this was the last opportunity to hear him speak. He reflected on his own experiences during his work with Christian Aid and shocked with statistics of third world poverty that still exists in this world.

The second keynote speaker, Krish Kandiah gave a lively talk about integrated mission. He engaged with delegates by facilitating participation exercises that provided food for thought and discussion within the audience.

Dr Modupe Omideyi, rector at LJM, then shared best practice by providing the Love and Joy Ministries model – explained the achievements, aims and goals.

The practical workshops came after delegates were fed and watered. They included ‘A business focus’ from John Manwell, ‘Setting up and managing community projects’ from Pastors Tani and Modupe Omideyi, ‘How to start the ‘Square Mile’ project from Krish Kandiah and ‘Principles to developing formal partnerships with other organisations’ from Steve Robinson of Samaritan’s Purse.

The well attended event sent over 100 church members back to their churches and communities with the tools, abilities, insight and encouragement to begin or continue developing their transforming work in God’s name.

The conference didn’t just cater for the adult Christians however, Christian Aid lead an afternoon of practical and fun workshops. The good turn out is sure to lead to more and more youth mission work in the future.

Love and Joy Ministries would like to thank all the guest speakers and people who attended the event for making is such a great success.

Students on the Liverpool Lighthouse Harmonize programme are preparing to address the government with matters that concern them this week. The group of young people are working with web based film making company TrueTube.co.uk to write, act, direct and edit a short film that tackles a chosen subject close to their hearts. The end product is due to be premiered at the British Film Institute in London to MP’s and celebrities.

Truetube company provides a web platform where young people can make themselves heard. Its site boasts to use the powerful medium of the web, and advances in streaming video technology to help young people think, speak out and act on important issues happening in the real world. The Truetube film making bus has been travelling the country since July, with a team of 3 professional filmmakers who work with the young people they meet. They have so far made films in London, Birmingham, Manchester and Bristol but today they added Liverpool to the list. TrueTube film maker Alison Wright says “We’ve worked with 24 groups of young people from all walks of life and we’ve found that they’ve all had something to say, which is brilliant for us as it epitomizes what TrueTube is about. We work with the young people and establish a community action plan which encourages them to use the end product (film dvd) in a pro-active way within the community.”

Harmonize group has chosen to make their film based on the consequences of under age binge drinking. The hard-hitting script is being wholly devised, created and performed by the youngsters on this three day project.

TruTube’s Alison Wright, who trained as an actress in Newcastle and then continued her studies at the New York Film Academy, says “I’ve had a lot of experience of theatre in education but using film in education brings a current element to learning. It opens up a new world for young people. It’s great start for a young person who wants to pursue a career in film making. They leave with a copy of their work which gives them something physical to be proud of. We encourage them to show off their work as much as possible by adding it to social networking sites as well as it featuring on TrueTube.co.uk. The Harmonize participants have been great to work with and some are great actors. They work really well as a team and are supportive of one another. I’m excited about the results.”

The premiere of the five month project will take place on November 28th at the British Film Institute in London. Here, all 24 groups that TrueTube have worked with will showcase their work in front of an audience of over 500 people which will include politicians and celebrities. It will be the young people’s opportunity to show the country’s leaders what is important to them in a bid to make a difference for their generation