God gave Jewish man vision of empty tomb
Richard Harvey attended the prestigious Winchester School. Although he was Jewish he regularly attended chapel services. Richard debated with his Christian friends, but Christ’s resurrection was a stumbling block - until, while discussing it, Richard saw an empty tomb. He was interested in what it meant to believe in Jesus and studied theology at university, but he was pulled in two directions: his Jewish friends wanted him to return to Judaism and Christians suggested he wasn’t a Jew now. When he studied church history he wondered, ‘Whatever happened to the first Jewish Christians? Why did they disappear? How can they reappear today?’ God called him to be an answer to his questions. He became an evangelist with Jews for Jesus and later for the Church’s Ministry among Jewish people (CMJ). Today he is involved with the British Messianic Jewish Alliance and lectures at All Nations Bible College, preparing missionaries for service overseas.
100th pantry opens
The Local Pantry network is saving money for and improving the health of their communities. Pantries are small shops serving local neighbourhoods. Members pay a few pounds weekly and choose ten items worth many times more. They eat more fresh fruit and vegetables and are trying and enjoying new foods. Their finances have improved, and it helps them reduce food waste. Members also say their health has improved significantly. On 18 July the 100th pantry opened, in Kent. Churches host or support 47 of the 100, and the network has reached 90,000 people. Churches are ideal hosts, with physical space, local links, a well-known location, potential volunteers, and a desire to see positive change. Portsmouth’s Baptist Church closed its foodbank and opened a pantry instead. Inspired by its success, a Southsea Church of England did the same, as did two other local organisations, including an Elim Church community group.
Record number of children homeless
Many are made homeless from ‘no-fault’ evictions when their landlord decides to sell. The Government promised to ban these types of evictions in 2019 but has not done so yet. Evicted families are placed in temporary accommodation. On 31 March almost 105,000 households, with over 131,000 children, were in such accommodation (hotels or bed and breakfast). This latest figure is the highest since records began. Sitting outside a hotel in Plymouth earlier this month, the BBC found several homeless families keeping each other company. When people are in temporary accommodation, there is nowhere for them to move to. The root of the problem is lack of housing, exacerbated because local housing allowance rates have been frozen for the past three years. Amid soaring rents, that choice has left much of the country unaffordable for any household needing housing benefit to help pay their rent.
Lawyers charge £10,000 to make fake asylum claim
A reporter posing as an economic migrant found immigration law firm staff briefing clients how to lie to the authorities to stay in Britain. They were willing to help him get refugee status despite being told he had no legitimate reason to stay in the UK. One lawyer asked for £10,000 to invent a backstory for him, including claims of sexual torture, beatings, slave labour, false imprisonment and death threats making him suicidal and compelled to flee to the UK. He promised a doctor’s report to back up the story and antidepressants to give to the Home Office as ‘evidence’ of mental trauma. Another lawyer promised to ‘create the evidence’ to make it appear the reporter had a genuine fear of ‘persecution and assassination’ if he returned home. He boasted of a success rate of over 90% with similar asylum cases. Immigrants face jail for making false asylum claims, whereas solicitors facilitating and profiting from them only face professional sanctions.
