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Reformed drug addict turned pastor launches memoir
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Nottingham (June 1, 2008) -- It was a sight to behold as Kenyan born Rev Joseph Njuguna a former drug addict and jailbird both in Kenya and England stood before a packed hall on Saturday Evening (May 31) at the St. John’s Methodist Church on David’s Lane, Nottingham, to launch his memoir, aptly entitled Jesus Defeats Heroin. The launch marked the culmination of a journey that started in Kenya, where he abused drugs, travelled to London where his condition worsened after graduating to higher level of drugs that left him declared insane, to when he received Jesus as his personal savior under the guidance of fellow Kenyan, Apostle Isaac Ndugire of the Interdenominational World Revival Ministries, then based in London, who not only took him out of London streets, but initiated him into the world of evangelism.
The choir on the left at the ceremony and on right is Margaret Njiiri (Daughter Seed - centre) and Njeri and her twin sister
A self motivated human being who was greatly inspired by his mother Mrs Anne Wambui Chege, who not only ensured that her son received the best guidance, but when he went astray, resorted to the power of prayer that bore fruits when he turned to God. Pastor Njuguna has described the phenomenon in his writing as the ‘power of a praying mother’. The book was written after Pastor Njuguna had risen in ranks as a man of the cloth to the level of heading the fast growing Nottingham branch of the Victory Revival Christian Centre where he pastors along with his wife, Rev Sophie Njuguna. The function was graced by the presence of the Victory Rival Christian Centre’s Bishop John Gichiri and his wife Pastor Margaret Gichiri, and other high ranking ministers of religion.
On left is the choir performing at the launching and on right is one of the site moderator Jackson Njiiri buying the book during the launching
Over three hundred persons joined him at his moment of glory when the 140-page book which has chronicled his unabashed life in drugs both in Kenya and England in two volumes. He is not afraid of talking of his degrading past and tells the reader that the power of Jesus that got into his bloodstream is more powerful than the drugs that flowed in his veins. He was introduced to the ecstatic crowd that had waited to lay their hands on the new book by Bishop John Gichiri who noted that he was not afraid to have Pastor Njuguna in his ministry despite his past life in drugs, saying that “after Pastor Njuguna took control of our Nottingham church, membership has grown tremendously.”
On the left is the choir doing it on style and on right a section of the attendants at the launching
Chief speaker at the function was Bishop Joseph Warui of the Camberwell Christian Centre, London, who in praise of Pastor Njuguna said that despite his troubled past, God had predestined him for the new role that he has recently assumed and performed well, and noted that it took him (Njuguna) quite an effort to have his memoir published. Rev D. J. Comfort of Discipleship Christian Centre in Rotherham told the large gathering that Pastor Njuguna needed their support for the work that he had done, and they responded graciously by offering generous monetary support and pledges to ensure that the book is distributed free of charge to prisoners. He appealed to new readers of the book to support it as its proceeds are for a noble cause saying: “As you support this cause you will be doing the work of a missionary.”
Attendees had travelled from all parts of the UK, while others had travelled from Kenya and the West Indies. A number of people bought over ten books to take to their friends and churches, while Pastor Njuguna has confirmed that he has had an overwhelming support by persons who are ordering the book through his website, www.manofgod.co.uk.
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Bishop says collapse of Christianity is wrecking
British society - and Islam is filling the void
Last updated at 22:57pm on 28.05.08
Accusation: Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali claims radical Islam is filling the moral vacuum left by the decline in Christian virtues
The collapse of Christianity has wrecked British society, a leading Church of England bishop declared yesterday.
It has destroyed family life and left the country defenceless against the rise of radical Islam in a moral and spiritual vacuum.
In a lacerating attack on liberal values, the Right Reverend Michael Nazir-Ali, the Bishop of Rochester, said the country was mired in a doctrine of 'endless self-indulgence' that had brought an explosion in public violence and binge-drinking.
In a blow to Gordon Brown, he mocked the 'scramblings and scratchings' of politicians who try to cast new British values such as respect and tolerance.
The Pakistani-born bishop dated the downfall of Christianity from the 'social and sexual revolution' of the 1960s.
He said Church leaders had capitulated to Marxist revolutionary thinking and quoted an academic who blames the loss of 'faith and piety among women' for the steep decline in Christian worship.
Dr Nazir-Ali said the ' newfangled and insecurely founded' doctrine of multiculturalism has left immigrant communities 'segregated, living parallel lives'.
Christian values of human dignity, equality and freedom could be lost as the way is left open for the advance of brands of Islam that do not respect Western values.
The Bishopric of Rochester is one of the ten most powerful positions in the Church of England.
Dr Nazir-Ali's attack on the decline of Christianity appears to put him in the opposite corner to the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, and many of his fellow bishops.
But he holds some views in common with the Church's other widely-heard and popular prelate, Ugandan-born Dr John Sentamu, the Archbishop of York.
Over the past six months, Dr Nazir-Ali has made a number of criticisms of Islam and its influence.
Among them have been charges about the spread of no-go areas for non-Muslims and worries over the impact of new mosques.
Last weekend he was one of just three bishops who backed a move in the Church's parliament, the General Synod, to encourage the conversion of Muslims to Christianity.
His latest attack once again criticises Dr Williams's backing for sharia law, saying that 'recognising its jurisdiction in public law is fraught with difficulties, precisely as it arises from a different set of assumptions than the tradition of law here'.
Dr Nazir-Ali detailed his arguments in an article in the newly-launched political magazine Standpoint.
The bishop, himself an immigrant from Pakistan in the mid-1980s, admitted that he might be thought the least qualified person to discuss British identity. But he quoted Kipling: 'What should they know of England who only England know?'
The bishop said 'something momentous' had happened in the 1960s. He quoted historians who point to a cultural revolution in which women ceased to uphold or pass on the Christian faith and to the role of Marxist revolutionaries.
Dr Nazir-Ali pointed with approval to a finding that 'instead of resisting this phenomenon, liberal theologians and church leaders all but capitulated.
Criticised: Archbishop of Canterbury Dr. Rowan Williams has controversially backed sharia law
He said: 'It has created the moral and spiritual vacuum in which we now find ourselves.' In the place of Christianity there was nothing 'except perhaps endless self-indulgence'.
The bishop said the consequences were 'the destruction of the family because of the alleged parity of different forms of life together, the loss of a father figure, especially for boys, because the role of fathers is deemed otiose, the abuse of substances (including alcohol), the loss of respect for the person leading to horrendous and mindless attacks, the increasing communications gap between generations and social classes - the list is very long.'
Another result, he said, was that immigrants had been welcomed, not on the basis of Britain's Christian heritage, to which they would be welcome to contribute, but by the 'newfangled and insecurely-founded doctrine of multiculturalism'.
The bishop warned that views not founded on Christianity would not produce the same values. 'Instead of Christian virtues of humility, service and sacrifice, there may be honour, piety, the saving of face, etc'.
He questioned what resources were available for an ideological battle against radical Islamism, saying 'the scramblings and scratchings around of politicians for values which would provide ammunition' were hardly adequate.
Convert who crusaded against the extremistsBorn into a Roman Catholic family in Pakistan, the young Michael Nazir-Ali converted to Anglicanism at the age of 20.
As a young man, he suffered rough treatment of the kind regularly handed out to Christians in a country where failing to follow the official religion can sometimes end in murder.
He moved to Cambridge to study theology and then returned as a priest to Pakistan before being brought to London in the 1980s to serve as an assistant to the then Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Robert Runcie.
He is one of the bishops who has been called on by the Prince of Wales to give advice on Islam.
However, Dr Nazir-Ali does not share the prince's enthusiasm for Islamic values. He has warned Charles to give up his hope of being 'defender of faiths' because of the incompatibility of different beliefs.
Dr Nazir-Ali has accused Muslims of promoting double standards by looking for both 'victimhood and domination'; he has called for powers for officialdom to remove veils from Muslim women for security reasons; and he has warned repeatedly over the dangers of extremism.
In particular he has called on Islamic leaders to allow Muslims to abandon their beliefs and adopt other religions.
Dr Nazir-Ali has spoken up for an estimated 3,000 Britons under threat of retaliation for giving up their faith and he has condemned Islamic states that maintain the death penalty for apostasy.
His outspokenness has put him in the vanguard of opposition to hardline Islamism and made him one of the highest-placed enemies of the gay rights movement.
He angered the Archbishop of Canterbury by threatening to boycott this year's Lambeth Conference of Anglican bishops from around the world.
He has criticised civil partnerships and opposed the extension of IVF treatment to single women and lesbians.
Dr Nazir-Ali has much in common with the Archbishop of York Dr John Sentamu. Unlike him, however, he does not have a populist touch.
This may have contributed to his failure to win the post of Archbishop of Canterbury, for which he was once considered a leading candidate.
The 58-year-old bishop has now remained in Rochester for nearly 14 years.
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Dedication of Twin Sisters
Family and friends of Mr. & Mrs. John Kiruthi of Coventry, UK gathered in London on Sunday 25th May, 2008 for their twin daughters christening. The colourful ceremony took place at World Conquerors Christian Centre, 210-218 Trafalgar Road, Greenwich, South London SE10 9ER. The ceremony was conducted by Bishop Climate Irungu of Edinburgh, Scotland. Mr. Seed who is an uncle to Mr. Kiruthi and his wife Pastor Jane Njiiri also attended the ceremony. The 15-month identical twins were presented to the bishop by the parents before the church service. During his preaching after the ceremony, Bishop Climate covered the topic of a family curse. He explained that many people tend to ignore the issue and the ignorance has landed many people into big problems. "In medical terms, the doctors says that it is family inheritance problem. That is why when you visit a doctor he always asks you: 'Do you have problem in you family.' In the spiritual circles we call this generation curse. This curse has caused alot of problems. How can you explain a family where you find several ladies in a family and all of them are not married or they all married and divorced and you can also find they all married and all the husbands died?" He continued to explain that people should trace the problems in the family and can break the curse by prayer after identifying it. The church is such a lively church and one of the biggest Kenyan churches in UK with a branch in Scotland and London. A very modern church and with a very good management and the music of the modern days is situated just after you come out of Blackwall tunnel on the southern side. The church is really on the latest technology where every Sunday Services are live on internet. For more information please check www.wccc-scotland.org
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Bishop Climate Irungu and his wife Jennifer before the ceremony |
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Mr. & Mrs. Kiruthi (right) presenting their children to the Bishop |
A large team came from Coventry to support the couple |
The grandmothers of the twins Pastor Jane Njiiri and Ann Kiruthi joined the ceremony |
Bishop Climate preaching at the ceremony - "The biggest enemy is not the devil but your ignorance." |
After the ceremony the couple took a photo with the Bishop |
Dressing for the occasion - Left left is Pastor Ann Kiruthi, Pastor Jennifer, Pastor Jane Njiiri and Mrs. Esther Kamanu |
Family and friends posed for a photo after the ceremony
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'The church has left the building': Pentecost Festival hits London
by Daniel Blake and Maria Mackay Posted: Saturday, May 10, 2008, 7:01 (BST) Font Scale:A A A
More than a year in the making, Share Jesus International’s highly anticipated first ever Pentecost Festival - two full days of Christian worship, teaching, comedy, dance, debate, social action and more –finally hit central London on Friday.
The Festival realises the vision of the late Rob Frost to put on a festival that “Jesus would want to come to”, and aims to take the church and the message of Jesus’ love out into the streets and straight to the people in a completely unprecedented way, hence its motto, “The church has left the building”.
“I’m very passionate about taking our worship onto the streets and our prayer into bars and cafes and our Bible reading into the public space, on the Underground,” enthuses Share Jesus director, Andy Frost. “We shouldn’t be a hidden, invisible church. We should be the visible church, out on the streets.”
“Pentecost Festival is an opportunity for the church to discover afresh how it can engage with the world, hear what God is guiding the church to do, and learn how we can leave our buildings behind.
“It’s about getting out of our buildings. We can be tucked away in our buildings having a great time but then we forget the world outside. It’s about how we reconnect with the world,” explains Andy.
The packed programme offers Londoners everything from a current affairs debate with former Tory MP Ann Widdecombe, to a pop opera re-telling of the story of Esther, to a closer look at Dawkins’ “God Delusion”, or learning how to lindy hop, jitterbug and boogie woogie whilst at the same time hearing from Christian Aid about the impact of climate change on the poor.
Other events, meanwhile, are focusing in on issues painfully close to the heart of Londoners and how the church should tackle them. Most poignantly what the church can do to address the all too frequent incidences of gun and knife crime among the city’s young people, as well as other social ills blighting the capital like lingering racism and drug abuse.
Says Frost, “Hopefully for the church it will be a prophetic call to engage with new things and see what difference that can make. The church is already doing great things but it’s about how we can continue to grow in that.”
PRAYER By: Moderator (During official opening of parliament on 6th, march 2008)
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Our Heavenly Father, we are coming to you with repentance and more so in mind the words you spoke through your servant Solomon in 2 Chronicles 7:14 saying:-
If my people who are called by my name, will humble themselves and
Pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear and from heaven and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.
We acknowledge that, our Nation which you have so strategically placed in the world, a pearl for Africa has become a laughing stock. As stated in Proverbs 29:18, “We are perishing like people without a vision.” Like David’s prayer in
Psalms 51:10, it is our sincere prayer that, you create in us pure hearts, O God and to renew steadfast Spirit within us.
We acknowledge that in many ways, we have deviated from your ways. As a nation:
1. We confess the Failure to be our brother/sisters keepers – instead, we have fallen into the trap of tearing each other.
2. We confess the Spirit of hatred. This being the season of Easter, O God, bring a spirit of reconciliation as you did between Pilate and Herod.
3. We confess the spirit of murder where human life has become valueless.
4. We confess the spirit of greed, the spirit of corruption, the spirit of manipulation, the spirit of rebelliousness and arogancy.
5. We confess the horrible sins of oath taking, killing each other thereby shedding innocent blood and the accompanying rapings and torture.
6. We confess that we have used our tongues wrongly – a small organ in our bodies but has caused many fires in this nation and especially before and after the December 27th Elections.
7. We confess the spirit of witchcraft – Lord you can see how wide we have opened the door for witchcraft, turning Kenya into a breeding ground for it and all its accompanying evils.
O God let the nation be reminded through your Holy Spirit as written in Psalms 5:3 that you are not a God who takes
pleasure in evil. As per Proverbs 3:5 help us to, Trust in the Lord with all our hearts and lean not on our own understanding and in all our ways to acknowledge God.”
O Lord, you can as well see how we have made our nation vulnerable to the oppressive spirits of the goddess Harambee and we have even lifted altars for her in the Nation in the names of Harambee Avenue and Harambee House – we have put her spirit in our Courts of Arms and in our Money.
O Lord open our minds and our spiritual eyes to see and to recognize the Satanic alters entrenched in this Parliament, yet it is the kitchen of the Nation. We pray that you release our nation into the liberty of our God. Hosea says, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.”
Lord, where we have no knowledge, reveal that secret to us even as Paul revealed to the Ephesians for us to understand that in our National present struggles, we are not contending against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the demonic powers and against the Spiritual hosts of wickedness in our National atmosphere. Lord reveal this secret to us, so that as it is stated in Hosea 6:1, we will likewise say;
“Comes, let us return to the Lord, He has torn us to pieces; but he will heal us; he has injured us but he will bind up our wounds.”
Our Lord and our Savior empower the Church to aggressively be involved over the Spiritual warfare over our Nation and even face the devil in his habitations through occultism, devil worshipping, witchcraft, freemasonry, the New Age Movement, and to understand the wisdom behind the new world order.
May it please your heart our Father to use this tenth Parliament as well, to be a tool in your hand to usher into our Nation your complete redemptive purpose. Like Jabez we pray that you bless to bless our Nation, greatly expand her boundaries and with your mighty hand of protection over her.
We remember those who are currently suffering in the camps, those who lost their properties and those displaced children from their schools.
Help us to heed to the words of Isaiah 1:18 that says:
“Come now, let us reason together … though your sins are like scarlet they will be as white as snow, though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.”
You are the way in the wilderness, be with us as we move from the known to unknown.
In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. AMEN!
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