26 July 2010

Amazing Grace on Channel 4

Channel 4's new religion and belief show, 4thought.tv, showed moving and powerful testimonies to God's grace in people's lives last week - with a little help from the Evangelical Alliance.

The Alliance helped 4thought.tv's production company, Waddell Media, locate three of its interviewees for its Amazing Grace series of short programmes last week, to commemorate John Newton's birthday. Gems, Patsy McKie and the Rev Katie Kirby told their personal stories about the power of grace in their lives in the programme, which is shown at prime time after the Channel 4 news.

Youth worker and aspiring rapper Gems (God Entered My Soul) spoke about being transformed after asking forgiveness from God for a life of teenage crime.

"From hurt to healed, pain to peace, stress to joy, death to life, if you accept Christ, you can be blessed like me. It was amazing grace that saved a wretch like me," he rapped.

Patsy spoke about how her faith has influenced her feelings for the youth who shot her son dead. She said if she came face to face with the killer: "The first thing I would be thinking about is that same grace that had been offered to me - that same mercy and forgiveness, I would be offering that to that same person."

The Rev Katei Kirby said that the story goes that John Newton borrowed the tune for Amazing Grace from the slaves on the ship he used to transport before becoming a Christian.

"That, for me, says that amazing grace can bring something out of pain," she said, adding that it has also given her the ability to face the future after suffering in her own life.

"What grace does is gives us the opportunity to see hope and to move from being hurt and downcast, or even depressed possibly to being hopeful and joyful again," she said.

The Evangelical Alliance is always searching for stories to share with the media. If you have a story, email us at yourstories@eauk.org.