Brighton Songs of Praise

Hello and welcome to Songs Of Praise.

Today, I've come to a place where people come to escape

and where dreams can come true.

Get the picture? I'm in Brighton.

I don't look like that.

Coming up, the artist's studio that guarantees you a brush with faith.

And the high-flyer who changed course following a chance encounter.

Plus music from Brighton-based artists Stuart Townend,

Lou Fellingham and Phatfish.

In the late 1700s, the Prince of Wales, later King George IV,

made Brighton his second home, and what a home!

He transformed a simple farmhouse into a magnificent royal palace,

housing works of art and fine furniture.

And so, in the 1800s,

Brighton came to be known as a fashionable and stylish holiday resort.

And it's just as popular today.

It's known for its historic seafront, its pier

and this lovely beach,

which offers a little bit of heaven on a summer's day.

Now, if you don't mind...

For the more energetic and adventurous,

there are plenty of ways to let off steam and get a bird's-eye view.

HE SCREAMS

Our music comes from Church of Christ The King,

the home church of modern hymn-writer and worship leader Stuart Townend.

And we begin with one of his new songs,

written with Keith and Kristyn Getty.

It's Come, People Of The Risen King.

Brighton's seafront inspires many artists to pick up a paintbrush.

Among them, Daniel Laurence,

who works from his studio on the prom.

It's a great location to work.

We've got the beach here, the sky, the clouds.

At one point, I moved away. I moved further inland.

And I really missed the sea.

I went to university in Sheffield

and, within two weeks, transferred back to Brighton,

because I'd missed the sea so much.

My paintings - they're mainly ocean-orientated.

So underwater scenes, lots of shoaling fish.

All my work is about creation.

My faith completely inspires my work.

Is this whole thing a vocation?

It is a vocation, it's my hobby.

It's, sort of, many things rolled into one.

It is my job, so a lot of the time I take it for granted.

I have to sort of remind myself that, you know, I'm doing something I love.

Also, to me, an opportunity where I can spread the good news.

That's why I like to sort of try and dot the Scriptures around.

I have Scriptures on the back of my business cards,

I have them on the fish tank.

So it always makes reference to God's goodness,

the way he's guided me throughout my life,

and I try to sort of pass that on through my work.

It's almost like a mini church on the beachfront.

I do pray that this would be, you know,

this is the Lord's house, you know, that he blessed me with this.

So people always wander in here,

and I really feel that this is God's place

and I want to share it with everyone.

You have parents reading the verse from Genesis,

"God said, 'Let the waters teem with living creatures.' "

You have parents reading that out to their children.

"The Lord is my rock." Psalm 18. You know, people would be looking at the clocks

and, all of a sudden, spot that Scripture.

I want my work to appeal but, at the same time,

most definitely, it's to glorify God

and to try and capture a bit of his creation in the pictures.

Laura Westley spends her time guiding people safely to land,

but she's always had her head in the clouds.

As long as I can remember, I've wanted to fly.

It's just always been magical, something different.

I just remember being totally amazed

by these things that stayed up on the sky

and didn't come back down again.

When it came to choosing a career,

there was only one direction for Laura - that's up.

It was just a dream come true -

it was just a fulfilment of 15 years of real dedication to get it done.

I think I actually sold my flat

to pay for my commercial flying lessons.

And that was just, I really just felt there was a calling there.

That was it. That was...

I was just never... I was never going to go.

Once qualified, Laura didn't become a commercial pilot.

She began work with the charity Mission Aviation Fellowship.

Its motto is "flying for life".

We fly into the most remote, inaccessible parts of the world.

And we take in whatever needs taking in and take out whatever needs taking out.

It could be evangelists, could be day-old chicks, it could be Bibles,

it can be medical personnel.

And we work in some of the most remote and inhospitable parts of the world.

It's just an organisation that reaches the unreachable.

It was founded by Christians

and we have a very strong Christian ethos behind it -

we believe that we can share God's love in a practical way.

We get to express our faith in not evangelical terms, we don't preach.

We think that we just show God's love

through the things that we... People that we take.

And when I fly, I realise every bum on a seat behind me

is an answer to someone's prayer on the ground.

I remember one time we went to a refugee camp

and a lady came over and her child was really, really ill with malaria.

And I'm not a doctor,

I don't carry antimalarials or anything to cure malaria with.

And all we could do for her was pray

and I have to confess I felt really impotent, in a way.

We, as Christians, we believe that we can pray to God

and he'll answer our prayers.

And... But, in reality, we often take our kids to the doctor

as soon as they get a temperature.

Whereas this woman, her faith was all she had

and that really struck me

and these people live their faith day in, day out.

That's really incredible to witness.

Well, in a moment, we'll discover how Laura's experiences in Africa

had more of an impact on her life than she ever expected.

# Life's not always as it seems

# A different route from A to B

# As the plant, it may come tumbling down

# When you're questioning the why

# And it's hard to see the light

# And you're praying for the wind to change

# And though the pain is strong

# And it's hard to carry on

# I know that this is true

# My God cares for you

# All hope has disappeared

# And you're running out of tears

# I can tell you he is here

# My God cares for you

# Oh, yes, he cares for you

# Oh, oh

# When no answers can be found

# As the waves come crashing round

# And you find you're driven to your knees

# When you're overwhelmed with fear

# And it feels like it's been years

# You've been asking God, "Please rescue me"

# And though the pain is strong

# And it's hard to carry on

# I know that this is true

# My God cares for you

# All hope has disappeared

# And you're running out of tears

# I can tell you he is here

# My God cares for you

# Oh, yes, he cares for you

# But don't you know

# That his arms are strong enough to carry you

# Lift you up

# In the safety of his love

# Just hold on

# He will come

# The Lord, our God, will comfort you

# Give you strength enough to see you through the storm

# And though the pain is strong

# And it's hard to carry on

# I know that this is true

# My God cares for you

# All hope has disappeared

# And you're running out of tears

# I can tell you he is here

# My God cares for you

# Oh, yes, he cares for you

# Oh, oh-oh-oh. #

Laura isn't the only pilot in the family. Her husband Mike also flies.

We joined MAF as a couple

and we were known as the BOGOF couple - the buy one, get one free.

We spent the first 12 months in Uganda, both flying.

It was pretty awesome.

If there's one thing that stands out for me about working with MAF

it's the two wonderful kids that Mike and I have been blessed with.

We'd never thought about adopting before.

We'd made the decision that I wasn't going to have...

We weren't going to have any children

cos of the work that we were doing.

It was just...God's hand, I guess.

Mike was flying in Tanzania and I was at a church in Kampala.

And the pastor asked me if I would take the youth group

down to the Sanyu Babies Home.

There were around 40 children

and the lady spoke to me and said,

"Would you consider adopting?" and I said, "No."

And she said, "You go and pray about it."

I spoke with Mike when he came back from Tanzania

and we just knew it was right,

we just knew it was what God had for us.

And we went back to Sanyu

and...we didn't feel we could choose a child.

We just asked the lady in charge, a devout Christian lady called Mama Joyce,

and said, "You know the kids, you've loved them,

"you've cared for them since they came,

"and you know what they need,

"so we'll just pray with you

"and just trust God to find, you know, the right match."

It's been a journey.

It's been an adventure.

They're amazing.

It's just opened my eyes to parenthood

in a totally different perspective.

I suppose being a parent does that, I guess.

Sometimes, you trip up on something that looks like a rock

and open up the rock and there's this crystal inside,

and there were these two little crystals that were just there.

I don't know - it was this feeling of overwhelming love for them.

It was just an incredible feeling to know

that God was going to give us these two beautiful kids.

Bob Hutchins has been tuning pianos for the past 40 years.

He's partially sighted.

When I left school, I didn't really know what to do with my life.

And a piano tuner had recently been to the school and I said,

"What's this job like?"

I think he was having a bad day, he said, "Oh, it's all right."

I didn't know what else to do, so I got offered a college place

to learn to tune pianos and it's been the best thing I ever did.

I try to get the best I can out of each instrument,

but I'm there for the customer

and I always look to be of comfort and help to them as individuals,

as well as just doing the work.

Being partially sighted doesn't seem to have stopped you that much.

The only thing that I can't do is drive.

I've even flown a plane.

-It was a 50th birthday present from my wife.

-A-ha.

-There was a pilot in the plane as well.

-Right.

But I actually held the controls for a little while,

so I've done pretty well everything that I would have wanted to in life.

Do you pray that God may heal you one day?

We've prayed that many times.

It would be lovely to see really well.

My wife and I are regularly praying

on the streets of Brighton & Hove

for people that are sick and expecting God to heal them,

because Jesus asked us to go out, preach the Gospel,

lay hands on the sick and pray for them.

The fact that I haven't been healed as of yet

doesn't stop me going out and sharing God's love.

There's absolutely no hardness in my heart towards God.

I'm really glad I've had the life that I've had.

I wouldn't have changed it for anything.

Well, in a moment, Stuart Townend and his band

will lead the congregation in our final piece of music.

It's a new take on a much-loved hymn.

And now, thanks to Laura, Daniel and Bob

for sharing their stories about the decisions

that have shaped their lives and made them who they are today.

Loving God, we thank you for giving us talents and skills

and the fulfilment that working can bring.

For the ability to bring help to others,

whether they live close by or far away,

whether they are neighbours or strangers.

Thank you for inspiring us with the immense beauty of your creation.

May we use our gifts in your service.

Amen.

Next week, Russell Watson will be in his native city of Salford.

He'll be meeting people along its 30 miles of waterways.

And there'll be hymns from St Peter's Church, in Swinton.

Subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing by Red Bee Media Ltd