Out of My Comfort Zone

Today, I was in Prestwich town centre in the north of Manchester singing my lungs out with other friends from my church home group to declare God's goodness to the local community and to invite people to our Easter Concert entitled, Alive!

It was a bit nippy, and there were a good few people milling about. I was nervous, like everyone was; we don't exactly make a habit of singing in public! But as we got going, people started watching us, a few approached us and thankfully, no one was rude to us. The Alive! concert we host each Easter is amazing and powerful opportunity to share the gospel of Jesus Christ and to demonstrate His love in a real and practical way.

I'm excited to see what God will do on the 24th. I am expecting the unexpected!

Spiralling Out Of Control

In recent weeks, I have read articles, tweets and comments from social networking sites about Jan Jan, a child of six years old performing a 'macho' dance number for a noontime show in the Philippines called Willing WIllie. Naturally, there was outrage and public condemnation. And rightly so - the incident was blatantly child abuse, clear exploitation and should be unacceptable in any modern and evolved society.

However, I find it bizarre how Filipinos reacted so violently over the incident when Philippine television is filled with programmes that exploit the poor, objectify women, and poke fun at those who are seen less important or less beautiful in society. You've got noontime entertainment shows that have scantily-clad women performing sensual dance routines, contestants in game shows that wear offensive or inappropriate clothing (I still remember an episode of Wowowee where a contestant wore a t-shirt with a huge swastika splashed across the front!) and drama shows that portray darker-skinned characters in a negative light.

Until producers, TV hosts, artists and everyone in the entertainment industry change their mindset and deliver high quality, informative and non-sensationalist programming, you'll always have victims like Jan Jan, who, in his family's desperation for a cash prize that they would never get to earn even if they worked 24/7 for the rest of their lives, are exploited and abused.

And unless government remains unable to provide its citizens with decent jobs paying decent wages, people will do whatever it takes to survive. Even if it means putting their nearest and dearest in perilous situations.