Friday 6 May 2011

The Only Way is Essex

The M25 is a wonderful motorway when it works. It's the victim of its own success: If I had a pound for every time I've travelled it I would be a rich man. It's a gateway to the west and the north; nearly every long journey involves this motorway. The beauty of England and Wales opens up from this starting point.

I remember the first time I travelled it alone: It was the occasion of my father's death. I hadn't long passed my test and with some trepidation I set out for Essex on a late, cold evening in December, when the mists seem to hug the motorway as I drove through the night. That was my introduction. Twenty-five years and many musicals later, we take the 'Yeshua Messiah!' musical to Loughton in Essex.

An awful lot has happened in the world since that first lonely journey, but the message of the hope of the Gospel remains intact. And that gives a strong sense of perspective. My father and mother have been prayed into glory; that's the best gift I could pray for them. They both made late decisions, but they're there! As I write this, I am listening to John Rutter's version of the spiritual 'Deep River' which includes the words:

"Deep river my, home is over Jordan,
O don't you want to go to that Gospel Feast,
That promised land where all is peace."

Many times I've crossed the Dartford Crossing into Essex, the county that I grew up in. And though many of the 'old familiar faces', as the poem says, have passed on, there burns in my heart a desire to share the hope of the Gospel. That we will do on May 14th when we present the musical together with Jewish and Messianic singers, having crossed over the 'deep river' of the Thames.

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