3 good news stories to make you smile

We all need some good news every now and again!

Every day God is working across our nation, through people young and old, to change their communities, schools, and workplaces; ordinary people are doing extraordinary things. We are privileged to hear so many stories of inspirational people and organisations that are busy doing incredible things all year round. Here are three great stories that we hope will make you smile.

‘Her’ Audio Bible Project

Her Audio Bible UK, the first NIV audio Bible voiced fully by women from across the UK, is a project run by a group of volunteers who all share a passion for the Bible to be freely available and widely accessible. The new free-to-access audio Bible is voiced by Christian women, with a wide range of accents, giving listeners the opportunity to engage Scripture in a fresh way.

The Her audio version makes the Bible accessible for those for whom reading is a struggle, as well as for those in situations where Bible reading is unsafe or socially unacceptable. Each reader also shares a two to three-minute testimony, designed to encourage those who already have a Christian faith and those who might be curious. Listening to a woman’s voice can be particularly helpful for those who have experienced harm such as domestic abuse, or for those for whom hearing a male voice can be triggering. 

Director and Producer Revd. Katy Partridge says,

“Women’s voices matter to God. If women are somehow excluded from religious spaces, the message they receive is that their voice does not matter to God or is less important. Sometimes theophanies come in the wind and the fire, and sometimes in the gentle whisper, so it’s interesting to me to hear Scripture in a wide range of tones and depths and strengths.”

Prison Fellowship 

Prison Fellowship is a global movement of people motivated by their faith to transform lives and communities by bringing love in action, acting with justice and showing mercy. They exist to show Christ’s love to people in prison by coming alongside them and supporting them. Through prayer and practical help, Prison Fellowship teams support and develop a Christian ministry to people in prison and their families.

This is all done through their network of over 3,000 volunteers, which are currently ministering in almost all of the 120 prisons in England and Wales. Their vision is to have a group in place to support every prison in England and Wales.

Prison Fellowship volunteers connect with their local group, as this is where they get a feel for their work, and can be trained up to go into prison or volunteer in other programmes. As well as supporting prisons in prayer and running Prison Fellowship programmes, local groups are the primary connection with their local prison for Prison Fellowship.

Emerge Charity

The Emerge charity works in hospitals in Surrey, Kent and Berkshire with 10 – 25’s who have arrived in crisis. They provide up to three month’s follow up support afterwards too. 

Founder, Joy Wright, explains how Emerge was first conceived:

“I am sitting on the hospital floor with Chloe, she’s crying angry tears, exhausted and overwhelmed. It’s 2014; Chloe’s a young person from my church where I’m a youth worker. She’s in hospital because she tried to kill herself, and has been on the children’s ward a couple of nights already. We’ve just had a tense interaction with CAMHS doctors who told her she needed to stay another night for more assessments the next day. Chloe told them she didn’t want to and that they couldn’t make her in true fifteen-year-old style. Her dad was there too, silently grappling with the situation. After an awkward silence I suggested we ‘take five’ and the other adults left the room.  

As Chloe cried, I comforted her and asked her to trust and work with the doctors, and to not run away. She agreed to stay and talk.”

This was the seed for Emerge and, in 2016, after building a small band of volunteers, and working with the hospital, on the 4th of July, Joy put on her ‘Emerge’ badge and went into A&E for the first time in search of young people needing a ‘voice of hope’. Joy met Lucy, who didn’t know she was the first of 1000’s of young people Emerge would go on to support over the coming years.

“You can see the difference it makes, when you first walk in and the young person is anxious, shut down, or very distressed. You chat about random things, maybe play a card game, just be there with them in the midst of the mess. You share a bit of a laugh about something and ask them what they like to do, you start to connect with them and help reconnect them to a spark of fun, of hope.”

Emerge want to share what they’ve learnt with Christians across the UK, so that anywhere there’s a young person in A&E in crisis, there can be someone there to bring a ‘voice of hope’ when it’s needed most.

To read more good news stories like these, check out this article.