Lord I Come To Bathe In Your Glory featuring Lucy-Stimpson Maynard from the album “Love is the Way” recorded and produced by Bob Ross

In the two blogs before last, I shared two America’s Got Talent performances from Amanda Mammana, perhaps unkindly known as “the girl with the stutter.”
I was delighted to read in the American “Christian Post” that Amanda is, in fact a Christian. This is what was written about her:
America’s Got Talent” finalist Amanda Mammana used her gift of song to share the Gospel at an Andrew Palau evangelistic outreach event where she testified to how, despite the challenges of having a speech impediment, she’s undeterred from telling the world about God and His glory.
Mammana first won over the hearts of millions when she appeared on “America’s Got Talent” over the summer. During her audition, she revealed that singing was instrumental in helping her to overcome the challenges she faces daily in communicating.
Last weekend, Mammana was a special guest at the Andrew Palau Association’s CT CityFest where she shared her Christian faith.
“For about 10 years now, I’ve had a stutter, and it’s definitely something that has caused me to shy away and to not believe in myself,” the 19 year old said. “But by the grace of God, I found that I don’t stutter when I sing.”
“I’ve been able to take that and to let that just be a great way to spread the Gospel,” she added
During her stint on the singing competition, Mammana credited God for helping her make it through each week’s challenge.
“The Holy Spirit just took over and He put a fire inside of me,” she declared, “All Glory to God.”
In a message to others struggling with insecurity, Mammana encouraged believers not to listen to the derogatory messages they hear daily both internally and externally and rebuked those self-defeating messages as “lies straight from the devil.”
“But it’s amazing that we have a God that is so much stronger, and He’s given us the power to overcome anything that comes our way,” she added.
When she first appeared on “America’s Got Talent,” everyone gave her a standing ovation and the judges Heidi Klum, Howie Mandel, Simon Cowell, and Sofía Vergara were overcome with emotion by her story and performance and voted to advance her to the next stage.
“There were times when I was a kid where I was like, ‘I can never do anything like this … I’m not good enough,’” she tearfully shared after her audition. In response, an audience member yelled, “You are good enough!”
Mandel added, “I believe you’re moving millions of people at home. I just want to say, Thank you.”
If you would like to recap her journey then here is a link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36Xw9aAqPJw

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“Its From The Lord” from the Mustard Seed Soul Band featuring Jassica Castillo -Burley – from the album Heart and Soul recorded and produced by Ross Gill.

Blog February 23rd 26 Years a Christian
So, yesterday, February 22nd was the 26th anniversary of me becoming a Christian.

I know I have posted this before (in fact exactly one year ago!!) however I share it again as without it there would be no blog!
I had been attending an Alpha course and had started to think about becoming a Christian – I felt reassured by the words in John’s Gospel, Chapter 3 verse 16 “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life” Eternal Life – that is what I needed to take away my fear of death. Not something to be earned but something to be accepted as a gift. Perfect – apart from two problems 1) did I have enough faith to accept Jesus” gift” with any degree of sincerity? 2) If I did ask Jesus into my life what would my mates say- how much ridicule would I have to endure? Let me have a look at problem no 2 first.
Three of my very special friends are Barry Stares, Dave Conchie and Ian Beacham. Barry I have known since Junior School and Dave and Ian since PE College. We regularly meet for a drink and something to eat (yes curry) At one curry Ian said “You will never guess what’s happened to Mick” He was referring to another ex-PE College friend, Mick Mellows who played football for Pompey and who is now a Director of the charity Faith and Football -www.faith&football.org.uk . I thought Ian meant that Mick had been struck down with some horrible illness but no that is not what he meant at all. He continued “He’s only gone and become a Christian!” To which Dave replied “No – and he was such a good bloke!”
Could I face that sort of comment if I “admitted” to becoming a Christian? I really doubted it.
As for problem no 1 re did I have enough faith? – Well thankfully someone told me I only had to have faith as small as a mustard seed (the smallest of all seeds in Biblical times.) I simply had to focus on what I believed not on what I did not – simply had to trust – simply had to take a “leap of faith”
During the Alpha course I had been given a little red book entitled “Why Jesus?” At the end of the book there is a prayer so I knew an opportunity was coming up for me to take that leap of faith and to say this prayer asking Jesus to come into my life. I felt it really difficult to sleep with my two “problems” constantly churning around inside my head. The weekend came when I knew I had to make a decision – as part of the Alpha Course I was at the Holy Rood Vicarage with the Vicar, Michael Christian- Edwards and his lovely wife Merlyn. When the others in my group were having a coffee break I escaped into the village to go through in my head what I was going to do. On my return sure enough Michael gave everyone the opportunity to say a prayer asking Jesus to forgive us for all the things we had done wrong – to ask Him to come into our lives- and for us to be filled with His Holy Spirit. I remember asking Michael if I could say the prayer twice. He seemed surprised but said that was fine and so that lunchtime on Saturday, February 22nd 1997 I asked Jesus into my life and became a Christian.
Why did I want to say the prayer twice? Well there was Mr Mill and his dad that I also wanted to be there on such a momentous occasion. So that evening in Mr Mil’s apartment in Titchfield I sat between the two of them confessing out loud all the things I had done wrong and again asking Jesus into my life. Some of the things I had done wrong were pretty big – one had been a real burden for many years but after I had confessed it the burden lifted- I know that sounds amazing and too good to be true but amazing is what it was and too good not to be true!
So I thought “micky taking” here you come, but I decided to be pro-active and tell people before they found out through the grapevine. First off was Barry who I had known the longest -he was surprisingly supportive – so too was Ian – but I could not tell Dave, it was Dave who had made the comment about Mick Mellows – he was sure to let me have it with both barrels. A couple of months later Barry and Ian told me that Dave was really upset with me for not telling him. So I took Dave out for a curry (of course) and felt pretty emotional when Dave told me that he loved me (in a bloke way!!) and that he would always support me in anything I did and that he was upset because it seemed that I did not believe I could trust him. So big apology from me and really all the worries about people “taking the mick” turned out to be groundless- mind you I think my two sons James and Chris took a bit of stick at school.
So did my fears of dying die (sorry) If I am honest not entirely – but I did have God’s promise to hold on to and you can’t have much more than that. In fact later I wrote a song called “It’s From the Lord” which is featured today – the last verse of which is “When your time on earth is ending and you look up to Him on high and your see His promises sparkling spelt out in stars across the sky and open arms reach to embrace you to welcome you home then you know, yes you know it is the Lord.”
I also wrote a song which was a sort of autobiography of me becoming a Christian and being worried about what people would think – this one is on the CD “Precious” and is called “If I Say I Love You Jesus” I did actually once sing it live myself at a Mustard Seed Concert but obviously nowhere as good as the fantastic Lucy Stimpson-Maynard whose version I will share next week.

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Last week I posted another “moment of sunshine” which featured Amanda Mammana on America’s Got Talent (AGT)  She sang beautifully and was so inspiring as she suffers from a speech impediment – that is until she sings.”

In today’s blog she has moved from the AGT auditions to the finals.

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Last week I handed over this blog to our webmaster who did such a brilliant job in celebrating the life of his dear mum, Carol. This week I am handing over, via the video, to a very brave and talented girl from Connecticut.  I will not say any more apart from the fact that every time I watch it a tear forms in my eye.

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Carol Radcliffe with her 6th grandchild Precious-Rose

Amazing Love featuring Lucy Stimpson-Maynard from the album Love is the Way recorded and produced by John Hodgkinson

Ken very kindly asked if I would like to turn from webmaster to blog writer in dedication to my mum, who died on Sunday 29th January 2023. The photo above is with her 6th grandchild, Precious-Rose. She loved all her grandchildren and great grandchildren all the same, it was just especially lovely for mum as Precious-Rose was the only one that myself and her got to be in our lives from birth. My dad died a long time ago, but had bad mental health for 20 years before he died. Mum cared for him all those years and never once complained or stopped loving him. The make of what a fantastic women she was. As much as I am missing her so much, because they both believed and gave their lives to the Lord, they are now together, whole and without pain, bad health or fear. Ken suggested I put a poem on this blog, and I was struggling to find something, then I remembered the text I got from my daughter after she told my granddaughter about my mum dying. She loved Nanny Carol as much as mum loved her, so I thought what better way to remember mum than by putting the text on this blog. Keeps me smiling that’s for sure.

At the end of the day, mum gave so much of her heart to others all her life, she forgot to save some for herself.

Love,

PJ

As I have probably said before I do not watch a great deal of TV- sport mainly, but the other day Caroline was watching something and I heard “Phantom of the Opera’s “ “All I Ask Of You” being sung. I love the song and assumed it was two West End singers that were performing- it was not – it was something so much better – a definite “Moment of Sunshine.” I will say no more –please have a look and see if you agree.

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“Living it Up” featuring the Mustard Seed Soul Band from the album Heart and Soul recorded and produced by Ross Gill

So last week’s blog was most succinct as we were filming the first two episodes of “Theophilus – The Musical” – “A Journey of Faith.”
So, you may well ask what is “Theophilus – The Musical – “A Journey of Faith.”? Well, we have taken from the full 2- hour stage production those conversations that Luke and Theophilus share which relate to some of the challenging issues that people face, especially those on a journey of faith. The two episodes that we filmed centred on “Will I go to heaven when I die?” and “How can a God of love allow all the suffering in the world.”
We are looking to fund the remaining 5 episodes which include “How can I receive forgiveness?” and “Will God protect me if I become a Christian?”
As in the staged concert, Luke was played by Edward Baker- Duly and Theophilus by Natasha Bain. They interacted wonderfully and brilliantly conveyed the dynamic between Luke the historian and physician and his patron, a woman of noble birth who had been given the honourable name of Theophilius.
Theophilus was the recipient of Luke’s Gospel, and Luke now wishes to share his second volume, “The Acts of the Apostles.” It is as the story of “Acts” unfolds that Theophilus is prompted to ask Luke challenging questions.
In addition to Edward and Natasha, Richard Mellion brilliantly portrayed Peter, singing a number of songs including “You are the Shepherd of my Soul” and “Just put your hand in the hand of God”.
Joffy Girling was, of course the Musical Director and again was invaluable. Ross and Kanah from the film studio were great – professional, accommodating, and good company.
Also, a very special mention for our Director, Casey Lloyd who held the whole thing together. He was incredible patient with me and made many wise suggestions re the script that allowed it to move on so much from the May staged concert- is now so much more real and accessible.
The edit is likely to take two weeks – I can’t wait to share it with you.

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Willam James

Sincere apologies for the delay in posting this week’s blog and also for its brevity, but this week we have been so busy filming the first two episodes of Theophilus – The Musical – “A Journey of Faith.”
It went wonderfully well and next week I will tell you all about it – thank you

Great and Marvellous featuring the Mustard Seed Girls Choir from the album Love is the Way produced and recorded by John Hodgkinson

My very dear friend Dr Graham Giles sent me a New Year’s message which quoted Ecclesiastes. When on New Year’s Day I read the same words in “Word for Today” I realised that perhaps I had not been living in and enjoying the moment enough –I had always been thinking of “what was coming next.” I have shared the article just in case you feel that you do something similar.
Each day is a gift from God. Next to your salvation, today is the most valuable gift you will ever receive. When you receive a gift, what do you do? Thank the giver, unwrap it, and enjoy it. Getting the idea?
One Bible teacher writes: ‘I make an effort to focus on and enjoy every moment of my life, but doing so has been a long and difficult journey for me…I am a planner, and if I am not careful, I find myself planning the next thing while doing the current thing, which of course steals the present moment from me. Although being focused is a good thing, I can also easily get so focused on my work that I fail to enjoy the magic of the moment. For example, I was usually working while my children were little and found it difficult to even take a moment to stop and enjoy the cute things they said or did. I missed many of those moments and will never get them back. We should celebrate life and the people God has placed in our path. Life is to be enjoyed, not dreaded or regretted.’
Solomon wrote: ‘There is nothing better for a man than that he should eat and drink and make himself enjoy good in his labour. Even this, I have seen, is from the hand of God’ (Ecclesiastes 2:24 AMPC). Note these two phrases: 1) ‘From the hand of God.’ That means it’s God’s will for you to enjoy every day. 2) ‘Make himself enjoy good.’ That means you must look for things to celebrate each day. And you can start doing this – today!

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Tim Downs (left) Stu Fowler (Centre) and Robbie Richardson (right)

I recently saw my very good friend Tim Downs at Holy Rood Church and it reminded me of this fantastic piece of music that he created and which I shared this time last year.
Tim, who played baritone sax in the Mustard Seed Soul Band, is not very well at the moment- so here’s to your speedy and complete recovery in 2023 Tim.
By the way just for your information Wikipedia says:
“In dulci jubilo” (Latin for “In sweet rejoicing”) is a traditional Christmas carol. In its original setting, the carol is a macaronic text of German and Latin dating from the Middle Ages. Subsequent translations into English, such as J. M. Neale’s arrangement “Good Christian Men, Rejoice” have increased its popularity, and Robert Pearsall’s 1837 macaronic translation is a mainstay of the Christmas Nine Lessons and Carols repertoire. J. S. Bach’s chorale prelude based on the tune (BWV 729) is also a traditional postlude for Christmas services.
So, there you have it!!
ALL AT MUSTARD SEED SONGS – THE TRUSTEES, MUSICIANS, MUSICAL DIRECTOR AND OUR WEBMASTER WISH YOU ALL A VERY HAPPY AND PROPEROUS NEW YEAR

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