Facing the Canon with Jodie Collins

[Music] Jody it's a great joy to have you on facing the cannon thank you for having me I've known you for quite a number of years well tell us a little bit about your early childhood were you born into a Christian home I was yeah I grew up going to church our local Church of England church and great kids work which i think is why mom and dad moved there and yeah grew up going to church being in Sunday school or the classic early 80s Sunday school teaching and some and and yeah it was a was a great church and had still got lifelong friends from there and and yeah just grew up knowing that God was real and have you always known Jesus I think yes it's probably the answer but I think there are probably a few key moments that I would look back at and and say I was a key part of my journey so we were lucky enough to travel around the world as a kid and gone lovely holidays so my dad loves sunsets and I remember kind of being on a beach watching a sunset and even a very young age thinking someone must have designed this it's too good yeah and and just that acknowledgment that there was there's something more out there and and then at six I was at a big event and I think kids were meant to be there as far as I remember I think my parents couldn't find a babysitter and I was at an event called dirty hands actually Dave Pope and Doug Barnett and you're like crowd and they had missionaries and then some about how to get involved in the world and for Jesus and somebody a missionary from Africa was there and she spoke and I remember them doing a calling at the end saying if you feel called to missions work stand up and I was six and I remember knowing that was a call on my life in that moment and I couldn't put the words to it only in recent years have been out put words to it of what it actually was and I just remember saying to God I think you're talking to me did you stand up no I said I'm too little to stand up people would laugh at me I'm not standing up but I'm standing up in my heart and I remember saying that really clearly and forgot about it for years and then yeah kept going to Sunday school kept going to church and knew that it was a good thing I knew that church was a good thing and the people around me were with good moral people and but got to about 13 which is that tricky age in life beginning of teenage years and I just remember looking around at church looking around at Christianity as I knew it at the time and said to God is it just about being a good person because if Christianity and being a Christian is just about being a good person I'm not sure on that bothered and I can be I can help an old lady across the road of it you don't need God in your life to help an old lady across the road don't need gotten the ice to be kind and I suppose there's more to it than that I want to know and just started to meet people who talked about the Holy Spirit and talked about having relationship with Jesus and for me that was pivotal and and so far there is more to it than being a good person it's actually about a relationship with God I start knowing him and and trusting him following him and this is Holy Spirit and his also vo just that this God is alive and real and and that for me was pivotal and there were some peaks and troughs over the last 20 years but yeah that's 20 plus years now but yeah that's that's probably a few key moments through my childhood you then went off to Cambridge and you studied education there yes and qualified as a teacher I did and you worked as a teacher it I did I worked as a necessary section teacher and then from there you you left and went off to Tenerife yes so I would just go to Tenerife because four and five-year-olds went crazy enough for me so I went through creating the verses and I had no intention of going to Tenerife at all I had my career planned out and from you know early age wanted to be a teacher and and love the idea of being a teacher and said that's what I set my mind to I did four year degree in education and got a job in a school where I knew the head and the deputy head and they created job performance was very kind and generous and worked for them for a couple of years and but in my very first year of teaching anybody who's a teacher knows how exhausting it is and there's an N QT which is your first year of teaching you've really got to try hard and get that qualification and I was working really hard I got to the Easter holidays of my very first year teaching and I said to my mom I'm exhausted I need a holiday and so we looked up as in say on telly tech zone that goes away my age doesn't look stopped on the computer so last-minute holidays and tenerife came up and the church I was going to at the time has an outreach in tenerife called the living room which is still going today and it was set up for the workers of mostly British workers aged 18 to 30 who go out to Tenerife and sometimes I'm holding end up staying longer but definitely in the prefer party lifestyle and a life to escape generally from the UK and and mess happens it's a crazy island and people we were just saying we still say it now people got chewed up and spit out by the lifestyle on the island yeah and so this place called the living room was like a little oasis and it was a drop-in centre for the workers there during the day and then at night and go out on the streets for the bars and clubs to chat with the workers and say hey with when the Christian Center just want to say you know we're here for you and yeah that that was going on so that's what my church were involved in and so I said to our church leader oh I'm going on a holiday next week to Tenerife is I think you want me to take out for the guys in Tenerife get generous person that I am give some of my luggage allowance back in that day you did get 20 kgs for free and then and I I offered my luggage allowance and so took I think I took a few books out and he just said to me off make sure you got there and make sure you you spend some time up there okay whatever yeah and went up to the living room on holidays is a good place it's like a Youth Centre for the workers here great I'm learning a salary now I can I can give some money and help it keep ticking over and that night I went out on the street for them and my heart broke and it like taking the rug out from underneath my feet and my idea of being a deputy head by Thomas Bertie was suddenly thrown up in question and the first guy I've met on the street that night one of the workers to the right love my name's Liam I'm going to sleep with you on for the rest of your holiday history Liam no you're not and then just it just that's the key I'll go from four and five-year-olds you shouting and screaming to 18 to Bertie's and just knew God was pulling me in that direction and calling me there and to cut an even longer story short and I ended up taking sabbatical from school and which is unheard of in your first year and took a sabbatical for a term and then at the end of academic year moved out to Tenerife for five years so what was the main work that you did for over five years being a friend being a friend to the 1830s the people who go out to live there and so often and it's people who running away from from UK for whatever reason it could be as simple as boredom of the night alive it's not always a horrific story and but there are people who know broken families dysfunctional relationships and heartache all sorts of backgrounds like there is in any Mike record call Indiana it was it was just the communities that was kind of really focused and and a lot of people just wanting a good time adventurous people and unfortunately a lot of the work that they did supplied for the alcohol and up and that can lead into addiction and spiraled down into other addictions and yeah just did you see lives transformed yeah yeah and God was amazing and the thing that struck me time and time again is that nearly every person we had a conversation with and who ended up in coming to church with us or getting baptized or making decision to Christ whatever it was and they always had someone at home who was praying for them and I think that's the thing I've taken away most from my time there is the importance of prayer that actually when we ended up the conversations if you're harm round to the Christian she says she's been praying for me for years and just to encourage people if you've got someone in your life who's not yet Christian pray pray pray yeah and it really does change things and we still have hearings I've been back in the country for seven years and still hearing now stories of people whose lives have been turned around and changed really really it's inspiring ya know privilege to be a part of as well real privilege you're you're now a director of a charity called beyond ourselves now what's the meaning or the state look behind beyond ourselves well it's got a great acronym vo which we did not think through so I try to put a spin on it and say with a fragrance of Christ neck beyond ourselves were self from a brother and I and just that heart you know growing up in a in London growing up and in the groups of friends that we did and you know we're privileged to get private school both went to Cambridge University and that that the world owes us something or I have to get the most I can out of the world for me and it's about you know what car I Drive what half I live in what job I get and all of those things that measure success and we just want to say no life not about us it's about others and we want to make a difference and for others and so going beyond ourselves in that labels they're pointing beyond ourselves to God as well and you should set up but it was a family charity yeah family janessa charity has family business charity that was set up how long ago and 2009 and the initial focus was with Zambia yeah so how did you select Zambia out of all the countries of the world that's a very good question that that actually wasn't down to me and as my brother and and God and he had a wee runner with have a motor industry in the motor industry and have businesses around London and he had a dream one night as he was thinking about how to use the profits to make a difference in the kingdom and he had a dream one night about mechanics college in Africa and if you do know my brother but for those who don't know my brother and he never had he didn't have that six-year-old moment of wanting to go to Africa he never wanted to go he likes the comfort of home and he had this dream of a mechanic's College in Africa and the next day and a friend and family friend of ours phoned up and her friend Alexander he's a bishop and he wants his church to really reach out into the community and he's wondering about setting up a mechanic's College are you interested and I think he has to be really thick so they say gee I think God's doing from the Hinton so he went over to Zambia and when he was over there he came across a mechanic's college that already existed in that town who are now very good friends of ours and are doing an excellent work a Christian Christian run mechanics college offering skills training life skills and they do the City and Guilds are just incredible and Mechanics for Africa it's a great organization and he came across those and said that's already happening in this town what else is going on in your church and so they he met with pastors who within their church building himself and schools makeshift schools to offer education to kids who wouldn't otherwise be in school so orphans and vulnerable kids who couldn't afford the government fees to go to school and these churches have just said we want to serve our community and had one or two volunteer teachers about 150 kids all in one room grade six in one corner grade two in another as a teacher and we chose imagine the noise and Ian just said we love your vision we love your heart how can we work alongside you and that's how it started in that fight Zambia it was a friend of a friend how many and now you basically you have a number of schools how many schools have you got so we partner and deeply with three three schools in and donor and p3 in the copper belt of Zambia and how many pupils in those schools so that's about 950 people's and how many children have gone through your schools I should have done the math before I got here - yeah a lot yeah whereas you get in the there so we have way of graduating classes every year and in grade seven and how do you fund the three schools so that they were financially so that with anything any charity of starting any partnership of starting any needs that's being met often it's done and you know just let's just get the money in let's just see how we get this and so we didn't invent the wheel reinvent the well well we just said child sponsorship seems to work for a load of other people let's go for child sponsorship and so we offer child sponsorship program and for our three schools and so for 12 pound fifty a month and a child can be educated teachers salaries that we get contribution towards teacher salaries as a feeding program every day uniform school resources do you feed all the children not me personally but yeah yeah we have great tasting team yeah and all the children come to the school are fed every child is fed every school day yeah how do you select which children can come to your school and let's say there's a family and they've got eight children yeah do you take all the all the children or do you select the beauty of how we work is that we don't own the schools or run the schools that will owned and run by the local church by the local school and so decisions like that don't fall on our plates and so the each school has their own criteria and they do the admissions themselves and select families appropriately but demand for places must exceed the places that you've got they do yeah and that's less attention we we live with in that we believe in quality education so we don't just want to offer education which is just a name so charges in the classroom but actually there are 70 kids in the classroom to how they're possibly getting taught and so we we try and cap the classes between 35 and 45 and so that each child is getting quality education and and that does mean that not everybody can come to school and but what we found is that by offering two children out the eight in a family register flea free education which is what we offer the families because some more money is released to enable others to the government school what give us some examples of what you've seen in the families of the children that have been to your scores what difference has it made I think what's for us where we're in our first full cycle as it were so with this January in we will have ice off very first grade 12 students and just to put that into context in Zambia for every 19 children that start primary school only two will finish high school yes and so to have kids from the primary schools that we're working with actually get to grade 12 the final year of high school and complete that isn't itself a miracle and transforming for a family because when you get grade 12 you get job opportunities and what's amazing is we don't actually partner high schools but what we've done what we've seen happening within families as they're starting to really value education and so because the kids are getting a quality primary education their families see the value in that and so I'm making the effort to send their kids to high school we do offer a bit of a bursary system and through script high school but we don't actually partner with any high school so we feel feel with what your kids do when they get second you know families are sending them and to see kids entering into grade 12 and with potential and with opportunity ahead of them is so exciting because you know if you get a whole load of children in a community or graduating or with potential always you know ability to go and get a job that will change a community that will start to shift things there'll be an income coming to find one income in a family can change everything and that's I can't wait for the next five ten years to see you know we believe in community transformation and genuinely genuinely to see communities transformed because a kid went to primary school isn't it and I just salute I love that I love but it's a long term yeah there's no quick fix there's a prickly properties and if you're looking forward your graduates yeah I mean to work yeah and seeing yeah what's going to happen as a result now your your schools are Christian now yes so they're its roots of Chris it's ethos its foundation do families who are not Christian send their children to your schools they do we have Muslim kids in our schools and because it's turning out to be the best school in the area and and how do the parents perceive you being Christian are being Christian okay and do they they know that you do a good job yeah and do they respect the fact that you are Christians yeah absolutely they they have no problems I mean the church the school is in the church and so there's no hiding it it's not we come we're not really Christian it's actually in the church tree if this is this is group this is the whole point was the church one need to make an impact on their community and so this is the church making the impact on their community yeah and so yes it's very open and people know they're Christians and teachers pray with their kids every before every class and yeah it's that you find that many of the children want to know about Jesus and be followers of Jesus as a consequence of being at your scores and I think that Xandra is a very Christian country anyway so talking about God and and going to church is a very everyday conversation you're out there and what we're finding is that we put into place discipleship and programs for the kids in the schools and to go deeper with Jesus and a bit like I guess my own journey in a completely different cultural context but you know there are good people but what does it really mean to follow Jesus and so to start to unpack some of that with them rather than just Christianity is about being good and just to start to disciple and do groups with with the with the older kids in particular what do you think Jody what does it mean to follow Jesus I [Laughter] think like those questions we can only ever answer from our own experience so for me to follow Jesus is to know that I was made on purpose that I've made for a purpose and I know that sounds twee and but to know that I'm here for just a short and the heaven is my home and that while I'm here there we can see his kingdom come and so to follow Jesus means to know to know God to know him as a savior but to know him as a friend and turns my hope as my joy is my peace to know you know the verse I hold on to the mostess is John 10:10 that he came to give life and life to the full and that abundant life that food I said a life for the freedom a life full of joy and I full of cases a life full of hope is within our grasp and I just so long but people to know that to know that to follow Jesus means you can have a full and abundant eternal life and and that's what it means for me I think is that it's it's life but not as we know it if I hold on with both hands because you don't know where this is going to go yeah yeah Zambia Jody is one of the poorest countries in the world and it has a huge eight AIDS HIV problem in the country why do you think Sam there is such a poor country I think there are many factors and it's landlocked which is a problem and in anything when things need to be imported it is expensive to get things into them yeah I think that's one very quick answer I think there's and there's the issue of they're a young country so they only became independent fifty-two years ago yeah and so it's an immature country and I think the resource the major is also they have copper has been exploited and I think that they have been taken advantage of in a huge huge way by many countries which I'm not going to name yes and but they've been exploited and taken and taken advantage of and continue to be taken advantage of as well and and yeah I think I think those are three major contributing factors and that soon the mineral will run out and I'm worried for their future I'm not sure they're building an industry for the future yet a youth are you confident though that your graduates from your school will find good employment or is that a cadet learn it's a concern that something we're working on and so what we've always had to do because the schools are not as and we're just partnering with them and we we look to exit at some point and we know it's a long journey and but our hope is that schools are self sustainable both educationally professionally and financially that's the biggie but we we've always longed for that and that's all it could always be the end goal and so our hope has always been to set up businesses and social enterprise around the school communities to bring profit to the school but also to provide employment and economy after the local community and so with our first grade 12 graduating in 2017 and that that is a concern for us so we're exploring business ideas as we speak and social enterprise opportunities and we'll run a life work ready program for our students so that when they finish grade 12 they go into a Work Ready program what we have been blessed with in Zambia is a growing middle class somehow and we've had five shopping malls built in the last five years in the areas where we work and so there are areas there are job opportunities out there for grade 12 graduates we want to make sure we can are really doing that yeah yeah you were so you did it one fundraising thing that you did you wanted to get shoes for everybody go to school because obviously there's the shoes that they had were not in good condition learning not in good condition yeah and how did you convey that to people to respond to that particular need that was a social media campaign and very simply just took pictures of loads of tattoo shoes and and just said you know actually we don't put our sponsorship costs up but our sponsorship goes towards uniform but shoes are super expensive and so could we just do a campaign for shoes and we did it before Christmas and the people got bought a pair of shoes Christmas and in the UK where they just received a card again we're not reinventing the wheel it's done by many many charities and we were overwhelmed by the number of shoes and we hope in fact we have so much money come in everybody got a pair of socks as well ah so you managed to get sheet for everybody yeah everybody that needed them everyone that needed a new pair of shoes yeah now you're running basically yeah you're overseeing three schools mhm currently with did you say 800 950 2,000 yes students and it works it does to our amazement it works why don't you do more schools I didn't notice any this kind of interview and but because there is great need therein there is I do feel that hey we've worked a model that's working I mean what if somebody called you from Mozambique and said we've heard that you're running these three schools and ah we'd love those schools that happen in Mozambique yeah how would you respond to that so we again another tension that we live with is and the phrase we've been using is do we go deep or do we go wide and for us we we prayed about it for a long time as a team and we we felt God say go deep and if we truly believe in community transformation then it's it's going to take a long time and it's going to take a lot of effort and we felt really strongly that that we wanted to see complete community transformation with the three communities we work with and it starts at the school but then there's a layer of business and then there's an area and and so that's that's what we felt but interestingly as soon as we made that decision and we then have been connected with other community schools around our area which we have got influence over and we're helping to train and journeying along the journey that we've had but without the financial responsibility which is a real blessing and without the legal responsibility as well so we're managing to have a wider influence and impact than our three schools and yet still go deep and see complete community transformation within the schools room so my answer is at the moment that's what we feel God I'm happy to share our story though and to encourage others to do the same which is great yeah yeah I'm not saying never no in fact I have a strong feeling it's probably not never but for right now it's around now let's go together I think it's wonderful Jody that you and your brother Ben and your parents basically decided to invest the profits of your business to help people are less fortunate around the world and as a consequence of that you now have three schools with over a thousand students and you're changing their lives and their families lives and it's a wonderful thing that you've done and it's wonderful work and we salute you and your brother and your parents well done Jody caller [Applause] [Music] you

Channel: Facing the Canon

Views: 5,386

Rating: 4.6363635 out of 5

Keywords: facing the canon, j.john, interview, jjohn, j john, philo trust, philo, trust, christianity, Jesus, Lord, God, Holy Spirit, Jodie Collins, Zambia, Beyond Ourselves, Orphans

Id: lBuHg4uIIB0

Length: 28min 54sec (1734 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 03 2017