Alex Newson, 20, talks about the day his mate, David, found him as good as dead.
  "I woke up with a bit of a headache. But I should have been dead." Alex had taken 20 paracetamol and 40 antihistamines in an attempt to end his life.
  Amazingly, no treatment was needed. "I was fine. None of the nurses could understand it".
  Alex's suicide attempt was the tragic upshot of a tough childhood. His parents separated when he was young.
  Alex's father struggled with schizophrenia and alcoholism. He died when Alex was 14. His mother, who raised Alex on her own, suffered from depression.
  "I was the 'man of the house' from a young age" explains Alex "I had to look after her, but I went off the rails myself around the time I went to secondary school".
  A cocktail of drink, drugs and crime threatened to derail him completely.
  But there were good influences at work in Alex's life, too. Alex attended a course at a local church, designed to explain Christian faith and the things he heard about God made sense.
  A chink of light appeared in Alex's darkening world. But it wasn't until his life really hit rock bottom that God become a living reality to Alex.
  Alex's best friend at school, David, was a Christian. On the night Alex took the overdose, David couldn't throw off a feeling his friend was in trouble. He now sees it as God speaking to him.
  "David knocked down my door when there was no answer." says Alex.
  It was as well that he did: David found Alex, who had just taken handfuls of pills, and rushed him to hospital.
  Alex describes what happened next. "I was laying in hospital, in a daze. I heard a voice say 'I love you, and I have chosen you, and I want you to build My kingdom'."
  When Alex regained consciousness, he was completely well. The medics were baffled as to why he had not been affected more seriously by the overdose.
  But Alex had an explanation - he had met God.
  After this, Alex started to come to a Jesus Army house in Leicester with David and his family. He found real friendship and love there.
  "It was the brotherhood that really stood out to me" he says. "You don't have to be a certain way to be part of a church like this".
  When Alex was 18, he moved into the Jesus Army house for a "training year" - a year to grow as a Christian, and learn how to love and serve others more effectively.
  Two years on, Alex is now a stable young man with a strong Christian faith.
  "The training year was challenging" he admits "but awesome, too. It's helped me to find healing and I've grown up a lot".

Pictured: David pulled Alex back from danger of death

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  A team from the Jesus Army in Northampton recently ran a "healing tent" during a Green Festival in a local park.
  It was a great success. People who came to the tent reported healings including relief from shoulder problems and chronic stomach pain.
  One woman who had been wheelchair-bound after a car accident took her first few steps since 2009.
  As a result of the healing prayer, several people expressed interest in the Christian faith.
  The team is seeking to keep in touch with as many of the people as they can.

Pictured: Joy at healing tent

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  Young people in Coventry have been finding inventive ways to raise money for the work of the Coventry Jesus Centre, including its drop-in for disadvantaged people.
  Each was given £10 after a collection at the Coventry Jesus Centre.
  "The challenge was to reinvest it to make a profit for the poor!" explained Jesus Army leader, Iain Gorrie.
  One enterprising young man bought scrap metal with his tenner, sold it to raise money to buy materials to build a skate ramp, which he sold on eBay for several hundred pounds.
  All together £2,000 was raised by around 25 people.

Pictured: Put your money where your mouth is

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"Love is a losing game." So sang Amy Winehouse, singer and celebrity, who lost her life earlier this year, at age 27.
  Whatever the official explanation for her untimely death, speculation inevitably centred on her drink and drug usage as a likely contributing factor to her demise.
  On one point, all commentators agree: the loss of someone so young and so prodigiously talented is a waste, a crying shame.
  Passion and loss. Reckless waste and love.
  It was passion that led Christ to the cross. What a pity it seemed, that such an inspiring figure, whose words carried such power, should die in such a seemingly senseless way.
  But if the cross was the true end of Jesus Christ, there's no way that His follower's faith could have swept across the nations.
  Thousands of others died in that era, in blood drenched futility. No-one remembered them.
  What makes Jesus different is what happened next. History changed when, as the letter to the Romans puts it "Jesus was declared to be the Son of God with power by His resurrection from the dead".
  Unlike a mourned celeb, there was no flower-strewn grave, no token-scattered shrine made by His grieving fans after He died. Jesus' followers experienced something totally novel: their shock and sadness turned into amazed awe and overwhelming joy on meeting Jesus again.
  This powerful awareness of resurrection life that Christians have experienced overcomes hopeless despair.
  Jesus Christ has conquered death. Grief does not have the last laugh. Love lives on.

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Pictured: Tragic loss

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