JENNY SCREAMED!

Terrified, Andy fled the dark room screaming too.

Revenge was sweet. It was one of the few times a young Jenny got her own back on her bully brother.

Years later, the same scenario: Jenny screamed as Andy burst into the bedroom. But now 23, Andy was covered in sweat. He’d taken too much cocaine and was having a panic attack. Convinced he was going to die, he asked Jenny to pray for him. She did, and it changed his life.

The next day Jenny took Andy to see a Christian friend. Harry awoke Andy to a different kind of Christianity – instead of tea-with-the-vicar small talk, he cared and spoke positively into Andy’s life.

Boring church had not been on the agenda since Andy was 14 – other things promised more excitement. When his family moved away from Milton Keynes, it seemed obvious for a 16-year-old Andy to choose to stay behind with his girlfriend; he and dad were having too many arguments anyway. But it was a mistake.

Andy’s mates didn’t care what he did. Smoking cannabis led to going to raves and taking ecstasy. All he wanted was to have a good time with his friends, but he would often return home drunk to lie on his bed and think about God.

Although Jenny made different choices, her life mirrored Andy’s closely and was yet to intertwine with her brother’s in remarkable ways. Living apart strangely drew the siblings closer and Jenny faithfully prayed for Andy often.

Andy and Jenny had originally inspired their parents to go to church. Mum soon found real faith and dad was baptised shortly after. However, a civil service career meant that, though materially, Andy and Jenny had whatever they wanted, the family moved from place to place and church became a Sunday-only thing.

Surrounded by her favourite videos, Jenny’s life amounted to watching television and, as she got older, clubbing and drinking with friends; but, unlike Andy, she showed up at church the next morning. Inside, Jenny felt very low and unhappy with her church life. No one ever suggested being a Christian and getting drunk wasn’t a good idea. At church people often didn’t say more than a “hello”.

So when an appeal was made to help a Christian youth organisation Jenny jumped at the chance. At 21, it was the first time that she ever heard anyone say that being drunk might harm her relationship with God. The leader, Dave, helped Jenny to realise that because God was real it mattered to Him what she did.

Going to Jesus Army Festival Weekends with Dave’s church helped Jenny to see church differently. She discovered good friendships in churches full of Holy Spirit life; God moved in power and people were interested in each other’s lives. She began to see how shallow her faith had been in comparison. Up to this point baptism hadn’t interested Jenny but now she wanted to honour God with her whole life.

And seeing his sister being baptised touched Andy too.

Coming back from nights out with the lads, Andy had also felt his life was worthless. He had all he desired, the friends, the girlfriend, the flat, the car with the big music system. But it all added up to so little. Life was a mess. The only people who really cared were his family.

So when he took too much cocaine, Andy panicked; he knew he’d never done anything really worthy of God and now he felt like he was staring death in the face. And when Jenny prayed for him, she kept on praying to God. She knew that Andy needed to meet God for himself.

Weeks later, it happened, Andy phoned Jenny in floods of tears. He felt completely convicted by God but knew he was stuck in his old ways. He wanted Jesus in his life. And so Andy and Jenny prayed together. And three months after Jenny’s baptism Andy was baptised too, in the bath, with his family and new church friends around him.

The change was dramatic. Andy got rid of everything in his life which took him away from God. He even walked into the pub and told his friends that he’d smashed up his £1,000 car stereo system because God had told him to (and it was stolen property). His friends thought he had gone crazy – until Andy returned a month later with a prize letter awarding him a £2,000 car stereo. God was working in his life and it was obvious.

But the story doesn’t end here. Andy and Jenny have been determined ever since to show that God offers life-experience that is real and completely different from the experience of the world.

For Jenny the Christian life should deepen continuously, especially when the world only offers boring entertainment, shallow talk and meaningless wealth.

When Christian friends talked of pooling their wealth as a sign of Christian love, Jenny jumped right in. She became a founding member of “Living Way,” the Jesus Fellowship’s Christian community house in Ipswich; Andy too had joined “Living Stones”, a community house in Northampton.

Now they live to pioneer church growth. Andy travels down to Milton Keynes to meet teenagers there regularly. Community has trained him to go face difficult situations without giving up. Jenny has chosen to devote her life to Jesus in a very special way: as a celibate she’s decided to never marry so that she can live for Jesus 100 per cent. Training younger Christians to make positive choices for God has become Jenny’s passion.

And they both feel that they have to help others realise that Christianity is not just a belief, but an active faith: something – Somebody – to live and die for.

Andy and Jenny

Name: Andy Hathaway Age: 33 Most likely to say: “I’m still not that great a person – it’s just the grace of God.” Wackiest thing you've done: Smashing up £1,000 worth of music equipment. What do you tell people about Jesus? I don’t want young lads to make all the stupid mistakes I made. I want people to know there’s so much more to Christianity. God took me out of drinking and drugs and being the idiot, everything going wrong and making wrong decisions, into experiencing God and deep friendships and a totally different way of life. I want people to experience Jesus in such a real and down to earth way so they know it’s just right – not a structure of how you should be doing this or stop that. It’s about making right choices and Jesus being there with you. With people who have never been to church, you can’t just say the things they are doing are bad unless you’re going to offer them a lot better. Why do you live in community? Community helped make me who I am. I owe everything to the people and the lifestyle. I used to give up rather than go through any hardship. Even as a Christian I went back to being quite materialistic. The simple way of community life has made such a difference. What's Jenny like? We see things quite similarly; we’ve got the same sense of humour. And yet, Jenny is very selfless, she really does care about people and she’s very faithful to God. She’s honest and trustworthy, a genuine person with a lot of love. Name: Jenny Hathaway Age: 31 Favourite quote: “If I had 1,000 lives I’d live them all for Jesus” First experience of living in community? Living in a semi with two other adults and seven children! Why is it important to be a disciple? God’s real. I want to do the things He said to do. I want to please Him. It crosses your will constantly but it makes Him happy. Without discipleship I went my own way, doing things because everyone else did them. I never realised what it meant to be a Christian. You can’t force anybody into anything, but you can at least tell them when they’re walking down the wrong path. Finding God like I have now means it just goes deeper and deeper. Why are you a committed celibate? I’ve got a passion for Jesus. I know that I’ve only got one life and that I want to use it for God 100 per cent. Before I became celibate someone prophesied about me wearing something more amazing than a wedding dress. Then, when I heard about celibacy it just seemed so right. So, when after about three years God showed me the wedding dress picture again, it confirmed God knew what he was doing. What's Andy like? Andy is a very funny guy, very caring. Quite often he has a lot of young people around him – he’s a leader figure. He’s got a real heart for God. If he feels guilty about something he gets it sorted. After everything I’m still really glad he’s my brother.