William Wilberforce: The Freedom Fighter (Trail Blazers)

... It is great to see the stories of these Christian heroes made available to older children and teenagers.

This week I was invited to speak at the Scottish Story telling Centre on the royal mile in Edinburgh. Through its partnership with the Scottish Storytelling Forum, the centre supports a national network of storytellers. It is involved in outreach projects with local authorities, environmental agencies, community centres and libaries, engaging with all age groups and diverse cultures of modern Scotland and providing opportunities for the socially and educationally excluded to take part in community-based inclusive cultural experiences.
As the flagship of the network, the centre strives to reinforce Scotland's vigorous contribution to a world-wide revival of interest in storytelling and story-telling traditions.
The centre highlights the fact that 'Storytelling happens when the story is told live without print or technology'. I had none and found myself facing an overflowing crowd from four Edinburgh schools with many of them sitting around my feet on the stage. There is no audience in the world that let's you know how you are doing like an audience of Children. My story was about the freedom fighter himself, William Wilberforce.
I traced Wilberforces life through his childhood to University where he wasted a lot of precious time. I spoke of the influence of the Rev. John Newton upon Wilberforce's life where he approached him for advice as an young MP. I spoke of his desire to trust and follow Jesus Christ and how he became the conscience of the the nation in his formidable and horrendously despised campaign to abolish slavery. The Children listened closely as I told them that the United Nations now tells that there is more slavery in our world than in Wilberforces day. I encouraged them with the fact that maybe one of them could get involved in helping to rid the world of slavery.
The story ended and I went upstairs to engage with the children. They crowded me and one girl stuck her head through the crowd. 'I have two questions' she said 'one: could Wilberforce be a woman? Two: Could one person change the world?'
My, the things children ask! Could Wilberforce be a woman? certainly. Can one person change the world? I would say 'One person cannot change the world but you can change the world for one person.'
The World can then be changed one person at a time!

A story deserving to be told to a new generation.

The abolition of slavery in the U.K. has an anniversary in the year 2007. This is why teachers, sunday school teachers and children's workers should make sure they stock up on Wilberforce material in the run up to this. A film on Wilberforce's life is also being launched in 2006. Make the most of these events and get Christian books into children's homes on the back of them!

If ever I relived a life in my imagination it was while writing this life of the greatest Christian politician of all time. I travelled with him in my mind to his life as a boy in Hull and on to Cambridge University. I marvelled at the way the Lord reached him and saved his soul. I held my breath as he took on the horrendous slave trade in a three-hour speech before the House of Commons that became one of the greatest speeches in the history of mankind. His eventual triumph over slavery, three days before he died was astounding! The greatest joy I have experienced following the writing of this book has been to see it published in Arabic