God Uses Clowns by Mark Nelson

Mark Nelson, February 3rd, 2010

This month I hear how the prayers of a clown as well as a fathers early morning playing of The Vision impacted the life of a young man from Swansea.

Daniel Jones is manager of the Transit training course here in the UK, a key member of the Guildford Boiler Room and the latest target for my series looking at the unsung heroes of 24-7 Prayer. He was born and bred in Swansea, is a part-time football coach, mildly obsessed with the dry humour of Alan Partridge and for the past 5 years has played an integral (and unsung) part in this thing we call 24-7 Prayer.

Although Daniel’s journey with God has been unfolding all through his life he really began to understand that Jesus was his friend at the age of seven. He later made the decision to get to know Him more while at the UK Christian event 'Spring Harvest' after being prayed for by a clown! 

Daniel’s first contact with 24-7 Prayer was a Prayer Room in Swansea that was run by youth groups from across the city in 2000.  He said “I was amazed to see how exciting prayer could be and the fact that you could use the creative arts to pray and also pray through the night.  I think we all saw it as a fun way to do a sleep over!” This is beginning to sound like a regular theme for most of the veterans of the movement I've spoken to who get caught up in the fun and power of continual prayer. He continued, 

My Dad was really inspired by the 24-7 prayer movement and would often play the vision poem every morning to start his day!

After reading the 'Vision and Vow' by Pete Greig, I really wanted to experience the kind of discipleship that Pete was explaining, which led me to do Transit in Kansas City in 2005”.

Having fallen in love with Jesus and after enjoying the opportunity to transition into a deeper relationship with God he returned home to take up the role of overseeing the Transit training in the UK.

I asked Daniel why he thought it important to stay involved in the movement? He said:

 “I think it's important for every follower of Jesus to do so with others.  We were never meant to live in isolation or attempt to work out our salvation on our own.  We need each other and Paul used the image of a body to help describe this in 1 Corinthians12.  For me, the people within 24-7 prayer have become family and these are the people that I know I can rely on to live the life that God has called us to”.

Daniel has always been a man of many great stories and here’s one of his favourite 24-7 specific ones:

“One of my favourite stories, which reflects why I love being a part of 24-7 prayer, is when, in my first week in the States on the Transit course, we travelled down to Houston, Texas to help with the Hurricane Katrina relief effort.  Most of us had never met each other before,but the leaders made a call based on their convictions and it turned out to be a great way for relationships to deepen quickly and I learnt so much from just serving the needs of others.  We did something similar later in the year when we went to Boystown in Mexico to meet Kelly [see the 24-7 Short - Prayer As Justice for more info] and spend some time with her, which allowed her to go into Boystown at night for the first time.  In both stories, I just loved the way we were 'mobile like the wind' and had risky adventures with Jesus!

After making the decision to follow Jesus 100% and allowing Him to be Lord of my life, it's been amazing to see how He has taken my decision and shaped my life in ways I never thought He would!”

I think we can all learn a lesson about doing all we can to find depth in relationship with God and be re-shaped according to his whispers. If it started with a clown, and drew a young guy from Wales to Houston and Mexico, then imagine what God can do with us?

Daniel Jones blogs fairly regularly at  DJ Friar

If you've missed a previous instalment of The Unsung Heroes Of The Movement. You may like to catch up and can read the articles by clicking on the links below:

Jonny Nott - Connecting The World

Charlotte Terris - All or Nothing