Channel 2 - Interviews
Interviews from Flame CCR live times and prerecorded "Chat Room" programmes. Part of programmes broadcast on Flame CCR (Christian and Community Radio) in Merseyside and worldwide via www.flameradio.org.
Channel 2 - Interviews
BE MY GUEST - Dave Croft, 2012
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David & Laura talk to Dave Croft in the Flame CCR studio. Dave talks honestly about his illness and his Christian faith. He introduces one of his favourite songs "Deity" by Nicole C Mullen.
We've got a very special guest in the studio with us uh this afternoon, Dave Croft. Dave's a member of the Flame team. You've not been too well recently, but it's absolutely brilliant to see you back with us this afternoon. So any updates on how you're feeling in that way?
SPEAKER_02Um I feel okay. Uh about uh eighteen months ago I uh had um a brain tumour and uh not um to be recommended. No and um they found out it was cancerous and it keeps coming back again. It's uh anological dendroglyoma. Okay, yeah, yeah. We'll stick with the brain tumor. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It took me twelve months to learn how to say how to say that one.
SPEAKER_01So we've got no chance, have we? Yeah. We were talking, weren't we, before, about our language, the work the use of words, and we get used to vocabulary, we get used to describing certain things certain ways, and we don't often remember that some people out there may not understand us. What was that sort of technical operating name that you mentioned?
SPEAKER_02It was actually dendra, the oligodendra glioma. Glyoma is a brain tumour.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Um dendra is many fingered. So they take one out and it throws out another one, so uh I can end up with many of them. They multiply. They multiply, yes. Yes, or one dies and another one takes its place. And unfortunately um there are only five types of chemo they can use.
SPEAKER_01You're so delicately balanced, aren't we?
SPEAKER_02Yes.
SPEAKER_01And uh and our bodies do go haywire, don't they, sometimes?
SPEAKER_02Uh yes. And that's where you begin to d depend more and more on the Lord.
SPEAKER_01So how's your faith actually helped you through this? Because you've been through an awful lot, more than many of us could ever imagine. But how did your faith in God actually help you through that period?
SPEAKER_02I think the fact that I know He's there, I know where I'm going, I'm only visiting this planet. I think if you look around you, you see how long you live on this planet and look that some of the trees are two thousand years old, and yet we're uh only here for seventy years. And you've got to explain that. You've got to say that why is it we're only here for seventy years? Whatever. I'm not I'm 69 So the Bible says 70 years, three score years and ten. And I think most most people know that.
SPEAKER_01But it reminds us of the brevity of life. Yes. And we can go rushing on in life, we have our plans, we fill our diaries, we have exciting things that we want to do, we plan miles you know, years ahead. But we need to be reminded often, don't we, that this life is brief compared to eternity. And we need to be ready. Yes. We need to be ready for what is in the future. Yes. And many people just miss out on doing that.
SPEAKER_02Yes. And I think one of the things which is you're reminded of, uh you're only given one day at a time. And you start to look at life in a different way. You look at the flowers and the world which we live in as beautiful and you know, so beautiful.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah. And you can see the hand of God, the creator God in the beautiful world around us, and we appreciate that. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you for that. And it's a very, very important lesson that we all need to learn. It is. And uh yeah, thank you to everybody out there, supporters of Flame, thank you for listening this afternoon, but also thank you for praying, because if you've been receiving the Flame regular prayer letter, news and information for prayer, then Dave will have been mentioned many, many times around.
SPEAKER_02And I thank you for that.
SPEAKER_01And we thank you for your prayers as you've read those uh prayer letters and you've remembered Dave in prayer. The fact that Dave's here in the studio now talking to us is an answer to prayer. It is. And thank you for doing that. Yeah, thank you. So uh we're gonna talk again in just a minute, but I thought we'll just uh break for a little bit of music, get our breath. Brittany Cole's lined up, she's uh uh very up-to-date singer, she's in the USA Christian charts at the moment, doing very well. But the song we're gonna hear from her is All This Time. And uh she tells us that it she wrote it herself and it was written as a reflection of her own testimony, her own story of her trust in God. Because in her life things have gone haywire, things have gone terribly wrong, and like Dave, she was thrown back on the wonderful, wonderful promises of God that God is there always, never leaving her, never forsaking her. Britt Nicole, all this time.
SPEAKER_04I remember the mommy, I remember the pain. I was the only girl, but I grew up that day. Tears were falling, I know you saw me hiding there in the bedroom. So along I was doing my best trying to be strong, no one turned to that's when I met you. I know that comes in the day, I know you for me, and I know you story, everyone, you ever broke in the tree, you have a girl, the girls can make this little story, just let's do that. You've been walking with me at this point between you with the world.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, the sound of Britney Cole and all is time. Dave's with me, Dave Croft in the studio this afternoon. Dave, you were telling me that there's a tradition on the Wirral.
SPEAKER_02I've only lived in Neston for twelve months. Right. And um as things happened, we moved right when I was in the middle of uh treatment. In the first Thursday in June, they have a Ladies Day which dates back to the Napoleonic War. It was Ladies Friendly Society, and it's the only one that's still going.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02And they march around town dressed in the beautiful finery, uh best finery, from the smallest to the oldest. And it's worth going to see.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. So they're keeping the tradition alive.
SPEAKER_02Keeping the tradition alive.
SPEAKER_01And if you want to protect our traditions, you've got to do that. Because once you let it drop, oh we'll not do it this year, we'll have a break. That's right. You begin to lose it completely. Yes. So they do it every year, which is which is good. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Th they're actually a place in Neston called Ladies Walk. So that they've kept it in that part. So the they march from the malt shovel. Right. And th they march around town.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's it's important, isn't it, that we keep these traditions. Um it wasn't a ladies' day, but in Abingdon they had a few traditions which go back way back and royal charters and all kinds of things. This is Abingdon in Oxfordshire. And uh one of the big things they do, whenever there's a royal event, they they have uh an old town hall, don't they, which is like a hall on stilts. Yes, the old tiles. And they've still got this building, beautiful building, and whenever there's a royal occasion, the Murr and uh officials go to the top of the town hall and throw buns on the top of the hall. Yeah, and it's a great thing to catch one of these uh glazed buns and uh keep it. Yeah, so but that's what makes us unique, isn't it? Keeping these traditions alive and uh and meaning behind them.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02And we've got some brilliant traditions.
SPEAKER_01We have, we have, yeah. Yeah. And there are there are certain people out there in society that say, Oh, we need to move on. We're in the 21st century, etc. etc. We need to move on. But no, we need to protect it. We need to.
SPEAKER_02Yes.
SPEAKER_01That's interesting. Okay, um I'm gonna talk to Dave again in uh just a few minutes' time, but we're gonna try and source one of uh Dave's favourite uh songs. So we're gonna have to go and source that from upstairs. So in the meantime, this is Sheila Walsh. I remember Sheila Walsh. She didn't really last all that long on the Christie music scene. She had a sort of a spell of being uh produced by Cliff Richard and a number of albums that were brought out, and she was very, very good. But then she sort of melted into the background and now she's living in America with her family. And I think she's writing books, but she's no longer recording. But I think she's got a tremendous voice. She hails from Bonnie, Scotland, and I remember hearing her at the Green Belt Festival. Yes, camping out in those fields on the farm and sitting on a field watching main stage and enjoying the music. And uh here's Sheila Walsh with Where Do We Go From Here's the Commander. Absolutely brilliant. Thanks for sharing all those things with us, Dave. But we've got lined up to play Nicole Cullen and a particular track called Deity. It has a significance for you, doesn't it?
SPEAKER_02I came across Nicole when I was working here doing light lunch when we were You did light lunch and we picked light lunch. Oh working lunch. We we didn't work. Unfortunately, it hasn't got the words in it. I was hoping that it had the words. Deity is about the fact that the three in one and three in one, God the Father, and God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit existed before the Garden of Eden. Yeah. Existed before all time. Let's listen to it.
SPEAKER_01And let Nicole Nicole C. Mullen tell us the story. Yes, yes. Listen to the words. That's the thing. We can enjoy the music, can't we? We can uh enjoy the beat and the tune, but a song is a song because of the words. So have a listen to this.
SPEAKER_03But back before the garden where we all started existed one and three, the Trinity. Real than the trees, the mountains, the seas, the flowers, the breeze, the whole galaxy. Cause every move I make and every breath I take is a gift of it. Yeah. Every move I make and every breath I take is a gift of beauty. Now you say, if your God is real, can you feel him? Why can't you see him? I say, can you look into the sun and retain your vision? Can you dissect the wind with accurate precision? Can you hear your own brain while it makes a decision? No, I didn't think so. These eyes were not made for such beauty, such splendor, nor could they behold such a wonderful sight. His channels of light, his strength, his might are more than my frame of dust can handle. Still I see him every time I'm lost in the dark. Or whenever life shoots an arrow straight through my heart, I feel him by my side. His strength he provides. The mountains, the seas, the valleys, the breeze, the whole galaxy. Cause every move I make and every breath I take is a gift of deity. Yeah, every move you make, every breath you take is a gift of deity. Think about it.
SPEAKER_01Nicole C. Mullen and Deity. Profound words, fantastic. And uh it sums up the greatness of God, doesn't it? It does. Yeah. So thanks for introducing us to that particular track.
SPEAKER_02Can you see your brain when makes decision? Yeah. And we accept things, and um we shouldn't accept them. We should question them. Yeah. But there's got to be something else.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. God's there, the designer, the maker, the creator, he's there. He's been there all the time. All the time. Yes. Uh uncreated. Always there. Yes. Now we can't get our tanny, finite minds around infinite concepts like that. But it it's so profound and so true. Yes, yes. And uh that's been a great blessing to you over the years. Yes, it has. So thanks for that.
SPEAKER_00Now Dave referred to that piece called Deity, and Dave was trying to remember the words. He was doing pretty well with some of them. I must admit I didn't know any words at all in the slightest, so I couldn't chip in and help. But the computer chipped in and helped. Deity. Here the words The chronology of my theology is not based on philosophy or Greek mythology, but before the garden where we all started existing one of three, the Trinity. More real than the trees, the mountains, the seas, the flowers, the breeze, the whole galaxy, 'cause every move I make and every breath I take is a gift. A deity. Yes, every move I make and every breath I take is a gift, a deity. Now you say, if your God is real, why can't you feel him? Why can't you see him? I say, can you look into the sun and retain your vision? Can you dissect the wind with accurate precision? Can you feel your own brain while it makes a decision? No, I don't think so. These eyes were not made for such beauty, such splendour, nor could they behold such a wonderful sight. His shafts of light, his strength, his might are more than my frame of thought can handle. Yet I see him every time I'm lost in the dark. Or whenever life shoots an arrow straight through my heart, I feel him by my side. His strength he provides. I feel my confidence, even after fears have reside. More real than the trees, the mountains, the seas, the valleys, the breeze, a whole galaxy. Because every move I make, every breath I take is a gift. A deity. Every move you take, every breath you make is a gift. A deity. Think about it.
SPEAKER_03Because every move. And every breath I take is a gift. A deity. Yeah. Every move you make, every breath you take is a gift. Think about it.
SPEAKER_01So a big thank you to Dave, Dave Croft in the studio. Great that uh he feels able to come and uh speak on the radio again, and thanks again. Do you want to say anything to listeners? Yeah. I'm gonna have a nod now. Yeah, don't blame you. Don't blame him.
SPEAKER_02No, it's it's good to be here, and um it's a long time since I was in the studio, but uh just proclaiming God's word is um a privilege. Yeah. Thank you. So big thank you to Dave.
SPEAKER_01Big thank you. Yeah. Okay.
SPEAKER_02One, five, two. Working lunch with good conversation and good music.
SPEAKER_01And it's good to have your company. Great to have Dave with us in the uh studio, and uh as you travel home, Dave, every blessing to you, and uh we'll continue to pray for you, and we hope we'll see you again before not too long back in the studio and speaking to us. That was absolutely wonderful to have your company this afternoon.
SPEAKER_00God bless you.org. Thank you for listening.