Sarah J got the lowdown

Dave Vaughan and other Big Brother contestants

Dave Vaughan, a Christian minister from Pontypool, was a contestant and runner up in this years Big Brother 10 TV series. Dave entered the Big Brother house in a monks outfit and caused quite a stir during his time in there as he encouraged people to encounter the 'glory'. Dave shared his testimony with Big Brother fans of a life of alcohol and drugs to meeting Jesus in 1992 and from then on being hooked to 'Godka'. Sarah J wanted to find out more.

Sarah: What's it like settling back into normal life after Big Brother?

Dave: It's crazy. I'm doing pretty much everything I did before I went into the house. I had a meal with some friends last night. At the minute I'm sat in Starbucks in Bridgend with another good friend. The weirdest thing is whenever I go shopping or stop, and people are asking me questions and asking for autographs. I think that people think that just because you've come from Big Brother house you're a celebrity; but it's certainly not like that and everything's much as it was before I went into the house.

Sarah: Ah! That's humbling. You could have been on a big celebrity wave but it sounds like you just want to get back with the people you really love.

Dave: Yes, that's been it. Being away for 80 days for me as a family guy was a monumental thing, so I'm enjoying just reconnecting with my family and friends and obviously there are little things that have been opening up for me. I'm excited about what I'm sensing God doing in the whole media mountain, but the majority of my time is just reconnecting, having fun at home again, it's great.

Sarah: There was a point on the Big Brother show where the challenge was that you had to ignore anything that happens and at that point your wife came and sat and had dinner in the garden. What was that like?

Dave: It was amazing. You know, the house is just full of paradox. They take you through these amazing experiences. The highs are really high and the lows are really low. At times the highs and the lows all happen at the same time. So you're living this life of a continual paradox. It was amazing having my wife there; it was awesome seeing her, but at the same time I was very limited in terms of what I could do and what I could say. So it's almost exhilaration but at other times it was total sadness.

Sarah: I bet you're loving it now that you're back home and you can have that contact and hang out with her.

Dave: Oh yeah. In the words of Corrine on Thursday, I love it right now. It's been amazing. The longest I've ever been away from my family has been 15 days and obviously then I was on the phone continually. To be away for 80 days from my family it was a massive task for me, a huge endurance task. Just being with my family again, it's amazing; I'm really enjoying it.

Sarah: What is one of your favourite memories from being in the house?

Dave: That would probably have been it, seeing my wife and obviously when Titan the robot came in on my anniversary and delivered a message from Donna, just wishing me a happy anniversary; and then me going into the dining room and having a meal with our wedding photograph on the table. That was really cool, but I think as well as that, just some of the eviction nights. Especially the night where it was four people had to leave and five were going into the final and they left me as the last; me and John James as the last. I saw John James as a huge personality in the house so I felt I was probably going to go through to the final and John would leave. Getting the runner-up spot - there was such an overwhelming response and that was amazing as well. Public support must have been phenomenal for me and that's really humbling for me as a person.

Sarah: In the early days of Big Brother house I was busy praying for you 'cause I noticed that you kept getting nominated to be chucked out of the house. How did that feel?

Dave: It was amazing what the Lord did. When I went in the Lord told me quite specifically that I was going in to break the stereotypical mindset. One of the reasons I was in a Monk's robe when I went in was because I wanted people to really have an aggressive picture of what they thought Christianity was like; and the Lord said to me, I'm just gonna win this thing through love; love never fails. I knew that I would be misunderstood. I knew that people would have mindsets and be really judgemental regarding me and I knew that it would be tough. I knew if I could just stay in there long enough that God would really turn the hearts of the people and the heart of the house. The first three weeks are very difficult. I went through so many trials in the spirit and just around me. Then after three weeks the whole thing turned and the love of God just came into the house so strong and even in the media they started calling the Big Brother house, the house of love. They said they had never had such a tactile house, never seen such love between people. Every year is quite aggressive. It's bitching and arguing and all the rest of it. Yet this year it was so obvious the atmosphere of the house was one of significant love. I thought it was amazing to see what God did in a short space of time.

Sarah: What was it like being a Christian in that kind of house?

Dave: I get on with most people anyway. I wear my heart on my sleeve and when I go to coffee shops and restaurants and wherever, I find it's really easy to connect with people that are not born again. I really believe that now is the time when God's glory is starting to be seen in places like the media and education and government. I knew that it would be tough initially, but I know that the heart of the nation is really open to the love of God. I knew that as long as I went in there and manifested that love that there would be a turning in the hearts of the people. I am not in any way offended by people swearing. I don't feel offended by people going naked and running around the place. I feel that God's heart is so full of love and that mercy triumphs over judgement. The gospel is one of unconditional love. I just knew that love covered a multitude of sins and that God was going to win these guys over through unconditional love. He really did that, you know.

Sarah: There was quite a few times on the show where you got to share about God verbally. What kind of impact did you see that have?

Dave: To be honest with you there was lots of stuff that happened that was not actually shown on the show. I prayed for quite a few of the guys in there. I obviously read my Bible for half an hour a day. I'd read my Bible and people would come and I would just read it to them and I would end up praying for them and loving on them. I actually said that the flash floods would come a couple of days before the house got flooded. So things like that were really impacting the people and since I got out I've had a few of the guys who got in touch with me and said Dave we're really missing the glory. We're really missing the praying to God. It's amazing to see the way that God turns the hearts of the people; even people that seemed at times to be quite aggressive. At times people would just be there and I'd be prophesising over them, praying for them and you could just see that God's love was really influencing them for the better. That was amazing.

Sarah: One of your catch phrases is about the glory. Some people might not be 100% sure what that means, so give us an explanation Dave.

Dave: I think probably for the last four to five years my life has been one of really encountering God's manifest presence in a pretty unusual way; being very intoxicated on God's presence. That presence I like to call the glory. It's also the beauty and the goodness of the Lord. God's goodness is in scripture; its glory, it's the goodness; it's the benefits of the Lord, the blessings of the Lord. It's the manifest, tangible presence of the Lord. I just know that the knowledge of the glory, the Bible says, will cover the earth as the waters cover the seas. I really believe that what God is going to do in the next phase of Christianity is it's going to be people's hearts just being ravaged by the manifest presence of God that we carry on a daily basis. I just love the glory, I just love seeing God move and touch people.

Sarah: I have been to some events that you did before you went into Big Brother house including Sloshfest. When is the next planned Sloshfest?

Dave: Well, I'm sat in a coffee shop with my good friend Joe Ravell my partner in the glory and we're just chatting about maybe January; doing an event with some of the old Big Brother house mates.

The response in the public, like you said has been overwhelming. I joined Twitter the other day and the first day I had 20,000 people following me and they're all asking, when is the next Sloshfest and they are all asking about the glory. They all want to get intoxicated. So I think probably in January we'll head towards setting something up maybe in London and just open it up to the harvest. If people want to contact me they can via my website which is thenewestatics.co.uk or they can join me on facebook which is Dave Vaughanbb11 or they can join me on twitter which is gloryboybb11.

On my website you can join for regular updates making people aware of stuff coming up in the future. I go to Australia beginning of October. Then I go to America for a month October-November time. When I come back we're doing some stuff in the UK and then hopefully we'll have this Sloshfest up and running in January for people.

You know the amazing thing is Sarah it's almost like God has positioned us right in the middle of a harvest field and I've never known such openness to the gospel, to the truth and the love of the cross. That's amazing you know. This is harvest time in the UK and we're really excited about that. We're not going back to where it's been, we're actually moving into something that's totally new for us. If you can't get excited about that then there's something wrong.

Sarah: I love the monk outfit and I know you've gone out in the supermarkets and you've worn the monk's outfit and you used that as an opportunity to talk to people and ask if you can pray blessing on their lives; but you ended up giving it away in the show to the contestant Sam Pepper. What was that all about?

Dave: You know Sammy Pepper needed it. We had to give one item away for each letter in his name and I was left with M, so I think I went for monk's robe. I actually had two monks' robes in the house. I love wearing the monks robe. There's a lot of glory on the monks' robe, a lot of glory.

Sarah: So are you planning to carry on wearing it then?

Dave: I'll be wearing it. I think people think I wear it on a regular basis. I do wear it occasionally so I will be wearing it again. I'll probably be wearing it at the Sloshfest where people can see it.