My own story about the reality of God in my life

Linda Currin

My parents always took me to church, and so from birth, I grew up listening to all the stories and words from the Bible. My upbringing was ingrained in every way with the morals and principles and very deeply entrenched principles of Church life, and the interpretations and confines the Word of God in that life. In our family of six we were born not too many years after the War, and so had little spare money but very hard working and disciplined parents who could make the very best of very little. Home grown and homemade were economical and healthy. So, although I was not aware of it, the principles of God’s Word were working all the time in my family, i.e. discipline, and ethical moral standards and a great respect for God and others produced a stability that is never really analysed, but none the less, does something in your own deeply ingrained ideas and lifestyle. So, I was ten years old when I really knew God nudging me one evening as I sat with the Girls Brigadiers at an evangelistic meeting in the Town Hall in my city of Hamilton, New Zealand. The only clear thought to me that night was, this is for the rest of your life!’
When God starts a work in an open heart, often we are unaware of how to hear Him, how He is leading and protecting and just exactly what He is doing, but many decisions I have made have come from a very strong in built ‘knowing’ that one way seemed more right than another. Nursing was one,wanting to be involved with missions of some sort or another, of wanting to work with people and make a difference in their lives, of having a great love and respect for the Word of God. As I dutifully read His Word and went to church and had a heart desire to be right with God, even when my rebelliousness was evident to many! Somehow in it all, I look back in hindsight, there was always this Knowing in my Knower, this way or that. Many times I did specially pray, and also many times I believe it was just as Paul says, ‘In HIM I live, and move and have my being ’wonderful! It’s like beingin His love, coming from NZ to England with 3 children aged 4, 6 and 8, was not such a difficult step because the certainty of the move, the amazing Word that started the journey to England, a word from Ezekiel that our neighbour came over with one day – ‘Prepare your stuff for removal…’ that Garry had just read the week before. The selling of our house without even a ‘For Sale’ board up, the provision of many things including a house offered to us in Birmingham before we had even left the country etc. All this was just part of that ‘being in the Way the Lord led us.’ It opened up to us and as we took another step, another door opened, and we took another step. In fact, it would have been almost difficult to stay, although I have to say that if I had known we would still be living here 25 years later I may not have been so willing! We have had some hard times, but we have seen some quite miraculous provisions.
Our first house in this country we bought 10 months after arriving, had no credit rating, no furniture, nothing apart from a couple of towels and a sheet and were looking to purchase a detached, 3 bed roomed, un-modernised house in Coventry that nobody could value since it was a deceased estate with a boarded up corner shop attached. I had forgotten at that stage I had dreamt many months earlier that we were living in a house linked to a shop.needed 100% mortgage, which the estate agent told us we would never get and as we prayed outside the Halifax office, we went in believing for a miracle. And that is what happened – this very patriotic Englishman chatted about his country and we enthused greatly since we loved living in the UK and he offered us the whole amount! We accepted. That is just one of our stories, and we felt our cup was running over.
So, in a nutshell, I am telling you what Jesus has done for ME. He has never failed His Word; never once gone back on any of His promises to me, and to my family. We have been tested, stretched and gone through uncomfortable, distressing and very painful times and have hung on by our fingernails to promises we could not see, but I can honestly say, He is Faithful who has called us, and we walk on…Glory!

“…I left changed.”

Sonia Allen

I can remember driving past the Coton Centre when they first started building and saying to myself “I wonder what that is”. It was so heavy on my heart that I started to ask around if anyone knew. Finally, one day I was told it was a Church and I thought to myself “I’m going to try that Church one day”. Well that day came and when I walked through the doors I was on my own with 3 children and on antidepressants (all I wanted to do was close my eyes and never wake up). God touched my life that day and I left changed. I couldn’t wait to come back the following Sunday. God started to take me on a journey into the wilderness and many times I cried out to God to leave me but he picked me up and carried me. I came out knowing God more, loving Him more and knowing who I was in Christ. He has restored me and placed me on higher ground.

Isaiah 42:16 I will lead the blind by ways they have not known, along unfamiliar paths I will guide them; I will turn the darkness into light before them and make the rough places smooth. These are the things I will do; I will not forsake them.

God is sovereign, He had the full knowledge of my problems and the sorrows I was facing but He is all-powerful – nothing is beyond His ability to heal or restore. I love the Lord with all my heart and every day I can’t wait to spend time with Him and have that intimacy with Him. There is a part of my heart that finds more and more of God every day!

Psalm 116:1-2 I love the LORD, for he heard my voice; he heard my cry for mercy. Because he turned his ear to me, I will call on him as long as I live.

There is never a day that goes by that I don’t feel his arms around me.

This year for Amy…

Amy Passey

I wanted to share a few thoughts on the journey God has taken us on this year.  Many people have come with us and we are so grateful for all the love, prayers, scriptures and encouragement.

By the end of this year, I will have had 11 months of treatment for Breast Cancer.   The diagnosis was a real shock of course.  We’ve had such excellent treatment all the way through by expert medical teams that have taken such good care of us.

The first few days were unreal.  I was scared but somehow felt safe.  We were overwhelmed with the love and support of family and friends.  Our reality was a peace that was vast and consuming and can only be attributed to our God.

The emotions came in waves.  Friends and church have been safe places to process and cry.  If we’re trying to hold it all together on a Sunday morning I think we are missing out on the restoration God loves to do when we’re honest in his presence.  There were lots of times I told God it was not ok that I was so ill.  He could handle it.

There are some benefits to having this kind of illness.  Suddenly what’s important to you becomes really clear.  The wish list becomes small and simple: another 50 years and a family.

The battle raged on.  About half way through we had a renewed sense that we needed to keep fighting and believing for good news in the face of the setbacks. I can’t see much of it now, but I am still confident that “I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.”   Something I prayed a lot was for God to keep my dreams alive, to enable me to look beyond this illness, that I would do this season well and not waste it.

I’ve had a lot of time read.  A couple things have really stood out.  The first is this quote from a book called ‘God on Mute’ by Pete Grieg: “ I would not want to go back to being the carefree person I was. God has changed me. He has rewired me.  He blew a half time whistle on my life and made me realize that I had many of my priorities wrong.”  The second is that pain can make you bitter or better.  I choose better.

Just before my surgery, probably the scariest part of the journey for us, I wrote in my journal: “The conclusion that I keep coming to is that you God are bigger than this and that we are safe in your hands. Safe in the real sense, eternally safe.”

So we thank God for the journey we are on, continue to trust He is able to save us from whatever our circumstances are, insist on the possibility of miracles and to this faith and faithfulness, so that even if our prayers aren’t answered in the way we thought we wanted, we still trust Him.