didn't think it would ever happen!

I come from a family of none believers, im lucky in the fact that they do support me in my decisions and beliefs. I was converted at a christian summer camp that i attend. i had been prayed for all the previous week and felt nothing and was beginning to doubt all id heard then, out of no where i felt god. since then i have never felt lonly. in hard times i no he is there for me. I get critised by my friends, i have recently moved school though and now no people who are in the same boat as me. i thank god for this and guiding me to support that i need. i no that he is always there for me and loves me.

Submitted by Alexandra on 10 Nov 2003

I was raised in a home in which my mother was a strong believer. My dad was a very moral man, and allowed my mother to read the bible to my brothers and I each and every day. We also were in church almost every time the doors were open. Which often meant three times a week or more depending on the time of the year. I remember that at a very early age (prob. 8 or 9) I began to have this joy from reading the book of Daniel. Everything about this guy was an adventure. Then, when I began to get into my teen years, I fell away. I dived hedlong into everything I could think of to prove to my mother that all of this was a myth. That she was living in a different world than the rest of us. One would only need to look at the Apostle Paul's list of what some of the christians in his church once were to get an inkling of who I had become. Drugs, alcohol, whoeremongering, satanism, homosexuality, theft, male prostitution, these are examples of who I was. Then, to avoid a jail sentence, I made an arrangement to go into the US army. I got married. After going to war for America, I left the army and went through a horrible divorce. My mother wanted to pray with me but something else had happened. My dad got saved during the time my brother and I were in the gulf. Oh no, not him too! Anyway, I took a manufactoring job. At the plant I was quickly promoted to plant manager, and then hired a guy who turned out to be a christian. Here I was again. I just couldn't get away from these people. But Curtis was different. He didn't try to "preach" to me. He would always say, even when I teased him unmercifully at work, that God had a plan for me. After about 6 months of watching this guys faithful stance during some of the most trying times I could provide, I allowed him to come to my house to "study" the bible together. This went on for about a year. Then Curtis asked me to go to a christian concert. The band Brian Free and assurance would be playing at a local church. The big night came and guess who didn't show up. I was infuriated. I was mad at him, God, everything. Once again this had proven to have no substance. I quickly went to the local store and bought a 12-pack, thinking I would start a drunk-on. But across the street was Miles Rd Baptist where the concert was to be. I looked over there and saw something that hit me. Family. Friends. Peolpe hugging each other on an open street-front. It was to much for me. I had to go. I had to see this concert. That night, Jesus Christ came knocking on my hearts door during the middle of the concert. I let Him in. I've never been the same. That was November of 1995. Now I am re-married to a wonderful christian woman, have a seven year old daughter who has already given her life to the Lord. I also play lead guitar on the worship team of my local church. The Lord has called me to preach, and I am watching and waiting on Him to say when. In the meantime I pray, study, and generally perpare myself for His calling me into action. That doesn't mean I don't already preach the word. Why just the other day, I was walking through the plant at a local lumber yard where I'm a salesman. One of the forklift drivers called out to me: "Hey, Tim, whats the word?" not even thinking, I turned towards him and said "Joel 2:32" He said "what?" I then explained this verse to him and the other man with him, who turns out to also be working towards this mans salvation. As I turned to leave, I overheadr Walter tell the other man "You should have known that guy Tim seven years ago man. Hair down to butt, hard drinking, drug taking radical." Yeah I am pleased to be right where the Lord Jesus wants me right now. Telling everyone I meet at Wal-mart, Bilo, the public library, where ever I happen to be "Jesus Christ loves you. He died for your sins and mine. Want you give Christ a minute and listen to what He has to say about how much He loves you. Give love a chance. To Him be all honor and glory and riches forever, amen.

Submitted by Timothy on 8 Nov 2003

I was born into a christian family-my mum was a born-again christian,and so was my dad.At the age of 5 in a caravan in France i gave my life to Jesus.You may think that that ws very youing,and i cudn't have really understood wot i woz sayin e.t.c. but i did understand,and even at that early age my parents told me years later,that i changed.i woz obviously too young to have done anything majorly bad,but mymumand dad told me that i became more contented,and didn't lie as much.i realy wat 2 stress 2 u, that if u are readin this,and are part of a christian family,but haven't actually given ur life to Jesus,to do it as soon as possible,maybe even after you have finished reading this cos i cant stress how wrong it is to think that cos ur mum, or dad,or sister,any relation is a christian that u r.give ur life over 2 jesus, it is the best thing u wil eva do!i gave my life ova 2 jesusyears ago, and have NEVER regretted it since

Submitted by Amy on 27 Sep 2003

hi i come from a non beliving faimly. and my parents hate my faith. same at skool. but what i am goin to tell u is that when u feel completly isolated god will be there he will touch ur heart it would make my life so much easyer 2 give up but i dont as i know the truth i speak the truth 2 my friends even though the results r not 2 nice 4 me. if ur in the same situation as me keep goin god has NOT left u. god bless hannah

Submitted by hannah on 18 May 2003

I wasn't brought up in a Christian home. The fact that my parents were very unsure about religious belief was highlighted the moment I was born. I was two months premature and back in the early sixties, this was very dangerous and the midwife didn't expect that I would live. The nursing staff asked my father whether he wanted the last rites to be said over me and he declined. I obviously survived and years later as a Christian there was a time when a woman prophesied over me the circumstances of my both revealing things that she couldn't possible have "known" but confirming that God had been with me in the delivery room and protected me from dying. I was brought up to be a good agnostic. My parents always thought that if my siblings and I were to find any kind of religion it would be up to us. Me? I wasn't looking in that direction at all. I was too busy having fun. As a teenager I wasn't any different to the people around me. A little drink, a little rock'n'roll. There were drugs around but I was never heavily involved. I did know how to party though and had a good time. I was well into music, going to gigs each weekend and hanging out with my long haired mates at parties. Not a notorious sinner but into enough bad stuff to know that it wasn't enough. I would look forward to the weekend all week and then go to a gig on a Friday night at the old mayfair Ballroom in Newcastle or to the City hall to see the bigger bands that were touring. This was the seventies and early eighties and I saw all the bands but after a good gig, plenty of drink, a party and lots of laughs I would wake up the next morning feeling unsettled. I would wonder "is this it?" I knew there had to be more to life than living for the weekends and partying and yet I hadn't a clue. I just knew that deep down I wasn't satisfied. If you'd suggested God to me at this point, I would laugh at you. i was the kid in school who would try and roast R.E. teachers in school discussions. I would be the one who would laugh at the Christian kids for being so stupid. When it came to God I was definitely an agnostic. I really didn't know and I definitely thought that it wasn't cool to be a Christian so I didn't investigate. I used to ahve a few sources of income as a kid in 6th form. I had my pocket money! I had my paper round. I had a rather lucrative deal stealing albums from record shops and selling them to my mates. Not something I'm proud of. One day when i was doing my paper round I met some girls who lived next door to a house where I delivered papers. I'd bump into them sometimes and chat. They were 4 Christian students at Newcastle University and what I didn't know at the time is that they deicded to pray for me that i would become a Christian and they got their mates to pray too. It's good that they did because I had no idea about God and no interest in God but then they were girls and I did like girls! One bleak Wednesday evening they invited me in for a coffee. I completed my paper round and came back for coffee and we sat and chatted and I knew they were "religious" because they had a "New life in Jesus" sticker on the window, I argued religion with them and they were very gracious to me. In fact, the more I talked to them I realised that there was something very different about these girls. They had a life I had never seen before, there was a vibe about them that was very attractive. It wasn't a physical thing, it was just the way they lived and the way they talked. I was intrigued. On the Sturday night they invited me to the cinema with them to see a film about the scientific investigation into the shroud from Turin. I have to admit that if I had known what the movie was, I wouldn't have gone but once I was sitting having tea with them and their boyfriends/fiances etc, there wasn't much I could do to decline! :-) Afterwards I remember walking along the becah and one of the guys talking to me about going to church. Got to admit that sounded like a horrible idea. Who wants to go to church? But there was something about the way that these people lived that I couldn't shake off. they knew God and talked about him ina genuine personal way and I started realising that maybe this was what I had been wanting. Maybe this was what it was about. remember i've only known these girls for four days. The next day was Sunday and no I didn't go to church but one of the girls Jennifer and her fiance Mike came to visit me in the evening. We sat in my bedroom and they gently explained about the Gospel and to be honest i don't remember much of the content of the conversation but I am convinced that because they had prayed so hard for me and because they loved me, my barriers were broken down and when they left I wanted to give it a try. I "prayed". I wasn't sure how to pray, I'd never really heard people pray before. So I said " Hey God. If you're real then I want to know you and I want what these people have. I understand that the stuff I've done has hurt you and you don't like it and I want you to change my life. So please come in and do something. Amen" I knew enough to know you should end up with an "Amen" and I also knew that if this wasn't real, I wasn't having it. I wasn't stupid but I thought it was worth giving God a try and investigating and I'd started the journey. That was 25 years ago and I'm still on that journey. God is real and my life has been completely different and so incredible because God has been in it. He's led me through many difficulties and trials, he's helped me and it's been brilliant. But it all started with that small step of faith and the prayer I prayed sitting on my bed in my room. God definitely changed me that night and immediately I discovered that walking with God was something personal, something intimate and something very lovely. I'm grateful for those people who prayed for me though they barely knew me. They just wanted me to know Jesus and along the way I have had the opportunity to help others know Jesus too and it's always special. God cares and it's made a difference in my life. I was going nowhere, I had no qualifications that would make me an ideal candidate for being a Christian and yet out of nowhere, God grabbed my life and turned me around. If you're not a Christian and you're reading this, trust me that God can do the same for you. And you won't regret it.

Submitted by Mike on 7 May 2003

For giving me grace and giving me the right eyes to see what is right, for giving me the values that guides me to put you in the highest, and most of all, sincere love that brings me closer to you by the seconds passing. To almighty Jesus there are not enough thank you's for your overwhelming presence and that you shared it with me.

Submitted by Chad on 6 Feb 2003

I have been going to church all my life,I never felt 'good enough' to give my hear to Him, I wasn't impressed by the attitude of Christians around me, I didn't want to be like them, I felt I should be perfect.Then one sunday the speaker Andy Christophides,who I have known for years, simply quoted john 3:16 Whosever.... and I thought what am I waiting for its that simple! 4 years later I have been so blessed, and of course i know that only the amazing Jesus is perfect and he's my best friend!

Submitted by 'Ezra' on 9 Jan 2003

Lord God I thank you for taking me back and forgiving me of my sin ! Your love is so amazing and so powerful ! Its still so amazing that you can pick me up and hold me close brush me off ! Lord I just want to say thank you, thank you that you have given me this fantastic life, a life where you I have the privalidge of being able to shine for you. I thankyou for the friends you have placed in my life, for bringing me back to your people in Rochdale, and for taking me away from my sin in the past ! I just want to thank you and praise you that I am healed and cleaned by the blood of Jesus and I am set free ! I thank you that I am safe in your arms ! I thank you once more for being in my life, turning my job around so that I can praise you while I work and now that you have given me my house what a blessing that was thank you father for saving my soul. AMEN

Submitted by Chris on 9 Dec 2002

I just want to thank you father for showing me the way. I have always gone to church and been a Christian since quite an early age. I've been growing closer to Christ each day until the last six months where because everything was going wrong I turned my back on Him. Things got continually worse including many major incidents at work and at my church. Last weekend my church had a large youth event with other churches in the area. I want to tell you that Jesus really spoke to me then and told me how stupid I was being by ignoring Him when I needed Him most. Since then things have already started looking up. My jobs going a lot better now and I was in danger of losing my job but now I've been taken off disicplinary action. Things are a lot better at church now and hopefully I can start working on re-building that closeness that I had with Jesus before. I want to thank Jesus because if he hadn't been speaking to my freind to encourage me to go to this youth event last week then I would not have given my life over to him again.

Submitted by Kerry-Anne on 24 Nov 2002

After being, from a young age, intoxicated by rock and metal music, I eventually began to enter into an appreciation of the darker side of such music, and began to acknowledge that there was much scope for spiritual "goings on" through listening to music. I made a decision to accept evil as being a part of me and who i was, and i thought it was "cool"; i celebrated bad things and rejoiced in evil. Whilst never worshipping satan (he was just a spiritual entity to me, not necessarily even real) i knew that evil was what i was. One night, as i was reading a book in bed late one night (age 14 or so, quite young) I felt a presence in my room with me. It was evil, and it hated me. Obviously, i was VERY scared, and began to shake uncontrollably, and go very very cold. My mother is a born again christian (that used to really do my head in as a kid) and prayed with me to make the spirit "go away". It did eventually, but it left a mark on me, and i began to have uncontrollable panic attacks. By the age of fifteen i was pretty messed up. I reached the point where i thought i was mad and could only see a future for me in those horrible mental institutes, the like you see in films where evryone is straightjacketed. It was as a last resort i went to see a counsellor, who suggested i speak with a youth worker at a christian community. After speaking with him, he offered me a job working in the kitchens, on the farm and just generally around the community's 60 acres or so. It was here i realised that people could be "good" people and it was still "cool"; and what's more, these people seeemd to have a happiness the like of which i had never seen before. And i wanted it too. They began to teach me about God and Jesus, and i learned about Truth and the power of Love. During the summer camps they ran roughly 4 months after i had first joined, I signed the little card they gave us to say that my life was Jesus' and it belonged to Him, and that i was now going to follow Him in all i did. For a long time i didnt "feel" a Christian, though the panic attacks and the feeling of being "mad" went very quickly after! Eventually i realised that God was changing me slowly and moulding me into the child of His that He wanted me to be; He knew that at that time i probably wouldnt have been able to cope if He came rushing into my life in one big go and blasted me with His Holy Spirit, though thankfully He does now from time to time! Since then i discovered Christian metal and rock (so i still have the gift of music in my life) and made a fantastic amount of friends whom i love and care about, and who love and care for me. My life is filled with good things, and i wake up each morning excited to see what God is going to do in my life, and in other's. I know God's forgiveness for the evil things that were a part of my life, and i am now truly free to enjoy this beautiful world. Praise God!

Submitted by Christian on 18 Oct 2002