As time went by and the children grew up it seemed in many ways as if the cancer was a dim and distant memory – something that we had had the victory over.I guess that was why it seemed such a shock when suddenly she was told that it had returned.

A few months later in January 2006 after fighting with all her physical strength and many many hours and days spent in prayer she finally went to be with the Lord, and more than you will probably be able to imagine, it felt like my world had fallen apart.

I couldn't understand why it had happened – Although I had a lot of anger in me I don't really think I felt that bitter or angry at God, but for quite a long time I didn't feel as if I wanted to have a relationship with Him, I didn't spend much time in the Word and in prayer, although I carried on worshipping at home, and as a part of the Worship Team, because I knew that if I didn't commit myself to that I would start to find excuses not to go to church.

I became quite depressed for a while, but with help and support from family, church, work and friends I came through that and was able to start coming to a place where I was at least able to accept what had happened.

Eventually I found myself taking stock and realising that I was not yet fifty and didn't want to be on my own for the rest of my life. I started to feel desperately lonely, and eventually one day found myself on my knees asking God to bring me a “Godly woman”. I immediately felt an incredible sense of release as I gave it all up to God, and knew that I didn't have to strive any more.

Less than three weeks later I played in the Worship team at the Women in Touch conference, and that weekend God put the most wonderful Godly woman in my path! He even gave us something in common to talk about in those awkward first minutes – Shirley was also a worship leader in her church! How amazing is that!
Now we are married and I thank God every day for his wisdom, mercy and grace.

I still find it difficult to understand why things turned out as they did, but a picture that God gave Andrea once certainly helps me. The picture is of a tapestry – we see the back of the tapestry with all the untidy ends and knots, but God is looking at the front where the picture is perfect and everything has a purpose.

All I know is that from an incredibly tough situation God has come through for me and SAVED THE DAY!

Awesome!

The next day I was on a train I heard two men talking about Jesus like he was real. I asked these guys when we got to the station to help me – I said “I had been invloved in some scapes!” . I prayed a prayer and asked Jesus to be my saviour and I excepted that he had died on the cross for me and my sins (I thought of all the bad things I had done”).

As I called Jesus into my life -my legs gave way – I was very dizzy – as God came into my life – since then I have grown in the Lord – got to know Him – he has given me a new life – a wife – a family – a career – a new path away from drugs – the occult – sleeping around and trying to please people all the time.

thats my story of how He saved the day !!!

I grew up being forced to attend a methodist Sunday School together with my brothers. This turned me against 'organised' religion.
I wasted my academic ability, at school,through laziness. Instead of going to Uni I left the 6th form before taking my A levels.
In November 2008 my wife and I attended her late father's funeral,he was a treasurer of a C of E church. The funeral was boring and I wished I was elsewhere.This must have been the turning point because the Go4God advert was on the household noticeboard for weeks before we attended in the New Year.
I'm more than happy we did go. The Word of God is amazing and meant for all of us.I do have trouble with my faith levels. Faith, for me, is part of a process of growth and not a 'one stop fix'.
Sorry if my story is boring or lacking excitement. It just happens to be my story.

God has convinced me through my family, through friends, local church life, hard times as well as overwhelming historical evidence that Jesus really did die for us and rose again from the dead so that we can have forgiveness, peace with God and life to the full now and forever and this is why I'm still a Christian today.

I still struggle with my own selfish thoughts and actions each day but I'm free to live my life for God now and I struggle onwards in his strength to use every opportunity I can to love him and to love others so they can leave their own 'boredom' and know God for themselves.

Everything is an adventure now. I'm free from guilt because I've got forgiveness from God and I'm free from boredom because he's called me to do great things for him. Bring it on!

I grew up in Christian home, with great parents. I did well at school, had good friends, and was just ambling through the normal life processes of school, college, uni, and job – but with little ambition or direction, and certainly no specific knowledge of why I was here or for what. Just before I started college, I started coming to the River Dream Centre, and Pastor Michael's messages completely changed my approach to God, and life in general. Nine years later, I know I have walked a completely different path to what I would have without the injection of purpose and direction that a real relationship with the living God gave me. My life is more exciting, fulfilling, and stretching than it ever would have been without the challenge of reaching for a life that meant more. The realisation that my Creator has made me for purpose, for playing a part in something much greater, and that this purpose is the most fulfilling thing I can possibly do, has changed my life. Although its not a dramatic “road to Damascus” type testimony, it means the world to me, because I know I would be broken, struggling, compromising and frustrated if it wasn't for God who stepped in to save the day.

I went to church most Sundays & was a choir boy. I used to get paid to be in the choir! The most exiting time was just before the sermon when the organist would spin around on her bench & us choir boys would catch a glimpse of her knees!

At the age of 11 I went to confirmation class in the Vicarage by myself with our old vicar and in 1969 John Harper was ordained our vicar. I was 15.

It was at this time that a family turned up at church for a christening. What brought my attention to this family was a young girl that caught my eye! She was, I learned afterwards, called Sally, her parents were dairy farmers from Lelant. Church began to get very interesting! Sally started to attend regularly & we soon became an item!
In 1975 we were married by Rev. John Harper at St. John’s in the Fields church. (SJIF) It was a very special occasion, the only wedding I have known that there was ‘Holy Communion’.

After we were married we didn’t attend church very often, thought that SJIF was a little OTT. I remember going there at one time and someone fell over! The next week 2 fell over & I said I’m out of here!
After a couple of years we were expecting our first baby, I was a very happy man. Apart from working on dad’s farm I used to do discos in the evening, hospital radio & just started doing agricultural contracting. Money was tight.
Sally quit work at Barclays bank in January in preparation for the baby to be born in March. One busy day in February, Sally was felling sick. She went to the doctor who said that it was a bug & that there were a lot around. On getting home Sally was sick & became unconscious, having fits & throwing her self around on the floor. I came in & found her. I called 999 & the ambulance arrived as did the doctor & Sally, 37weeks pregnant, was rushed to Truro in ambulance followed, very nervously, by me driving the doctors car.

Sally was rushed into the theatre and after I had signed that they could do what ever necessary to save her, they carried out an emergency caesarean section.

I was beside my self! What if she dies? What about the baby?
After a short wait I was told that I was a dad, and that Anna had been placed in the Special care Baby Unit. She was asleep because of all the drugs that had to be used to drop Sally’s blood pressure.

I remember going in with my mother in law to see Sally in a very dark room. There was a nurse there & Pam asked what the prognosis was. The nurse indicated that she was not supposed to tell us anything to which Pam replied ‘its ok I’m a pharmacist & I understand these situations’.
The words that then came from the nurse’s mouth will be with me forever. She said ‘In these cases it is usually the baby that dies first!’

That was it. What could I do my world had been torn apart & I was totally lost. Thankfully they both survived and we had Anna christened in the small Towednack Anglican church. Much safer than SJIF! I had vowed never to have any more children but on 22nd Feb some 2 years later George was added to our family.
Life was good. I boasted what a great wife I had although I used to flirt around just like every other person I knew. I used to think that I was the luckiest person alive.
I was working all hours. My father had retired & we were running the dairy farm, a successful contracting business with 2 round bailers & 2 forage harvesters. I would often be up to milk the cows at 6 & then off for a days contracting often not returning home until 10- 11 o’clock at night. To do the same the next day. This was no fun for a young mum who had to look after 2 tiny children as well as organise the events on the farm when I was not around.
Circumstances Changed and because of our actions we suddenly realized that we were in a mess, BIG TIME! OUR MARAGE HAD HIT THE ROCKS.
We had both been neglecting each other & needed to sort things out.
We went to see John Harper the guy that married us as we figured that if he put us together then he could mend us!

I remember he asked me a question? Do you read the bible? ‘No’ I responded but I do occasionally read a hymn book! Why I said this I do not know but it seemed good at the time!
He spoke some God stuff into my life & I didn’t really know what was going on but I wept buckets. (It was as if God was cleaning me from the inside!)
Several nights later I was in bed with Sally & although we were only inches apart it felt like 1000 miles, I said this prayer.
‘Dear God, I don’t fully understand all that is going on in my life BUT if you are real would you come into my life in Jesus name Amen.’ I then fell asleep.

I awoke the next day & I felt good. I said ‘hello’ to the work chap who was working on some machinery & then it happened. He dropped a spanner or something & said the name JESUS & I went ‘WHAT WAS THAT!’ It was as if someone had stabbed me in the heart. I had heard blasphemy before in fact I expect I had said some but now it hurt me & I knew something had changed. I had become a Christian.
That was when the He saved the Day for me. He rebuilt our marriage & transformed our lives. Praise His Name.

He saved my purpose.

Luke this is awesome. I would never had heard this testimony if it wasn't for you coming here and sharing it.

Praise God for what He has done in your life

He saved the day for me when I was 16 years old. My years before that were a bit of a train crash waiting to happen. Between drink, drugs, joy riding, fighting and shop lifting there wasn’t much room for Jesus in my life.

My mother and father had divorced, which caused me to give up on life. My main aim was to do as I liked, no matter what the cost to myself or others. My mother tried her best to raise me as a single parent, between her and my sister they were frequently taking me to hospitals and getting me out of police cells.

In November 2001 my mother decided to take me to Disneyland as a treat. We went out to the states for 3 months, she was working with a Church as a worship leader, with the aim of visiting Disneyland on our return journey.
As the weeks went by, there was no real change in the way I looked at the church, although I had made a few very important Christian friends, there was no real concern for God. I met a few people that were into smoking weed and drinking and hung out with them instead.

So finally the time came for Disneyland, I was so excited by the thrill of going but God was the last thing on my agenda. I think it was the second night in our hotel room, I was really bored and my mum was sorting stuff out for the next day.
So I decided to sit out on the balcony and listen to my CD player, as I sat there I felt the urge to go and get a CD about the prayer of Jabez. I sat listening to it, but I didn’t really know what it was about or why I had chosen it. As the music played I started to cry, tears rolling down my cheeks, I started to think about what Christ had done for me, I felt the Lord come down on me and it was like he was holding me in his arms and embracing me as a father. Instantly I knew that God was real and that after all he had done for me, my life was to be lived for him.
I came back in to the hotel room beaming from ear to ear, I told my mum what had happened and she was over the moon with joy and thanksgiving, she had been praying for me to find Jesus for many years.

As I return to the United Kingdom and to the life I had left behind, I was a completely changed man. My friends could not understand what had happened to their rebellious friend, who was always game for trouble and now wanted to go to church.
Didn’t what to get drunk anymore, didn’t want to get high, didn’t want to steal things.

Through Gods work in me 2 of those friends have given their lives to the lord.

Thank you Father for saving my day in Disneyland

The fact that if we just take one simple step towards Him, He will rescue us – awesome!

On starting uni last October, I was lusting after 'the student lifestyle' and wanted to show everyone I was a real 'Essex Boy'. I wanted to get drunk, get laid, get high. Then after losing myself in a world of sin, I wasn't even looking to go to Church, read my Bible or even take time to talk to God. Then my pastors back in Essex nagged at me to go to the RDC. Halfway through the second term I finally went. After a shakey second term, God turned my life upside down at Spring Revival Conference.

First of all He made me choose between him and the drink and drugs, then He knocked me off my feet and filled me with the Holy Spirit. All of a sudden, I was on fire for God at last, I wasn't looking for the sex and every sinful thing the Essex culture tells me is normal. I was looking for ways to become a more Godly man, actually just being a man and not a boy was the important thing!

Now I am walking with Jesus. God has saved me from everything I thought was acceptable before. That, in my journey with God, has been the greatest thing He could save me from. I'm just so thankful that my old ways didn't completely rob me of my purity.

Thank you Lord!

My testimony is not a dramatic, overnight transformation but is that of a man slowly, but surely finding himself, his God, and his purpose.

I had what you might call a typical, “Christian” upbringing – I went to Sunday school, I went to church each Sunday, sang a few hymns, said a few prayers and then went back to enjoying my life throughout the week. I was quite content believing in God and living life for my pleasure.

During my final year in High school God became more real to me than ever before at a Christian conference called Spring Harvest. I stopped getting drunk, stopped swearing and wanted to do what He wanted me to do. The problem was, I didn’t know what He wanted me to do. I still went to church but the church I went to didn’t really tell me how God was relevant to me and my life.

A major change came when I went to college and met some other Christians who went to another church. When I visited this church I was blown away. There was no religious tradition, no hypocritical preaching of laws and rules, just a genuine belief and love of a real and powerful God.

The things I have experienced since coming to this church are incredible. I was miraculously healed from asthma – God INSTANTLY took every symptom away. I went from taking steroid inhalers twice a day and ventolin inhalers whenever I did exercise to nothing and I have not needed to use an inhaler since. God has given me joy, peace, health and a purpose to live for.

I did not experience these things before because I did not know how real and powerful God is. It was only after coming to this church and experiencing the REAL Jesus that I found true fulfilment and true LIFE.

He saved me, He healed me and He gave me purpose – He will do the same for you. Have you experienced the REAL Jesus?

Sam