What are Christian Testimonies?
Testimonies are the story of what God has done in people's lives.
Testimonies
Mark BlytheDan Blythe
David Ingold
Tony Kelly
Dave Simms
Mark Blythe, Molesey Community Church
Age 40+, occupation – event organiser, born – Adelaide, Australia with English Parents (is Australian during the cricket season, English at other times). Family – Wife Lesley, three sons, two step-sons, one step-daughter, one step-granddaughter!
Childhood – Parents escaped Australia when two, raised near Middlesbrough in the North East. Sport fanatic, represented the County at swimming, basketball and football, the school at everything. Went to a C of E Church regularly, every Christmas Eve to keep Mother company when parents divorced. Middlesbrough loyal supporter.
Adult - College in London at 18 to do a PE degree, coached soccer in the States and did the first London Marathon. Met Catholic wife and married in a RC Church when 24. We lived for 4 years in Sydney where I successfully fought against attending Church throughout a ten-year marriage that sadly ended in divorce despite having three young boys. Me, my sport & my work always came first sadly.
Was happily single, when I met an amazing woman. I soon, to my horror, learnt that this woman, Lesley, was a Christian! She was too gorgeous to dump just cos of that and over a period I started asking questions about her faith (I was hoping to convert her to faith in Middlesbrough instead!). However, on a business trip back to Australia, some friends invited me to their Church, they couldn’t believe it when I said I would go, and I was equally surprised! I didn’t know why all of a sudden I wanted to go but I just felt drawn. During the meeting the leader invited new people down to the front, for some reason I went. There was a reading on a big overhead screen, I started reading it and for some reason my eyes filled up with tears. Being a tough northerner I tried to stem the flow but couldn’t, fortunately I was facing the front wall! I felt an amazing burning sensation inside that I now know to be the Holy Spirit, along with the shock of finding that God really existed and could be felt in a real tangible way, I had an amazing inner peace.
The real proof for me came when I rang my boys in England to tell them what had happened, God beat me to it by telling my 10 year old son that Dad had become a Christian the night before! Yes they all knew already? I probably needed that further proof to make me believe without a doubt. Since then God has answered so many prayers and performed so many miracles I cannot deny his existence whatever anyone else may say or believe.
The spirit changed my life dramatically, I no longer do absolutely anything to earn money. The saddest thing about becoming a Christian now is realising that I wasted 35 years not listening to all the people who tried to tell me how great it was, the people I labelled “Boring Bible Bashers” as I went off to play football or for a run. One of the best things was finding “Christians in Sport” and realising that I could still love my football, support Middlesbrough and be a Christian! I was amazed that it doesn’t hurt and that there are only benefits plus I am just so grateful that I found all this out before it was too late!
I now want everyone to experience the ultimate joy and security in life that Jesus gives freely to everyone no matter what we have done in the past. That’s called amazing grace, especially to me it is amazing! It’s a personal thing between you alone and God, no one else is involved. It is your personal choice when to make the most important step you will ever take on this earth and when you do you will feel so pleased and at peace and realise 2 all the things that were holding you back all these years don’t actually exist at all. Plus you don’t have to wear sandals to be a Christian!
My Testimony – Dan Blythe
It was in June 1995 and my mother started talking about God. Her friend had taken her to a church in Horsham where a man called Colin Urqhart would preach. After about two weeks of going there she became a born again Christian, I thought she was going crazy but I had faith in her. Then in July she took me and my brothers to a Christian Camp called Faith Camp It changed my life. I went to a club called Mighty Max where they sung encouraging songs and played some good games. At the end of the second night all the leaders crowded round the children, I didn't feel too comfortable with this but they prayed for me anyway and I felt light and cleansed as if I was transparent and I felt no hatred for anyone, I also didn't have any worries. On the way back to my tent I felt different and no anger for anyone or anything. I got back in my tent and just thought about what just happened. I wasn't sure if I had what Mum has got but over a period of time I noticed a change in me and so did my Mum. God told me that my Dad was going to become a christian and now everybody in my family is. I became a christian after my Mum and Dad got a divorce, although I was over it God still helped my Mum find a Christian Husband and my Dad a christian Wife so I have a lot to be thankful for. For three more years I went back to camp it was sort of as a refill. Then after that I started going to a Christians in Sport camp which I loved as I love sport. Now what God wants to do with my life is up to him.
Tony Kelly’s Story
I guess I’m not the sort of guy people expect to lead the prayers at the start of a football match. Well it’s fair to say that it hasn’t always been that way.
I was the youngest child of Irish immigrants to England (there were six kids - no guesses as to which religious leaning) brought up in a suburb of Manchester called Wythenshawe. Now Wythenshawe is definitely not Molesey. It is one of the largest Council estates in Europe and you can spot the posh people there because they are the ones who could afford iron bar grills for their windows. Dad was a bricklayer’s mate and with six kids in tow had to work really hard to make ends meet. The holiday treat each year was a day trip to Blackpool, an hour in the fun house and a stick of rock for the bus journey back home. Unfortunately, the old man had to work too hard and he suffered a massive heart attack which killed him when I was just six years old. If life had been fairly tough up until then, it had in no way prepared me for the way it was about to be. I very quickly became a six year old going on twenty as Mum had to go out to work to support us all. It really was like the “Dickens’ workhouse”. My eldest brothers and sisters were very sensible and as soon as they reached late teens left home.
Despite all of this we were all incredibly happy as the events pulled the family closer together and there was a strong sense of unity amongst us, even if it was taking it in turns for the others to practice beating the hell out of me. The Catholic church rallied round my mum at this time and helped us all enormously. We thought we were having it bad, but it was nothing compared to what she was going through and it was very clear to me as a nipper that her faith got her through these hard times. The church also sent me on camps, give me a reasonable education, ran my football club and all I had to do in return was enjoy the comic delights of being an altar boy for a short while. Surprisingly, I did rather well at school and managed to pass the 11 plus and get to Grammar school. The Grammar school was very carefully chosen. It had to be far enough away to mean I got a free bus pass and they had to give free meals to the poorer kids. I even did well here, despite blokes dressed in cassocks trying to cane you every three minutes for not being able to conjucate the latin verb “amare”. They definitely wouldn’t get away with that today (well not without the Sun having something to print about it). However, in true traditional family fashion, I was ready to leave at sixteen and join the big, bad, working world and much to everyone’s delight including my own I even had some qualifications to dish out at the appropriate time.
It’s fair to say at this point that God was not high on my agenda, in fact he wasn’t on it at all. Nothing came free in life and no one other than yourself was going to do anything for you. And besides, God (George Best) had already left United by this stage. My interests were pretty limited, football, rugby league, drinking, more drinking and even more drinking. Women were a bit of a distraction, but only when the bar was shut and definitely not when with the lads at a big game. I also found work a bit of a fag and convinced the Government to give me a full grant to go and study at college for a further three years. Here I majored in sport, minored in drinking and took a free ninth in girls. In the minutes that were left (of which there weren’t many) I got involved in high jinks (hence the shape of the nose- clearly I needed to spend more time practising my jab and ducking). Occasionally and only occasionally I’d do some economics studying.
University was definitely not hard work and I whilst I was there I happened to meet somebody who was to change my life. Her name was Judith. She was a pretty, dainty, shy thing, (just like me) who took a real shine to me. I, in true laddish style, continued to treat her the way I treated all other women- badly. However, her persistence wore me down such by the end of my time at college, it was me who was doing all the chasing. We fell in love and were married once Judith had finished her course at the ripe old age of 22.
By this time, I was working in London and climbing up the corporate ladder. I was incredibly ambitious and was driven by work. Judith on the other hand was looking for the deeper meaning to life and had started attending a local church in Molesey. Somewhat divergent paths and not the best thing for our young marriage. I was in competition for Judith’s time with the church and some soppy emotional inner feeling she had about God. Needless to say there was a lot of friction between us and I started to dislike anything or anybody who had anything to do with the church. This coupled with miserable weekends with my bad temper when United lost (which happened quite frequently in the early 80’s) meant something had to give.
I had been brought up with God, but that was for children and not for the modern twentieth century man. Besides it was boring being so good. As far as I was concerned, it was just a story, but Judith challenged me to come to some of the church’s meetings where they were having some visiting guest speakers with a view to making up my mind for myself. Well, I went to the church and on one of the nights there was a guy speaking who didn’t know me from Adam. Remarkably, he was speaking on this occasion about someone in the hall who he did not know, but related some of this person’s personal life and said that Jesus wanted to meet them that very night. Well the person he was talking about was me. At first, I was shocked, then confused and then listened more intently to what he had to say. He talked about someone who gave up everything for me (including his life), someone who knew everything about me, and who expected nothing in return. The Jesus he talked about was not the one I knew in the books, but someone who I could speak to daily and have like any other normal friend. Unlike any other friend though, he wasn’t going to let me down and hurt me even if I didn’t always come up with my end of the bargain. When the guy asked for anyone in the hall to step forward if they thought his talk had spoken to them, I found myself on my feet and moving to the front. If my mates could have seen me at that moment, my street cred would have been out the window and I would have died. Amazingly, by the end of the evening I was so convinced by what I heard, I had decided to give this Jesus a go.
I’d like to be able to say I became a saint overnight, but alas that isn’t true. Things did change more subtly though. My marriage improved dramatically and I can honestly say has got better every day since that time. Even my temper got better. I was never going to be on a soap box and preaching about what Jesus could do for other people, but instead was going to live out what I believed in my every day actions. God was good to me, but its fair to say there were still parts of my life which were mine and not for the sharing. The personal ambition to be successful at work was very much in evidence and United was still incredibly important and I still believed it had to be down to me to do everything.
They say God works in mysterious ways and he did for me. I was made the chief executive of the UK’s leading film production and distribution company at the age of 28. I thought this was the route to the top. Judith didn’t want me to take the job as she thought I was taking it for all the wrong reasons. Needless to say the whole episode was a disaster. The Company hit one crisis after another all of which had been birthed prior to my joining the company. I was working twenty four hours a day, 365 days a year. Hope was always just around the next corner and when I sold the Company to Polygram, they even reneged on the deal on the day it was due to close. To cut a long story short, the company went bust, leaving me broke not having been paid for over six months, my CV in shreds and my self esteem shot to pieces. I was also somewhat worried about what to do next as Judith was expecting our second child and all my savings had gone on supporting us over the last few months. I needed time to think and so I booked a holiday on the credit cards to the Canary Islands. It so happened some of our friends and family would be out there at the same time. Well my career may have ended, but at least United were about to win their first championship for twenty five years. Whilst we were on holiday United lost every game only to be pipped by Leeds and on the last day of the holiday Leeds were crowned Champions. Time obviously to get drunk. That night I went out and was in no fit state to drive back to the apartment. I decided to walk back. I pushed Joe in the baby trolley whilst Judith waddled alongside me. The next thing I remember is Judith screaming. Now I know I might have been rude during the course of the evening, but definitely not that bad. As I turned to see why Judith was so upset with me a flash of reflected light off steel caught my eye. All was suddenly very clear. A Spanish drug addict had a twelve inch fishing knife at my throat demanding money (or at least that’s what I think he was asking for). The guy took the last cash to my name I had. Fortunately that’s all he took, he got the money and ran, probably more scared than me.
The next day, reality dawned, I had no money, no job, the credit cards at the limit, United were losers yet again, my wife was pregnant and for the first time ever I felt out of control and didn’t know what to do. My ethos of you only get what you work for seemed hopelessly wrong as I had worked really hard and all I had to show for it was less than nothing. Judith suggested praying about the situation and tried to comfort me in saying that God would provide for us. My sarcastic response of “sure that will really help” certainly didn’t do her any favours either. However, we did pray about it and to my amazement I no longer felt worried. In fact I suspected my God had taught me a number of lessons. I now knew he was in control, not me. He wanted to be in every part of my life not just some of it and as daft as it might seem, prayer really worked.
I returned to England and there was a message on the answerphone from someone I hadn’t seen for over five years asking if I could help their company out on a part time basis. This paid enough for us to get by and allowed me more time at home to be with my new young family. It even motivated me to start doing things for people less fortunate than me. Believe it or not, United losing no longer ruined the weekends and they even went on to win the championship the next year. What a turn around and what a change in me!
Letting Jesus into my life has given me a sense of purpose and hope, but more than anything it has taken the burden of worries away from me. There are still hard times, but I know for sure he can deal with them better than I can worrying about them. It has made my relationships deeper and more fulfilling and I think it has improved me as a person. I know he still has a lot to improve and change in me, and that I will in all probability slip backwards, but I have never been so excited about the future.
I’ve also seen my God change lots of other peoples lives over the last years and I know if everyone lived and loved like Jesus did, then maybe the earth we live in might just be like heaven.
David Ingold Testimony
I was about 12 when I started to go to church, this was my own choice. I went to a church in Petersham, and the vicar was a good vicar, he encouraged young children to go to church and also got them involved in the service. I later went on to get confirmed at St Andrews in Ham, which was a big event and meant a lot to me. About three years down the road we moved to Hampton which meant finding a new church, this did not take long. I went to All Saints in Hampton which also had a youth group.
Later on in life I meet Miranda who is now my wife, we decided to buy a place in Molesey and get married. We found St Pauls, and at this particular time a new vicar was due to arrive, Rev Robert Cotton. Shortly after we got married I decided to help out at running the youth club at St Pauls, I did this for about 10 years, I then went on to help run the Sunday school and became a Sunday school leader, which I'm still doing now and enjoy doing. I'm also on the building committee at St Pauls which I have been doing for about 8 years. I don't know if you have noticed St Pauls is now lit up at night time now, I was part of the team which ran the cables and wired up the flood lights.
About a year and half ago I did the Alpha Course at the ReFresh Centre. I really enjoyed this as it helped me in my faith to God. This course also refreshed my faith in God and encouraged me to carry on with the work I am doing with children in leading them to God. I also met a lot of new friends and enjoyed our new friendship and support for each other. I have a lot of faith in God and believe he will be there when I need him. And now as you are aware I help run the MCC teams which I enjoy doing.
Dave Simms, Molesey Community Church
I have no dramatic story to tell in finding God. My brother Andy and I were brought up in the Christian faith by our parents from a young age. There weren’t any “bible bashing” sessions, just regular Sunday morning visits to Church or to the Sunday School which Dad used to run. We were also roped into choir singing for several years, but if you heard my voice you would wonder how I lasted so long!
Although my faith hasn’t been a sudden seeing of the light, I have a secure feeling of knowing there is someone guiding me on to the right path in every aspect of my life, and over the years I have witnessed many answers to prayer which have served to strengthen my belief. One example of this is the fact that Diane and I were told some eight years ago that it was extremely unlikely that we would be able to have any children. We know that, as well as our own prayers, a number of our Christian friends were praying for us. We now have three wonderful children!
I just feel that my faith means I don’t have to worry about the future – it is in the safest hands.