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"The driver had been caught in another stolen car and had given my name...."
"I know Anna and I would not be together today were it not for Jesus Christ in our lives. .."
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I was born in 1969 in Cork City and grew up in Togher. I don’t remember much about my childhood. I went to Togher National Scholl and Tramore Tech School. In my early teens the Garda pulled me in because I had been a passenger in a stolen car. The driver had been caught in another stolen car and had given my name. After that my parents kept me in for about a year, I had to be accompanied everywhere I went.
I left school at the age of 15 and went to work for my brother who had just opened a garage. At 16 I got my first motorbike, I loved to drive as fast as the bike could go, almost everyday I came very close to death on the different bikes I drove over the next eight years. Often I remember slowing down at some corner that I had gone round many times before at full speed and finding something on the road, which I would have hit if I had been driving normally (fast). It is as if there was something or someone protecting me. I was aware of this but did not know what or who it was. At the same time I didn’t care if I was killed on the bikes.
I did an apprenticeship as a motor mechanic and near the end of my training I was asked to enter a motor mechanics competition, it was the Irish National part of the International Skills Olympics, I got through the Irish final and went to the NEC in Birmingham for the International Competition.
Not long before the competition I was in Kinsale with my friend and we were playing pool in a pub, the rule was the winner stayed on the table and we kept winning and drinking. After the pub closed we sped up the road on my motorbike and crashed into an embankment at high speed, my friend was thrown clear and rolled up the road, but I was given last rites by a Priest and rushed to the Regional Hospital Cork. I had deep cuts on most of my body and cut tendons in my arm and had a hole in my stomach. Fortunately I survived and went on to come second in the Mechanics Competition.
When I returned to Ireland I went back to my job and at this time in my life I cracked a bit, I felt that I should have gained something from the competition like a better job. I was drinking my wages at the weekend and I also started smoking grass and hash. The pub became my life. I left my job and went on the Dole for a while then I started another job but I lasted about six months. In that time I can hardly remember anybodies name, almost every night I spent in the pub and smoking hash. I had bought a car and would have a joint in the ashtray and would smoke it on the way home from work. I was living in flats but I kept getting thrown out because I would invite everyone back after the pubs closed.
I left Ireland and went to London where I worked in another garage but I didn’t stop drinking and smoking hash so I lost my job after about 6 months and I returned to Ireland.
I started going out with a girl there and we got a flat together. I would make my own wine and we would have parties. Around this time I went to see a psychologist but that didn’t help. I got a motorbike again and we also moved house to a three-bedroom house. I broke up with this girl and she moved out so I rented the other rooms in the house to pay part of the rent. Different people were in and out. A girl by the name of Anna moved into one of the rooms in the house, we got on well together, at this stage I worked for myself doing a few jobs a week in the garage next to the house. The land lady decided to sell the house so we all moved out, I moved back to my parents house and one day Anna called so we started dating. We bought a small house together and the drinking and drugs went on.
I found a Gideon’s New Testament and Psalms and Proverbs pocket Bible in my parent’s house and stated the read the Proverbs now and again. I remember thinking that this was written a long time ago and was true then and is still true now. So there must be some things which are always true, then Anna brought me a full Bible at Christmas 1995, I remember reading how God made the world and knowing this was true, it was the first time I had heard this.
One night I stumbled across U.C.B. Radio in my car and started listening to this sometimes. After getting some hash one night I was driving home and stopped by the river and I was listening to UCB on the radio the man was saying that if I gave my life over to Jesus that he would take it and change it for the better, the Proverbs had shown me how bad I really was. That night I gave my life over to Jesus. Slowly things started to change, some of the things I did before, I stopped doing.
One night I put UCB Christian Radio on at home and Anna and her brother Jerry listened to it, they both have given their lives to Jesus Christ. I heard on UCB that believers need fellowship so we went to a Christian Church. Jesus Christ completely transformed me. Soon after we were baptised at the beach. I now have a new life in Christ, the old life is gone, it died with Christ on the cross.
I have a love for Christian Radio because no person could have spoken person to person to me about God. Only when I was alone in the car did God speak to me through a radio.
I know Anna and I would not be together today were it not for Jesus Christ in our lives. I would still be living that hell going around in circles and going deeper and deeper into hell if it were not for Jesus Christ taking control of my life.
Thank you Jesus.
If you don’t have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ today, no matter where you are or what you have done Jesus calls you to Himself. He died on the cross to save you from your living hell. Give Him control of your life. He changed my life He can change yours. I thank God that He did not leave me in that life he found me in, that night in my car when I asked Him into my heart.
I now live for Christ, what do you live for?
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Ordinary people in Ireland with Real life Experiences with God
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