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"We believe the Lord has put a stop to the destruction that was present in our family..."
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I asked Jesus to forgive my sins and come into my life in February 1986.
I now realise that He had been knocking on the door of my heart from as early as seven years before then. My first spiritual connection with the Lord was when my wife gave me a tract that she had received from somebody. It related how a believing wife had prayed for her alcoholic husband to be saved and how he had gone to a Church meeting and gave his life to the Lord. Somehow it seemed real to me, I believed it.
In 1980/81 I was given a Gideon’s New Testament and remember reading John chapter 10 about Jesus being the Good Shepherd. Then in 1982 just after the birth of our first son the Mormons called to the flat where we lived; when I opened the door to them they said that they had come to present me with the Gospel. I welcomed them and related to them how I had felt that I was searching for something. My wife instinctively distrusted them especially when they told us that God had appeared to Joseph Smith. However I eagerly embraced their teaching and they became regular visitors. They gave me their book of Mormon which I found very difficult to understand so I read very little of it. However they gave me another book, which described Jesus as the atoning sacrifice for mankind. For the first time in my life I began to wonder about this; until then I believed Jesus only to be a prophet who did good works and set a perfect example that should be followed in order to gain salvation that I felt I could never qualify for. I went as far as filling in some forms in order to be baptised into the Mormon Church the next day but my wife and I had a row over it and I didn’t go through with it. The Mormons were actually suggesting that Satan was using my wife to prevent me from following God. We then went to live elsewhere and lost contact with them.
For the next few years I continued to drink and use drugs and found that my family life and my personal life were becoming more and more difficult and painful. Then in 1985 a Christian began to witness to me at work, he gave me a New Testament that contained a study guide outlining Gods plan for salvation. I studied this New Testament over a period of months and experienced an awakening of conscience, I also experienced a freshness and a joy and a desire for the Lord. So it was that in February 1986 the Christian who had given me the Testament led me to the Lord.
Everything was fine for a while, my wife even saw a change in my life, I was baptised on 1st March 1986 and she didn’t object, she even entertained Christians who supported me that day. We both began to attend Church meetings and hosted a Bible Study in our home.
In autumn 1986, while I was at sea, my wife decided to call on the Lord for help because both of our children were sick and she felt desperate. She found that her prayer was immediately answered. She then decided to commit her life to the Lord and was immediately baptised.
Then I began drinking again, try as I might I couldn’t keep away from it. My conscience burned, I was in serious conflict and emotional pain. In August 1987 I went to the Medical support unit at work and admitted that I might have a drink problem. I was detoxed and sent for treatment. After the first failed attempt in an addiction institution the councillors told my wife that my addiction to drugs and alcohol had progressed to the stage that I would be dead in 18 months.
For a while it was all uphill, looking back I know that I was never one moment alone, the Lord was right next to me healing and supporting me. My wife also needed and received the Lords healing, after all she had had to put up with me while I was drinking and using drugs. I was harder to live with when I was sober than when I was using.
Over the following years the Lord has rebuilt our marriage we’re celebrating 21 years, both our sons now aged 19 and 17 have known the Lord for years. As a family we’ve always been open and honest with each other, we’ve never held anything back. Our sons know exactly where we come from and how good the Lord has been to us and I trust that they will never experience the problems we did.
We believe the Lord has put a stop to the destruction that was present in our family, praise His Name.
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