Jon's story

I have lived most of my life in Southampton, in the UK.  I was brought up in a close family, which, although regarded themselves as Christian, were not churchgoers. A few years ago, to all intents and purposes I had it made. I was in a secure job, earning a good salary.  I had my own house and car, a beautiful girlfriend, a large family around me and socially had a large group of friends. I was also out most nights and had become a social drug taker and was drinking quite heavily.

Then I was made redundant and it felt like my world came crashing down.  I had developed a 'positive mind' philosophy where I believed that as long as I stayed positive all things would work for the good.  

I had no real concept of God at this stage but looking back I can see His hand was upon me for within a week of losing my job I had an interview and was handed a job with a pay rise!  I was obviously stoked with this but something in my heart had shifted.  I had placed so much security in my job; my home and my friends, I suddenly realised that there was nothing in my life in which I could put my utmost trust. 

So I decided to make the break.  I resigned from my job and set off on a one-year tour of the world.  Many people asked me, with seemingly having so much in my life, why would I give it all up to take off.  I remember using the old cliché of  'I'm leaving to find myself'. Honestly that was what I felt I was doing. I believed that there had to be more to life than the routine of getting up, going to work, coming home, eating, going out to drink and returning home to sleep.

So I set off on what was intended to be a one-year trip.  During this trip my drug taking expanded to include opium and magic mushrooms. Whilst taking mushrooms I had my first really bad experience and found myself on a 24 hour trip from which I could not get free.  Although I vowed not to take them again, my other drug habits and my copious alcohol consumption continued.

By the time I reached Sydney, Australia I had been travelling for eight months and decided to cash in my return ticket and settle down to work for a year.  My first job was in North Sydney and here for the first time I encountered my first 'Christian' sub species. Three of the guys that I worked with were all Christians and they ganged up to show me the love of Christ. Every week they invited me out to lunch, to movies, to their homes for supper and memorably one long and fantastic weekend, out to the Blue Mountains on a camping trip.  They didn't 'Bible bash' me, nor talk intently to me about Jesus and yet I saw something in each of them that drew me.

Finally I was invited to church.  Sunday morning for me was recovery from hangover time but because I did not wish to offend I agreed to go along.  After the meeting I was invited out and met a large number of the church youth at a picnic.  They all seemed to have the same sense of security and contentment with themselves and their lives.  This continued to draw me as well as the fact that they were just great fun to be with.  Because of the welcome they gave me I began to attend their church regularly at the weekend.  I wouldn't have said that 'God' brought me in, nor was it 'church' or 'Christianity' but simply that these people had opened their lives to me and welcomed me.  For the first time in many years I felt loved.

After a while I thought that 'maybe there is something in this Jesus thing' at which point I started to listen more closely. Eventually I was presented with the gospel of Jesus Christ in a way that I could not deny.  Having always felt that I was a person of integrity I realised that I needed to make a decision and that it would have to be all or nothing. My biggest obstacle however was that although I recognised the God shaped hole in my life, I believed that by having to give up alcohol, drugs, smoking and women I would just open up another different hole. I wrestled with this for a long time but God decided to give me a helping hand! 

My route home from work took me through Hyde Park, which is a beautiful park with tall trees and fountains.  It was a sunny day with clear blue skies and as I looked up in the sky I saw what at first appeared to be clouds but which I realised were words, similar to that which some planes are able to write in the sky. As I stopped and lifted my sunglasses to look properly I was able to read the words 'turn to Jesus'.  I looked around and did not see a plane in the sky, nor did I see anyone else looking skywards.  I knew without any doubt that God was speaking to me.  I knew what I needed to do and at the next church meeting I went to I responded to the altar call and committed my life to Jesus.

I am still amazed at how when we take a step of faith so many of the questions that we have are then answered.  As soon as I filled my life with Christ I realised that my desire to drink and smoke and do all those other things were no longer there. There was no sense of a hole; Jesus had filled that one too! I look back now at all those people in the church in Sydney and at the way they opened their lives to me.  They loved me so much and through that, laid such a foundation in my own life to try and reach out to others through friendship and lifestyle.  I can still remember the first scripture verse that I was ever given, one that has also proved to be a foundation stone in my life - 1 Thess 2:8   'We loved you so much that we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well, because you had become so dear to us'.