What I would like to share with you is the first part of my testimony, which I don't talk about a great deal anymore because its the past.  The past of my time in the World, and I feely sorry for anyone living in the World without the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

I was a thief, a bully, I loved fighting and I did my fair share of damage and in a quieter way I was very cunning.  I should not have been, I should have behaved better.

 

So now I'll share with you the lead up to me becoming a Christian.

 

We as a family are gypsies and we lived on the edge of the law.

 

I got into a fight with a man at my grandsons Christening.  It was all over a broken mirror.  My Son-In-Law got the blame for it , he said something he should not have said.  My son picked up on i and hit him and his father, and then all got involved.

 

I stepped in to help him and tried to stop it but ended up putting a bottle to a guys neck, which cut his main artery and he went to hospital.  I thought no more about it. I was not bothered if he lived or died, that was me.  I walked out of the pub as if nothing had happened.  Next thing I knew I was being chased by a van that was trying to run me over, and I was beatten with a crow bar.  I had my ribs broken, but I would not go down on the floor.  One of my mates who helped me was 6ft tall and weighd 40 stone and after he bandaged me up I borrowed a knife from him.  I thought I'd killed the man I glassed and determined that if I was going to prison, I'd make it worth it by knifing each one that had beeten me and take their lives.

 

However as I went along I came to the hose of the man that I stood up for in the pub and the police were out side. I pushed the knife that I was holding into the ground and said I'm the man your looking for.  I was taken to the police station, arresred and then taken to the hospital to be treated.  On the car park I was arrested for attempted murder. I admited it and told them what had happened then I showed them the damge done to me.

 

Meanwhile the man I glassed had a 2-3 hour opperation, after he came around he signed himself out of Hospital and he would not press charges, so I had a seargents warning the next morning, and went home.  God had stepped into the situation.

 

We moved to whitchurch common, I had an argument with a family and I thought i they came they'll come gang-handed (more than 6 or 7) in  a car.  At the time there was a Christian Convention at Ellesmere Port and a car came out and pulled on the car park with 5 men in.  I had put an open razor in my pocket with the intention of using it on them.

 

When I looked in the care there was a comical man named sloppy Jim with a Bible in his hand, and he asked me do you know Jesus?  I said course I do, as a Catholic I thought there was no stonger faith.  So he started to walk with me to my caravan.  I felt very convicted about the razor blade in my pocket and what I was going to do with it, and as soon as we got in I put it in the cupboard.  He started to talk and ask me if I'd ever said the sinners prayr - I said I'd made a good act of contrition many a time.

 

I said I'd have to go and get some water if he wanted a cup of tea, living on the side of the road we had to do that, but I didn't really neeed it, I just wanted to get away from him.  He said "I'll come with you I got in the car".

 

I bought a bottle of water and as we were on the road he was pressing me to say the sinners prayer. I pulled over and he led me through it.  When I got back home the Kids said 'have you said that prayer dad.  I and the nine of us that night made a decision in our heads not our hearts.  Next day my ex wife and kids went to the convention.  I stayed with the caravan to care for our things.

 

I started to go Church at Queensferry.  Well it was a church building in the making and hands our work was involving and I enjoyed it, for over 12 months.  Then I shifted to Brians Norton but couldnt find a church I liked and one day drove back to Queens Ferry, but the wife and I had a row again and I left her and Billy my son.

 

I turned to my doughter and stayed some time - I walked away from Church, yet I was testifying and bringing people to the Lord.  I came one day to Conerstone with Pastor Terry on a visit.  Later I came back to the Lord and started again going to Church.

 

I was thrilled to experiance the power of God through His gifts - One day I listednd to a person praying in tongues and immedialtely a voice in my stomach told me the interpretation of the tongues.

 

One time I was visiting a club on holiday with friends.  I was drinking pint after pint but for some reason could not get drunk.

 

There was a group of young men enternatining with son, and Gof drew my attention to them and said I should go and speak to them.

 

When they had finished I went back stage and said, I'd got a word from God for them, they all pointed to one man and I gve him God's message.

 

God wants you back ministering for him.

 

He was amazed.  He was an American and said that several perople in America had told him that , but he had not believed it was from God, but for a stranger in another country to tell him, that He now knew it was.