old things are passed away,
all things are become new!
A Christian testimony is one of the most powerful tools that a Christian has in helping others to understand the importance of having a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Of course, if a person doesn’t have this personal relationship, then they don’t have a testimony. This relationship is called being “saved” or “born again,” and it is the most important matter or decision any person will ever consider pr make in his or her life.
If you have never considered Christ or way to eternal life and peace with God, then there is nothing in this world more important for you to think about or more urgent need that you have in your life than than knowing Jesus Christ as your Saviour and Lord. We urge you to escape the the certainty of hell, an eternal place for all those who die and are not His; and find eternal life, joy, peace and love, though salvation in Jesus Christ and being set on the certain path to our glorious and beautiful home in Heaven.
From Darkness to Light
In my youth I was a hard worker and I was an atheist. I married my lovely wife when I was 24 years old and she was 21 years old. In our first year of marriage we had our daughter Hanna and we ha bit Tony 3 years after that. After marriage I discovered that my wife was a Christian and she used to read the Bible and Christian books. I would always say t o her, "there is no god; to whom are you praying? It would be better for you to come and talk to me." During that time I used to work in the day and study in the evening. I completed my degree in accountancy and management.
Then my wife became pregnant again and the doctors found out that he was lying in a breach position. He was a big baby and she could not sleep properly for the last two months of the pregnancy and she was really struggling. They were hard times for her.
The day of the delivery arrived and she was taken to hospital by her family because I had to be at work. When I finally arrived in the hospital to be with her I was told that she was in a very bad way and I was told she was in a dangerous situation. They said she might possibly die and the baby would not survive either. I went with them to the waiting room to get her mother and I found her kneeling on the floor crying and appeared to be talking to someone. I asked her' "What are you doing?". She replied "I am praying." I asked again "to whom are you praying?" and she replied "Jesus". So I said, "what can Jesus do anyway?" and she answered me, "He can save my daughter."
Suddenly, something I cannot explain and I knelt on the floor too and began to weep and in desperation yet in total trust of His person, I cried out to Him, "Jesus, save my wife and I will give you my life."
After half an hour, the nurse brought my baby boy to me and I grasped the nurse's arm and immediately asked about my wife.
A few minutes later, they brought her to me on a rolling bed and her face was covered so I feared the worst. I lifted the cover and there she was alive but she had suffered from palsy during the delivery.
In that moment, I gave my life to the Lord Jesus Christ and He became my Saviour and my Lord. He has turned my life around 180 degrees. I praise and worship Him all the days of my life, together with my wife, with whom I celebrated our 60th wedding anniversary in February 2021. I became a minister of the Gospel, proclaiming to all "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world."
John from Cardiff, UK.
From Dead Religion to Real Life
As a young boy, I was involved in the local church we used to attend as a family but I found it to be made of nominalism and ceremonials and lacked true spiritual life and that was my experience as a boy.
At the age of 12, I moved with my family to Cardiff UK and we began attending a church where I started to hear the saving gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ for the first time in my life.My father would often ask me to pray during family prayers and I attended the church 3 times on a Sunday, once on a Friday and even attended the prayer meeting at the age of 14, on a Wednesday evening. Yet in all my religiosity and outward formality, I was still spiritually lost and heading straight to hell. I did not have a personal experience of the forgiveness of sin nor a real relationship with God. It wasn’t until a year later that I went to a church outdoor camp, in west Wales, in the small city of St. Davids. The camp was fun and full of sporting activities which suited me down to the ground. The preacher that week was going through Hebrews chapter 11 and all I remember thinking was why did Moses leave all the wealth and power he had in Egypt to lead some poor and downtrodden people into a desert? Did not make sense to me. However, the preacher challenged us all to count our sins before we went to sleep every night, to prove to ourselves that we were sinners. I did not think that I was really a sinner but I always loved a challenge. The first night I counted 3 sins (such pride!!). The next night 5 then 7 until by Thursday night that week I had counted way too many for comfort. I said to God
reluctantly “Ok God, you win. I am a sinner. So what do you want with me? I have Christian parents and I am not that bad. I know the punishment for sin is hell but I go to church and to meetings. I know I live one type of life in school but I have my good life at home and church. What more do you want from me?” On Friday morning the preacher gave an illustration. He said to imagine that we (individually) are in a boat. Imagine that the boat is Jesus Christ and the water on which it is floating is hell. He said that some people when they are in the boat get to a very flat smooth cliff. This is the world and all its attractions and sins and evil. He said these people jump off the boat and try to cling to this smooth slippery cliff. Down they fall into the water and drown. I thought within myself “that’s not me. I go to church so many times a week, I read the Bible and pray at home and church”. He then said that some other people stand in the boat and lean against the cliff. They want both Christ and the world. They have one life with God and one life with the world. When the boat tries to take them to the shore, they fall right in! That point hit me right between the eyes and it was like an arrow to my heart. Dreadful fear gripped me and I realised for the first time with certainty that I was heading to hell. I knew there and then that I had to do something about this. I saw the preacher afterwards and he explained the gospel to me and the scales were removed from my eyes and I saw the truth clearly. I went back to my tent and prayed and cried out to God to forgive all my sins, laying them on Christ and His cross, and to come and fill me by His Spirit. I felt such peace and joy that descended upon me, which overwhelmed me. It was such a profound experience that I shall never forget it. I could actually love campers who days before I hated! Since that time, God has been so gracious to me and life has been full of ups and downs but The Lord has always show Himself to be so wonderful and never ceases to amaze me. I love Him with all my heart and I want to serve Him. I want to spend my life for Him and be spent for Him and for His glory. Tony from Cardiff, UK.
From Dejection to Fullness of Joy
"I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me." Galatians 2:20
I grew up with my grandparents, in the Philippines. My parents left me with them one day after my mother gave birth to me. She went back to Cebu to be with my father, where he was studying. After a year or so, my parents came back to our province, with my newly-born siblings but I remained with my grandparents because my father didn't have a regular job that time to support us all. I lived with my grandparents for almost 11 years and I was raised in the Catholic Church and beliefs, we went to church every Sunday with my grandfather, who was a true believer. From a very young age, he taught me how to pray and he loved sharing the word of God with all the people he met. At that time, I remember my mother being saved and being born-again. She asked me to go to church with her, together with my siblings and the name of the church is the Christian Missionary Alliance Church of the Philippines (CAMACOP). By attending the Sunday School and Bible studies every Sunday, was led to the goodness of our Lord JESUS CHRIST who died on the cross to save us from our sins and from the fire of hell. "For God so loved the world the He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." John 3:16. God opened my eyes and made me realised that I am a terrible sinner. I became a believer in the Lord JESUS CHRIST, repented and asked for the forgiveness of my sins and accepted Him as my Lord and Saviour, on April 11, 1992. and mercy of God not only for me but for the entire family. As time went by, my faith in the Lord JESUS CHRIST
became stronger every single day and He proved Himself to be my rock, and His word always comforted me when I was down. When I was 14 years old in my 2nd year of high school, my mother decided to continue her studies and I took over her responsibilities, taking care of my siblings and household chores, as she became very busy with her studies every day. She left home early and came back home late. During my high school days, life wasn't easy for me and I did not enjoy my teenage days at all. I felt unloved and unwanted but my faith in the Lord kept strengthening me and I loved my family so much; seeing my mother happy made me happy. But sometimes I felt weak and tempted to attempt suicide for feeling unloved and unwanted and thinking that ending my life was the solution. But the constant love and promises of God kept me strong, "Come to me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest." Matthew 11:28. I always prayed and ask to God for His grace and mercy to overcome all the hardships that I was facing at that time. He is my best friend and my crying shoulder because I felt that no one wanted to listen me. On September 02, 1999 I decided to leave my parent’s house because all I could think of was that I will not be able to handle the situation, especially when my father came home drunk. He was always arguing with my mother, telling her that she's not fair on how she treated her children, the way she treated me. I didn't want to be the reason for them to argue so that's why I left. I went back to my grandparent’s house but two years later December 2001, my mother and I had a sincere talk with the help of my father and asked forgiveness of one another; Glory be to God. The bible says that "Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right." Ephesians 6:1. During my college days I backslid and got in with the wrong circle of friends (non-Christian or had different beliefs). I hardly went to church and even forgot to pray and lost my communion with my Lord JESUS. I realised that I needed Him back in my life and He was the only one who can fill the emptiness that I had been feeling at that time. I needed to go back to Him to repent and ask for forgiveness for all the sins that I committed since the time I turned my back on Him and lived a worldly life style. I cried out loud asking for His forgiveness and His mercy, which endures forever. "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." 1 John 1:9. JESUS has been very faithful to me and even blessed me with an amazing daughter whom I have dedicated to Him. I was a single mother for 9 years until I met my darling amazing husband. I have learned to cling onto JESUS more and more and He's my all in all. I am able to experience His love every single day of my life and I lift up and surrender my life and everything to Him. I want to serve Him and give Him all the glory for the rest of my life, with my wonderful husband whom the Lord has blessed me with. I will worship and praise my Saviour JESUS CHRIST and honour Him and by His grace I will always take the opportunity to share His word with others. I can do all things through CHRIST who strengthens me. Amen.Stephanie from Cardiff, UK and Philippines.
From Despair to Endless Delight
I met with the Lord Jesus at the age of 17. Since then, He has shown me that He is my God, my Lord, my Saviour and my friend. The Lord has been faithful in my joyous moments and through the storms of life, particularly last year when both my husband and I contracted Covid and I almost became a widow. His love has always been beyond measure, loving me, dying for me, buried He carried my sins far away, rising He justified me freely for ever (as the songwriter says).
Psalm 139 describes it best for me:
“You have searched me, LORD, and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you, LORD, know it completely. You
hem me in behind and before, and you lay your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain.
For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.
Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand – when I awake, I am still with you.” Psalms 139:1-6, 13-14, 16-18
"Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” Acts 4:12
"Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me." John 14:6
"for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God," Romans 3:23
"For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." Romans 6:23
"But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." Romans 5:8
"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God." John 3:16-18
Hanna from London, UK.
From Death to Life
I first came across God in church back in the Philippines, however I only had little knowledge about him since I was young. All I knew was that he died for us and love us, however I didn’t know the reason nor the meaning behind it until I became a teenager and moved here in Cardiff, where my dad would preach about the word of God. I learnt that, God died in the cross for us to save us from our sins and to snatch us away from hell, to give us the gift of salvation. John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son to condemn the world but that the world through Him might be saved.” I didn’t realise how much of a sinner I was until I listened to His Word and read the Bible. There were times where I felt alone and sad and felt like no one understands me, but I read Isaiah 41:10 “Fear not, for I am with you; Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, Yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.” I was amazed due to the fact that no matter how much I’ve sinned, how much I’ve angered God, He still loves me with unconditional love, and He will never leave me until I die. However, I didn’t come to know Him just like that at first when I arrived here in Wales and started school, I would hear people talk about God and how there isn’t a God etc… I was a little bit unsure first not about if there is a God but if I am saved and if I felt God’s presence in my life. Though I was born in a Christian family and go to church I haven’t really felt that
connection with God, so I was questioning and unsure. I would pray on my own and with my family but after some time I thought it was pointless, I thought that ‘I keep praying but why is God not answering my prayers why hasn’t He made me feel His presence?’. Then one day in our holiday with my family, we watched a movie called ‘God’s Not Dead’ and it made me realise that sometimes God answers ‘no’ to our prayers, sometimes we just have to wait for His perfect timing and sometimes he says ‘yes’ but no matter what His plan is for us, we need to Trust in Him and give our lives to Him, because His ways are higher than our ways and His thoughts are higher than our Thoughts. Even though I understood why sometimes it feels like God doesn’t hear our prayers, why it feels like God’s not there, I still didn’t feel his presence, not until we went for a church gathering/communion with CMA, we were singing hymns but in the middle of the hymns the singer started praying and I don’t know what I felt but I just felt like crying and I felt so happy, I couldn’t understand it, I thought of someone that I used to hate but I didn’t feel any hatred, I just felt so much happiness and peace. It was an amazing and indescribable feeling. There is no greater love than God the Father’s love for us, He loves us unconditionally and he forgives all of our sins, He was willing to send His only Son to die for us just so that we can be with Him in heaven and sing Praises to Him. “The Lord is my light and my salvation; Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?” Psalm 27:1 - Airie from Cardiff, UK and Philippines.
From Devastation to Divine Grace
I was born in 1960 in Philadelphia PA. That being said, we moved a lot before I was 10. We ended up in Green Bay, Wisconsin in 1969.
I was raised in a large family of Scottish/Irish decent of nine (9) children. My parents raised us in the Catholic Church. I participated in First Communion, Confirmation, and was a member with my mom of the first guitar group in our region beginning at the age of 14. I began learning how to play the guitar at age 12. Music was a passion of mine, in and out of the spiritual realm in my life. I believed that the Holy Spirit used music to draw me to Christ because God is so personal. I have memories of attending church services at the big cathedral church downtown with my dad and looking forward to singing the hymns and songs and loving the reverberation of the acoustics in the large high ceilings of the church building. My dad had a beautiful, rich baritone voice. I loved my dad. My siblings were always chiding that I was the favorite and I never understood it and felt their envy on occasion to be unwarranted. I was a free spirited young girl who thought her dad was to be admired.Skipping ahead, at about age 16, my parents’ marriage began to crumble. My father was an alcoholic, and for many years, I was completely unaware of the magnitude of that. I was close to my dad and looked up to him. My mother was such a skilled enabler of his addiction that her enabling shielded the youngest family members from the reality of it. The older ones were all too familiar with dad’s drinking and womanising, as I found out later on. I was clueless
…blinded by my admiration of my father. In the fall of 1977, after 28 years of my father’s drinking and infidelity, my mother asked my father to leave when she discovered he was having an affair. At 17 years of age, I was so upset with my mother for asking dad to leave (we were never given a reason at first…again, I was clueless). I packed some of my things and went to live with my dad that night; he was staying with his mistress. At school the next day, I was called to the guidance office where I was told that my mother was in the hospital. She had attempted suicide using wine and prescription Valium. The horror of that was devastating…and I blamed myself for leaving. My brother found her unconscious when he wasn’t awakened for school. My mother ended up being admitted to a place called Hazelton for detox (she had been taking prescribed Valium for a long time, but we were not made aware until then). This meant that my 3 younger siblings and I would need to be sent to other homes for several months so that we could continue attending school. This was in my senior year of high school. Once my mother was released, my parents’ divorce was finalised and life was very different in our home. I missed my dad. My mom started attending Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, where she met a man who was 18 years younger than she. To our shock and dismay, she began seeing him. Once I graduated from high school, got my braces off, and began looking for a job, the thought occurred to me that I wanted to escape this nightmare. I was going to join the United States Air Force like my 2 older brothers. It never happened…I had applied that summer for a full-time job at a music store in downtown Green Bay WI and got the job, so I never followed through on entering the USAF. I often wonder how different my life might have been had done so… The sad thing here too is me and my three younger siblings were never given any sort of counselling to deal with what happened to our home with the divorce etc. It was as if we didn’t exist. Even now, I feel profound sadness about this. God has done a lot of healing in my life and spirit…but there is more to be done.
I graduated from high school in 1978 and this began a season of rebellion in my life. It was the 70’s after all. Sex, drugs, and rock n’ roll. The music store job gave me liberal access to all three of those activities. While I was experiencing my rebellious lifestyle, I believe that deep inside I was searching and seeking the truth…but I had an addictive personality and I did everything to excess…one day God would use my addictive personality to serve Him. :)
In 1984, I began seeing my first husband, Larry. He was the cousin of a man I was previously engaged to. I had known him for 5 years, but he was involved with someone else for those years. In the fall of 1984, I became pregnant. Larry and I had already planned to marry; however, we needed to move the date up because of the unplanned pregnancy. My husband was an alcoholic…not surprising. Completely wrong choice for me… alcoholism in men was all I knew. We married on Valentine’s Day in 1985.
While I was pregnant with our 2nd child, Larry and I were invited to a service at an Assembly of God church where we lived. We attended several times, and one night when an altar call took place, we both when to the front of the church and prayed to accept Jesus Christ as our Savior. On a side note, since about 1983-84, I had been listening to a radio program that came on at night called, Unshackled, out of the Pacific Garden Mission in Chicago. This program was of radio dramas where the salvation stories of different people were acted out in radio format. I rarely missed it, unless I was out drinking. Even then, the Lord was drawing me toward Him. I believe that because we were not consistent in church attendance and reading our Bibles, etc. we did not develop as believers in a healthy way. That being said, something was going on inside of both of us. Larry was intent on not drinking and we both wanted to give up our smoking habits. I was able to cut back dramatically during pregnancy, but never completely.
Near the end 1989, we discovered we were having a 3rd child. It was not a planned pregnancy and we were surprised. I had just quit my job at the music store and was planning on going to school. But the pregnancy changed those plans and I took a part-time job until the baby was born. My husband’s job at that time required that he travel some distance so we decided to move closer to his work in June 1990. It was to a small farming town where I knew no one. We had two little boys and I was 7 months pregnant at that time.
On the morning of August 24, 1990, I broke my foot while attempting to prevent our cat from sneaking outside. Keep in mind, I am almost 9 months pregnant when this happened. My husband needed to leave work take me to the ER to get it looked at. He didn’t get to do that until the evening. The following day, my husband had to work and he knocked over large pallet of product (glass bottles) and he was feeling really low about himself and went to drink after work. I was very upset with him. The next day he went to work hungover and again after work went to drink. Except this time, he was in a car accident on the way home….a catastrophic accident that left him in a coma. Four days later, while Larry was hooked up to life support, I gave birth to our daughter, Lucy.
This began a 20 month season of crises and stress. In December of 1991, while my husband was languishing in a nursing home, I attended Christmas Eve services and when I arrived home, I rededicated my life to Christ and asked Him to help me quit pack a day smoking habit…it has been 27 years now. Praise the Lord, my Deliverer.
Without getting into too much detail and minutia, and there is plenty of that, after 20 months of multiple treatment plans and attempts to revive him from the Persistent Vegetative State, a decision was made to remove life support (a feeding tube) and let Larry pass in May 1992. I obtained support from a pastor I had been meeting with and from my husband’s doctor who reiterated to me that Larry had less than a ½ percent chance of any sort of recovery based on the brain damage. Out of mercy and prior discussions with Larry before the accident about end of life decisions, I believed it was right to let him go be with the Lord. NO one wants to make these decisions. The process of this can take up to 21 days…in the grace of the Lord, it only took 7 days. I knew God was with me through this…and it was His mercy that allowed for the time to be shortened. I had peace about it all. God is so good.
After my husband died, I was a widow with three children at the age of 32. I went back to school to get a vocational degree so I could work part-time to supplement the survivor’s benefits I received to support our children. I began attending a local church, got baptised, and auditioned for the worship team as a vocalist/guitarist. I was selected and I served at that church from January 1994 through November 2015. Those years are so precious to me. I always tell my children that if it were not for my faith and opportunity to serve all of those years, I would have never survived the demands of single motherhood.
I met my 2nd husband at this church. On a not so positive side, he and I married in 1997, but divorced in 2000 when out of fear, I walked away. The blended family was so stressful and the complicated financial aspects of it were more than I was prepared to deal with. We remained divorced until 2010. When our children were grown and out on their own, then we decided to remarry. It is a testimony of grace and of our desire to rebuild the covenant of the marriage we began in 1997. Again, God.
God, graciously, has used me as a musician in so many unbelievable ways and I was blessed by His mercy and providence while a part of that church. I have recorded a couple of my own songs. While I don’t play guitar much anymore, I continue to serve Him at our church in Cleveland TN as a vocalist, praise team member, and choir member. In fact, our choir just recorded a CD this past weekend of which I was a part of. It’s called Way Maker. This choir’s first CD, Splendour Of Heaven, received a Dove Award in 2015 before Jeff and I had moved to Tennessee. I was also blessed to go to Israel this past spring with my husband, Jeff. It was a life changing experience. I am still enjoying my photos and memories from the trip. God has been doing amazing things in our marriage and we do not regret following our dreams to live in SE TN. We thought we were escaping Wisconsin winters, but actually, God had other plans. I love my Jesus so much! Come quickly Lord Jesus! The King of Kings! The King is Coming!! Meggie - Tennessee, USA
