Faith Stories
Church members share how they came to put their faith in God and His bible
RICHARD
"My journey to faith in God began long before I started attending Rochester Baptist Church. Things were happening in my life which I put down to wrong decision-making. In 2008 my mum passed away and Wesley, who was pastor at RBC then, took the funeral. I had other connections with members of the church so from then on dad and I attended RBC. I did an Introducing God course and joined a Home Group and Daytime Study Group.
Not long after this I took early retirement from the bank and started working in the church bookshop. I was baptised in 2011 and publicly thanked God for coming into my life. I ending by saying, "Whatever God has planned for me, I am ready”.
One month later I was diagnosed with a brain tumour.
I knew without a doubt that God was there to help me through this episode in my life. My life has changed considerably; there isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t thank God for the life He has made it possible for me to live."
JANE
"I met Sarah when I was young, became a welder and was very well paid. I loved playing football but suffered quite a major knee injury in 2005. As a result, I couldn’t work, we lost everything and ended up six of us in one bedroom. It took over two years to re-house us! It was the worst thing I could possibly imagine happening to us. I was in pain, unable to walk, unable to work, unable to provide, getting messed about by the hospital and by the council. I could see no way out; this was our life now. I was a very angry and depressed man. I felt I was a let-down, I did this to my family!
Since childhood the idea of God had interested me but it was only now, having a lot of time on my hands, that I began to look into Christianity more seriously. One film I watched was The Passion of the Christ and this had a profound impact on me. I realised just what Jesus had gone through to save us because it was such a graphic film. I felt I really should sort myself out and start to get to know Him more.
Eventually God led us to RBC and He not only saved me but Sarah too. I am still having operations, still unable to work. All is not perfect in my life but God was at work helping us even before we had accepted Him. We were very materialistic back then, we were never content with what we had, always looking for happiness in what we could buy. If we couldn’t afford it then we got it on credit.
Now we have contentment in God. There is nothing wrong in having nice things because God wants us to enjoy life but it’s when we start to put all that above Him that it becomes a problem. I can now say that losing everything was the best thing that ever happened to us. Imagine the looks I get from non-Christian friends and family when I say that!"