Being a Pastor; it is not an unusual thing to see visitors coming to visit your church. It is now different at our church. People come and visit for a number of reasons; perhaps, they just moved into the area and looking for a new church. Some may come while they are on vacation and want to check out the church. Some come as they are visiting from other cities or even countries.
Such is the case in writing this posting. A few weeks ago, we had a gentlemen visit whose name is Steve. Upon speaking to him after the morning service, I found out that he was from England, and he was here for a few weeks on business for his company back home. He attended several times and then he returned back home to England. In that short time, we had become friends on Facebook, and even had a face to face on Skype after he arrived back home.
On our Skype visit, Steve informed me that he would be sending me his testimony as to how he came to know the Lord as his personal Savior. All I can say is; the Lord continues to move in many ways....
Steve's Testimony:
Medium Latte, with an extra shot. (Or, How God found me in Costa Coffee.)
Three things feature very large in my life.
1) My love for my wonderful, long suffering wife, Karen.
2) My love of coffee. Yes, I really do enjoy my coffee.
3) My love of music. Especially live music.
Imagine my complete surprise then when all three of these 'things'
came together one Sunday evening in January 2012 and completely
changed my life.
God didn’t feature in my life at all. I didn’t feel a need for Him nor
did I have any desire to invite Him in to my life either. For me, life was
trundling along OK as it was. Church to me was an alien place of stodgy
boring hymns, weird ceremony, crazy abnormal Christians and dictatorial
“Thou shalt not’s” on how to live my life in a way that I was sure didn’t fit
in with the way I wanted to live mine.
There had been times in my life when I’d felt sort of spiritual though,
but not once did I ever connect it with God being around or somehow
God inviting me to follow him. While gazing open-mouthed at the wonder
and majesty of nature while on various family holidays I’d occasionally
been moved to think that perhaps this couldn’t just have happened all on
its own and that something, somewhere, must have had a hand in it. But
not once did I ever consider that it might just have been God that had
been the one responsible for creating all of these wonderful sights.
My wife Karen has been a Christian ever since I've known her,
finding the Lord herself on a school cruise that stopped off in the Holy
Land and having her faith totally confirmed to her before her very eyes.
Her faith is solid and completely unshakeable. Karen's Christianity was
not something that we had ever discussed at home either and her religion
wasn't something that I'd ever questioned her about or had intentionally
dissuaded her from being. I knew for sure that she was a Christian but it
didn't bother or interfere with me at all.
With my job I get to travel quite frequently and during one such trip
overseas an email from Karen asked me if I would mind her attending an
Alpha course, accompanying one of her colleagues, primarily I think to
make up the numbers, but also to refresh and recharge her own faith.
Karen later relayed to me via Skype the topics of conversation from that
evening, saying the Alpha hosts from the local Pentecostal church,
Portsmouth Christian Fellowship, were really, really nice people, nothing
like the 'traditional' church and how nice and 'normal' everyone was. It
was a bonus that the evening also came with cake and food! After I
returned home, Karen continued her Monday evening Alpha's and we
enjoyed discussing some of the issues raised during the evenings. Not all
of it was religious chat though, some of it was more mundane like
discussing the Formula 1 results and the fortunes of Red Bull, Lewis
Hamilton etc, etc, but we talked about them none the less.
Karen’s Alpha hosts, PCF, also support an event called Sunday Night
Live, an evening that hosts live Christian biased music in a local Costa
Coffee shop. Karen was keen to go to the next one and knowing my love
of music and my addiction to Costa Coffee, invited me along with the
subtle precondition that I could take a newspaper with me to read if they
started talking about religion. This to me was like being offered an after-
hours lock-in down the pub, the chance of drinking coffee, listening to live
music and all of it after hours, it was a no-brainer! So I agreed.
January 6th 2013
Sunday 6th January was wet and blustery and walking from the car
was a hurried scamper, and as we approached the glowing lights of Costa
Coffee Cosham it looked invitingly warm and cosy inside, but it was with
slight trepidation that I followed Karen through that door. As we entered,
Karen was welcomed warmly by some of the folk that she'd met during
her Alpha course who greeted me too with the same openness and
welcome that you'd give to an old friend, and as Karen settled herself at a
table, chatting to her colleague, I headed to get the drinks. One pot of
peppermint tea for Karen and a medium latte with an extra shot for me.
The nights act, Bryn Haworth, took the floor and was quickly
entertaining us with his testimony about leaving Blackburn as a teenager
and heading to London to seek fame and fortune as a musician, joining a
band and traveling the globe, playing alongside the likes of Led Zeppelin,
Grateful Dead, Moody Blues and somewhere along that rocky road,
finding God. Bryn was really entertaining and his stories and music were
brilliant. I was struck by how 'normal' he was, well, for a rock star, and of
course, for a Christian.
During the break I grabbed another latte, settling down again to
enjoy the second half, but as Bryn began to sing, strange things began to
happen. Deep down I could feel this immense feeling of joy welling up
inside, something huge and overwhelming. The lights behind the counter
seemed to be getting brighter, clearer, razor sharp. I felt like I would cry
with joy. I thought perhaps I had had one too many lattes, those extra
shots of caffeine giving my body something to complain about. Through
this immense overwhelming happiness I was convinced that I just had to
put my trust in God. Following God was the way. The only way. I was
weak and he was strong.
Bryn wrapped up his set to great applause and keeping these strange
happenings well and truly to myself we said our goodbyes to Karen’s
friends and we headed back out in to the blustery January night.
On the walk back to the car I wasn't quite sure how to explain what
had happened during the evening but I remember saying to Karen "I'm
going to say this only once. I was wrong. There is a God".
Talking now about that January evening Karen said she thought
during the show that Bryn was completely aware of what was happening,
as he seemed to be singing directly to us and he kept making solid eye
contact with both of us. I’ve no doubt in my mind that Bryan had
absolutely no idea what his performance was doing to this particular
member of his audience, but it would be nice to think that he did. I did
Facebook message Bryan telling him about my experience and he wished
me well on my road to being a Christian.
That blustery January evening was a huge and pivotal turning point
in my life, which led on to me partaking in an AlphaCourse, hosted by the
good folk at PCF and regular attendance at their Sunday services too.
Life has taken on a whole new purpose and direction and despite
huge angst and regrets for how shallow and stubborn I had been
throughout my life, I try every day to be a better person and with God as
my guide, I know I’m in good hands.
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