Basic Beliefs

We encourage all those who believe the Bible as the inspired word of God and seek to follow the teaching of Jesus Christ to use these pages to have fellowship.

We believe that Christians need not pursue the points on which they disagree because that was not the way of Jesus. He spent His time doing the will of the Father.

We believe that it is important for each person to follow the path Jesus has for her or him which will be a unique use of the gifts they have received for the Glory of God.

We believe that as Christians interact with non-christians they show the sayings of Jesus in action and open the way for God to be glorified.

We believe that we all need to help each other to make this happen.

My Personal Testimony

I feel a personal word is important because I have no wish to pretend experiences I have not had or academic qualifications which may receive respect. I only wish to be received as a sincere but largely ineffective Christian who is seeking to follow his Lord better than before.

I am now 62 and I came to Christ at the age of 27 through the witness of a girl I was very fond of and wanted to marry. I had proposed to her a second time and she had turned me down again. She had asked me a question which I found very difficult to answer.

"Do you believe in Christ ?"

I could not say yes because my whole life disregarded Him and I could not say no because He seemed to be a perfectly real historical character with remarkable powers. To try to provide an answer I had to ask a lot of questions. She answered all those questions quoting scriptures and showing me them in the Bible. It all seemed at that moment so reasonable and I needed some better way to live my life. Could this be it?

She said if I just asked Jesus to take charge of my life then He would, and I would receive His Holy Spirit to show me the truth and guide me. I went back to my room and, kneeling at the foot of my bed, asked Jesus to forgive my sins and take over my life. I started reading the Gospel of John and it was suddenly wonderfully clear. I was so excited that I could now understand the Bible that I dived into Genesis and was thoroughly confused. I had a lot to learn - and have been doing just that under the faithful ministry of various ministers, pastors and teachers for the past 35 years.

Before she walked out of my life, my friend had prayed that I would have a great hunger for the Word of God. I read the Bible avidly in all my spare time and completed it in six months. It showed me that there was a completely different way to live life and there was someone, Jesus, who wanted to help me live it differently. I have worshipped Him and asked Him to guide me ever since. I have failed Him often but He has blessed me in so many ways and kept me in health and all I have needed. He led me to a wonderful wife and we have been married for 35 years and have two lovely girls and two adorable grandchildren. He has provided work and we have prospered with all we have needed.

I trained and qualified as an accountant and have worked in a management role in various companies until I was made redundant in 1984. It took me 10 years to find my present very satisfying work as Financial Director of the Deafax Trust. This is a trust which works with profoundly deaf people to build skills in communication. This includes using e-mail, the Internet and video-conferencing and is the most satisfying and worthwhile work I have done in my life.

I have been a faithful member of several churches in Canada, Northern Ireland and England. I have worked as a Sunday School teacher, door to door evangelist, choir member, youth leader, treasurer, Sunday school superintendant, cell group leader, in a weekly radio broadcast team, coffe bar manager, church administrator, area group leader, and mission administrator.

I have attended about 8,000 church meetings and enjoyed the benefit of about 4000 hours of Bible teaching - probably as much as the apostle Peter received, but without the same results ! In the last 5 years I have been involved in a work in Kazakstan and my understanding of the need in the world has grown and shaken my comfortable, home based christianity.

I believe Christ has the answer to the problems of this world but I don't think that I or Christians like me are applying those answers. He has given me so much that I must find a better way to share it.