My
Testimony to God’s grace in my life.
David Bell
Growing
up in Liverpool pre-war I attended St Mary’s Parish Church, Grassendale,
(South Liverpool), with my parents and brother and sister.
In 1941 we evacuated ourselves(!) to the Llangollen-Corwen area of North
Wales. Confirmed
at Corwen Parish Church in 1943 we three children attended church quite
regularly. I believe
there was more of a spark of Christianity in my younger brother than me.
Two
years National Service training spending eighteen months in Egypt, I worshipped
perhaps half-a-dozen times.
Home and at an agricultural college near Lincoln, a friend and I
occasionally worshipped at the Cathedral.
All
very ordinary, but then came what I call the on the road to Damascus experience.
I was a pig herdsman on a small estate in the village in which I still
reside. Animals
require two meals a day.
One very ordinary feed-time I entered the pig-fattening house – great
panic and excitement greeted me.
Half-way through dispensing the meal everything went completely silent
........ no sound, no rushing wind nor tongues of fire, no one spoke to me.
I was transfused by a great joy and peace.
I found myself saying: “I believe, I believe. Show me Lord what you
want me to do and I’ll do it.”
(My very words). I
had the joy all morning as I tended the needs of the pigs.
Home at lunch-time, I poured it all out to Jenny my wife.
“It will wear off”,
she said. “No,
I’ve got an old school Bible somewhere”,
I said. Wives
know where everything is and she found it easily.
Reading,
Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and then I got bogged down.
Home to Liverpool to visit my parents I retold the experience to my
brother Mike. “Halleluiah!”,
he said. I’ve
been praying for you for years!
We knelt down and prayed together for the first time.
“Read John’s gospel”,
he said. Within
two weeks I took over as Sunday School teacher, having 18 pupils.
Every Saturday I would draw aside and ask the Lord what I was to teach
them. I was learning
as well!
Lay
Reader, People’s Warden, Verger...... I’ve embraced many roles, but Verger
is my chief employment at the moment ..... serving my Saviour Christ Jesus.
I
am blessed every day – been in a car accident, but had been warned twice that
on this particular cross-roads that something was going to happen.
I had the right of way but on the third occasion a white Water Board van
shot across my bows, pushed the bonnet of my car in and turned over twenty yards
further across the junction.
I rushed over and pulled the driver out, but neither of us was
scratched. He could
so easily have crashed into the driver’s side of my car.
He was a stranger to the area and had seen the signs too late and thought
he could accelerate past me.
(A guardian angel had intervened perhaps).Working for Dairy Crest in the
80’s, a notice was pinned up stating that anyone wishing to apply for
redundancy would be considered.
Not me, I thought, as I had less than two years before retirement.
A couple of weeks passed and I woke very early one morning and the word
redundancy was going round and round in my head and I felt the Lord saying,
“Apply for it immediately.”
True to my promise to him I applied and received it.
I was a little apprehensive and felt something was in the offing.
Sure enough, in the space of a few weeks the Lord spoke, “David you go
to Wrexham market on a Monday morning and you speak my words”, (His very
words). “Oh no”
was my reply. Jenny
was very helpful. “You’ll
get yourself knocked on the head”, she said!
Armed
with Bible and a suitable text: “Come buy without money and without
price” (Isaiah 55), I sallied forth.
I was full of apprehension.
Eagles’ Meadows, Wrexham, I stood on the flyover looking down on the
scene: a sea of
stalls and activity. I
walked in and out and up and down the rows.
I stopped. “Where
do I stand, Lord?” “Look
up”, he said and I looked about me.
Right, square in front of me was a hamburger stall with tables and
chairs. Yes!
I went to the stall-holder immediately behind me and said, “I believe
the Lord wants me to speak the gospel here.”
“OK, but don’t stand too close”,
he said. All
that was seventeen years ago.
This year I’ve been joined by three other preachers and now we
sometimes are joined by young believers, who join us in singing choruses and to
date, carols. We
pray together before we start and then we will sing and then someone will speak
for a few minutes, then another song.
All the while we distribute tracts.
It is all done in a joyous, friendly way and the theme is ....turn
to the Lord Jesus, repent and accept Him as your Saviour.
How often have I said to onlookers, “Look, we’re not
drunk, we love the Lord Jesus and He is with us here right now.
Students are particularly envious of our obvious joy and vitality and
seek to know more about our faith.
From time to time we have had all kinds of abuse.
Very soon after I started on my own I was threatened with death by
someone who kept quite a distance away!
Two weeks ago we were heckled for quite some time by a middle-aged lady
who derided and made fun of us.
The presence of the Lord is so reassuring and we are really blessed.
It is all of Him.
So let us encourage and pray for one another as we await the
Lord’s return.
(David has been a prayerful member of the Executive for the last two years. We praise the Lord for his courage.)