Eleven years ago, I was a very different person to the one I am today. I had a childhood filled with rejection, was very angry and always felt like I was ‘on the run’, from God and my deepest feelings.
I’m a printer by trade and at the time, I had a colleague called Neil, who was a Christian. I didn’t take him seriously and used to ridicule him for his faith – I probably drove him mad some days. However, when I was involved in a serious car accident, in which a friend was killed, Neil offered to pray for me. For a while, I felt more peaceful but soon, I was back to living my life the way I always had done.
Not long after the accident, trying to start over, I took a job in Kuwait and my family and I moved there. We returned to the UK after a year and in time, I caught up with Neil, who was now running his own printing firm. He had recently started printing a new Christian booklet called The Word for Today and he asked if I would deliver it to the client’s offices which were on the way to my new job. I eventually went to work for Neil full-time, so there I was, not a Christian, but printing and delivering thousands of Christian booklets, which I would occasionally glance through. I didn’t always understand them, but I thought the booklets were interesting.
One night, I was working late on my own and listening to a CD Neil had given me, which had a musical version of Psalm 23. I suddenly felt overwhelmed and I broke down and sobbed. I raised my arms to a God I didn’t understand or know and prayed a simple prayer, promising to never run from Him again.
Since then, God has taken an angry young man and turned my life around. I’ve always been a keen biker and am now the Northwest Chairman for the Christian Motorcyclists Association, writing and producing their tracts and newsletters. We also do some work in prisons, although the first time I went into a prison, armed with my Bible and a copy of The Word for Today, I was terrified and convinced the prisoners would all laugh at me. I prayed a desperate prayer for help and felt I should look at The Word for Today reading. There were the words I needed to read, ‘Be prepared to be ridiculed by many, so that you can receive my blessing’. Wow!
Through this and many other opportunities, God has turned my life around. My life was changed the day I stopped running from God. 
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