My Testimony – John

‘My name is John and my story starts in 2002.

It was about 15 years old and my mum and dad split up and me and my mum moved out. This put a lot of pressure on me because I loved my mum and dad and I was being pressured ion who I wanted to live with. My schooling was being affected and I started to play truant and handing around with an older set of friends who didn’t have jobs and made their money from selling drugs and doing robberies. I quickly got involved in what my friends was doing and within no time I was getting a name for myself and was getting arrested frequently.

I was soon a persistent young offender and was in front of the youth court every week. I was even on first name terms with the security guards. After a while there was no other punishments the courts could give me and I finally got my first custodial sentence at 16 but I wasn’t bothered. I had a lot of friends in jail and I knew id’ be ok, but I was in for a big shock half way through my sentence.

I got a visit off the chaplaincy telling me my dad was very poorly and was going to die. This was a big surprise I’d only seen him 2 weeks ago on a visit and he was fine. The chaplaincy went on to say that he’d had a stroke and when taken to hospital after a few check they learned he had lung cancer. I was distraught. My dad was my hero. He couldn’t die whilst I was in here could he. But things just got worse.

He had another stroke and was took back to hospital where he went in to a sort of coma. This is when I first started praying. I prayed that he’d be ok and that he’d get through this but my prayers wasn’t working. He was just getting worse.

After about a week I knew he was suffering and so was my family and I changed my prayers this time. I prayed that his suffering would stop and God would just take him. I just didn’t want him to hurt no more. My prayers were answered and that night there was a phone call to prison off my sister who had not left his side since he was took in hospital. She told the officers my dad had got really bad and the nurses didn’t think he’d make it through the night and asked if I’d be able to say my goodbyes.

The officers allowed it and my sister put the bedside phone to my dad’s ear and I told him how much I loved him and how proud I was going to make him. He couldn’t talk back but when my sister came back on the phone she asked me what I’d said because he’d started smiling and hadn’t even made a reaction for a week up until then.

I was a very emotional call and even the officers that was in the room was crying. I said my final goodbye and went up to my room and broke down. Id didn’t sleep a wink that night and wasn’t surprised when the chaplain came in my room the next morning and told me my dad had passed away through the night.

A few months later I was released and on the right path I’d got an apprenticeship in engineering working on the trains and metro link and found a nice girlfriend who I am still with by the way. But then a year down the line the unthinkable happened. My mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. I was distraught and for some stupid reason I started to hang around with my old friends but they was into bigger things now caring guns, selling hard drugs and committing armed robberies.

As quickly as the first time I got involved in it. Me and my girlfriend started arguing and my family knew I was up to no good. I was always dressed nicely, had expensive jewellery on and had bought myself a ten thousand pound car. I didn’t care what my family and my girlfriend was saying. I was enjoying this life but it didn’t last long. We did a gunpoint robbery at a jewellers and got away with £33,000 worth of jewellery and money. I was quickly caught and put on remand pending trial.

Again I didn’t care I wasn’t even thinking about changing my ways. I was kept on remand for 6 months then sentenced to 6 years for the robbery and moved to the jail where I abide now.

I was just getting on with my time when an officer came in my class and told me I’d been put forward to do a DJ course ran by Reflex. I thought to myself who’s put me forward? I’ve only been here for a couple of weeks. Surely the teachers would put forward someone they know. I now know it was God who put me on this list and this would be the start of my Christian adventure.

That week I started the DJ course and had no idea it was run by Christians. I think I even heard someone saying they were Christian but I didn’t believe it. I thought Christians don’t do things like this. They just bible bash. I had a really good time on the course and near the end found out they were Christians. I was very interested in this new style of Christian and started asking a lot of questions. One of them told me that they was doing a service in the chapel that weekend and that I was more than welcome to come.

I went along that Sunday and I loved it. I’d always believed in God but really just didn’t understand it. I showed a lot of interest and one of the Reflex team told me about a course they ran called Alpha on a Thursday. I joined that and really enjoyed it. It taught me a lot about Jesus and the Bible and I started spending all my time reading the bible and praying.

I loved this new meaning in my life and was filled with the holy spirit telling everybody how Jesus had come into my life. I told my mum all about the team and about me becoming a Christian and she was really happy and started crying. She’s better now by the way and has beat the cancer and has now got the all clear. When Lucy my girlfriend heard she was happy too but told me that she didn’t want to be a Christian because she wanted to be a police woman. Bless her she thought being a Christian meant you had to do the type of job the Reflex team does. I’ve explained it to her now and she’s all for it.

I still have a lot to learn about Jesus and Christianity but in all the learning it, I still don’t know what teacher put my name forward for that DJ course. As far as I’m concerned it was God who did it and it was the best thing that has ever happened to me!’