FF 2021: My Story
(From the July - September 2021 issue of VOX)
“The very next day I was a changed person” - Cavan
Simon Teelin is a painter by trade who is married with three children. Simon’s life turned upside down when one night he cried out to Jesus.
“I used to think reading the Bible was like reading the dictionary but now when I opened up the Bible it all made sense.”
Over the years, I have travelled the whole world. Twenty-two years ago, I was working in New York and this Mexican fella used to say, “Jesus is the best.” That stuck in my head. I wondered, “What is making him so happy?” I was a Catholic and I’d say a few “Hail Mary’s” but that was all. Eventually my wife and I ended up settling in Mullagh, Co. Cavan, living our life and doing our thing. Then one night, out of nowhere I decided to talk to Jesus. I don’t even know why. I cried out to him, “Help me.” And somehow I knew He was there but I didn’t realise the full extent of what had happened to me. The very next day I was a changed person. I used to think reading the Bible was like reading the dictionary but now when I opened up the Bible it all made sense. As I read, I got to know Jesus. This wasn’t religion, it was Jesus Himself.
One day, my wife came in and asked, “Why are you reading the Bible?” She started reading too and she came to the Lord as well. We joined Lighthouse Church in Navan but we didn’t know anyone and then after a few weeks we ended up in the first lockdown! Thankfully we were able to join an Alpha Course and to connect with people on Zoom and that really helped.
Things have really changed in my life. I used to always be chasing the money but now I’m contented and happy and I don’t worry about things anymore. I was a kickboxer and I used to love watching the fighting. Now I sit here talking about Jesus. How can that happen? It has been wonderful seeing how my son has got involved in Kid’s Church. I used to worry about him a lot because he is quite quiet. But now he is shining! To see him praying is wonderful!
“God guided my car” - Wexford
Sarah Hemmingway’s faith had grown cold but an unexpected answer to prayer started her on a journey back to God.
As a student I didn’t want to know about God, I thought He wouldn’t approve of me. I hadn’t prayed much for about ten years. Then one incident changed things for me. I was working as a nurse in a hospital at the time and it was stressful juggling work with family life. I felt I was praying and not hearing anything. My Rector encouraged me to be persistent in prayer.
The next weekend, I went to a hen party in Belfast and on the way home I saw a sign to a place where I had been to a Christian camp when I was younger. I thought, “I’d love some worship.” I wondered if there were any vibrant churches around and all the way down the motorway I was praying. When I got to Dublin I knew, I needed to stop. There was a huge traffic jam, so I pulled off at a random exit and drove into the underground car of a hotel.
As I walked in through the basement entrance of the hotel, I could hear worship. I discovered Open Arms church was meeting in that hotel at that exact time. It was like God had guided my car. I went in and it was just the most incredible experience; exactly what I was wanting.
Then the sermon started and the preacher was talking about seasons of life. One phrase struck me, “You don’t wear a bikini in wintertime.” Suddenly it struck me, “Maybe I shouldn’t be trying to do this job with three young children at home.” I got a job as practice nurse in my local GP surgery and I began to pray a whole lot more!
Traybakes and the Bible - Belfast and Galway
Jonny Pollock leads a church in Loughrea, Co. Galway but his journey to faith started when he met his wife Julie at Queen’s university.
Growing up on the Shankhill Road in Belfast, I never went to church. It was a complete irrelevance to me. I remember being at a meeting with the community liaison group of the greater Shankhill partnership when someone said, “We need to get the churches involved. How can the community reach out to the church?” There is something radically wrong with that. (It should be the other way around).
“I used to think Christianity was irrational but all this was filling the gaps in my thinking.”
At Queen’s university, I was a plastic atheist. I liked to shout at Christians but I wasn’t ready for a nihilistic future. When I met Julie, I pursued her. She would go to church so I decided I would go along and see what the craic was. I’m a weirdly curious person who questions everything. Julie’s parents go to quite a conservative church. They took time with me and answered questions. They would invite me around for traybakes and open up God’s word and talk about Jesus.
I had never read the Bible before. I love philosophy so I began reading the wisdom literature, Proverbs and Ecclesiastes. It sounds pragmatic but I was reading the Bible and God was meeting me there. I used to think Christianity was irrational but all this was filling the gaps in my thinking. Coming to faith was a process for me. I realised that if this is true, it has significant implications for my life. People walked with me through it. They took time with me. They never told me pat answers or told me to go away.
Sometimes you see people with cards in their Bibles with the date when they came to faith. It wasn’t like that for me. But gradually I knew that this is real. I remember driving in the car with Julie one day and bursting into tears. From that point I began to get excited about Jesus and since then our life has been the most wonderful and remarkable adventure.
“I had been trying to fill the gap in my life” - West Cork
From Iowa to West Cork, Amy Attridge’s journey helped her to realise that God has given her everything she needs.
I grew up going to church in Iowa, USA. I remember hearing the gospel at a summer camp when I was 11. I did genuinely believe and repent but it was more of a cultural thing and I wasn’t following Jesus. A lot of my story is wrapped up in my boyfriend. From the age of 15, he was the biggest part of my life and where I was getting my worth, value and purpose. Eventually, I went to live with my sister. She had become a believer at college and took me to their college ministry.
“I began to realise that in Christ, I am a new creation.”
My boyfriend was in the Marines and that same year, he was sent to Iraq and Afghanistan. God used that to take us apart. When he came back, I was in a different place. We had been planning to move in together but by that time, I had changed and I knew it was not right.
God was taking me on a journey but, for a while, I was living two lives. I was going to the Christian stuff and having friends there. I loved that and I was soaking up the Bible teaching. But I still had my boyfriend. Eventually, we broke up which was pretty traumatic. At that time, I was really struggling with guilt and shame. I saw all these lovely Christian girls who had never done anything wrong, and I thought, “No one is ever going to want to marry me.”
At the college, Bible study we were studying Hosea. God used that scripture to show me how I had been trying to fill the gap in my life just like the woman in Hosea, chasing after her lovers. But God was the one who had given her everything she needed. I began to realise that in Christ, I am a new creation. Eventually I got baptised and the following year I came to Cork. That was when I met Rob (my husband) at one of the Christian Union weekends away. Eventually we were married in 2012.
“17 minutes” - Dublin
When they discovered their sixth child had a life-limiting condition, JP and Cliona Johnson wanted him to have as good a life as possible. Here JP shares his journey to faith and talks about that precious time with his son.
I grew up in a wonderful family. My parents were involved in the early years of the charismatic renewal. I went reluctantly to many prayer meetings here in south Dublin but I wasn’t impressed. I had no intention of being “religious” like my parents. I was immune to the Gospel.
“That brief time with him was powerful and positive for our family”
When I was 18, we were invited as a family to meet with People of Hope in New Jersey, USA and take part in some leadership training. The younger people did a “Life in the Spirit” seminar and they really wanted to do it. I had never seen that before. Most young people I met in Dublin were as resistant as I was. For the first time, I was open. During that time, the Holy Spirit blessed me powerfully with a personal relationship with Jesus and the desire to live the Christian life.
Back in Ireland, I became part of the Nazareth Covenant Community when it formed in 1984. I met my wife Cliona there in the 90s. The culture of the world around us is not supportive to living a Christian life and if your connection with people of faith is restricted to a once-a-week act of worship, that is not going to sustain you. You need to be connected regularly. Our covenant community has grown so that we now have 120 adults and more than 50 children. We seek to support one another to live our lives as followers of Jesus and to serve in mission.
Cliona and I have five children. We had a sixth child but at the first scan, we discovered that he had a life limiting condition. We wanted him to have as good a life as possible and the idea of truncating his life didn’t make any sense. When he was born, he only lived for 17 minutes but that was a blessing. That brief time with him was powerful and positive for our family and he is still very much part of our family and our remembrance. Because of his condition, he would have been a classic case for abortion so during the referendum campaign, Cliona and I were very active in putting the case for the blessing and fullness of life. Although there was a lot of conflict and disunity at that time, I was able to give testimony to the Christian approach to life as a gift from God.
