Day Twenty-Four: County Derry
Sunday 24 May
The annual VOX magazine Finding Faith Tour looks very different this year. Instead of a 7-day road trip around the island, this year VOX editor Ruth Garvey-Williams brings you highlights from all 32 counties (one per day plus one for each of the 31 days in May). Contact Ruth if you have a story to share.
Day Twenty Four
Born in a village in County Tyrone, Vivien Kelly now lives in the city of Derry with her husband and three children.
“My Granny and Granda were Christian people so I was at church with them every Sunday. I had a normal happy childhood and I was spoilt rotten but I lost my Granda in 2002 when I was just 16,” Vivien said. “He was like my father, my best friend and my everything. That’s when my life then started going downhill.”
“I had this big emptiness in my life and I tried to fill it with drink and drugs.”
“I met my husband, Jonathan and we had three kids but I was still drinking to fill the void in my life. When I was 25, we lost a baby. I carried her to full term but we had to bury her on the day she was due to be born. Things were just horrible!”
Vivien and Jonathan moved to Derry in an attempt to deal with their grief. A Presbyterian minister came to the door and Vivien thought, “Seriously? What do you want?” But he kept coming back and eventually she thought he might leave her alone if she invited him in.
“He encouraged me to go back to church,” Vivien said. “I thought, ‘What is going back to church going to do for me? but I said, ‘Okay’ more to satisfy him not and because I wanted to. So I started going to church the following Sunday and I loved it! I felt something different.”
Vivien remembered when she had an overdose at 19 and almost died. “I remember I could see a figure at the end of the tunnel and I felt hands pumping on my chest but when I woke up there was nobody there. I always put it down to my Granda, but when I went back to church, I realised that it was the grace of God that saved my life that day.”
Finally in January, two and a half years ago, Vivien gave her life to Jesus. “ It was like the feeling of coming home after a long day and sitting down. You feel that breath in your body as you sit down, that sense of relief. My life turned around!”
“This massive weight lifted off my shoulders.”
Since then she has been on fire - telling everybody about what Jesus has done in her life. In fact, two weeks ago, Vivien was praying and asking God to give her an opportunity to share her story. Then a friend texted to ask whether she would like to be interviewed by VOX magazine!
“I told my husband and he said, ‘Everything you pray for happens!’” Vivien grinned.
Read more of Vivien’s story in this summer’s special edition of VOX magazine. Subscribe now to make sure you don’t miss out!
