Testimonies

Before Jesus met me and changed my life I was empty and felt worthless, with no joy or purpose. Jesus showed me how much he loved me - so much that he died for me on the cross. He offered me the same eternal life that he had if I gave my life to him and followed his ways. I gave my life to him and found such peace, joy and purpose. Jesus also filled my emptiness.
I just long for others to come out of darkness and pain into peace and purpose.

My life was ruined! I wanted to join the RAF as a pilot, but was diagnosed as having a disease of the Central Nervous System (Friedreich’s Ataxia) that would eventually put me in a wheelchair.

It was September 15^th 1987 when I heard a man on Radio Shropshire talking about how Jesus still heals people the same as he did 2,000 years ago. I laughed because I did not believe so.

I did not want to continue living and was seriously contemplating suicide, but a small voice inside challenged me; it asked me: "How do you know that what the man has said is NOT true if you don’t try it?" I therefore decided to meet the challenge and go to a meeting this man was holding that very night, in a school some 10 miles away.

I drove to the meeting and hobbled in on my crutches. There were about a hundred people there. They were singing songs of how great God was – the words appeared on a screen – it was not a hymn, it was a chorus. All those singing appeared to be happy. I knew nobody whatsoever.

Melvyn Banks (the man on the radio) an evangelist, stood on the school stage and read an account from the bible where Jesus healed the lame and sick. I was laughing still. He continued; "I am shortly going to ask people who want to be healed by Jesus to form a queue. But, first I am going to ask those who would like to ask Jesus into their life to raise their hands".

I was still laughing, perhaps through skepticism. However, that small voice inside asked some very logical questions:

a] "What have you got to lose? You want to do away with yourself, so why not give Jesus a try beforehand?"

b] "Why should Jesus do anything for you, if you don’t want to give him your life?"

These questions seemed so logical that I decided to raise my hand. It was 8:00pm as I recall and I felt no different. I then hobbled to the stage with many other sick people and stood behind a woman in a wheelchair. When Melvyn Banks laid hands on her she got out of the wheelchair and walked around. I was quite amazed and when it came to my turn, nothing happened; there were no bolts of lightening, tingling feelings or any extraordinary phenomena. Perhaps I had got my hopes up too much!

As I returned to my car, I was stopped by about half a dozen people, who asked if they could pray for me. I was quite amazed at the faith of these people as they crowded round me and continued to ask God to heal me. Alas, still nothing happened.

I drove home thinking about the night’s events and what made these people different. I struck me that it was love, compassion and faith.

Before I went to this meeting I used to swear a lot – using the "F" word in every sentence. When I got up the next morning I stopped it dead! I have not uttered a swear word since. Apparently God healed me of swearing, so maybe physical healing would follow?

The very next day some of the Christians who had prayed for me sent me a letter that encouraged me to get to know God through his word – the bible. They enclosed some bible reading notes for new Christians (for that is what I was). Apparently I was ‘born-again’.

Now, 16 years down the road, I am still not healed physically, (but still live in hope!), but my life has been filled with miraculous events that have been far beyond that which I could have ever expected that I firmly believe that God exists. I cannot tell them now, because the very FIRST thing to do is ask Jesus into your life. "WHAT HAVE YOU GOT TO LOSE?"

Another testimony of Trevor Mytton

"Ask and you shall receive"

Over the past eighteen months, (those who know me will have noticed) that my health has been on the decline, so much so that I have been finding it increasingly difficult to transfer from my car to the wheelchair. At times the pain has been excruciating. This has resulted in me only going out if there’s real necessity. Since Christmas I have been virtually housebound apart from going to church once and hospital once a week. I was getting depressed quite often and this would affect my wife, Julie, too!

We had saved for over a year and managed to accrue £2,000. A decent used vehicle with a hyrdraulic wheelchair lift would cost around £5-6,000 and at our rate of saving it would take another 2 years. Unfortunately, my rate of deterioration would advance to such a degree that I may not be able to get out and about at all. I need a vehicle sooner rather than later. It was because of this urgency that I found myself trawling the internet for a cheap and rather dilapidated minibus and was going to buy one out of desperation.

I thought that God had forgotten about me in this situation and all I had to hold onto is the memory of how he had provided for me in the past and the absolutely amazing way that he brought Julie into my life and how he had answered my prayer exactly for the wife I’ve got (and in fact much, much more). That prayer did not happen straight away, it was five years later when the timing was right – so I could believe that God would provide at the right time. Has he not promised,I shall provide ALL your needs”?

Margaret Extance suggested that we have an appeal in the church for some funds to speed the process up. The appeal was to last a month and in early June, by the end of the month, I had come to the end of myself – well and truly in the depths of despair. Then on Sunday evening Margaret told me the good news that well over £4,000 had been promised.

This was very hard for Julie and I to comprehend, but we began to look at newer vehicles that would suit my needs. This is when the miracles began to happen:

First of all I spotted a minibus with a tail-lift in Birmingham.
Then my friend Rob who is a trained mechanic happened to have a week’s holiday and said he would come with me and Julie to check it out.
We prayed before we went that we would go straight to the garage in Birmingham – we did!
The garage we visited had 30 wheelchair accessible vehicles 10 of which were suitable for me (the vehicle I went to view although suitable was a bit too big!)
We found a slightly smaller vehicle that was suitable and favourable to Julie that had a fully automatic lift and all the other clamps etc.
Rob is familiar with this model of van because he drives one at work and was able to pinpoint the problem areas – it was all sound!
The van had one previous disabled owner and a regular service history.
I managed to sort out some favourable insurance recommended by the garage.
The minibus has 12 months MOT and three months warranty. All-in-all a very suitable vehicle!
My friend Rob is available to pick up the minibus on Saturday.

This minibus will mean a lot more freedom to me and I shall be able to go out a lot more. For that, both Julie and I are extremely grateful to God and to all those who have contributed in any way, financially or through prayer and we would like to say a BIG thank you!

We hope and pray that this testimony will glorify God in the years to come and encourage the members of the body of Christ.

1^st July 2004
Trevor & Julie Mytton