Week 3 – A Story Worth Sharing…

Have you ever thought that God could use three small words to draw someone back to God? That is exactly what happened in my life.

I first made a commitment to follow Jesus on Explorer’s Camp when I was 11 years old. From a nominally Christian family there was little support for my new found faith. I continued to attend Sunday School, the school Christian Union and read my Bible for a few days each quarter when I received the latest edition of Keynotes from the youth leader but I didn’t grow much spiritually over the next 5 years.

Inwardly I longed to know God’s love for me as I had at Camp and persuaded my parents to let me go again. At 16 I was classed as a junior leader which gave the privilege of staying up a bit later. The first night as two of us walked back to the tent one of the leaders, Geoff, called to us: ‘Good night girls, God bless you!’

The contrast in the tone and expression in ‘God bless you’ to the blaspheme I so often heard at school hit me. I laid in my sleeping bag and talked to God about the last 5 years of drifting away from God. There had not been any talks at this point, just three words ‘God bless you’ was all it took for me to know afresh the love God had for me. Before going to sleep I’d renewed my commitment to follow God – and this time I stuck to it. Little did I know at that time I would end up as a minister.

A postscript to the story is that the summer I was about to enter ministerial training I met Geoff again for the first time in 20 years and was able to tell him the effect the blessing had on my life and where I was heading in September.

We cannot all stand up and preach but we can write in cards or say ‘God bless you’. You never know the effect it might have as God does indeed bless the person.

by Bev Hollings
Barnard Castle & Teesdale Circuit
Superintendent & Deputy District Chair