.jpg)
16 years ago, I was introduced to the man I now know as my Church Minister, through his previous occupation, and through the years there was always an inkling at the back of my mind that made me think that there was something of an inner peace about my Social Worker. “Was it something about the Island I was brought up on or was it something about him in particular?” I kept thinking to myself now and again. But my shy & introverted nature ensured that I never asked him to explain this “Inner Peace” thing.
Personally, I paid attention in Religious Education classes to the extent that I regard my greatest achievement in this class my ability to recite out every book in the Bible between Genesis & Revelation (I just hope that nobody asks me to do this now, 13 years on).
Me & Colin went our separate ways in 1998 at the end of my life as a Children’s Home resident, but I had enjoyed going to some Free Church Youth Camps for the previous 3 summers where he was accompanied as Leader by his family.
I was informed in 2006 when I was at the low ebb of unemployment that my ex-Social Worker was now at the Free Church College (Minister School) and I was passed on his address of the time. I can safely assume that since then I have never looked back. Upon reacquainting myself with him, I began attending the Friday Light Lunch. From there I began to attend both services on a Sunday and the service on a Wednesday night, as well as the Christianity Explored & Discipleship Explored courses run in the church. All of these provided me with a grounding in what I should know about the Lord Jesus Christ. It may have taken me time to figure out, but in the end, it was not quite rocket science. It was as simple as believing that when Jesus Christ was crucified at Calvary, everyone in this world was given a new opportunity to become right with our God in Heaven, but only if we handed ourselves over to Jesus Christ. I know many have not, but I could believe this because of works of art that I have seen in exhibitions and now I know what happened at Calvary because I can read about it.
I was baptised at 28 years of age because I had never been baptised as a child and now I strive to live the Christian life as best I can in the only way I know how, with “the help of God’s Grace”.
John B Lau