| Kingswood Baptist Church - Testimonies |
| Six people were baptised on 21st September. (Some wrote a lot, some a little but each declared their trust in Jesus) Read their Stories |
Mischa writes
When I was little I always thought that you have to be a good person to go to heaven. I didn’t know that you
have to become born again and be touched by the Holy Spirit to go to heaven. When I first heard of it I was
worried it would never happen to me and I was unsure what to do.
I saw it happen to people and realised that you had to make the decision your self. That moment was at the
Vinesong concert in spring. When the leader of the band asked people who wanted to be touched by the
Holy Spirit to stand, I just stood up. It felt like all my friends did the same and I wondered if they felt the same
way that I felt, which I guess, was the unsure but excited in another way of feeling.
Then the leader asked us to come to the front and raise our hands and receive the Holy Spirit. I did it then he
asked us to make our way to room 2 to be prayed for. I went and was touched and prayed for. I came out
feeling different and clean. I went to my Mum and she asked me why I was crying. I said “I didn’t know” but I
guess that was the effect of the Hoy Spirit. I felt I had been touched. I wanted to get baptised so I can start
again my life again being a better Christian.
When I got to school I told my two best friends Georgia and Rebecca. Georgia isn’t a Christian but she knew
what I was talking about. Rebecca is a Christian and was overwhelmed and happy for me I felt good to have
friends who understand me. I have gone through rough patches being with the wrong friends and groups but
I have pulled away from that and have pulled myself together to be a better person.
When people in my RE lessons say things like they don’t believe in God and that if there is a God why would
He let us suffer, I try to argue my point across as much as I can, but people just don’t get it. They think that
Christianity is just a book of rules and you wear strange clothes like you have never heard of Primark before.
Because they don’t understand people lose faith. You could lose faith because of people’s opinions and I
don’t want that to happen.
When I start questioning things about God I think of all the things God has done for me and keep on
believing. Nature is something that helps me keep faith and my brother Mark wrote a poem about nature
which says it all.
Steven writes
I’ve been going to church all my life. I think watching other people get baptised, going to Solid and the
Ingathering have impacted my relationship with God.
When Stuart Elmes started teaching in Sunday School and the Ingathering it really made me think more. I
didn’t want to stop going to the Sunday School because I liked it, but once I started listening to the church
services I got a lot more out of it. I know I’m a Christian because I just felt it.
I JUST FELT CLOSER TO GOD
I want to be baptised because I feet ready to take the next step and God told me to! The last time I went to
Solid I hurt my back and had to go to hospital. When I came out we all went to the evening worship and after
that I went to bed, and all I could think about all night was getting baptised. Then a few weeks ago I went to
an evening service because Lois and Marina were singing and when I was listening to what Stuart was saying
in the service it really touched my heart. I felt really emotional and happy. That was when God spoke to me.
I want to try my best not to do things wrong. I want to get even closer to God. I know I need to keep trying to
put God first and that’s not always easy. I always tried my best to pay attention in Sunday School but
sometimes my mind drifted off but when I get kids I want to teach them everything about God and how to get
closer to Him.
I also want to do my best to let my friends know about God. God loves me and I love Him too.
Brian writes
My name is Brian Francis and I was born in London during the fifties. I came from a moderate family
compared to some at that era of time.
When I was ten years old and looking through some books at school I unexpectedly came across a book
about the life of St Francis of Assisi. Reading the book filled me with compassion. Afterwards something in
me felt compelled to be like St Francis, so when I was fifteen I decided to spend many weekends over the
next three years on Retreat at a monastery on Oxford, hoping to become a monk. Realising at eighteen that
this wasn’t the right direction for me I ran away and was never ordained. So that was my first encounter with
God.
Home life wasn’t good and things seemed to spiral out of control leading me to become a person who was not
nice to know. I am glad to say my past is long behind me now and I am profoundly sorry for that part of my life
and the people I hurt.
I thank and give thanks to Jesus so very much for letting me walk with Him and come out of a very lonely
place in my life. I would also like to thank my mother and partner, Catherine, for being my rock and support.
Lucy writes
Well I never thought I had any faith as I sat in the room at the nurture group. As I listened to Sarah, Brian,
Den & Stuart speak they were all talking about faith. As I listened to them speak I suddenly said “you know
what I have just realised I have very little faith or none at all because I have no feelings that I do”. Then
everyone said “I did or else I would not have been sitting in that room” and I kinda thought ok well maybe they
are right.
Things started for me in a real way in February this year while I was helping at the holiday club run at the
Baptist church near the children's school, really for my daughters to get an insight into the bible, who Jesus
was and what his purpose was, because I already knew it all. Wow how wrong was I !
The stories the children were told were most of the time, moving me to tears because it felt as though they
were about me. I noticed a difference in my 2 children as well and how they had taken in what they had heard
and we started to go to the morning service and the girls went to Sunday school.
In April I was invited to a ladies’ breakfast by a lovely Christian lady called Jackie and her equally lovely
daughter Julie (who had been the one that put the holiday club together) at Kingswood Baptist Church. The
lady that spoke moved me to tears again as if she was talking about me. It was there that I found a notice for
an Alpha Course.
Jackie and Julie explained what the Alpha was and I thought maybe this was just what I needed to answer all
the questions in my head. Julie said she would come along with me so each Monday we came and I learnt
more and more each week. I asked lots of what I thought were really silly and stupid questions but Robert
and Betty, bless em, assured me they weren’t.
One afternoon Jackie and I were talking because I just seemed to not understand that as long as you tell the
lord you are sorry you will be forgiven even if you do the same thing again and again. Jackie explained what
Jesus died for and what the cross does to bridge the gap so we can have a relationship with God. Then 3
days later at Alpha Stuart Elmes used the exact same words to describe the same thing. This happened
again and again I would be listening to the sermon on a Sunday and the same things would be referred to
the next day at the Alpha and bearing in mind I attended a different church.
Wow what a coincidence! Or was it? Then Andrew (Julie’s husband) told me Jesus is knocking and I should
let him in.
The day of the trip to learn about the Holy spirit was imminent I had had such a bad week I had come to the
conclusion that this was not for me as I am not worthy of being one of God’s children, that I had done so
many bad things in my life and I was being punished because each day I would pray and nothing would
change or get better. I am doubting Thomas.
But I made that trip and it was after that day that I found myself needing to take the next step of the journey
and to climb on the next rung of the ladder. I don’t know why or how I just knew I had to be “Dunked”
So again I asked questions had a lot of doubts and thought my life was not different enough to say that God
had made a difference in it, as the same old stuff I battled with still came up.
My biggest Hurdle was putting something first that I could not see. That was conquered with very little effort.
A DVD put me straight and I did discover that God had been speaking to me through all those weeks of
hearing the same things twice but just not in the way I thought it would happen. I had experienced God
incidents not coincidence.
So, so far all my questions are answered, all my fears released. I am taking the next step of my journey as a
Christian and letting the Lord know that my heart was glad he had wanted to knock and I am very glad I
opened that door and let him in.
I have a strange feeling that this does not mean I won’t have any more silly questions. I will just have more
people to ask.
Mark writes
I first became a Christian when I was twelve years old. I lived with my Mum and brother in East London and
we all attended Christchurch, Spitalfields. When I was 16 I left school and got a job in a local factory. It was
about this time that I strayed from God.
Twenty years later my partner started talking to me about the Alpha Course. We then found out that my
brother had recently done an Alpha Course and he told us that he really enjoyed it. So in 2006 we decided to
try it but unfortunately obstacles were put in our way and we couldn’t continue the course. Two years later we
started another Alpha Course at KBC. I really enjoyed it and it brought me back to God.
Sarah writes
When I was a child Christianity never made any sense to me. I remember during assembly I would sit and
listen attentively to the headmistress whilst she told us stories from the bible, and I would be thinking with
intense frustration ‘but it just doesn’t make any sense’! So naturally when at the age of eleven I was asked by
an RE teacher if I was an atheist or a Christian I said an atheist. And I stuck with that definition of the way I
felt right through my life.
I was a believer in the theory of evolution but for something that had always made complete sense to me I
began to question it. I had a new perspective and that was that whether you looked at things from an
evolutionary or creation perspective they were both miracles! So why was believing in a creator so hard to
believe? Then one day I was reading Dan Bernstein’s book, the definitive guide to Dan Brown’s book ‘The Da
Vinci code’ and I had what I can only describe as a spiritual awakening.
I was compelled to look up and felt bathed in light and a thrilling sensation of love and peace. It didn’t last
long but I knew from that moment onwards that there was a God and Jesus did exist and He was who He
claimed to be. I had faith, something I had never had before. From that moment onwards I entered a journey,
a journey of deep repentance for the mistakes I had made and the way I had lived my life, and a journey
which eventually brought me to the Alpha Course at KBC.
I had a desire to know more. I knew how I felt but I wasn’t sure what to do with it or even what it meant. I didn’t
know how to be a Christian and to be honest I didn’t even know what being a Christian actually was. I had
grown up with so many misconceptions. But the Alpha Course made everything so much clearer to me. It was
several weeks into the course when I finally became a Christian.
Prior to Alpha I had never prayed. During one session we discussed prayer and that night I went home and I
prayed, and I continued to pray and I haven’t stopped since. Once I began to build a relationship with God it
was then that I felt forgiven for all the regret I had and I can honestly say I haven’t looked back. God has
changed my life in so many ways, I feel so different, and it is as though my mind has been taken over! Since
becoming a Christian I have had the odd trial or test but I hold fast to my belief in God as always good and
He keeps me strong. I am so looking forward to the future, and although I haven’t figured out what God’s plan
for me is I can’t wait to embrace it!
When I was little I always thought that you have to be a good person to go to heaven. I didn’t know that you
have to become born again and be touched by the Holy Spirit to go to heaven. When I first heard of it I was
worried it would never happen to me and I was unsure what to do.
I saw it happen to people and realised that you had to make the decision your self. That moment was at the
Vinesong concert in spring. When the leader of the band asked people who wanted to be touched by the
Holy Spirit to stand, I just stood up. It felt like all my friends did the same and I wondered if they felt the same
way that I felt, which I guess, was the unsure but excited in another way of feeling.
Then the leader asked us to come to the front and raise our hands and receive the Holy Spirit. I did it then he
asked us to make our way to room 2 to be prayed for. I went and was touched and prayed for. I came out
feeling different and clean. I went to my Mum and she asked me why I was crying. I said “I didn’t know” but I
guess that was the effect of the Hoy Spirit. I felt I had been touched. I wanted to get baptised so I can start
again my life again being a better Christian.
When I got to school I told my two best friends Georgia and Rebecca. Georgia isn’t a Christian but she knew
what I was talking about. Rebecca is a Christian and was overwhelmed and happy for me I felt good to have
friends who understand me. I have gone through rough patches being with the wrong friends and groups but
I have pulled away from that and have pulled myself together to be a better person.
When people in my RE lessons say things like they don’t believe in God and that if there is a God why would
He let us suffer, I try to argue my point across as much as I can, but people just don’t get it. They think that
Christianity is just a book of rules and you wear strange clothes like you have never heard of Primark before.
Because they don’t understand people lose faith. You could lose faith because of people’s opinions and I
don’t want that to happen.
When I start questioning things about God I think of all the things God has done for me and keep on
believing. Nature is something that helps me keep faith and my brother Mark wrote a poem about nature
which says it all.
Steven writes
I’ve been going to church all my life. I think watching other people get baptised, going to Solid and the
Ingathering have impacted my relationship with God.
When Stuart Elmes started teaching in Sunday School and the Ingathering it really made me think more. I
didn’t want to stop going to the Sunday School because I liked it, but once I started listening to the church
services I got a lot more out of it. I know I’m a Christian because I just felt it.
I JUST FELT CLOSER TO GOD
I want to be baptised because I feet ready to take the next step and God told me to! The last time I went to
Solid I hurt my back and had to go to hospital. When I came out we all went to the evening worship and after
that I went to bed, and all I could think about all night was getting baptised. Then a few weeks ago I went to
an evening service because Lois and Marina were singing and when I was listening to what Stuart was saying
in the service it really touched my heart. I felt really emotional and happy. That was when God spoke to me.
I want to try my best not to do things wrong. I want to get even closer to God. I know I need to keep trying to
put God first and that’s not always easy. I always tried my best to pay attention in Sunday School but
sometimes my mind drifted off but when I get kids I want to teach them everything about God and how to get
closer to Him.
I also want to do my best to let my friends know about God. God loves me and I love Him too.
Brian writes
My name is Brian Francis and I was born in London during the fifties. I came from a moderate family
compared to some at that era of time.
When I was ten years old and looking through some books at school I unexpectedly came across a book
about the life of St Francis of Assisi. Reading the book filled me with compassion. Afterwards something in
me felt compelled to be like St Francis, so when I was fifteen I decided to spend many weekends over the
next three years on Retreat at a monastery on Oxford, hoping to become a monk. Realising at eighteen that
this wasn’t the right direction for me I ran away and was never ordained. So that was my first encounter with
God.
Home life wasn’t good and things seemed to spiral out of control leading me to become a person who was not
nice to know. I am glad to say my past is long behind me now and I am profoundly sorry for that part of my life
and the people I hurt.
I thank and give thanks to Jesus so very much for letting me walk with Him and come out of a very lonely
place in my life. I would also like to thank my mother and partner, Catherine, for being my rock and support.
Lucy writes
Well I never thought I had any faith as I sat in the room at the nurture group. As I listened to Sarah, Brian,
Den & Stuart speak they were all talking about faith. As I listened to them speak I suddenly said “you know
what I have just realised I have very little faith or none at all because I have no feelings that I do”. Then
everyone said “I did or else I would not have been sitting in that room” and I kinda thought ok well maybe they
are right.
Things started for me in a real way in February this year while I was helping at the holiday club run at the
Baptist church near the children's school, really for my daughters to get an insight into the bible, who Jesus
was and what his purpose was, because I already knew it all. Wow how wrong was I !
The stories the children were told were most of the time, moving me to tears because it felt as though they
were about me. I noticed a difference in my 2 children as well and how they had taken in what they had heard
and we started to go to the morning service and the girls went to Sunday school.
In April I was invited to a ladies’ breakfast by a lovely Christian lady called Jackie and her equally lovely
daughter Julie (who had been the one that put the holiday club together) at Kingswood Baptist Church. The
lady that spoke moved me to tears again as if she was talking about me. It was there that I found a notice for
an Alpha Course.
Jackie and Julie explained what the Alpha was and I thought maybe this was just what I needed to answer all
the questions in my head. Julie said she would come along with me so each Monday we came and I learnt
more and more each week. I asked lots of what I thought were really silly and stupid questions but Robert
and Betty, bless em, assured me they weren’t.
One afternoon Jackie and I were talking because I just seemed to not understand that as long as you tell the
lord you are sorry you will be forgiven even if you do the same thing again and again. Jackie explained what
Jesus died for and what the cross does to bridge the gap so we can have a relationship with God. Then 3
days later at Alpha Stuart Elmes used the exact same words to describe the same thing. This happened
again and again I would be listening to the sermon on a Sunday and the same things would be referred to
the next day at the Alpha and bearing in mind I attended a different church.
Wow what a coincidence! Or was it? Then Andrew (Julie’s husband) told me Jesus is knocking and I should
let him in.
The day of the trip to learn about the Holy spirit was imminent I had had such a bad week I had come to the
conclusion that this was not for me as I am not worthy of being one of God’s children, that I had done so
many bad things in my life and I was being punished because each day I would pray and nothing would
change or get better. I am doubting Thomas.
But I made that trip and it was after that day that I found myself needing to take the next step of the journey
and to climb on the next rung of the ladder. I don’t know why or how I just knew I had to be “Dunked”
So again I asked questions had a lot of doubts and thought my life was not different enough to say that God
had made a difference in it, as the same old stuff I battled with still came up.
My biggest Hurdle was putting something first that I could not see. That was conquered with very little effort.
A DVD put me straight and I did discover that God had been speaking to me through all those weeks of
hearing the same things twice but just not in the way I thought it would happen. I had experienced God
incidents not coincidence.
So, so far all my questions are answered, all my fears released. I am taking the next step of my journey as a
Christian and letting the Lord know that my heart was glad he had wanted to knock and I am very glad I
opened that door and let him in.
I have a strange feeling that this does not mean I won’t have any more silly questions. I will just have more
people to ask.
Mark writes
I first became a Christian when I was twelve years old. I lived with my Mum and brother in East London and
we all attended Christchurch, Spitalfields. When I was 16 I left school and got a job in a local factory. It was
about this time that I strayed from God.
Twenty years later my partner started talking to me about the Alpha Course. We then found out that my
brother had recently done an Alpha Course and he told us that he really enjoyed it. So in 2006 we decided to
try it but unfortunately obstacles were put in our way and we couldn’t continue the course. Two years later we
started another Alpha Course at KBC. I really enjoyed it and it brought me back to God.
Sarah writes
When I was a child Christianity never made any sense to me. I remember during assembly I would sit and
listen attentively to the headmistress whilst she told us stories from the bible, and I would be thinking with
intense frustration ‘but it just doesn’t make any sense’! So naturally when at the age of eleven I was asked by
an RE teacher if I was an atheist or a Christian I said an atheist. And I stuck with that definition of the way I
felt right through my life.
I was a believer in the theory of evolution but for something that had always made complete sense to me I
began to question it. I had a new perspective and that was that whether you looked at things from an
evolutionary or creation perspective they were both miracles! So why was believing in a creator so hard to
believe? Then one day I was reading Dan Bernstein’s book, the definitive guide to Dan Brown’s book ‘The Da
Vinci code’ and I had what I can only describe as a spiritual awakening.
I was compelled to look up and felt bathed in light and a thrilling sensation of love and peace. It didn’t last
long but I knew from that moment onwards that there was a God and Jesus did exist and He was who He
claimed to be. I had faith, something I had never had before. From that moment onwards I entered a journey,
a journey of deep repentance for the mistakes I had made and the way I had lived my life, and a journey
which eventually brought me to the Alpha Course at KBC.
I had a desire to know more. I knew how I felt but I wasn’t sure what to do with it or even what it meant. I didn’t
know how to be a Christian and to be honest I didn’t even know what being a Christian actually was. I had
grown up with so many misconceptions. But the Alpha Course made everything so much clearer to me. It was
several weeks into the course when I finally became a Christian.
Prior to Alpha I had never prayed. During one session we discussed prayer and that night I went home and I
prayed, and I continued to pray and I haven’t stopped since. Once I began to build a relationship with God it
was then that I felt forgiven for all the regret I had and I can honestly say I haven’t looked back. God has
changed my life in so many ways, I feel so different, and it is as though my mind has been taken over! Since
becoming a Christian I have had the odd trial or test but I hold fast to my belief in God as always good and
He keeps me strong. I am so looking forward to the future, and although I haven’t figured out what God’s plan
for me is I can’t wait to embrace it!
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