Changed Lives: Harry's Story

I thought I had everything I needed in life...

Harry  is a retired chartered electrical engineer. He lives in Kingston with his wife Joan. He has two grown sons & three granddaughters.
 
I had no Christian background, but I suppose I thought I had everything I needed in life. I spent many years working on off-shore oil rigs in the North Sea and around the world, designing power systems for under-sea oil reservoirs. I travelled a lot and worked on some exciting projects.
 
Yet somehow I couldn’t escape the feeling tugging away at me that there was something missing, despite the good job, loving family, and comfortable lifestyle. Over the years I’d tried to fill the gap with astrology, psychology and a number of other “ologies”. But they didn’t provide any answers, and I abandoned them all until eventually I ran out of ideas.
 
When I moved offices, a Christian colleague suggested the Bible might have some answers. He said that my life lacked meaning because I didn’t have God at the centre of it. I disagreed at first, until I realised I had given everything else a go except Christianity.
 
We started by reading John’s Gospel over lunch. I’d never read it before, and to my shock I found I couldn’t put it down. However I still wasn’t convinced and spent several years researching everything I could about Jesus’ life, especially the evidence for His resurrection from the dead. When I’d exhausted all the arguments I came to realise the Bible was true. I had to go to my colleague and admit “You win – I believe it!”
 
He told me that if I believed it was true, I had to do something about it and respond to God. This took a while because of my pride, but eventually I trusted the Lord with my life. I sensed that Jesus wanted me to write down my life up to that point; the good, the bad, and the ugly – everything. It was an emotional and at times very painful experience, but after some days I felt I had nothing left to write. Then He told me to burn it all. As the pages disappeared in flames Jesus said to me “Your new life with me begins here”.
 
I was taught the basics of the Christian faith at a local church, and after moving to Queen’s Road Church I became active in the Alpha course. I loved it so much that many years later I’m still involved, helping others discover the good news about Jesus!
 
Since trusting Jesus with my life I have known a deep, unshakeable inner peace. Even when life goes wrong and I’m surrounded by chaos and confusion, my life has a real purpose and direction that I never experienced before.

"As the pages disappeared in flames Jesus said to me “Your new life with me begins here”