My Journey to New Life
By Christopher Brann
· Life before God
I had what I thought was a full and happy life; the cafe I ran kept me in house and home, I had friends, mainly within my wargames and historical hobbies, I didn’t want children or to be near them if I could help it, nor did I want to meet and talk to other people. In fact the only thing I was scared of was people, according to my wife. I had little feeling for others and didn’t want to have emotions for anyone at all. I mainly thought of myself and what I wanted from life.
· How I found God
In 1995 I started to go to my local church, I don’t know why, I just did. I went occasionally for the next few months. The people at the church would try to find out who I was, etc., before I ran out at the end of the service.
April 96 – by now a few people at the church had kept hold of me long enough to talk to me and find out a bit about me. The church asked me if I would like to go on an ALPHA course. The course is one evening a week for ten weeks where you get a meal, a video on the Christian faith and then get to discuss it and ask any questions you like. This sounded like it could be fun and I was sure that they couldn’t present any facts to make me believe that there was really a living God.
The first week was on the non-biblical historical evidence for Jesus. Well this caught my attention, after all I enjoy history and had read some of the books mentioned. So I went back for the next few weeks. By now I could see that there was proof of a God and his son Jesus having existed but I could not see how people could say that he lived and talked to them.
The Alpha away day – about half way through the course we were sent on a day away to hear and learn about the Holy Spirit. After lunch we went for a walk and I sped off alone (as was normal for me). I sat down while waiting for the others to catch up and prayed to God. I asked him to forgive me for all my sins, that I wanted Jesus to be part of my life and that I would do what he wanted me to do. Later in the day we had the opportunity to have someone pray for the Holy Spirit of God to bless us. I agreed but with apprehension. Since that experience I now know that God lives as I felt him through his Spirit. The power I felt was amazing and I knew that God lives.
· My new life with God
God has changed me to a loving and caring person, I now love children and want some, I care about other people and their needs and I find that I can’t get annoyed easily with people. I want to help others and help them to find out about the great love God has for them. I know that I must spread God’s word everywhere and bring his lost sheep to salvation. The change in me has been so great that my mother decided that God must be real and has given her life to Christ Jesus.
Since then.
I heard God ask me to save his lost sheep and so I joined Church Army as an evangelist. After training which involved moving to Sheffield for 3 years in 1999, lots of good stories from that time, I came back to Bath and started work with The Rose Cottage Centre. This was a Christian community centre which was just starting. It was wonderful being in at the beginning of something which had so much potential. After 3 and a half years my contract came to an end and due to my bad health I was retired till God heals me. This is were I am now, retired and waiting on Gods healing, I try to do what I can when I can between not being well. However I am still learning about God and his plans for me.