GOD SURPRISES...

GOD AFFIRMS....

A friend of mine said soon after the opening of the Riviera Gallery: "Now I know you've got God on your side. How could you, with no experience of this sort of thing, open a place like this?"

I wasn't offended by his honesty, but exhilarated. I knew he was right. When something that big comes out of the blue and goes just right you know it's got to be God.

COMING TO POWER IN CHRIST...

I never asked to be a Christian. I never went around looking for meaning in my life. I thought I had all the meaning I needed in my friends, my studies and the fun I was having. I was like Saul on the road to Damascus, unaware that there was such a thing as the real power of Christ. Then suddenly everything started to go wrong. I lost my job, got into debt and started to drink.

As the bills piled up, my relationship with my wife started to suffer. I was a Classics graduate and former blue chip employee. This couldn't be happening to me. It was as though a black cloud had settled above my head and wouldn't move. Nothing I tried worked. I was faced with one brick wall after another. Luckily the kids were too small to know what was going on, though they still recall the rows. Approaching thirty my life was rapidly going down the drain.

The worst week of my life was the week a creditor of mine threatened to take the house off me. My family and I were faced with homelessness. As far as I was concerned, this was rock bottom. Then two things happened. My mother, a member of the Greek Orthodox church, wrote a letter to me and sent me a picture of the Virgin Mary. I framed the picture and put it on the wall over my desk. The next night we got a knock on the door. We had been living in Scotland for several years and never met the local minister. He chose that night, the day after I put the mini icon on the wall, to make a random visit to our home. He said he didn't know what had led him to call, but "something" had persuaded him to do so. I was embarrassed because we hadn't been expecting visitors and the house was a mess. But he didn't seem to mind, he was such a good man. He stayed and chatted to us and all our problems came pouring out. He left with a smile and suggested we go to his church the following Sunday. What did we have to lose?

The Monday following our church visit, I got a job offer in the post, on the best pay I'd ever had. Although this was not the end of our problems because we had so much debt, it was a good start. We continued to attend church and contributed to the collection every week even though we needed more than I was earning to repay our debts. Gradually, the clouds lifted. While I was working, my wife started her own business. Within a year she was so busy I was able to leave my job and join her. We worked together for five years on our own business and turned it into an award winner. Sales doubled every year during that time. We bought a holiday home in Spain, ran two cars and paid off most of our mortgage. Before long we were able to sell our business, our home and move to the sunny climes of Southern Spain. In our first week we found a Church of Scotland in Fuengirola that made us welcome and helped us to continue our fellowship.

There were still ups and downs to be endured, but the worst was behind us. Every week in church our faith grew stronger. We have had success here in Spain and continue to enjoy our life here. Both my wife and I have received healing through God TV and appeared on BBC1s Songs of Praise as an example of the triumph of faith over hardship. Our lives have been turned around. Now I write faith articles and help elderly people get through the day. Where will it end? It doesn't matter. The peace and tranquility we have found in the power of Christ will ensure that nothing can ever harm us again. No matter what happens, we have overcome hardship for good.

GOD DID IT ALL

AND HE CAN DO IT FOR YOU