Jim's Story -

God gave me - "A Future with Hope"
I have lived a HOPE filled life since 11.00 PM on Friday 10th April 1959. That was the night
my life was changed for good, forever, after several years of traumatic experiences, including
the sudden death of my wonderful father whilst I was still only 12 years of age. Added to this
grief, was the loss I experienced following the sale of the farm. Everything I had loved was
suddenly taken away, and it was hard for me as young boy of 12 to understand why my donkey
and cart and even my pet dog had to be parted with.
Five years later, at the age of 17, I was still grieving and so very unhappy at home in
Ballygawley, Co Tyrone, Northern Ireland that I ran away, not only to try and escape all the
things that made me so unhappy, but to try and begin a new life in England.
This new life was to take me into the Army and the Royal Engineer's Regiment at Aldershot in
Hampshire. Soon this new life was to rob me once again of someone I had come to love so
much.
I discovered that the girl to whom I was engaged to be married, no longer loved me, and our
engagement was broken off. This stirred up all the previous grief that I had struggled with in the
past following the loss of my father.
I was so devastated by what had happened, and it hurt so much to be alone, that I came to
believe that there really was no reason for my continuing to live, so I attempted to end my life by
swallowing a handful of tablets with the help of alcohol.
I have read that "We can live for 40 days without food, 8 days without water, 4-6 minutes
without air, but ONLY SECONDS without HOPE."
I was introduced to hope by John, a member of the Parachute Regiment, he contacted me in
the Bar of the NAAFI just a few days after my suicide attempt. After a brief discussion, John and
I prayed together in Holy Trinity Church, in Victoria Road Aldershot - This was my prayer - "Oh
God if you can heal my broken heart and dry my tears and give me hope, I'll go to the Nations
of the world to tell them of the hope you have given to me."
I got up from my knees that night, a changed man, as I began my personal relationship with
Jesus, I had been born again and from that moment on, I would have the life of Christ inside of
me.
It's now over 51 years since I began my hope filled journey, a journey that has not always
been easy, simply because I came to faith in Jesus, but I can honestly say that the Lord has
helped me to keep going when things became rough.
I have proved many times, that God's GRACE is sufficient. He has helped me through the
most severe of trials, including the death of my wife with cancer in November 1983 after 23
years of marriage. Christine was only 45 years of age and our daughter Marella was only 14 at
the time.
The Lord has also brought me through two painful episodes of clots in my lung, and two major
heart attacks. The second almost fatal heart attack was in 1994 whilst I was a Missionary in Uganda, East
Africa, with my wife Ruth. We served the Lord there for six years, and He enabled us to pioneer
a new Mission which we called "Uganda Mission Of Hope." The Lord added 100 Churches to
the Mission and He also enabled us to build a Village Health Clinic, and launch a School Of
Ministry And Theology. To God be ALL the Glory for anything we achieved.

In April 1995, the Lord helped me through a major heart operation - a triple by-pass.
After returning from Uganda to the UK, I took up Pastoral Ministry in North London and was
appointed as the Pastor of the Elim Pentecostal Church in East Finchley on 31st August 1996. I
first attended an Elim Church in Aldershot in 1959, just after I was born again, John who led me
to Christ also introduced me to his Church which was then in The Grove at Aldershot, and there
I met Christine, who was the Church Pianist.
Four years after becoming a member of the Church, I was appointed to my first Pastorate in
September 1963.
I served with Elim for two years beyond the stipulated retirement age, but had to leave in
October 2007 when it was decided by both the National and the Local Leadership Team of Elim,
that the Church in Finchley needed a "Younger Minister to take it on to the next level".
Their decision was painful for me to accept and it caused me a lot of grief as I found it very hard to
leave the people that I had been Pastor of for 11 years and I had never anticipated being forced
to retire from Pastoral Ministry, because of a preference for "A Younger Minister."
Fortunately, since June 2001, the Lord has been blessing me and using me as a Gospel
Singer, and I have travelled to over 200 different locations all across the UK, to sing "Songs
from The Heart."
God has also opened many opportunities for me to serve Him on local radio over the past 37
years.
I have presented programmes on several Radio Stations and these have included - LBC in
London and BBC Radio Medway, now known as Radio Kent. At the moment I present "Music
With A Message" on Radio Star every Tuesday afternoon at 5:30pm and the 30 minute
programme reaches people all across Ireland and even beyond the shores of Ireland. - To God
be ALL the glory.
Thanks sincerely for reading my story of what God has done and is still doing for me.
On Friday 10th April 2009, I celebrated the 50th Anniversary of my personal encounter with
Christ and of my becoming a Christian.
As I look back to the night of Friday 10th of April 1959 and as I remember the awful condition that
I was in when I was introduced to Jesus - I think about the words of a song:
"Something beautiful, something good
All my confusion, He understood
All I had to offer Him was brokenness and strife
But He made something beautiful of my life."

Jesus said - I am come that you might have life and that you might have life in all its fullness
I can honestly say that Jesus completely transformed my life for good and forever. Now
because of my faith in Him, I no longer have a past, I only have a future. A future filled with
hope because as the Bible says - Christ in you - Christ in me is - "The HOPE of GLORY." -
Please read - Colossians 1:27 and Jeremiah 29:11
If as yet you have not found real life - real peace - real joy and real happiness, then I pray that
right now, you will have a personal encounter with Jesus, and I invite you to trust Him.
Jesus said - "I am The WAY - The TRUTH and the LIFE no man can come to the Father
except through Me." That's found in John chapter 14 and verse 6.