Eric’s Testimony

I cannot say that I had a sudden experience of meeting the Lord or that I can point to the day when I became a Christian, born of God’s Spirit.

My experience has been a gradual one starting when I was seven years old.

I had fallen asleep in the chair and when I woke I had a big pain across my chest and down my right arm. My mum was alarmed and called the doctor who diagnosed pneumonia, and soon after, double pneumonia. This was long before such drugs as penicillin were available. I became delirious and the day came when the doctor said that there was nothing more that he could do and this particular night was the crisis night. He didn’t think I would survive until the morning.

My mother had only been a Christian for about a year and she asked some Christian friends if they would come and pray for me. They came and were prepared to pray all night whilst my mother was at my bedside watching, for the doctor had said to her that if she saw beads of sweat appear on my lips I would be alright. It was 2am when little beads of sweat appeared on my lips.

The doctor came that morning at eight of clock not expecting to see me alive but a miracle had happened that night. He took my temperature and said “tut tut there is something wrong with my thermometer and just at that moment the district nurse came in. The doctor asked the nurse to take my temperature, which she did and told the doctor that it was normal. They both said it was a miracle. This made a big impression on my life and I knew I believed in Jesus at this point and that I loved stories from Bible.

When I was thirteen I went to a service at Dale Street Mission Hall and at the communion service which followed immediately afterwards the minister came and sat down beside me and asked if I loved the Lord Jesus. My reply was ‘Yes!’ Then he asked if I would like to take the bread and the wine and again I said ‘Yes!’ I realised that I had made a public confession of my faith and felt I should be obedient to the Lord’s command to be baptized and so I was baptized a couple of weeks before my fourteenth birthday.

I am now 87yrs and over the last 73 yrs I have known the Lord’s healing touch over three more very serious illnesses and his teaching me through His word how to live the kind of life that pleases Him.