Meridan Community Church

I had grown up in a very multicultural consumeristic society. I got to see a lot of different cultures and people of different religions, but I never knew anyone who was religious, or a practitioner of any particular faith. When I was 12 my parents decided we’d sell up and leave England. We lived for a year in Malta and sailed around the Mediterranean on a yacht. We then travelled to Hong Kong, where I spent all of my high schooling years.

Living in Hong Kong as a young expat child was a pretty cool experience. All of my friends had plenty of money and we would spend all our time after school and during holidays visiting one another’s recreation clubs. Swimming, eating, playing tennis and squash, signing off all the costs to each of our parents’ company accounts. So throughout my teens and twenties life was all about what you experienced in the here and now.

That was fine, to some extent, while the here and now was moving at a fast pace and managed to keep me distracted, but when it wasn’t moving, things stopped… when there was silence… that’s when my feelings changed and I began to search.

Looking back, my experience at St Catherine’s was one of several profound moments that interrupted my thinking. Caused me to wonder. When I stopped long enough I began to feel quite empty, alone and I wondered whether I would only ever be satisfied by filling my life with experiences. Not all the experiences were healthy. We’ll keep this G-rated today, but I recall one time when I was at Glastonbury Music Festival and I found myself in a Harie Krishna tent jumping up and down to their musical chanting. It was an exciting experience for about 5 minutes, and then I got bored realising their musical chanting lacked a second verse, bridge of chorus. That experience at Glastonbury was illustrative of my searching. I was looking for answers.

The very following new year, I was in Austria skiing. I had meant to be there with my girlfriend, but we had just split up, so I called my mate again. The same friend who I had been up Mt Sinai with the year before. We skied hard that holiday and played hard too. That was also a memorable trip for another reason. It’s where I first met Jeanette. When I returned to London, I met up with Jeanette and we started to hang out. We were friends for quite a while. What I didn’t know at the time was that Jeanette was not interested in being anything more than my friend. She had made a promise not to date a non-Christian. To be honest, I was happy just catching up and getting to know her
better. I was fine with that too. I was quite over getting hurt chasing relationships without any commitment – as I said, we’ll keep this G-rated.

One day a mutual friend invited Jeanette and I to their church. I knew Jeanette was a Christian. I had never really known one before and it was quite interesting to get to know why she believed what she believed. I had been to her church too, and I found the message fascinating. I was surprised just how much I had enjoyed what was shared, but I only really thought of it as something like a hobby, and I was happy to get to understand her and her friends’ hobbies.

So, a mutual friend invited us both to their local church one Sunday. It was just around the corner from where I lived in London. Why not? A few days earlier, I had experienced a terrible episode of loneliness and what felt like a depressing heaviness. I had been alone a lot. No longer chasing the experiences and party scene so much. Meeting up with Jeanette now and then, but otherwise alone a lot. My flat mate was hardly home. He had been over at his girlfriend’s house a lot lately. One night I recall feeling so down I just wondered what on earth was going on. I felt a deep sense of not being worthy, and that my life was empty and superficial. I didn’t tell anyone. I just felt ashamed and so I didn’t feel as though I could share that with anyone. On Sunday when I went with Jeanette and our friend to her church just a few kms from where I lived, it was in West London at a church called Holy Trinity Brompton (HTB).

The service was packed with a typical sample of Londoners. There were so many young adults, our age. I didn’t know younger people went to church! The service was vibrant, exciting and the pastor, a man called Nicky Gumble,
announced that he had a guest speaker coming to share his story. Suddenly, while we waited for the guest, this short man covered in tattoos – this was before being covered in tattoos was cool – this guy looked as rough as anything and he just walked up onto the stage. I was looking around wondering why no one stopped him. The pastor then passed the microphone to the man and he began to share his story. My shock soon passed as I found myself mesmerized by his story of how Jesus changed his life. He was an ex-offender and had spent years in prison for several awful crimes. From this tough man’s mouth came a gentle voice. As he shared tears rolled down his cheeks. I felt a bizarre sense of love and belonging as he shared. I too felt tears rolling down my cheeks, and yet these weren’t like tears I’d ever shed before. I had felt a connection with this man’s story and yet our lives were in every way completely different.

Toward the end of the service the pastor, Nicky Gumble announced that they would be starting this thing called Alpha, and if anyone would like to know more about Jesus then to come to the front to speak with someone and if you’d like to receive prayer. I had no idea what came over me, but I knew I had to go. I felt that sense again of love and belonging come over me… like from behind me. They prayed for me, and that Wednesday at 6:30pm I was back there at HTB to do Alpha – whatever that was. I had said yes because they’d told me I could come and bring all my questions. I didn’t think they were serious as I had a lot of questions about life, and no one had ever seemed interested in listening before. This was different.

Alpha includes a meal – which was great because it meant I didn’t have to cook on Wednesday nights.We listened to a short talk. The subject that first evening was “Who is Jesus”. Of course I had heard of Jesus. I knew he was somehow involved in Christmas and Easter – but that was about all I knew.

After the short talk, we sat in small groups and all got to chat about what we had heard. I remember asking, “sure Jesus was a special person, but God? Really?” It was incredible.Nobody judged me for my questions. In the weeks that followed I began to really look forward to Wednesday nights. I also couldn’t wait for church on Sunday. I was enjoying making sense, intellectually, of the Christian faith… and then about halfway through, around week 6 we met on a Saturday to learn about the Holy Spirit.

We talked about who the Holy Spirit is, what the Holy Spirit does and during that day I got to experience God for myself, and realise the feeling I had experienced in church that day when I heard the ex-offender man speak, that sense of love and belonging was God. That’s the Holy Spirit. I felt loved and that I belonged. My relationship with Jesus made sense of the world. He made sense of my need for forgiveness, the shame I had felt, I could be forgiven and I didn’t have to walk around feeling depressed and alone.

That was 23 years ago. Since then, Jeanette and I fell in love, married, emigrated to Australia, and now we have three Aussie children. When we arrived in Sydney more than two decades ago we went to a church in Manly.
The pastor heard my testimony, and asked whether we’d come help on Alpha. Even though I felt very unqualified, he promised me I know enough, and we’ve been involved in running Alpha ever since.

I love running Alpha, but I love Jesus more. I found Jesus because someone invited me to come. I found Jesus because I was looking for answers. Jesus is the way, the truth and the life.