As a child I went along to Sunday School, and then as a teenager I started to look around at different churches. I couldn’t understand why they all believed different things if they all said they were following God and so I became very confused about what I believed. Some days I didn’t even think there was a God. I became quite a hypocrite, going to church when it suited me and doing what I wanted the rest of the time. However I didn’t enjoy being like this and one day I got down on my knees and asked God to lead me to the right church when I moved to Christchurch. Then I forgot about the prayer.

A short time later I met someone who talked to me about the Holy Spirit, and though I thought it was a bit strange I was amazed that he was so confident about what he believed. I knew that I had nothing to lose so I decided to go along to a meeting to hear more. There I heard a talk which was based totally around the Bible. After talking about water baptism I decided that I had to give it a go. They told me that I would receive the Holy Spirit like they did in the Bible and that I would speak in tongues. I wanted to know whether God was real so I decided to put my trust in God—if there was one—and see what happened. I didn’t want to try and make anything up; I just wanted to know whether it was true. The next thing I remember is that I was sitting there speaking fluently in another language. I couldn’t believe that such an amazing thing had happened.

My life then turned around dramatically. I no longer wanted to drink alcohol and I had a joy and peace that I had never experienced before, and this is still with me 24 years later. When I prayed at home in this new language I felt as if I was getting through to God. All my prayers were being answered. Whenever I had a problem I knew that I could pray about it and that the Lord would sort it out. I was amazed that God could be so real when the stories in the Bible had always seemed like fairy tales. Now I see miracles such as those that happen in the life of my own family and friends.