Testimonies

My Testimony

By Alan Jones

I became a Christian at the age of 16 as the result of the work of the youth group at the church on the Wirral that I attended at the time

My parents were not Christians (or at least they weren’t at that time, later they both came to faith!!), but like many adults at that time in the 60s and 70s they sent their children to Sunday School. I was lucky in that the large Anglican church that I went to was lively and fun to be at, so I did not rebel against it. Also, as I went to an all boys’ schools it was a good place to meet girls, especially when at the age of 15 morning ‘Sunday School’ became ‘youth meeting’ after church on a Sunday evening.

A year previously in the last year of attending Sunday School it had been assumed that I would be confirmed as ‘everyone did in Year 10’, but I had resisted as I knew it would have meant nothing to me. Now as I went and listened to talks, discussions and bible studies on a Sunday evening I met up with young people aged 16, 17 and 18 whose faith obviously meant a lot to them. It challenged me, as at school I was reaching the adolescent rebellion stage where myself and some of my friends had started to use bad language (to ‘look big’?) and were experimenting with things like alcohol. If I am honest I was no teenage tearaway but just a typical teenager, but deep down I knew that I had to choose between going the way of my school mates or the way of the people I knew at the church youth group on a Sunday evening. In January 1972 I chose to commit myself to God at one of the Sunday evening meetings, where I was challenged by a film strip called Junction on the Road to Nowhere’ which summed up the position I found myself in.

In April that year they asked about confirmation again and this time I knew I was ready and enthusiastically volunteered. Then in May there was a guest service at church where a man called Ian Knox, a Christian lawyer preached and I plucked up the courage to invite Mum and Dad. They were both challenged and came to faith there and then and as Dad had not been confirmed in his youth he asked if he could join the confirmation class. He did and in September 1972 we were confirmed together which was a very moving occasion, as it meant so much to both of us.

Over 35 years have passed since then and there have been many ups and downs. I did a degree at Birmingham University in Maths and Theology combined and the Theology bit especially was a challenge to my faith. I am now married to Angela who I met when helping at a Christian camp for young people in 1979 and I have been a Maths teacher for almost 30 years now. We have been blessed with 3 children, but one month which we look back on as a very difficult month which tested our faith was February 1990 when we were flooded out of our house in the Towyn floods and both of Angela’s parents died independently of each other. We learnt then by personal experience that being Christians is not a guarantee that bad things will not happen to you. Now we are involved in a small church in St Asaph where we live, continuing to learn about the Christian faith and trying to make an impact for the gospel in the community.

One thing I do know is that in all the times, both good and bad, God has been faithful to me, even when I sometimes was not always faithful to Him. Although the story of my conversion is over 30 years old I think the challenges I faced in 1972 face many people these days too. Some will see Christians and want to be like them as I did, but often they will decide to take the easy route (Jesus called it the wide road as opposed to the narrow road which is God’s way) by siding with friends with materialistic values and priorities. They perhaps think it is too hard and not much fun being a Christian. I can tell you that yes it can be hard but with God’s help anyone can do it and whilst yes there will be bad times the joys of being a Christian far outweigh any cost there will be.

If any of this connects with you then contact anyone you know from our church or elsewhere who is a Christian and discuss it with them. Do not delay!!