My brothers and sisters are all much older than me – I was an accident, and my parents had me when they were quite old. I was brought up in the church as a Roman Catholic. I was half Catholic and half Jew – which is the same as being a normal Roman Catholic but when I went to confession I took my lawyer with me! I was an altar boy and things seemed to be going well. Then, when I was 13, my father died. It rocked my world. I gave up on the church and God – why would he allow my only source of love to die?
So I rebelled. I got into trouble at school, then with the local authority and the police. My life was sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll. I was seriously addicted to drugs and I needed rescuing.
I gave my life to God when I was 20. I did feel something but it wasn’t earth shattering. It wasn’t until I was 28 that things really started to change. One day I was praying with a friend and as he prayed I felt Jesus telling me that he had died so that my sins could be forgiven.
Although I still had anger issues from the drug abuse, I joined a church. One evening the preacher was telling the story of a blind man called Bartimaeus in the Gospel of Mark 10:46-52. When the blind man calls out to Jesus, the crowd tells him to be quiet, but Jesus ignores them and calls the man forward. He asks the man what he wants and when he replies, “I want to see!” Jesus instantly heals him. The preacher said he thought that there was someone in the church who felt like people had been pushing them away. He was right; it was me. I went to the front to receive prayer and that night Jesus transformed my life and healed me. I’ve never looked back since that day.
Terry Eckersley
Author and Evangelist
