The power of personal testimony

Peter Woods (North Walsham) shares three stories of God at work through words of witness and encouragement

IT was during the return trip from a business engagement in the West Country that Jenny first opened up to us. She was chauffeuring my wife, Myra, and me back home when she broached the subject of faith. We had met several times previously and, because she knew we were committed Christians who attended The Salvation Army, she felt at ease discussing such matters with us.

Jenny was unsure where she was on her journey towards a real commitment. Was she just ‘tinkering around the edges’? Did her spiritual journey have real substance? Could she honestly consider herself a Christian? Jenny had so many questions and, to seek out the answers, had attended several different churches. However, she had finished up with even more questions.

The fact that Jenny had raised the subject early in our long car journey suggested that she wanted to discuss a range of issues. I listened a lot and tried to give support and reassurance when it was appropriate. By the end of the journey she seemed a lot happier and indicated that we had left her with a lot to think about. Our suggestions had given her some kind of direction in her search. The conversation continued during further meetings, and the outcome was that Jenny was much more confident in her faith and even able to support others with similar needs.

One of her friends that she told us about was a young woman, Bethany, who had suffered abuse in childhood, leaving her with serious mental health problems. She needed more support than social services were able to provide, and Jenny had stepped into the breach.

Bethany had been introduced to the love and teachings of Christ during her early years through a friend of the family. This clearly had an impact on her but, over time and amid distressing circumstances, it had been lost, extinguished in her daily struggle with her demons.

Once Bethany was older and receiving improved counselling, Jenny was able to provide additional help. To support both Jenny and Bethany, Myra and I sent words of encouragement whenever we could. These took the form of picture cards that Myra made from my collection of natural history photographs, with appropriate texts and more direct messages that we conveyed to Bethany via Jenny. We also prayed regularly for them both, asking Christ to intervene in their lives.

This volume brought so much consoling joy to a young child

Content in the knowledge that they were now both in safe, loving hands – but still continuing with our input – we thought no more about what we were doing. But the Lord had been at work during the intervening months. A few days before Christmas last year Myra and I received a long, beautifully hand-written letter from Bethany. She related how much our texts and messages had meant to her and how much she was looking forward to meeting us in a post-coronavirus setting. This letter was the best Christmas present we could have received.

That, however, is not the end of the story. At one point in her letter she recalled an incident from her troubled childhood. Bethany wrote:

‘I had this beautiful Bible for children: My Book of Bible Stories. It was given to me by a friend of my biological mother. It was a hardback, with a plain mustard brown covering and red lettering on the front. I used to love the smell of the pages and it had beautiful illustrations. I would read it over and over again on my own.

‘I grew up in a dysfunctional home and my understanding of God was washed away and became lost to me. Mum made me feel ashamed about loving God and loving my first Bible. I never remember where it went, but the memory of it gives me such joy. I don’t remember my childhood. It’s all black, foggy and muddled at times, so when I get a memory come back that was important to me, I am so happy and full of pure joy.’

This moving testimony gave me an idea. I turned to a second-hand book search facility to see if I could identify the one Bethany had described. Searching for the title I was confronted by no fewer than 1,210 entries spread over 30 pages. I was unable to whittle this list down as Bethany had not mentioned either an author or editor. But by painstakingly trolling through all the entries I was eventually able to locate the book. I was surprised to discover that it had been published by the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society in New York. Nevertheless, I felt I should try and order one.

Several bookshops in North America had second-hand copies but only two were available in the United Kingdom. As one of these was a paperback edition, there was only a single copy that perfectly matched Bethany’s description. I ordered the book and, when it arrived, forwarded it to Bethany as a late Christmas present. She was delighted and has rediscovered the God whom she had loved and trusted in her childhood. Her faith grows by the day.

This is still not the end of the story. About the same time as we got to know Jenny and Bethany, there was a knock on our door. We were living in Devon at the time. It was a bitterly cold midwinter day, with the temperature hovering around zero. We could not help wondering who could possibly be calling on us in such weather. We opened the door to two Jehovah’s Witnesses. Admiring them greatly for their commitment to their beliefs we invited them in for a warming cup of tea. We explained that we were Salvationists, but if they would like to tell us a little about their faith, we would tell them something about ours.

The outcome was that we agreed to respect each other’s beliefs and have a chat about matters of mutual interest whenever they were in the area. We have remained good friends ever since. As a result, I have been able to convey to them the story of Bethany and her childhood book of Bible stories. Despite our differing beliefs, the fact that this volume brought so much consoling joy to a young and tragically abused child so many years ago has been an inspiration to them.

Perhaps in these three mini-stories there is a reminder for us all. Just a few simple words spoken with love in the name of our Lord can touch the lives of many and bring hope and happiness to individuals where formerly there was only fear and despair.

That is the power of unobtrusive, personal testimony. Almost certainly it is happening all around us, but we are not always aware of its existence because this is the unseen, mostly unrecorded, work of The Salvation Army.