All I can say is that God has been very good to me. I was brought up hearing the message of the Bible and was very familiar with it. I had always regarded myself as a Christian but it was when I left home at 18 to join the RAF in 1952 that there was a real change in my life.

I was a driver for the RAF and whilst driving though the Suffolk countryside I passed a church which advertised a gospel service. I attended the service and Mr Rapheal, the preacher, invited me to his home afterwards to meet his family and share a meal. Both Mr and Mrs Rapheal were very active church workers and their lives were a real challenge to my Christian life.

After two years national service I returned home and continued with my parents and sister to attend our home church at Sandfields, Aberavon where John Thomas was the new minister. Under his ministry I began to grow as a Christian. I realised that I had been born a sinner, and going to church did not make you a Christian. Becoming a Christian meant trusting in the death of the Lord Jesus upon the cross for me, where he took my sin upon himself becoming my substitute, saving me from hell itself. Through his work I would be freely pardoned and be received into heaven – to a place prepared for me. Now that was what made me a Christian.

But there is such a thing as backsliding and sadly like the prodigal son we can wander away and our love for God can grow cold. In January 1961 I got married which proved to be a disaster and my marriage did not even last a year. I also left the family business and followed my mother’s side of the family into farming. For some years as a single person I continued farming but my heart was not really in it because of my broken marriage. Eventually I got into the motor business in Port Talbot taking over a property of my mother’s, my father having died in 1963.

It was there I met Margaret who came to work for me with a number of other Christian ladies. But like me, she had wandered away from what she believed. We became friendly and eventually we were married. The motor business came to an end when our property was demolished to make way for the M4 motorway flyover. We then returned to the land I still owned at Dunvant to start a riding and garden centre. It was then we entered a period in our lives which showed again how gracious and merciful God is.

Two Christian ladies invited us to attend Mount Pleasant Church in Swansea. Mr Morris was the pastor and under his ministry we came back to the Lord and by his great love and grace he has kept us over the years since.

During all our time away from God, we had found no peace or joy. You cannot love the world and God. But we are ever amazed at God’s great love, that like the prodigal, he welcomed us home when we confessed our sins – like the Bible says, he is faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Many years ago I was very involved in a Methodist church. I taught in Sunday school and my children went regularly. I tried to do what I knew was right. After the children had grown up and we moved I stopped going to church as there was no church near where we lived, but I still prayed and sometimes read my Bible, especially at times when things went wrong.

Then about four years ago I was accosted one day on High Street in Clydach by a very nice, tall young boy called Tim. We got talking, and he asked me if I was a Christian. I said, ‘I believe I am’ but when he asked me if I went to church I had to say ‘No’. He told me about some special meetings going on in the church, just like the ones advertised in this paper. He invited me to the coffee morning and asked if I’d be interested in hearing Henry Olonga’s story.

When I went to the meeting, Tim was looking out for me and sat with me. I was unsure of what to expect, but I found the people were warm and welcoming. I enjoyed listening to Henry Olonga’s story of being a Christian and a cricketer. Afterwards Tim said ‘Why don’t you come on Sunday?’, so I did.

What I found really helpful in Bethel was that on Sundays the Bible was being explained. As I listened to the church services I felt I wanted to know more, so I kept coming. I got to know more about what the Bible meant and about its relevance for me. I even did a Christianity Explored course which helped me understand who Jesus Christ was and why he came. Before I came to Bethel, I had thought that going to church and reading your Bible and praying must mean I was a Christian, but I began to understand that’s not what makes you a Christian.

One night I was doing a Bible study with Paul from the church. As it was being explained to me, all of a sudden, I knew! I said to him ‘I finally know what you’re on about and I want to give my life to Christ’. I asked God to forgive me, once and for all.

I am a much calmer and happier person since I became a Christian. I’m not perfect but I know I can ask God for forgiveness and he helps me. I also feel part of the church, I belong there now and I want others to experience what I’ve experienced, so I try to tell people about what’s happened to me.

Being a Christian hasn’t always been easy. My husband David died a year ago and I’m still asking God ‘Why?’. But I know that I can trust God for everything and I know that God is going to look after me. I often think, ‘Why did we move to Clydach, when we didn’t know anyone here?’ and ‘Why did I go to High Street that day?’ – I don’t even remember what I was doing! But if Tim hadn’t accosted me I would never have gone to Bethel and never become a Christian. God knew what he was doing then, so I can trust him for everything that’s in store.

I was driving home, and suddenly I felt so empty and lost. I became really upset, wondering where I was going with my life. What changed? I’d moved to Cardiff with work, and two people on my team became Christians. I’d watched them get baptised, and they’d told the stories of how their lives had completely changed for the best – and it made me seriously think! I thought I had a nice life doing what everyone else was doing, focusing on things I thought I wanted and needed but I wasn’t happy. Deep down I was crying and I remember calling out to God to help me.

So I began to read about what it meant to be a Christian. I thought I knew what Christianity was all about, having gone to church as a child, but it became clear that I really wasn’t sure about lots of things. I had wasted enough time. I was an adult now, and I needed to figure out what life was all about. I had this sense of God, looking at the beauty of nature, the complexity of life, design was everywhere! I thought of dying too… coming face to face with God. There would be no excuse I could give him. Surely this is the biggest question in life, so why was I doing nothing about it?

I started attending Bethel Church. Later I went on a Christianity Explored course which helped clarify things for me and I really started to understand what being a Christian was all about. It was about Jesus; why he came and why he died. I realised that the world we live in is a broken world because of the sin that entered it. This caused us to be separated from God, wanting to live our lives our own way, without answering to him. That brokenness was true, it described me!

But, I also realised that God loves me and has given me a way out to be saved from this. He sent his Son, Jesus so that I could know God through Him, and if I trusted in Jesus’ death on the cross… in my place, for my sins… then I could be forgiven! Because Jesus dealt with my sin on the cross, it meant I no longer had to be separated from God!

This ultimate love and sacrifice deeply moved me and I realised I was a sinner and felt guilty for the way I had been living my life. I prayed honestly to God, I confessed to him the things that I was ashamed of and asked for his forgiveness.

That year I had great opportunity at a Christian conference in Aberystwyth to really focus and learn more. The message of the Bible became more real and started fitting together.

At the beginning of this story I told you about driving home deeply upset because I wasn’t happy. I’d just heard a friend tell me how God had changed him. He was so happy and full of this joy. I hadn’t felt that way myself. I had been sceptical of what he told me. I just didn’t understand how it could be true.

And now I was driving home from the Christian conference in Aberystwyth. This time driving home was like no other day. Something wonderful happened. Suddenly it all made perfect sense. My eyes felt like they opened and I could see the world clearly. I was just so moved by the power of this conviction that I was crying. It was amazing, and I knew that this was it. I knew that I really did believe that Jesus died for me!

Life didn’t feel right before because that separation from God was the cause of the emptiness I was feeling. No longer being separated from God has made me feel so complete and at peace. It was incredibly liberating. Before the conference, I was worried with what people would think, so I hadn’t told anyone I was going to a Christian conference for a whole week! But after, I wasn’t worried anymore of what they thought. I just honestly told whoever asked. It felt I was finally being true to God, being open about my trust in him. I wasn’t hiding away what I believed any more.

It keeps on amazing me how this conviction has changed my life! All those years ago I did not think submitting my life to God would be the most exciting thing in the world. But now it feels like I’m finally alive and nothing else compares.

Jan: I had a great upbringing but I was known as the black sheep in the family, wanting to rebel against everything. During the early 70s I was heavily involved in the drug scene and festival cultures like Bickershaw and Glastonbury.

Stu: Being brought up in a religious family, going to church was the norm. Looking back it was only when I was about 14 that I started to take a real interest in wanting to know more about God.

Jan: Three years of partying left me utterly confused. Someone once asked me ‘who or what do you worship?’ I said ‘trees’ – I wouldn’t even sit on park benches as I thought I’d hurt the feelings of the wood! I was just depressed and felt rubbish and unclean. Stu: During 1963-1964 it was the factory scene. We’d work hard in the week and then the boys would let loose on the weekend with drinking and girls. But something told me that God was real so I didn’t get involved but continued to find out more about him.

Jan: I really tried to get a better life but I just couldn’t. Then a man called Ceri Jenkins one day asked me to go to a Christian meeting. I went along thinking this would be a laugh but I heard how Jesus loved me even though I’d been a rebel against him. I felt the urgency of getting right with God knowing that Jesus was coming back. I knew that if I didn’t I wasn’t going to heaven. That night I prayed God would change me and for the first time I felt clean! My dad gave me two months at being a Christian. It’s been 40 years! I keep reminding myself that the Bible says, ‘If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.’

Stu: To be honest I can’t pin a date on when I became a Christian. Looking back it was as though God had been directing my life. My friends were living one way but God was pulling me to him. By 1971 I knew that God had made me a Christian, and I was committed to following Jesus, so it was then that I got baptised.

Stu & Jan: We met in 1982. Three weeks later got engaged and six months after that, we were married. We’ve been blessed with two boys and a granddaughter. There have been many joys! But we’ve both struggled with our health for a long time. Jan has been in and out of hospital for almost 30 years. Stu almost went blind in the early 90s.

But we know the realisation that God is with us in our struggles. We don’t always feel it but we know and trust what we read in the Bible. When difficulties come we learn to trust God and remember this verse in the Bible that says Christians can have a ‘peace that passes all understanding’. It can get a bit frustrating sometimes because of things we’d like to do but can’t. But God gives us what we need and with that we can be content.

There were some jobs going in the Swansea clerical office. I’d just left school so thought I’d apply as I always wanted a job where I could help people in the community.

My time in the pensions and benefits department lasted thirty-one years. I wasn’t due to retire, but things started to slowly change in the civil service. I wanted to leave and they offered me early retirement. I was looking forward to a few holidays and I was thinking of changing my car. I’d been working for a long time so the opportunity for early retirement seemed to make sense.

On my first day of retirement I did absolutely nothing! But it was kind of like that for a little while. I did start to think back to my working days – how long those thirty-one years had been. And I asked myself what I had to show for all that time. I felt something was missing.

I’d sometimes be driving in my car and pass various churches in Clydach. I missed spending time with people and thought I’d find some sort of community in a church. I knew the time the service at Bethel Church started but I was quite nervous about going by myself. Eventually, when I did go, it was quite reassuring. There were even people on the front door to welcome me.

Listening to the preacher came as a bit of a shock though. He said no-one was good enough to go to heaven but that God sent Jesus to save us. I thought that as long as your good deeds are more than your bad you’ll be fine and go to heaven but this wasn’t what God said in the Bible. I was terrified that because of my sin I was God’s enemy.

I was no longer enjoying my retirement as I started to see I wasn’t the nice guy I thought I was. God was on my mind more than ever and I knew I needed him so I started to go to Bethel regularly. I’d always assumed I was going to heaven but I realised this was a fairy story – I had to come to God. I often thought about the wrong things I’d done in my life and wondered if God really wanted me.

As I carried on going to church I came to understand that if I was sorry before God for the way I’d lived and put my trust in the death of Jesus to forgive me, then I could be God’s friend. I asked God to forgive me and then I knew I was going to heaven. I had peace in my life for the first time. God’s forgiveness is what everyone needs – I want my family and others in Clydach to know this too.

I’m still retired and life is not free from problems especially with my health, but I know that God helps me to face the issues and I’m looking forward to heaven where God promises there will be no more suffering.’

I was a bit of a trouble-maker at school and after leaving Pontardawe Technical College at sixteen I worked as an apprentice at Smiths Industries (Tick Tock) in Ystradgynlais. However, I was made redundant in 1972 by which time I had become involved in the drug culture. Pop festivals and taking drugs became the norm, and so was the trafficking of drugs.

Life was going the way I wanted it to. I had plenty of money and was very philosophical. I thought if everyone just smoked dope, then the world would be a happier place and without wars. The aim was to turn the whole world on.

But then one day God dramatically began to turn my life around. As I was driving from London to Clydach I suddenly had a mental picture of three crosses in my head. Afterward, I had a growing sense that there must be a God. And I thought if there was a God, was it possible to know Him? I also became aware of a growing sense of my own sinfulness. This was not just because of the lifestyle I was living but sin was in me, in my heart, and was part of my nature.

I bought a Bible and began reading it. Within a few weeks I had the answer to my question and I came to know Jesus Christ as my Saviour. In John’s gospel in the Bible Jesus said “This is life eternal that they might know you the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” This became a reality to me – God was real, Christ was real, salvation and forgiveness were real! I knew God had forgiven my sin and I knew a wonderful sense of his peace and love for me.

I continued reading the Bible and just soaked it up like a sponge. But this was no mere intellectual or academic exercise. Maintaining this relationship with God and pursuing a growing knowledge of him became the most important thing in my life. This experience of God changed the whole direction of my life.

Now, I am still pursuing the same goal – to know more of this great God that I met over forty years ago.

When I was seventeen years-old, we were evicted from our home in Clydach. Thankfully Mrs Phillips, a kind friend of my mother, took us in. Her son was a Christian who was training to be a pastor. He encouraged me to attend Trinity Church and it was there I realised that I needed saving by God. I began to trust in Jesus Christ as my Saviour.

After we were relocated to Hebron Road in Clydach, I started to see David who was in the Navy. David wasn’t a Christian but we were married when I was nineteen. I wasn’t really reading my Bible or going to church for the years that followed and I slowly drifted away from God.

Many years and three children later, I was a most miserable woman. I didn’t know where I was. I felt that I didn’t belong in the world. I started to attend Bethel church and really felt that God was drawing me back to himself. I started to feel happy again. But because of David’s work we had to move to Scunthorpe. I found no suitable church there and I started to drift away from God again.

Three and a half years later we moved back to Llansamlet and I started attending Peniel Green Church. I remember these wonderful words in a hymn, “O love that will not let me go”. It was amazing to see that even though I was struggling to follow God, he was still patient and committed to me.

On another occasion we were in Cardiff visiting Heath Church. The preacher’s message shook me! I remember the verse he was speaking on: “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” I was terrified and great doubts came into my head. I wasn’t committed to God. I asked myself whether I really was a Christian. I knew I wasn’t right with God. I had no assurance. Was I a Christian or a counterfeit?

I knew that Jesus died to save sinners, but there was no peace in my heart that he had forgiven all of my sins. I told all this to a friend and she said, “Are you calling God a liar?” I was really upset and felt even worse as there was no way I could call God a liar.

I remember opening the Bible and reading John 6:37, “all that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.” I felt a great weight lift off my shoulders. I knew that no matter how bad I’d been God would forgive me and not cast me away. It wasn’t about my feelings but about God’s promise to forgive those who turn to him and trust in Jesus. I remember being so glad and joyful as I read the Bible and its promise of forgiveness.

Today, I’m still happily married to David – he’s a Christian now too, and we are just so thankful to God that he sent Jesus to die to save us.

One of the most vivid memories from my childhood is that of a tinworker from Llanelli preaching in church. He explained how he had first met with Jesus his Saviour. When he explained what the Bible said, it seemed as though he was speaking only to me. He spoke slowly, convinced every word was vitally important. What struck home was that if the Lord Jesus has done all that for me I must follow him.

After church I remember how we crowded into my grandmother’s house. Everyone talked about the meeting and as we sang there were tears on people’s faces. I wondered why.

We had the customary cup of tea and sandwiches before we started on the journey home. As we walked I thought hard on those words, ‘If Jesus has done all that for me I will follow him’. It was the same for the disciples in the Bible; Jesus said to them, ‘If anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me’ and they did. It was a simple thing to do really but at times it proved to be quite difficult.

You see, rugby ultimately became a big part of my life. I played from a teenager until I was thirty-four, and then I qualified as a WRU referee. The very first top-class match I was given to referee was on a Good Friday; I had to reject it as I wanted to be at church instead. I was told I wouldn’t get another game like that but the next month when my appointments came through, I had the Australian tourists. I was soon refereeing in England, Scotland and France. I was on top of the world and at the top of my career but I was still following the Lord Jesus by putting him first in everything.

Then on three successive Sundays we had three different preachers, who had the same text, Hebrews 12:1-3:

‘Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus… who… endured the cross, scorning its shame…’

And I thought, ‘Lord, you’re talking to me about rugby. It’s hindering my walk with you’. But I didn’t want to give up rugby and I made lots of excuses, like ‘I can speak to the lads about the Lord’ which I could, and ‘it’s not sinful’ which it wasn’t. But I came to realise that wasn’t the point really. If I was to follow Jesus, I had to put him first in everything, and everything else second. I knew I couldn’t give him everything. Something had to go. And I could never refuse doing things for Jesus, so if I could do something for him, then I would. So I gave all the rugby up. I was sad to finish but I was doing it for the Lord so that I could serve him better. Those words still come back to me, ‘If Jesus has done all that for me I will follow him’. Giving him my very best, my all, is the least I can do.

My family have lived in Rhydypandy for more than 100 years, and we occupy six of the thirty or so houses in the village. As a child we attended Salem, the local Welsh Baptist chapel, which was such a big part of my life. We had such pride over the place because the chapel was built in 1777. My father played the organ and our whole family loved singing. I went to the services, Sunday School, and Band of Hope but I especially enjoyed the quarterly meetings.

At sixteen, when I started to earn money, they asked me, ‘Do you believe in Jesus?’ and I said ‘Of course, I do!’ because I did – after all, I had been to Salem all my life. So I was baptised and became a member. The problem was I believed in a Jesus that I didn’t really know. The only thing I knew of Jesus was that he was a good man who did miracles.

Then a young minister came to Salem and from the Bible he told us that Jesus died on a cross, and he had shed his blood so that my sin could be forgiven. As I listened I gradually started to realise just who Jesus was and what he had done.

He said it was like there was a big wall between us and God but Jesus breaks through that wall, forgiving us of our sin and making a way for us to reach God – he was preaching things I had never heard before and this really worried me. Every night that week I was crying, saying ‘What will happen now?’ I just couldn’t believe that I’d gone to chapel all my life but I didn’t know the Bible and I was not a Christian.

Over time I accepted what the Bible was saying so I confessed to God that I was a sinner and came to know that there was no hope without him. I felt such a relief. And the older I get the more I realise how totally undeserving I am of all that God has done for me. That is what it’s all about, all I had was religion but it’s not about religion, it’s about really knowing God.

As a boy growing up in Gorslas, many of the people in the area had been changed by God during the 1904 revival. They were different to the ordinary religious man – their faith and witness was vibrant and they had such zeal for God. All they would talk about was the Lord. This had a profound and, at times, a fearful effect on me. In my late teens I experienced a strong conviction of sin, so I cried to God for salvation and I believed that Jesus Christ had died for my sins.

However, I wasn’t wholly committed to Christ. I only gave part of my heart and I kept part for myself. Then after my college days, I clearly remember while praying one night being suddenly overwhelmed by the presence of God. It was a very powerful, humbling, joyous and transforming experience. It turned me fully to Jesus and I was just so thankful to God for his patience with me as he had kept me believing all those years even though I was only living partly for him.

Everything had now changed for me. I no longer wanted to live a self-serving life but a God-serving life; I just wanted to live for God. My attitude to other people changed; I just wanted to testify to God’s goodness. The way I used my money, time and talents all changed. It affected our family life; it affects all aspects of living.

Not that this is easy, as I am a soldier in a battle; battling with my old sinful ways, with the world and with the devil. But we have a wonderful Saviour, who is our refuge and peace. He meets our every need, and guides our ways. He gives us contentment in him, so we are satisfied with whatever he has given us.

After several years I became uneasy in my work even though I enjoyed teaching tremendously. I wondered if it was because I’d been in one school for too long so I applied for a new job but even then this uneasiness stayed with me. I started to realise God was giving me a new desire. I felt a compulsion to minister God’s word – but it was a feeling that sometimes waned. I was concerned about this so I spoke to a very discerning Christian friend and he suggested that the two of us meet and together pray to God about this matter. So we did. We met every Monday for two years and prayed until I was certain that being a minister was really what God wanted me to be.

I was called to be the minister of Bethel Evangelical Church in 1980, and served there until I retired in 2000. But there is no retirement! I can’t give up preaching. I have an urgency to preach Christ and him crucified and I will continue to do so, as long as God gives me health and strength.