I didn’t have an easy time when I was growing up. My dad died when I was four, and when I was a teenager I became seriously ill with pneumonia and pleurisy. I was so desperate I asked God for help, but when I recovered I soon forgot all about God.

I later got a grant to study medicine at Liverpool University, but in my fifth year I had a motorcycle accident which shattered my leg confined me to hospital — but as a patient, not a student. I just didn’t have the money to re-do the year so I had to give it up.

So in 1957 I moved to Swansea and joined the Swansea Borough Police Force. I married Jean in 1963; we settled in Ynystawe, and had three daughters.  My mother-in-law’s friend insisted on taking our girls to Bethel. Jean and I were happy for them to go but weren’t particularly interested in going ourselves.

But in 1977 God started to intervene in my life. Being Detective Sergeant in the Drugs Squad was challenging work and I spent a lot of time in pubs and clubs where the drug users were. About that time Jean and I were invited by our daughters to a meeting which the young people were taking at Bethel. We had refused so many invitations previously, we thought we ought to go. I sat there and watched the young people — their faces radiated such joy and happiness. It really moved me. It was such a contrast to the young drug users I was dealing with in my work; I knew the drug users never found happiness through taking drugs — indeed, many ended their lives.

Seeing their happiness made me interested enough to start attending Bethel myself. I had thought that academic success, alcohol, playing rugby and other things like that would bring lasting happiness. But I’d found that it didn’t last.

Then in the last hour of the last day of 1977, whilst attending a New Year’s Eve service, I heard these words of Jesus: “Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest”. It became a personal invitation to me and I accepted Jesus as my personal Saviour there and then, and became a new person in the Lord. From then on I wanted to live for the Lord. My life had changed. I used to drink and I enjoyed smoking but I no longer wanted to do those things and gave them up immediately. What God had given me was so much more wonderful than anything the world had to offer. I went for a walk on the first morning of 1978 and I remember breathing in the pure fresh air and thinking how wonderful creation was. It was a new year and I was a new person.

I know now that everlasting happiness can only be found by accepting Jesus as Saviour. Unlike alcohol, success or sport, turning to Jesus has brought me true and lasting happiness.

I was brought up in a Christian family, so I always knew Jesus had done the unthinkably difficult thing of being punished by God the Father so that I could be forgiven by him if I just trusted him. I knew this was good news — the bit I didn’t like was being 100% committed to Jesus.

I desperately wanted all the good things being a Christian has to offer; forgiveness, heaven, etc., but I didn’t want to do anything that was too difficult or uncomfortable for me. I thought doing what God wanted would stop me being happy.

I knew that some people who were Christians went to other countries to tell people they can have a right relationship with God because Jesus died on the cross to forgive them. I thought this was a great thing to do — great idea for someone else to do, that is, but not for me! Some people love the idea of travelling, but not me. I’m a home-bird. Studying in London seemed like the other end of the world.

But God has taught me a lot about trusting him for the future. I used to try to control my own life and future — but never very successfully. I now realise that the scarier thing is trying to control things myself rather than trusting God. He is in control anyway, so trusting him and praying to him about my fears and concerns is a much happier place to be.

So despite being a home-bird, for the last four years, I’ve been living in Japan with my husband and two young children. We want to tell Japanese people about Jesus so that they can have the opportunity to know the true and living God.

It’s funny how things turn out, isn’t it? My biggest fear came true and yet I am happier than I ever dreamed I would be. I know I can trust God with all my fears; knowing and trusting him is the happiest place to be. He made us as people who will only ever be truly satisfied and happy when we find our satisfaction and happiness in him.

As a child, my father was a lay-reader and we went to church three times every Sunday. But when I left home and went to teacher-training college, I realised that going to church had just been a habit. I was a hypocrite, really. I did carry on saying my prayers but that was just me being superstitious.

After I met and married my husband we moved out to New Zealand and I went to a church which helped me to think about what the Bible said. Then my mum back in Llansaint became a Christian and I started to notice a change in her. Despite losing my father some years before, I remember thinking that I didn’t need to worry about mum any more because of the security and happiness that she now had as a Christian — and of course it made me want something of that same security.

When we moved back to the UK, my sister told me Clydach was a nice, friendly place to live, so we moved here. God knew what he was doing, as we happened to move into a house just around the corner from what my mum called ‘a lovely little church’ — Bethel.

So following mum’s advice, I started going to Bethel. I asked myself, ‘What’s the point in being a hypocrite?’ as I had been for many years and was in danger of becoming again. I was challenged by sermons and prayers I heard at church and I came to realise that I wasn’t right with God.

Coming to know God was a slow process for me — but it is one journey I’ve never regretted. It’s funny how things hit you. There have been so many times in Bethel when I’ve thought, ‘That sermon was just for me’. And although I don’t remember exactly when I became a Christian I know that God has forgiven my sins and I have peace with him.

I’m retired now, but when I was younger I worked during the day and went to the pubs and clubs to drink in the nights and on weekends. That was my life — no real direction or focus.

But when our sons were old enough my wife started looking for a Sunday School. A friend recommended Bethel, so the boys went — and a couple of years later my wife started going too.

Although I had always felt there was a God, I had no real thought about him, so although I had no issue with the rest of the family going to Bethel, I didn’t want to go.  But one Sunday I just decided to go with the others and I have been going ever since!

At first, I found it difficult to understand the Bible and the preaching. But God was dealing with me, and over time I realised I was a sinner and that my sins needed to be forgiven, so I asked God to forgive me.

I had become a Christian and I realised God had changed me! I didn’t want to go back to my old way of life which involved drinking and not much else; now I had something much better to enjoy.

When I was about six-years-old I believed in God, and I remember praying to him, asking him to forgive me for the wrong things I was doing. I wasn’t particularly naughty or rebellious by many peoples’ standards but I was hiding it well! But I knew that those wrong things I was doing meant that I was sinning against God and that because of that I was going to hell. It scared me!

Growing up as a teenager, I started to have serious doubts as to whether or not I really was a Christian. I had some big unanswered questions. For me, the problem was that God and the Bible didn’t seem to fit in with things I was being taught at school.

The turning point for me was that I started to understand what faith in God really was. Faith can be such a confusing word! It’s not just saying or thinking things are true but it is actually believing them. So, although not all my questions were answered straight away I slowly began believing and trusting in God and trying to follow him. From then on I have been understanding things about God and about me through the Bible.

I’m still not quite sure when I became a Christian, but I don’t think that matters. What really matters is that I do believe in Jesus now. I do believe there is a problem in the world, and that problem is sin. I do believe that sin separated me from God. And I do believe that God has done something to bring me back to him – he sent Jesus to die on the cross to take the punishment for my sins. All this means I believe that one day I’ll go to heaven because of what Jesus has done for me. As I said, I’m not sure when I started believing this, but I know I believe it now.

As a doctor I have seen many people in difficult and tragic situations. I sometimes hear them ask big questions: “Why me? Why am I here? What’s the point of it all?” As a Christian the Bible tells me that we can have a reason for living, that God really does care about us and we can have something so much better than this life can ever offer.

When things get hard, I know that God is in control of everything and I really can trust him.

“I was ten when I met John Davies who was then the minister of Bethel. I knew there was something different about him and his family because there was such a peaceful atmosphere when I was with them. They were great friends and I loved spending time with them. They were kind, a good influence and they took me along to the church.

“At Bethel I remember being taught about how God wants to save us. I remember one particular day at the young people’s meeting when I was twelve-years-old, I was given a piece of paper which said, ‘If I die tonight I will go to h…’ I didn’t want to fill it in. I knew the answer and it frightened me.

“I knew about heaven and hell but that day it really brought it home to me so I prayed asking Jesus to come into my life. I knew I needed him. I started reading my Bible and writing down things I was taught at Bethel.

“It didn’t last long though. For some reason I just stopped going to Bethel. I wanted to do my own thing and I became a bit of wild child – doing what I wanted when I wanted. I wasn’t really thinking about God.

“When I was twenty-one I met Mark and the following year we got married. We were blessed with two wonderful children and when they were young I took them to Bethel’s Sunday School and started going back to the church. I used to hide under my hymn book as we were singing. I was in tears, thinking, ‘What have I done with my life?’

“I realised what a fool I’d been, but I knew God was working in me – he loved me and wanted me back. I started to live for God and not myself, and Mark could see the difference it made in me. I’d finally understood that as Christian you have to walk with God. I’d spent lots of time with different people when I was a teenager but I was on a path to disaster. You can’t walk both paths; it’s one or the other.

“If I had that piece of paper now, I would write ‘heaven’ knowing what God has done for me. I know I’m not good enough to get to heaven on my own, but it’s all about how good Jesus is.”