From being a self-centred hotelier who worked hard and played even harder, by the grace of God I have been transformed.

Through reading the Bible out of curiosity, meeting a missionary who actually did what the Bible said and through a tragedy, finding out that the promises of the Bible were true, I became (much to everyone’s amazement) a Christian. ‘Blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted’, the book said. When the battered body of a close friend was discovered dead on Romney Marsh, the overwhelming experience of God’s loving comfort convinced me He was real.

I discovered in the Word that it is necessary to receive Jesus Christ as well as to believe in Him. I believed, reason told me it would be foolish not to, but what was this ‘receive’? I prayed (if you can call it that) that whatever it was I thought I wanted it. I felt an extraordinary sense of wellbeing. The following day, New Years Day 1988, the feeling was still there when I awoke. Not only that but I spotted half a bottle of wine left on the dining room table – I had never been able to leave alcohol unfinished before! And then, when I picked up the Bible to read my ‘interesting stories’, it became alive and compelling for the first time.

The church was still a confusing and, frankly, dull place. But God challenged me "You feed my lambs, my people are spiritually undernourished – you train and teach them." I was alarmed, my schooling had been patchy at best. But nothing is impossible with God and seven years of study preceded a teaching and preaching ministry that sees others grow closer to God and some to find Him for the first time to find a hope and a purpose beyond anything a world without Him has to offer.

Life is far from perfect in this world, but in Christ it is fulfilling and exciting and if there is one Scripture I would want all folk to know, it is this: "Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart." (Ps 37:4) Indeed it is true, for He knows our hearts better than we know them ourselves.

Anna Griffiths