Ken Nippard
Where shall I begin?
I was born a soldier's son at the end of World War 2. I made and lost many friends in that time as we moved around the world and back, living no more than three years in any one place. I was a loner as it hurt to keep losing friends. Eventually my father left the army and we went to live where he was born in Parkstone, Poole in Dorset.
Army children are allowed to take their exams a year late due to all the moving but when we came back to England I was already too late as my age had already taken them. At 15 I had no school certificates so started working as an electricians mate, then became an apprentice and finally an electrician.
I went with some other lads, first of all we had mopeds, then motor bikes where I became a rocker. I was not a nice person, my language consisted of swearing, slang and sarcasm and I had a flick-knife in my pocket always.
One day one of mates wanted me to go with him to a youth club because he fancied a blond girl there, he didn't tell me it was a Christian youth club because he knew that I wouldn't have gone. I couldn't understand it, they didn't smoke, swear, drink alcohol yet they were far happier than me.
I got invited to go to church by one of the girls one day and much to my surprise I actually went in being careful to stay at the back. I didn't understand much of what was being said except for the fact the guy at the front was on about that feller called Jesus Christ. (I had only used his name as a swear word)
Eventually I was uncertain as to whether he really did exist? What if he did? I sent out a thought challenge to God, if you exist prove it to me! Then I promptly forgot about it all and carried on as though he didn't exist.
God hadn't forgotten about it however, the following Monday morning I left for work at the factory on my motor bike travelling at my usual 40+ miles an hour down the residential road. There was a parked car near the crossroads at the bottom of a hill so I moved to the centre of the road without easing off, a vehicle was coming the other way with the driver glaring at me. Then a car came out of the road crossing the one I was on, there was no where to go, I hit him at speed.
My head went through the perspex part of the fairing and my neck was pressing down hard on the remainder. The bike was embedded in the front wing of the car and so remained upright, when I realised that I was still in one piece I moved and saw that my neck was in between two jagged pieces of perspex, Just a little to the left or right and my juggler vein would have been ripped out.
I listened carefully the following Sunday and decided to follow Jesus, He is not an institution or a religion but a living loving person and has by his Spirit helped me along life’s way.
I no longer drink spirits and very little alcohol (I was at 18 already an alcoholic) and if being without Jesus was better than being with Him I would have gone back to my old way of life, as being a Christian is harder than not being one.
The bottom line in all this is that God really does love you, it doesn't matter what you have done in the past he wants you to come to Him, there is only one way you will find out for yourself and that is to ask Him into your life.