One family’s journey to seek God

Life can be difficult.

Sandra had gone through a tough time growing up, losing all her family at a young age. It wasn’t plain sailing as an adult either.

“About 15 years ago, everything just got too much for me,” she says. “One son was serving in Iraq, another was struggling with drug addiction, and I was having chemo for breast cancer.

“I walked into the local church and just broke down on Father Peter. He visited and had coffee with me every Friday after that, just offering a listening ear.”

They didn’t talk about faith and it wasn’t really on Sandra’s radar. But something changed when her son went into rehab. He came to live with her afterwards and on Sunday, he announced, “I’m going to church, Mum. Why don’t you come with me?”

A friend at rehab had told him something about Jesus. Sandra thought she would go along just to sit next to her son and support him – she realised this faith was doing him good.

“But after a couple of weeks, I felt like I wasn’t just there for my son,” Sandra says. “I felt I was there for a reason. In fact, I felt that God was calling me and I started to feel completely different about everything that had happened in my life. I felt that God had been helping me through all the struggles, my whole life.”

After about a month, Sandra became a Christian.

Counties Evangelist Victor Jack is at Sandra’s church in Westley, and Sandra soon joined his homegroup. She found Victor so easy to talk to and learned lots from him about following Jesus.

He’s always there, all the time

“My life has changed hugely,” says Sandra. “I know how to deal with all my struggles now. I’ve always struggled with anxiety from 30 years of supporting my sons, and battling cancer.

“But now, when I start worrying, I can instantly start praying to God, and say, ‘please take this anxiety away from me, Lord,’ and it goes. It’s just knowing that there’s somebody there all the time.”

Now I have a family

The other wonderful thing for Sandra has been finding a family after losing her parents and siblings long ago.

“I felt that God was calling me, and had been helping me through the struggles my whole life.”

“M husband Ed has a huge family,” she says. “But one of the things I’ve always found hard is having no family whatsoever. But since I’ve come to faith, I never feel alone now. I have a Father, and a church family. I just know that in hard times there’s always someone I can call on.”

I prayed for Ed for seven years

Someone who also made friends with Victor was Sandra’s husband, Ed. He asked some questions but at this point, wasn’t really interested in knowing more.

But whenever they went on holiday together, Sandra wanted to go to church. In Spain, Ed changed his plan to go for a coffee and went to the church with Sandra instead. To Sandra’s surprise, he became very emotional and broke down in the service. Two church members spoke with him. But Ed didn’t want to talk about it afterwards.

A year later, he went to church in Mexico, and broke down in tears once more. Again, he didn’t want to talk about it.

Then, one night about 18 months ago, Ed woke up in the middle of the night, telling Sandra that something quite dramatic had happened to him. He asked what she thought was going on.

“I said, I think God has been knocking on your door for a few years but you’ve taken no notice, so now He’s given you a shock. Ed said, I need to talk to Victor! Early the next morning, he spent a while talking to Victor about his experiences. And two weeks later, he gave his life to Christ.”

Ed was always a kind man but has only become kinder; he’s now known in the area as someone who will always help you out. After coming to faith, he’s always saying, “What will be will be – I don’t worry about anything now.”

Sandra had prayed for Ed to know Jesus for seven years. His story of faith is a testament to her faithfulness and God’s!

Now Sandra and Ed are both learning to teach the Bible. Sandra helps to run a much-loved coffee morning for local people – it’s a good way to get to know if anyone locally is struggling with anything and how the church can help.

Having Victor there was instrumental

Sandra and Ed got so much help and encouragement from Victor, a Counties Evangelist, as they explored faith. Sandra says,

“I go to him with any problem. We 100 per cent trust and value him.

“Thank you for supporting people like Victor – he’s the best evangelist I’ve ever heard and he’s a brilliant encourager. He can answer all your questions in a way you can understand.”

Sandra and Ed got so much help and encouragement from Victor, a Counties Evangelist, as they explored faith. Are you looking for someone to talk to? Counties Evangelists are spread across the UK, click here to find out who is based near you.