The Testimony Podcast

Hello and welcome to Episode 38 of the Testimony Podcast. This is going to be the last podcast that I release in this series for a while, the podcast is going to be going on hiatus, but these episodes will still be available. My guest for this episode is Gloria Knight. Gloria came to know Jesus through being taken to church by neighbours, but her rebellious teenage years led to drugs and single parenthood on welfare benefits in the worst neighbourhood in San Francisco. The shock of seeing a friend killed by an overdose made Gloria decide to come off the drugs and join the Jesus Movement. She ran away from one bad marriage and ended up in Minnesota at a wonderful church, before eventually settling in Louisiana. Fear and bereavement have driven her to seek God, to be close to Him, and to shelter in him. Gloria had three sons, Dennis, Dustin, and John, but has known the heartbreak of losing a child, her middle son Dustin. Gloria shares the lessons it has taken her a lifetime to learn, lessons that we all need to take to heart.

Welcome to episode 37 of the Testimony podcast. Before I get into this episode I want to let you all know that the podcast will be on hiatus for a while starting this month July 2022, the existing episodes will continue to be made available. My guest for this episode is the creative entrepreneur, Pete Wilson. Pete was born into a Christian home and over the years he has been involved in youth ministry, worship, corporate banking, and for many years he worked with Hillsong in London and around the world in Europe, America, and Asia. He has worked with Joel and Victoria Osteen for seven years before coming back to England where he is now Creative Director for Glorify, the app that wants to bring the joy of connecting with God to Christian all around the world. In this conversation, we talk about how Pete grew up and matured in a culture of exuberant worship, and still celebrates that tradition, but he has now discovered the benefit and beauty of finding a calm space with God and learning to be peaceful with the Father. He enjoys creating environments and experiences where people can encounter and connect with God. This is his story.

My guest for this episode is the author, blogger, and writing coach Ruth Leigh. I met Ruth relatively recently through a mutual friend and she has spoken at a conference I organized in Cambridge England in 2021. Ruth is a warm and funny person and that generosity of spirit that she has, that has been gifted to her by God comes out in what she says and what she writes. In this episode, we talk about trusting that we are assured of God’s precious love for us as His children and that he wants the best for us, the fact that everyone has a story to tell, and how important it is for us to follow those little nudges that God gives us through the prompting of His holy spirit. For those of you who are based in the UK or can get to the UK in September of this year, 2022, Ruth will be speaking at the Christian writer’s conference in Cambridge on Saturday 3rd September, and there are still some tickets left for that event. I had a wonderful time talking to Ruth, as I always do, this is her story.

My guest for this episode is the pastor and writer Scott Sauls, Scott is the Senior Pastor of Christ Presbyterian Church in Nashville he is the author of six books including the forthcoming ‘Beautiful People Don’t Just Happen' which is out June 14th, 2022, just after this episode is released. In this episode, we talk about the closeness of Christ in times of difficulty and despair, the nearness of Christ even when we can’t see his footsteps, and how we can identify with Christ as the suffering servant. We talk about suffering and forsakenness and Christ’s unique position as the saviour and messiah who knows these things himself, we discuss the wonder of life and our small corner as humanity in the universe, and how God has a purpose for the hard realities that we face, even as he gives us the emotional and spiritual tools to help us process the things we face. This is Scott’s story.

My guest for this episode emigrated to the UK from Zimbabwe, an amazing country with a troubled recent history. He has learnt some tough lessons about trusting God, both in terms of the plans he wanted to make for his life, and then literally whether he was going to live or die. He is a church leader, a teacher, a writer, and a musician with a story to tell about God’s provision. His name is Matt Mcchlery and this is his story.

My guest for this episode is someone who knows all about shame, addiction, and desperation. Cat grew up in a stable and loving family in Norfolk, England, but at the age of 16 she started to get into alcohol and drugs, and her life spiraled out of control. What followed was a decade of addiction, pain, and torment which only began to end when, as a person of no faith she wandered into church and met with the infinite compassion of Jesus. Since then, there have still been difficulties and hardships in her life, but even in times of doubt and questioning Cat found herself called by God to a ministry to set others free from the pain she had felt. That calling had led her to the ministry she is involved in today with the Naked Truth Project, a ministry to those struggling with pornography addiction, and their partners. This is her story.

My guest for this episode is the writer, publisher, and literary agent, Tony Collins. Tony has spent nearly fifty years working in the world of Christian publishing in the UK. He has worked for Hodder & Stoughton, Kingsway, Monarch, Lion Hudson, and SPCK. Over the course of his career, he has published at least 1400 books and owned three magazines. He is the recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Association of Christian Writers. In this episode, we talk about Tony’s encounters with the spiritual experience of God, and what it is like to encounter God in places where the culture and theology are very different from the one that we are used to. We discuss how these encounters challenge our beliefs and what they say about the longing within us to be in the presence of God. We also talk about Tony’s deep conviction for the care and stewardship of the Earth, and we discuss how we can both long for the spiritual home that is to come and also see the holiness in God’s creation here and now. This is Tony’s story.

My guest for this episode features a person whose family suffered greatly through the impact of pornography. Ian Henderson first went into ministry as a response to a calling based on Isaiah 40, to prepare a way for the Lord and he has lived and worked for decades in some of the most difficult environments in Britain, living out the call from Isaiah 58 to “spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed”. But Ian’s world was shaken by an event that happened in 2007 when his father was arrested and charged with having indecent images on his computer. This event unearthed decades of pornography use. Because of this experience, Ian had to work out how to forgive and then felt convicted to start a ministry to help those who are caught up in an addiction to pornography and their families. This is his story.

My guest for this episode is Tim Boniface. Tim is an ordained priest and a chaplain at Girton College here in Cambridge, but he’s also a professional jazz musician, and you’ll hear some of his music in this episode, and as part of our conversation, we talk about the fundamental role that music has played in his life. If you’re a listener to my other podcast for Creative Writers, the Creative Writer’s Toolbelt, it’s Tim’s music you hear at the start of that podcast. Tim is a fascinating character and has some real insights on the challenge of combining a career in music with a vocation to the priesthood, this is his story. You can find out more about Tim and check out his music at www.timboniface.co.uk

How do you escape from a life of crime, prison, drug addiction, and prostitution? How do you break out of a spiral that steals all of your energy and eventually your life? My guest today knows all about these questions. Trudy Makepeace is an Elim Pastor and in this episode, she shares an astonishing testimony of someone who was damaged by sexual abuse as a child, became addicted to drugs, and lived a life of crime and prostitution. By her 33rd birthday Trudy had tried to break her addictions 33 times, and every time she’d gone back to the drugs and the crime, but something miraculous happened which showed her that she could not fix herself, only Jesus can do that. You can read all about the miraculous transformation that God made in her life in her book “Abused Addicted, Free” and reach her at her website www.trudymakepeace.com but for now, this is her story.

Welcome to episode 28 of the Testimony Podcast, this episode is the second part of a conversation I had with Sara Hall. If you’ve not listened to the first part, which is featured in episode 27, then I suggest you go and listen to that first. Sara is a wife, a mum, a blogger, counselor and author of “Tasting Dirt – When you’re disappointed with God” and in this episode, we talk about gratitude, including Sara’s own twelve thousand reasons for gratitude. We also talk about the helpfulness and honesty of lament, and its importance for healing, and the process of putting all of our faith and hope in the Lord. I think this episode, together with the previous episode, number 27, contains an essential message for Christians today. I was greatly blessed by talking to Sara, I hope you are blessed by listening to our conversation.

Hello and welcome to episode 27 of the Testimony Podcast. We praise God for those times in life when we can feel hope and joy, when we see God’s blessing in our lives, and when we rightly exercise the discipline of celebration. God is good and loves us. But sometimes the circumstances in our lives mean that it’s hard for us to be joyful, it’s difficult for us to be hopeful, and we find ourselves feeling angry, confused, and disappointed with God. Expressing these feelings to our brothers and sisters in the church can be difficult, many people won’t know how to respond to us, even if they know the circumstances that might have driven us to this point. Those we love might fall back on unconvincing and even unbiblical phrases like “God works all things for our good”, “we should be joyful all the time”, or “count your blessings and the negative feelings will go away”. There are times when talking to others can be an encouragement, especially wise people who have themselves suffered, but often we can feel frustrated and isolated, that no one understands our particular circumstances and needs. It is with all these things in mind that I want to share the next two episodes of the podcast with you. These next two episodes are two halves of a conversation I had with Sara Hall. Sara is a wife, a mum, a blogger and counselor and author of “Tasting Dirt – When you’re disappointed with God”. I have to tell you, this is one of the most important conversations I’ve had with anyone for the podcast, and I think there is real value and wisdom in what Sara has to say for everyone who has wrestled with pain in their lives, with disappointment with the Lord, and the challenge of navigating through to some kind of reconciliation with a God in with whom we are disappointed and angry, and yet still love and want a relationship with. Sara has suffered a number of tragedies in her life, and she has wrestled with all of these things disappointment, despair, anger, and all of the related feelings that we have to confront in our lives. But through it all, she has kept the faith and remains a faithful follower of Jesus. In facing and winning these battles, she is able to give us valuable insights into our own lives. She speaks from a place of experience, and of having to do the hard work of reconciling the challenges and tragedies of her life with a faithful walk with God, and so she offers us the kind of hard-won wisdom that is authentic and engages with each of us where we feel our own pain. So, in the first of these two episodes, Sara and I discuss her background, some of the circumstances she’s been through and then we go on to talk about how we can draw comfort and encouragement from God by looking at how he engages with characters from the bible, from prophecy like Elijah, and especially Mary of Bethany, whose encounters with Jesus speak so much truth about how God engages with a troubled soul and a broken heart. I hope you enjoy the first part of this conversation with Sara, here it is.

Hello and welcome to episode 26 of the Testimony Podcast. My guest today is Geoff Peters, something of a tearaway in his youth for his mother, Geoff got a place at university and although he had a church upbringing, he really came to faith in college. He then went on to an extremely short-lived career with one of the top Public Relations firms in the world, and after that, he took his passion for presenting a message and communicating it clearly and worked for an organization that helped churches understand the demographics of their local communities. He now serves as the Chief Marketing Officer for Operation Mobilisation, a global Christian Missions movement. Geoff has a passion to release people of faith into their calling and equipping them to follow Jesus by living out God’s love in their neighbourhoods and he is the author of the newly published "The Family Business" a parable about stepping into the life you were made for; this is his story.

Welcome to episode 25 of the Testimony Podcast. My guest for this episode is the Worship Leader, Songwriter and entrepreneur, Andrew Mitchell. Andrew grew up in a tiny village just outside Edinburgh in Scotland, and at the age of just ten he gave his life to Christ. In his teenage years Andrew wanted to become an evangelist. Andrew intended to go into law, but God had other ideas, directing him to go into music and worship. Andrew needed some convincing but in the end was obedient. He ended up making three albums before God called him to change direction again. Andrew and his wife then went into property development, and it is only recently that Andrew feels that he is being led back into worship leading, and he has just released a new song "For all you have" which features in this episode and can be found at: This is his story. "All You Have Done" is reproduced by permission from Andrew Mitchell.

Have you ever had one of those periods in your life where you’ve felt that God is completely distant and silent? You might have had times when you’ve felt so close to God you could reach out and touch Him, He’s right there, but now you find He is far away. If you have also felt very close to Him, the distance and the silence can seem all the more perplexing. It can also make you feel like you are the only person in the world to have felt this way. Well I have good news for you, you’re not the first person to feel this, and indeed it’s a natural part of our walk with God. Neither are you on your own. When you feel that God is distant you are in fact part of a great tradition that stretches back through church history to the great men and women of the faith, and back further to New Testament times, times of adversity and sacrifice and back further still to the old testament, to the prophets and leaders of God’s chosen people. What we learn, as my guest today will testify, is that often God is silent but not absent. That we can’t hear Him or even sense Him does not mean that He is gone. Rather He is present in the wrestling and the conflict So my guest today is Nigel Langford, a former church pastor and currently Director of Domestic Mission in the UK for the Bible Society. Nigel shares with us his own experiences of wrestling with God’s silence, of partnering with God as He works in the world, and on learning the deep and profound meaning of what it is to be adopted by God as His child. I hope you enjoy listening to our conversation, here it is.

You know obedience to God offers us a tough but exciting path to take. Sometimes it involves giving things up, sometimes it involves taking on something new. My guest today is a man who was good at the hard subjects at school: maths, physics, that kind of thing; he’s a clever guy and he could, perhaps, have worked his way through to becoming an astronaut. But God had other ideas, and the calling for my guest was not to mathematics, engineering, and the stars but rather to creativity and to music, and to the glory of God. My guest today is Dave Silber, the man who founded the Nexus Institute of Creative Arts an organisation that teaches and forms Christian musicians and technicians for service in the Kingdom of God. Dave is also the Chief Operating Officer for the Eternal Wall of Answered Prayer, whose leader Richard Gamble was featured in episode 18. The Eternal Wall of answered prayer is a physical monument to answered prayer, from the past and present day, and it will located near Coventry in England. The Eternal Wall project would appreciate your support, especially if you are listening to this podcast between 13th September and October 22nd 2021 when there will be a crowdfunding campaign. You can find out more at www.eternalwall.org.uk But this is Dave’s story, a man who through faith and perseverance likes to say and live by one of his favourite phrases: “There must be a way”.

In this episode we are going to explore what it is to contend with God, something it turns out there was quite a lot of in scirpture!. My guest today knows a thing or two about this subject, she is the writer, screenwriter and actor Susan Isaacs, author of the very topical book “Angry Conversations with God”. In this episode Susan speaks to us from the wisdom of her experiences of wrestling with God, being honest with Him, confronting Him and finally submitting to Him.

I’ve been reminded a few times recently of two deep truths of the faith, and how they are connected. The first of these is the deepest truth of all, that God loves us, each of us, you and me, whoever we are, whatever our circumstances. The second truth, which as I say connects to this, is that God, our saviour, our friend, our Lord, longs for us to trust him, with our lives and our hearts. These two truths, of God’s love and His trustworthiness, play a significant role in this episode, where my guest, Amanda Gray tells us about the occasions when God has asked both her and her family to trust Him, and trust Him, and trust Him again.

Episode 20 of the Testimony Podcast is a conversation with the entrepreneur and thought leader Ruth Yimika Afolabi. Ruth is the lead of Magnify, a business and a movement that offers the opportunity to explore the Christian faith in an unpressurised, engaging and creative way. Ruth’s own journey is marked by an experience of family grief, and personal challenges that caused her to wrestle with her faith, explore her doubts and ultimately come to a personal relationship with Jesus Christ that changed her life.

Episode 19 of the Testimony podcast is a conversation with author and coach Jim Barnard. When Jim and his wife Alisha met and started dating, there was no real indication that things would go the way they did. In September 2006, they stood in front of their friends, family, and God and made a covenant together for life. The vows promised to love, comfort, and support each other through good and bad, joy and pain, and most importantly... sickness and health. Three months later, Alisha's health took a dramatic turn for the worse and she was ultimately diagnosed with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome. Countless surgeries, tests, treatments, and therapies failed to solve the rapid downfall she continues to experience. In this episode we talk about the journey of faith that Jim has been on, a journey in which expectation has not lived up to reality, a journey that has involved disappointment, anger, pain, and sorrow. Now after nearly 15 years of marriage Jim has found a place where he can testify to God’s grace. Reflecting on Jesus’ own experience on Earth he says: "Jesus suffering changed the world, that changed everything. It's a privilege to have my arms held up by others, and to hold up the arms of others." This is Jim's story.

My guest for this episode is someone who has spent nearly twenty years faithfully pursuing what seems like an impossible task. He is following a calling from God to build a piece of public art in England that will be a visible demonstration of God’s answers to prayer. The Eternal Wall of answered prayer, or Eternal Wall as it’s referred to is designed in the shape of a Mobius band, an infinity loop that will stand over 50 metres tall and contain over 1 million bricks. Each of these bricks will represent an answered prayer and visitors to the Eternal Wall will be able to access the story for each prayer, and search for answered prayers on different themes and issues. So who is the guy behind this project, what are the challenges he has had to overcome? How has Jesus been his companion on this journey and what lessons has Jesus taught my guest along the way? These are important questions for a man who believes that the journey we take as we seek God in prayer is actually more important than the answer we receive. That man is the leader of the eternal wall project, his name is Richard Gamble and this is his story.

My guest for this episode is someone who describes himself as an ideas man, a dreamer, and a visionary. He is also someone who I’ve known for over thirty years, and who I met when he was a young lad in the church that I was part of with my wife when we were first married. My guest today is Dan White, who is currently on the leadership team at Lifehouse church in St Thomas Ontario in Canada. Dan grew up in London England before moving to Canada to study and to serve God. Over the years the Lord has taught him some hard lessons about humility in service, and the challenge of submitting to God and trusting him for the future. One of the most difficult things Dan had to face was the consequence of a concussion injury when he was playing football. What followed was months of recuperation and a real test of faith and trust in the Lord. But, in Dan’s words, ‘God knows the way through’ and there are blessings that come from obedience and faith in a time of suffering. Dan talks about this and other ways in which God has been present in his life – and this is his story.

My guest for this episode is someone who has an abiding memory of what it is to be a refugee. At the age of 16 he had to flee from Kenya and ended up as one of a family of fifteen living in a little corner shop in Shepherd’s Bush in London in 1967. He was brought up in a Hindu family, but was also influenced by the Sikh faith, and he spent a number of years at a Muslim school. But when he was a student at Imperial College in London he encountered some followers of Jesus, and this had a profound influence on his life. Today he can look back on a distinguished career in business and civic life, and he has plenty of stories to tell from it. My guest today is the author, entrepreneur, and former refugee Ram Gidoomal, a man who knows what it is to start with nothing and still build a successful career, and still have time to serve on the boards of a number of public and charitable organisations, and then be awarded a CBE in recognition of that service. This is his story.

My guest today grew up in what she calls a 'double clergy family' that is, both her mother and father were priests in the church of England. As a result of this she lived in clergy houses, and the family moved with the requirements of the jobs her parents had. Things were not always easy as she grew up, and she would often get angry with God, sometimes believing that He had stopped caring about her, that He had other more important matters to attend to. But she eventually discovered that God still cared for her and that, in her words, He always repays. My guest today is Alianore Smith, theologian, advocate for justice and, like you listening to this, very much a loved and cared for child of God.

My guest today grew up in a Jewish family, and came to faith in Jesus as a student at Cambridge. He spent a decade working in advertising, in London and New York, and later spent over 20 years as the head of the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity. He has worked with leaders in the church from around the world, and has written numerous books on discipleship and the Christian life. He was the inspiration behind “The Servant Queen and the King She Serves” a book which chronicles the central role of the Christian faith for Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. My guest today Mark Greene. Mark has occupied leadership roles across the church for a number of decades but at his heart he has a simple but profound faith, and a fascinating testimony of God’s blessings in times of triumph and difficulty. This is his story.

My guest for this episode is a man who grew up in Rio de Janero in Brazil, suffered violence and sexual abuse as a child and even tried to take his own life at the age of just five. In his desperation he visited a church and there he heard about Jesus and came to faith. His travels took him to Ridley Hall, the Anglican training college in Cambridge and over the years he has struggled to work out his vocation as an exuberant, black, entrepreneurial and extrovert Christian, in church structures which have tended to constrain him. During his time in Cambridge he discovered a passion to serve creative people and artists, and now he serves as a Missioner to Creative people on the capital, and asw the CEO of The Haven London, a charity that is dedicated to supporting the emotional, spiritual and mental wellbeing of the creative community in London. My guest today is Revd Peterson Feital, a man with a vision to serve creative people and celebrate who they are, and also vision to see the church move from diversity, where everyone has a place at the table, to inclusion where everyone belongs. He is by his own admission, the guy who wants to invite Jesus to the party. This is his story.