Some of the folk that I have met in 2006 have made a dramatic turnaround in their lives and discovered the joy of making a new start. Roderick, for instance, visited the island twice during this year, despite the fact that Guernsey is the place where he messed up so badly just a few short years ago. He was an inmate in the States’ Prison for a long period for importing illicit drugs to the island. His life was in tatters, his praying mother and family distressed. Whilst in jail he heard the good news of new life in Christ and became a committed Christian. By arrangement with the authorities at a certain point in his sentence he was transferred to an organisation in the UK specialising in helping drug addicts and today he is fully recovered from his addiction and is a worker there. He is a living example of making a new start.
I also met Billy and Bev recently. They divorced in the 1990’s due to Billy’s intolerable behaviour and drink problems. The little family of two small boys was torn apart by addiction and selfishness. Then, when on the verge of suicide, Billy remembered the God he had been told about as a child, and turned over his life to Him. Two and a half years after their divorce Billy and Bev remarried – each other! The transformation in their home is complete. Now four children can see that Mum and Dad have completely changed for the better.
The motto of our church at Shiloh is ‘Helping People Make a New Start’. The turn of the year is always a great time to make a new beginning. The old year will go with all its disappointments and failures, and the new year stretches out in front of us like a blank page in a notebook. What will your page read like in twelve months time? Will it tell that you took the opportunity of a new start in Christ, or that you missed it and kept on in the same old way? Only you can decide.
Happy New Year!
