I should not be alive today to have made the account of this story -- He is, The Faithful and All Sufficient God
I was born on the affluent ‘tax haven’ Island of Guernsey in the
Channel Islands an independent territory taken from the French by former
British powers. It is found approximately 20 miles off the French Coast
of Brittany.
My dad was (now retired) a small businessman/entrepreneur and we lived
a life of private schools, sports cars, speedboats, we even had our own
indoor swimming pool. There were often parties at our house and I
remember the crowds of people holding martini glasses, cigarette holders and
cigars. I remember watching Neil Armstrong land on the moon as we sat
next to Mrs Elliot’s piano and my first girl friend I kissed when I
was six years old. In summer we would visit some great location like
Portugal in Europe for vacation and my dad would go water skiing with his
business friends. These were my earliest of memories.
When I was eight years old everything changed, suddenly my parents were
divorced and my beautiful, gentle, petite mother, my sister and I were
sent on a boat to Australia with no money, no brother and no dad.
My mother who was married early as a girl of sixteen (custom in those
parts) was then still in her mid twenties and although frail and just
over 5 feet tall I remember she would work hard to support us. At one
time she had three jobs, door-to-door sales, cleaning schools and working
in a chicken factory. We had little furniture; a concrete floor and mum
brought home a chicken from work so we could have the occasional egg.
It was a hard time for us as we were left without in a hard land with no
support from my dad. It seemed like a stern punishment to our little
team.
When I was eighteen at my final year in high school my dad surprisingly
called me in Australia and told me he wanted to see me and that he was
going to send me the ticket money to visit him. I did not have any nice
clothes so I purchased a one-way ticket with the money he sent and with
the rest I bought myself a suit and a jacket. I had become a keen
surfer throughout those years and managed to have my surfboard sent also.
Could not leave home without it, as it was then my strongest identity.
On arriving I could see that my dads lifestyle was the same, his
finances had increased even more significantly to be more wealthy, it was a
novelty to ride in his new BMW with the number plate number “10” and
he showed off his latest business a tourist attraction and the European
award winning 5 star Le Cloche private hotel he had created out of an
old farmhouse. I am not sure as to whether it was because of his
acceptable standing or because I was now a blonde haired Australian surfer but
for a moment I seemed to be a bit of a novelty to the island as I was
automatically ushered in by some of the wealthiest and coolest of the
islands young twenties group who happened to be orientated to surfing and
I quickly began a new life with my new friends who always would meet at
wine bars, fancy restaurants and put on wealthy parties.
In October of the following year my then best buddy Pete and I embarked
on the surf-trip to Southern France, a holiday that ultimately changed
my world in a manner that I can still not comprehend!
Biarritz Oct-Nov 1981
We set out from St Malo, France after a quick trip across the channel
in the Hydrofoil, The kombi van we were in was just our means of a cheap
1000 km one way petrol shared taxi as the driver and his girlfriend
were to continue on to in Northern Africa to surf Moroccan waves. It was
all such an amazing experience for me to be part of a real life surfing
adventure through Europe (I was then turning 19 years old). On arriving
at Biarritz we found the local campsite at a place called La Barre near
the famous hangout of Les Sables Les d’or a café complex filled with
the coolest of international surfers and other such adventurous young
people. As it happened we managed to pitch our tent alongside others who
were likeminded from other parts of the world, from memory our new
friends were from South Africa, California, England and somewhere else. We
placed our tents in a circle to stake out our claim. We had come to
find this a team of eight adventurous surfer mates that were on fire
with our surfer lifestyle. When the surf was down we would explore
and shop together in the daytime for French cheese, French bread, French
wine, the nights we partied on with the local girls. We caught some
amazing waves and one time we even train tripped over to San Sebastian in
Spain for a few days to experience some more pretty wild and exciting
moments of worldly youthful, fun and games.
Encounter with a difference.
One night we went out to Les Sables Le Dor to party with some French
girls we had met and after some time of drinking and chatting I sat down
next to a Spanish girl on her own. After getting to know her a little
we went to the beach for privacy to undertake the usual non-Christian
thing, after the moment of intimacy she turned to me in broken English
and said “my boyfriend is a Warlock, if he finds out what has happened
here he will destroy you !” this did not mean much to me at the time
but I went away feeling a little weird from what she said. Maybe it had
some bearing on some of the things that were about to happen next !
The Wave
A few nights later we were all sitting around our camp fire in the camp
site up on the hill of Le Bar when we began to hear the sounds of
distant explosions, these noises were like great loud pops or claps (the
release of air when the top of a large wave peals over and drops), it was
the Atlantic swell (and a great one) that we had been expecting for
three weeks. I excitingly motioned to the guys that we would surf at dawn
and so I chose to go to bed early for the early rise. When I awoke I
shook a few legs and realised that the others had stayed up and drank
much more Bier the night before so I grabbed my wetsuit and surfboard and
ran down the street towards the beach. As I peered over the sand dune I
could see a great site for any surfer, perfectly shaped large glassy
waves with lines way out to sea. I put on my wetsuit quickly and without
caution I entered the water.
I remember paddling hard aiming straight out to sea, the waves were
mounting up like small buildings and I remember paddling vertically over
giant swells, I was in a time period of what surfers call a ‘lull’
(the calm period between the sets), this was a lengthy lull but I
convincingly thought it was the period of the ‘sets’ (when the waves were
coming in the biggest) even in this time of ‘the lull’ these waves
would have been 15 feet on the face. I managed to get to where I
thought was the safe spot on the outside of the sand reef and took a break to
watch how the waves were breaking behind me and to consider my next
move and if I had the courage to catch one of these monsters. After about
ten minutes I was looking out to sea for the next set to appear when
something strange and awesome began to happen (by this time I was
probably 350 yards off the beach and therefore a long way out). I began to
notice that out to sea it seemed that the horizon was moving, there was a
distinct rising of the ocean positioned in front of me and a very long way
off. As I continued to watch this area of ocean (possibly a mile wide)
it began to rise higher and higher and I began to panic like I have
never done since. Coming towards me was a very large wave likened only to
what I could imagine a tidal wave could look like. I remember that I was
stunned to see it keep rising and rising and recalling this moment has
always returned fearful tears and a panic to me as it is doing now. I
have often described it as if you were sitting at the sideline of a
large football stadium and watching the whole field turn up vertical on its
side.
I began to panic severely and I remember the thought going through my
head “I will never make it to the beach if I paddle that way”, “it
would be better to try and paddle towards it”, “that is crazy”
and I decided that the only thing I could do is to stay where I was, aim
my board towards the beach and hold on with all my might as hopefully
if get pushed down deep then I will have a better chance of floating to
the surface again. I remember watching the wave peak up to its highest
and the top section came exploding down about 150 or so yards in front
of me. The white water was also a massive towering wall, an explosive
loud roaring lion speeding towards me. I started to call out to God to
save me and just before the collision I let out a blood curdling scream
from deep within everything in me “””JEEEESSSSUUUUSS !!!!!
HELLLPPP MEEEEE””” the fear was tremendous and absolute as I knew
that there was no hope for me and in a few moments of time I was surely
going to die!
I remember the impact of the great wall of white water to be explosive,
my board just disappeared and I didn’t even feel the leg rope
attached to my leg snap, my body was stretched from limb to limb under the
water and I was thrown like a rag doll in every way, it was too powerful
to slow down, I was too far out and this was not any ordinary wave.
Suddenly everything went perfectly still and as this happened
everything increased to become bright white, the total fear instantly
disappeared turning into a total peace and I was surrounded by an awesome love
feeling that simply consumed every part of me, there was stillness and an
this awesome whiteness of light was all around me, everywhere. I had no
sense of a physical body, it was just this incredible awesome eternal
place (I had a sensation of timelessness), a place that you would not
ever want to leave, perfect peace and love like someone was holding you
in their arms. Like if you were an infant and went shopping at a busy
location with your mum, if you were to get lost and terrified and
screaming then suddenly her hand appeared, picked you up and tenderly
cuddled you in her arms.
**On writing this down tonight I am reminded that it is exactly 21
years ago to the month that this happened. The thought of this moment
quickens to me the reminder of that awesome fear, it still chills me and the
fear returns momentarily bringing me into a place of trouble and tears.
It is a vivid moment that I really don’t want to recall but I know
that it is important to tell this story and I must add that it does not
stop here.
I remember some time later opening my eyes high up on a wet sand dune
probably 4-6 metres above the elevation of the tide level and maybe 60
metres up from the waters edge, I had no pain and my lungs contained no
water, I looked up the beach away from Biarritz to my surfboard which
was Northwards about 100 metres away also high up on the beach. There
was no one to be seen, as it was still early in the morning, I was
stunned by what had happened and simply just left it at good luck that I was
not hurt! I waited a while then I walked home to the camp. Looking
back on this moment some twenty years later I know now a life principle
that ‘our disappointments are often Gods appointments’.
A few days later.
The swell of the ocean had subsided but it still was biggish surf by
any surfer’s estimation. I was out in the water one morning and said
bonjour to a face I had recognised from our camping ground. He was a
young Frenchman who had pitched tent with his mates nearby to us. I could
not speak his language and he could not speak much English but we knew
enough to communicate that he was inviting me to his tent to share a
joint together (marijuana). When I had returned back from surfing that
afternoon Pete chose to cook dinner and at that moment I was called over
to the nearby tent to where the French surfers were. They instructed me
to enter the tent and join them and out of wanting to maintain the
image of coolness I entered. The tent was closed behind me and they began
to say there hellos and I could tell that they had already become quite
stoned. One guy in the back was instructed to do something but I could
not see what he was doing. They handed me what I thought was a normal
joint to smoke and implied that it was for me and as I begun to smoke
it the atmosphere of the attitudes inside the tent began to change.
They began to laugh in a strange cackling manner that made me feel very
uncomfortable much so that I knew that I had to politely leave. A few
moments later I was sitting at the apex of my tent when Pete handed me a
plate of baked beans. I began to waver, dropped the plate and began to
scream, what was going on inside of me was extremely horrible. If I had
a few days before experienced something of God then at this moment it
was definitely the opposite. What I remember was I entered what seemed
another place spiritually where things were totally out of control a
place of absolute fear with unrecognisable monster type beings attacking
my again non-bodied soul. It was awesomely horrible, I remember how it
stopped, it was at the sound of a loud thunderbolt that went crack and I
snapped out of it instantly. Pete said later that they had to hol
d me down and put pillows over me inside the tent to keep me quite as
I was having a screaming fit from a bad trip. Before you all write me
off as a weirdo druggie I must say that I have never ever taken any
heavy drugs and I absolutely abhor them. I have since researched the
situation and have been informed of two facts, the reaction was from probably
being (unadvisedly) given what was called then ‘Angel Dust’ and
secondly people just don’t instantly snap-out (thunderbolt) out of such
a trip. I know now that God had his hand on me and he was not going to
let me go !!
After this moment I walked to the beach feeling pretty much bedazzled
by my experiences, I sat on the sand dune and looked out to sea. I
closed my eyes and I remember seeing clear pictures of what I can only
describe as unknown individual people filled with love and joy fade into my
mind then out again in the sort of a way you can do this on a video
camera. These people all seemed extremely happy and again filled with a
joy that I had yet to discover, at the same moment Gods spirit began to
speak a clear message to my heart to return immediately to Australia.
(More of these people later)
From the point of that day onwards in France a series of clear miracles
happened, precisely one after another, miracles of perfect and
immediate provision. (Ask me about this if you like) This led to a few weeks
later landing in Brisbane airport in Australia and as we were touching
down at about 5am I looked out the window and I was met with an instant
feeling of peace.
A Season of Change
Following this I had an interesting 18 months, in that time every one
of my imaginable worldly hearts desires were given to me to every extent
imaginable. Beautiful sexy girlfriends, wild parties in my free home, I
became a good fighter through attending Tae Kwon Do, I had the coolest
of jobs in the then biggest surf shop in the world, a cool Kombi Van
(even with a Les Sable Dor visor sticker that went right across the top
of the windscreen), mr cool with all my friends, plenty of money, more
girls, a store of the best dope in Australia (and was selling a bit
also), frequenting the night clubs, everything that I thought was the
ultimate in life.
Regardless of this I remember clearly saying from my heart near the end
of this 18 months period “THERE MUST BE MORE TO LIFE THAN THIS and IF
THIS IS ALL THERE IS TO LIFE WHEN A PERSON GAINS SUCCESS AND THE THINGS
THAT THEY HAVE DESIRED THEN WHAT IS THE POINT” my mates could not
believe that I could entertain such thoughts as in their eyes I had it
together and was everything they themselves were aspiring to be. It was
not enough, it was the dry revelation that I needed to seek the truth and
do it with all my heart. In that 18 months period I had truly been
opened to many areas of interest including mind power techniques (including
books written by Bruce Lee), the study of body language interpretation,
Eastern Meditation (including the use of it within Martial Arts) and
other things like theories and secrets such as the survival of ancient
cave dwelling Inca/Peruvian civilisations. All sorts of things I looked
into but could not find that missing piece of the puzzle of my lif
e and the truth and meaning of life had become the hunger of my heart
to find. Near the end of this period some interesting things began to
develop.
It seemed like over night everything was striped from me totally,
immediately everything fell to pieces, I lost my short term memory so I lost
my job, my beautiful looking girlfriend attempted suicide, I lost the
house, my money was gone, my kombi blew up, every single one of those
things were simply taken away and way out of my control. I was left
unemployed and totally alone. I moved in with my best mate Gary and his
brother Glen in a city apartment and my girlfriend would visit on the
weekend. Glen had a girlfriend named Savannah and ultimately she became
friends with my girlfriend Karen. Savannah and Karen became good friends
and they began to go away together to the North Coast to visit Savannahs
sister who was married to a surfer who was a Pastor of a coastal
church. Over this same period I began to buy a surfing newspaper named
‘Line-Up’, it was a normal newspaper/magazine for surfers with one
exception the Christian Surfers association had rented a small section in ea
ch addition where they creatively wrote clever little surfing stories
that related to parables that Jesus taught eg the parable of the sower
of the seed/word of God would become the parable of the introduction of
surfing to a few different types of guys. These little stories stood
out to me powerfully but I would not tell anyone. One day I was invited
to the North Coast for the day just to surf and to hang out with the
girls. We stopped at Savannahs sisters house and a young lady rushed out
to meet us in the driveway, she did not know we were coming. The first
words she said to us were “God just told me that three people were
going to arrive this morning and he wants me to tell them about Jesus” I
straight away decided that she was a crack-pot and went in for a coffee
with the others. She was very enthusiastic and couldn’t stop telling
us about how the Holy Spirit would help her when she was out in the
waves surfing and that the Holy Spirit would teach her things. Later I me
t Savannahs brother –in –law and he seemed like a cool guy, he did
not say much about God but he spent some quality time with me showing
me surfing photos and we talked about the local waves. There was
something different, special and real about these people, something shiny,
something that I didn’t have and I knew that I wanted it.
Soon after this meeting both Karen and Savannah became Christians, they
would invite me to church and I would decline saying that it was just
another trip people go on. There was no way in the world that I would
ever become a Christian at all ! and that was final.
Changes started happening in me when I began to see changes in them, I
saw Karen transform into an innocent and pure hearted young lady (and I
knew Karen!), I remember thinking “this type of change just does not
happen to a girl like Karen”. I remember that I started to sneak into
church and hide up in the balcony week after week, they never knew. One
day the minister turned, looked up at me in the balcony and spoke his
entire message directly to me, it was as if he were Jesus himself, he
knew everything about the deepest unknown secrets of my heart and this
was too much to ignore. I later got hold of a Good News Bible and read it
from cover to cover and the incredible thing was for the first time
ever every word came alive to me and the stories and lessons remained with
me. I knew all these things were doing something but I still did not
want to be known as a Christian not only that but from my reading of the
Bible and the Christian Surfers parables I knew that the commitmen
t would have to be everything for always and forever.
Turning Point
One Friday night Glen, Gary and I decided that we would go out on the
town, we would be loose and we would make a great evening of it, ‘no
holds barred’, and we did !
We started off with a meal at a popular social hangout, started
drinking then we taxied to numerous clubs, picking up girls as we went,
dancing, a bit of fighting, smashing glasses on neon signs and running from
bouncers belly laughing as we went, we did everything that excites three
guys out on the town in one evening of great guy stuff, we were still
pumped up on returning home the next day. When we arose from sleep later
that afternoon Gary turned to me from his bed next to mine and said
“hey are you awake? in all the years of our raging and nights out that
was the greatest night we have ever had out Tim” in reply I said these
words “Yes Gary it was ! but I have made up my mind on something,
that is the last time for me, today I am going to become a Christian”.
He replied with some choice words that I would not repeat. When he
was not around I knelt down next to my bed and gave my heart fully to
Jesus.
Confirmation
I began to attend the Church where Karen and Savannah were attending,
two weeks later I was asked if I wanted to be baptised in water along
with them both, I told the youth Pastor that I had just read about Jesus
being baptised and if it was something that I needed to do I would do
it also. That night something awesome happened, something very special
took place. When I was under the water being baptised in that split
second of time I had the same experience again that had taken place in
Biarritz, France over 18 months earlier, the experience of the light, the
love and that awesome eternal revelation, as I came up out of the water
I began to speak in a new language, the language of the Holy Spirit
that I previously knew nothing about, I was drained of energy, I was
shaking and I could not speak normally for literately hours after. Jesus had
set me free, free to be who I was meant to be and free to experience a
new world and a new adventure and the start of a full and amazing
new life.
Since Then
I made a firm commitment to Jesus and was baptised in August 1983 at
the age of 20 years. I then moved into a guy’s discipleship houses in
Brisbane before moving to the Byron Bay region into a dynamic Christian
community named “True Vine”. In 1994 the Lord showed me clearly to
go to New Zealand, after this he showed me the reason, he wanted me to
attend a Bible and discipleship school within the organization named
“Youth With a Mission”. In August 1995 I left Australia and said
goodbye to the girl I was keen to marry in my church and have been
associated both directly and indirectly with YWAM now for a period of 18
years. I have also had periods of self-employment as an Interior Designer,
Renovator and a Sub-contract Painter in various countries. I have been
involved in serving ministries within Australia, NZ, the Pacific
Islands, the UK and USA (Hawaii)
Currently
I believe that Gods Holy Spirit spoke to me when I first went into YWAM
training college in 1985 saying that “it is to the degree that you
allow me to deepen the foundations of your life then it will be to the
degree of the ministry that I can build upon this foundation, the wider
the foundation the taller the building”. After twenty years of walking
with the Lord and extended full time periods of serving discipleship
and mission ministries I sense that he desires to keep releasing me
further within areas of international evangelism, teaching and Christian
ministry.
Currently I am producing Christian television shows and documentaries
in Australia that major on life changing testimonies in the lives of
committed Christians, we are being led in particular with targeting
specific and unusual people groups with sharing the gospel.
I believe that God has been shaping me for many purposes in him. I am
open to his leading and intend to see great things take place as he
continues to guide me on his invisible mapped out path. I have a strong
desire to continue to see others facilitated and mobilised into missions
work and to see others trained and discipled to fulfil Gods highest
calling for their lives.
Encouraging
I have seen Gods hand at work and I know that he has all power and
authority to change circumstances and I am totally convinced that I should
not be alive today to have made the account of this story.
Psalm 91:11-12, 14-15 says, he will command his angels concerning you,
to guard you in all your ways, they will lift you up in their hands so
that you will not strike your foot against a stone. “Because he loves
me” says the Lord “I will rescue him, I will protect him for he
acknowledges my name, he will call on me and I will answer him, I will be
with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honour him, with long life
will I satisfy him and show him my salvation”
1 John 1:5 God is light, in him there is no darkness
1 Timothy 6:16 He lives in unapproachable light
Matthew 17:2 His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as
white as the light
Acts 9:3 suddenly a light from heaven flashed around Paul, He fell to
the ground and heard a voice say to him…..”I am Jesus……”
Matthew 28:2-3 An angel of the Lord appeared, his appearance was like
lightening and his clothes were white as snow.
I thank the Lord for this testimony of his love but mostly that he is
who his word says he is, The Faithful and All Sufficient God.
Testimony submitted to the Breadsite. To submit yours click here.