Storytime - Gary and David

So, a little bit different this morning.

I really I ask that you will encourage these guys.

Gary, David, come on up.

Let's give them a hand.

I'm excited.

Smile.

Smile at them.

Smile at them.

It will help.

How are we doing, guys?

We good?

Good, thank you.

Good.

Yeah.

Welcome.

Thanks for doing this.

I really appreciate it.

Um, and I hope that um that this is significant for you guys as well as what I'm believing it'll be significant for the whole idea of doing story time really came around because of my friend Gary and the journey that he's been on over the last year or so, two years maybe.

Um it's been wonderful getting to know you.

But I guess let's start at the beginning.

Are you a Prada lad?

What's your tell us a little bit of your history and background, where you grew up, that kind of thing.

First thing to say, I suppose, is I'm a local lad.

I was raised two minutes from here on the Hill Grest estate.

Um I used to walk past this church every morning on the way to school, um, but I wouldn't set foot in the place for another 40 years.

And um I wasn't raised as a Christian.

My parents aren't Christians, I didn't know any Christian friends, and and to be honest, I I hadn't really given a lot of thought to what I believed or um God or anything really.

I was just a typical Northeast lad, you know, I was focused on what was in front of me.

I loved my football, I loved my sport.

Um, later I threw myself into my studies and my work, and I didn't really give it a lot of thought.

I wouldn't say I was an atheist or anything, I just hadn't given any thought.

Um and it it wasn't really till I met my wife, Zelda, um, about 2004.

We love Zelda.

Everyone look at Zelda, embarrass her.

She'll hate me now.

It's great.

So we met uh finally out at university in about 2004, and we we started dating, and um we got to know each other, and the the conversation turned to uh Zelda's faith and what she believed in, and I can remember at the time thinking, really?

That's a bit strange, she believes in God, and and um it was it was all new to me.

And I can remember one of my first memories um when Zelda told uh a woman dad that she'd met a boy.

The first thing they asked was, was he a Christian?

And when she said no, he isn't, they were she told me they were a bit concerned, and I can remember thinking, well, it's a bit unfair, they're judging me because I'm not a Christian, and and I was a little bit miffed by it, to be honest, but um we went over to Northern Ireland and visited uh Zelda's parents and I got to know them, and they were lovely people.

And some of my earliest memories of church were being taken along to the local Elam Church, um, huge church, and uh I listened to other people's testimonies, and that's where it kind of started for me going to church for the first time.

Um yeah, so that's that's basically where it started.

But I fast forward a little bit, um we got we got married, and uh we had our first house um at Springwell Village, and it was around about that time.

Um Zelda wanted to find a local church that we could start attending.

And um at this point, I mean I wasn't a Christian, but I was very open-minded.

I wanted to support my wife, so I said, okay, well, we'll find a local church and we'll we'll start going to church on a regular basis.

So that's when we we found Holy Trinity Gateshead, which was over in the um Gateshead area.

We were living in Springwell Village at the time, and we started going to church.

Um I must admit I was very, very, very skeptical at first, um, and I was I was going along mainly to support my wife.

Um I had a lot of questions, I had a lot of doubts, um, but I kept kept going on a Sunday, um, and it went from there, really.

Um you want me to go on?

Amazing, yeah.

I mean, uh what was you said you said you didn't really believe anything.

So those early years of just kind of attending church, what was going through your head at that point?

You were coming along, and what did you believe?

Um, well, I was very skeptical.

I'm I'm quite a logical kind of guy, and um I went along and I was like, well, I'll believe if if someone can convince me.

Um and I think things started changing for me when I when I started getting inquisitive and I started asking questions.

Um I had I had a lot of doubts, and uh, you know, I had a lot of arguments I wanted to put to people, and normally it was Zelda I would put these arguments to, and she would say to me, Well, I haven't got all the answers, you know.

So I started reading Christian literature, um, I got to know some guys at church, and then an opportunity came up to do a Christianity explored course.

Um I'd been going to church for quite a number of years at this point, and this opportunity came up, and I went along, done a Christianity explored course, and um it did seem to answer a lot of the questions and a lot of doubts that I had, and um that was closely followed by a discipleship explored course, which I was about six months later, and um on that particular course um I met two guys, Tom and Steve, and they had a very similar background to me, um, both Northeast lads, you know, similar sort of trades and things, and um they weren't Christians, and we'd done the course together, we got into each other and you know experienced sort of fellowship for the first time, and in the weeks that followed the conclusion of that course, um, all three of us gave our life to Christ.

Come on, yeah.

How good's that?

Um for me uh specifically it was the 23rd of March, Mother's Day of uh 2018.

Um that's when I gave my life to Christ.

Um but I to be honest, I mean I'd like to say that from that moment my life changed, it was an overnight thing, but it it wasn't.

And um I I'd attend church on a Sunday, um, but I would spend six days of my week around non-Christian friends and family, and I I wasn't really I was I was falling short of like the Christian man that I wanted to be, the the one that I felt the Lord was calling me to be.

Amazing.

I I wasn't really getting involved with church outside of Sunday service, you know.

Um I didn't really have a lot of Christian friends.

I was almost, you know, standoffish.

I didn't really want to get too involved.

It didn't help because I'm quite an introverted person anyway.

Um and I was all I was very timid in my faith in those early years.

I was very secretive.

I hadn't been able to share my faith with my parents, even though they knew I went to church.

Um they didn't really ask any questions about what that might what that meant, and and I didn't have the courage to volunteer any answers, and I didn't I hadn't shared my faith with my friends, um my non-Christian friends, and I was very timid in my faith, and and um I wasn't being the Christian man that I I knew I wanted to be.

Um and so what changed?

Yeah, well because I guess I remember being in that place of church was Sunday.

Yeah, I'd committed my heart to Jesus, but church was just Sunday, I I wasn't walking in the faith that I knew I could, but there was almost no motivation either.

Yeah, you know, I was kind of content.

Yeah, yeah.

What was it that became a catalyst for that change in you?

Well, I I remember the the morning after I gave my life to Christ, I remember waking up thinking, well, I don't really feel any different, you know.

And um, so I decided um I'd have a very logical approach to it, and I says, okay, well, from this day forward I'm gonna, you know, put God front and centre.

Uh so every thought I have, every decision I make, you know, my actions, I'm I'm gonna let God in on it.

Um I'm not gonna react, um, not gonna lose my temper before first, sort of saying, hold on, what would God do?

And give me that split second to think about it.

I think in practice it it seemed like a good idea and it did work to a certain extent, but you know, I still fell short a lot of the time, and and that went on for for a long, long time, and then and then I think it was two or three years ago, um, at this point, Zelda and I were both living back in Prado, and we we started talking about finding a local church.

Um, and we'd heard about HCG, uh Matt and Judith, who we knew because our kids go to the same school, they had started coming here, and we said, Oh well, well let's let's change, let's go to HCG.

It just coincided with our minister at the time, Broad.

He was moving back to Australia, and we we felt it was a good time to make the switch, so we we started coming along to HTG.

Do you mean the gate?

Sorry?

Huge sorry, yes, sorry to the I was just a little confused.

Is that the name of the old Right?

Okay, sorry, keep me right.

Yes, keep me right.

We start we started coming coming to the gate, and um and I must admit, um first impressions were I would say they weren't good.

I mean it was it this is a very different church to the one we were we used to.

We went to a very big say it like it is, brother.

It was very big, a modern church, and and it was a very small, very personal church.

But we're and I both spoke about this and we we both felt like God was calling us to be here.

Um and I remember some of my early reservations were I thought this is this is a small church, it's a very personal church.

I'm not gonna be able to just sit on the sidelines at the back.

I'm I'm gonna I'm gonna I'm gonna get dragged into this, and and and but it was very, very direct, and um, and I thought he's gonna drag me into here and then then, and I thought I'm gonna push well out of my comfort zone, and I just wanted to step back from it, but like I say, we we just felt the Lord was pushing us, He was He was telling us this is where you need to be, and um so we persevered and um I started to enjoy it.

Um I got a lovely welcome from the congregation, I started to develop friendships, and I started to enjoy fellowship in a way that I never had before, and it was a real blessing to me, you know, and um something that I hadn't I hadn't experienced before, even though I'd been a Christian for about seven or eight years at this point.

Um tell us about that there was one time when you were ill, right?

Yeah, so so when and when was this?

I always get a little bit confused.

So I uh officially I I had been a Christian um since 2018, but everything everything changed for me last year, 2025.

So I'm I'm a pretty fit guy, I'm in my sport, I'm a regular runner.

I'd always been fit and well, and um it was I think it was May of last year, and um I'd been at the track on Thursday night running around the athletics track, um, and I woke up the next morning and I had a I had a pain in my back, and I thought I've pulled a muscle, it's nothing.

Took some painkillers, went to work.

It it got worse over the next day, and and by the weekend I'd gone downhill very quickly, and um I ended up with pneumonia, and it was quite a humbling experience to have lost all strength in such a short space of time.

It was it was very humbling, and it all it all came to a head.

It was a Sunday.

I remember it well because it was the day that Newcastle beat Liverpool in the Caribbean Cup.

And um I can remember lying on the sofa, um, struggling for breath.

I didn't have the strength to cheer the goals going in.

And that night I was I was lying in bed, it was the early hours of the morning, I was propped up on a pillow, my heart was pounding, I was I couldn't breathe.

And I can remember thinking to myself, you know, should I wake my wife and tell her to bring an ambulance?

It sounds dramatic now, but at the time that's how I felt.

I was going downhill quickly.

And I and I don't know why, but I I decided not to do that, and I I decided to pray.

And it was for the it was the first time, you know, I'd prayed this way, and I want I wanted to get better, but I didn't pray to get better.

Um I I kind of surrendered to the Lord in that in that moment, and I just said, look, this this is too big for me to handle, and I just I trust you, I want to give it over to you.

And I can remember in that moment feeling this peace.

It was the first time in my life that I just I felt God's presence.

I felt draw close to me.

And it was if he he was saying, like, I'm here.

And I sit here.

It was the first time I'd felt that way.

And of course, in the days I followed, I I did it, I got better, and I regained my strength, but I I felt different ever since that day.

And it was if a wall had come down.

Yeah.

It was I would come to church and I would feel the Holy Spirit, and I was well up.

And it was it was a strange feeling, and I didn't, it was unexpected.

And I I felt this this desire to want to get more involved, I wanted to serve in in this house.

I wanted to get to know people, I wanted to develop friendships and enjoy that Christian fellowship that I started to enjoy.

And um, yeah, I've I've been I've been different since that day.

Amazing, amazing, praise God.

You can know your Bible inside out, but you've got to have an experience with the Holy Spirit, and I believe that's what happened that night.

Because I remember thinking, Gary seems a bit different.

Um but that almost prepared you for what was to come next, right?

Yeah, yeah.

So um maybe that's so yeah, fast forward about four or five months, and um it was November time, I was out running with my dad, and he collapsed, and he had a heart attack.

And uh it was probably the most frightening experience I've ever had to deal with.

And uh and I remember at the time we got my dad into the ambulance and things, and we were on the way to the hospital, and the first message I sent was to Matt, and it was something along the lines of my dad's collapsed, we think he's had a heart attack, please pray.

And um anyway, we went to the went to the hospital, and in the in those early days in the hospital, he was in the critical care ward, and we weren't really sure whether he was gonna recover or not.

But I felt I felt the Lord saying to me, in those early days in the hospital, you have to speak now, you have to share your story, you can share your faith.

And it's something that I hadn't done at that point.

I hadn't even told my mum, my sister, my uncle, what I believe about my faith, and and uh I just felt the Lord saying, now do it now.

And and in those hospital waiting rooms, I I started to pray for the first time with my parents, with my mom and my uncle and my sister.

And uh I shared my faith with them.

And unfortunately my my dad didn't recover, he passed away.

But the the experience has deepened my faith unexpectedly, and I didn't really think it would.

But it in this difficulty, in this hardship, the Lord drew close to me.

And I I felt compelled to just uh dive into his word when I was in hospital, and and it was a you hear people saying God's word's alive, it's speaking to you, and for the first time I was seeing that.

I was reading stuff, and and it was if he was trying to talk to me and he was saying telling me it was gonna be okay.

And I I came out of both those difficult experiences in 2025.

A changed person.

I've just I've just enjoyed being more involved to church.

I've joined a home group.

Um I'm serving it in his house on the host team.

Um I'm enjoying fellowship with David and I have just grown really close as friends, and he said, you know, there were friendships forged in those dark times that I know will endure for a lifetime.

Um I'm so grateful and so blessed for that, and I think I realize now, you know, the value of the church family and and fellowship.

And I didn't have that before.

Um and it's something I'm I'm I'm so so thankful for, you know, and throughout the whole experience with my dad, you know, you hear the term church family in that, but I never really knew what it meant until those two weeks.

These members of the congregation drew close to me and my family.

They prayed for us, they prepared meals for us, they helped with our childcare, and we just felt so blessed.

You know, and and I guess yeah, I've I've come out of those two experiences a changed person, and um I just my faith has been deepened, and uh I look forward to what's what's ahead for me and for this for the church.

Awesome, awesome.

Thank you for being so open and um honest.

Uh I'm really proud of you, yeah, if I'm allowed to be.

Like we we took on, we took the church on from Bert and Margaret in November, and this was one of the the early kind of pastoral care things that went on, and and you guys were just an absolute pleasure to help through that season, and and it's a testimony to the beautiful community that we've got here at the Gate Church that you that you've come through that, and and it it call this a prophecy or call it just a bit of wisdom.

There's more for you, brother.

All right, we're we're dreaming of more moments like this, but also like you digging deeper and going further, and that this is just the beginning and the best is to come for you.

Amen.

Amen.

So um so David was actually a big part of that journey as well, and uh, and I kind of wanted David to come and tell a little bit of his story, which is obviously different because all our stories are different, right?

Um, but also um I've totally forgotten what I was gonna say, which happens sometimes, sorry.

Um, but I guess um David is a very special gentleman in my mind.

Um we appreciate you.

We we appreciate you.

You still you serve in God's house incredibly, um, but um what am I saying?

You have a different story to tell, and I think we can see you busy and yourself serving in the gift of service that you've got, and think that you've always been like that.

Tell us a little bit of your story.

Well, wasn't it um how do you keep a long story short?

So, first of all, I've got a totally different background to Gary because I was made to go to Sunday school when I was about four.

Me and one of my sisters used to get sent to Sunday school every Sunday morning, even though none of the other family went to church.

So my understanding of God and Jesus and Moses and Noah was from a very early age, and for whatever reason, I believed in all the stories, no questions asked.

I was fascinated by the sky at night.

And I used to sit and look at you know, when we went on holiday, I would look at the look up at the sky and think, well, how can people just think that's an explosion?

That's just rubbish.

Because it's so old, you can see all the constellations.

So I've always believed in a creator God.

That's the first thing.

But from going to Sunday school for maybe about, I don't know, six years, that rapidly fell off because nobody else went.

So I got involved in sports, I got involved in golf.

And my whole early life was revolved around playing golf.

Um even when I was at school, my grandfather he introduced me to golf.

I know you don't like golf, sorry.

But um and he would pick me up three nights a week from school to practice golf, and I was brought up with if you're in a com if you're in a competition, you're in it to win it.

And if you're second, you may as well be last.

That was the mentality that I was brought up with.

And then I went from that to work, still believes, never stopped believing.

And then I met Angela and we moved to Croakroot.

We used to live at Starkshire when we first met, and we moved to Crookroot, and she started going back to the Methodist Church at Crookroot, the top one, uh Robert Young.

And because I believed, I used to go when I could on a Sunday night, and that was it.

I was similar to Gary, I was a Sunday, I wasn't a Christian, I was a Sunday church goer.

Then Billy Graham came, which I've supported John about many times, '84, I think it was, um, and we went there one night, and we both walked forward.

Nothing changed.

I still just believed.

I didn't, you know, they say make a commitment, but I'm like, alright, I'm here now.

What happens now?

We went to a house group, just felt exactly the same.

I wasn't a I wasn't a Christian, even though you know we thought we'd made a commitment.

Didn't really understand what a Christian was, to be fair.

At that point in time, there was a lot of things going on.

I'm pleased Arjun's not here because she'll probably be in pits.

Our sister died at 25.

She was a Christian.

And I'm like, why?

Then Anana died.

Then there was things happened in the church.

You think this is not right, I'm just I can do it on my own.

I believe in God and I can do it on my own.

And I changed jobs.

I went in this on and I got really heavily involved in in this one.

And I was just walking in the wilderness for years.

Years and years.

Angela was still going to church.

She went to church, I went to the golf course.

COVID happened.

They stopped the churches.

I mean, I'm like, oh, I can still play golf, you can't go to church.

And then they stopped the golf course.

I went, what?

What's that about?

Hang on a minute, it's two of us can't you, it's two of us playing golf.

He goes over there because he's pulled here, so I've hit main rate.

How's that close anyway?

That's another story.

So I was like, what's this about?

Um, and then Anjad started to come to this church and they went to Zoom meetings.

And when uh I used to what we used to call dog paralysis, so I'm sitting on a chair and I've got three dogs on top of me.

Anja, you couldn't make me a coffee, please, could you?

I've got dog paralysis.

So the zoom meetings used to come on, and all of a sudden the dog paralysis disappeared.

Right?

I'm off, I'm I'm going in the other room, you stay here, yeah.

But there was one morning, I don't know why.

I just said I just said, you know, I'll I'll listen to the um sermon, and jerk um Bert was speaking, and I thought, you know what?

I believe in all that stuff.

That's what that's what I you know.

Anyway, it was I either the two day two days or very closely after that I just said Lord, I need you back my life because it's a mess.

I was like, you know, the Mr.

Men characters, I was a combination of Mr.

Angry in Mr.

Grumpy role in the in the one.

I I need to interject here.

I literally cannot understand you being an angry man.

Like that is right.

I mean, we uh we haven't got I can tell you I mean it's a few people know stories about me.

I'll I'll just so you can put it in into perspective, and I've told a few of this story poor Simon my son, he was traumatized for months.

If when when I was on nature, by the way, the kids used to hide from me because I was just so grumpy and angry, so they used to keep out of my way.

But it was one day we had to go somewhere in the car, so I jumped in the car, had a little Reynolds 14, it wasn't very fast, but it used to was good and we headed off up to Crook.

I think we're going to shops or something, and this kick, this car came, turned the other way over, take the park cars, hit my door mirror, and the door it was like bang, smashed.

So I looked and he hadn't stopped.

What had I do?

I spun the car round, and I went hammering after him.

So I don't know if any of you know where I live, but I live on the way down to Wylam from Crowe.

So I'm down there, there's a really bad left-hand bend round it, and I caught him at the bottom.

I went past him, and it was like a police stop, you know, pulled in, stopped.

I'm out of the car.

Mate, you've just hit my mirror, have I?

I says, You've got to be joking.

Did you not hear that?

Anyway, and Simon was trauma.

That's what I was like.

Um but anyway, so came here, started coming here.

Um but what that's that two days after um Bert had preached at home.

I just I was like, God, I just felt this peace came over me, and it was just like something had changed, you know.

And then a little while later there was a service when the services started back up.

The the seating was slightly different.

Me and Angela were standing there, and um there's a song came on.

We were swalking, Darren.

We were swaking in the worship.

I didn't hadn't heard that term before.

Um and this song came out.

I surrender, and I was just I do surrender, Lord.

You know, I do, I surrender to you, and there was this heat started here, and it just went down through me, down out my arms, as if everything inside was just being changed.

I can't explain it, and then it went out through my I just felt so peaceful, and I felt so much love, and I know now it was the Holy Spirit, um, but when I opened my eye, I was screaming crying, and I opened my eyes, and Angela had a a similar experience.

She was on her knees, and she had exactly the same sort of experience, and um that's when I I really felt God's love and peace.

So sorry, I have to probably gone on a bit.

So I guess my question to you is obviously you've been on this journey, which seems to have taken a while, David.

Um what would you say to someone who feels that they're maybe on this journey?

Maybe they believe in God, maybe they were brought up believing in God, maybe they struggle to make it real to bridge the gap a little bit like what you were saying, Gary, about understanding, even making a commitment and it not being real, what would you say to someone who's gonna be on that journey now?

I think what Gary did was the right thing because we ask questions about everything, don't we?

If if we want to buy a new television, has it got this, has it got that, has it got the other?

But I think a lot of people just take life for granted that they don't ask questions.

Um I've got a uh a nephew and he doesn't believe in God, but he's in the history, and I'd sent him a clip from a Roman um what is it called?

He wrote books, this blog, historian, and it mentions Jesus in other places than the Bible.

Um ask questions, ask people who do believe.

Um don't discard Christianity and and because you don't think it's right, because in my experience, I mean look around you, look at the look at look at the world.

This is the only planet in two trillion planets that's got any life on it.

You know, I'm just saying, like um if Brian Professor Brian Cox said, and I don't know if he's a Christian, for life to be to the extent it is on this planet, everything had to be exactly perfect.

Just saying, like sorry, does that help?

That's cool, thank you.

Hey, can we hear for these guys?

Thank you.

Listen, I want to encourage you this morning.

I hope that's helped you.

Um for me what what seems to be a little bit of a theme in both of these guys' awesome story is um that knowledge of who God is, knowledge and understanding of the Bible isn't enough.

It's not enough.

If you uh if you really want to be changed, if you really want to go deeper, then um you need an experience of who God is.

Amen.