Tracey wanted to share this testimonial with you:
Through the Storm – Acts 27 I got baptised and gave my life to Christ on June, 8th 2008. Weeks before my baptism God spoke to me and told me to read Acts 27: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts+27&version=NKJV Being very young in my walk, in actual fact, not yet born I didn’t understand the scripture. The scripture talks about Paul on a ship travelling to Europe, with my untested mind, I thought, ok, God must be saying that I’m going on a journey. I was happy to go on this spiritual journey, so left it there. I arrived to be baptised. As I came out of the water, I expected to be ‘touched by an angel’ and to hear the voice of God, “Welcome my child”, there was no voice and I couldn’t feel the wings of an angel but I knew that I was doing the right thing and to this day have never looked back, although I was still wondering what my dream meant. Just like [in Acts 27] Paul, as he was leaving the Shore - That sunny June day was nothing short of a massive affair, I invited all of my friends and family. We went back to my house for food; it had a festive feel as I wanted to share this special time with those close to me. From that day my life has been a living testimony. At the time I got baptised I was in a job that I was very unhappy in, I was treated badly, and I tolerated the job and the people for a long time. I’d been on 20 plus interviews but was not getting the jobs and I was starting to feel tired, disheartened and weary. Rachel (let’s call her) was my line manager, she hated me and for a long time I wondered why? She persisted in lying about me day in and day out until I was issued with a written warning because of her lies, I couldn’t believe she got away with it. Through the defamation of my character and not getting the recognition I know that I deserved, I would pray and ask God why this was happening to me? The senior management believed her even though I told them she was lying. This went on until one day the same person made a complaint about the organisation I worked for. She got solicitors involved and eventually there was a tribunal, I watched as all of the senior managers rushed around from meeting to meeting anxious and scared. I remember one day someone from this senior management team calling me into the office and asked me to contest against Rachel, to lie and say that she did something she didn’t do…I said I wouldn’t do it. Because I refused, she got uneasy and I will never forget the words she said to me, she said, “If you repeat anything out of this office, I’ll deny it!” The thing is, she expected me to take the opportunity and condemn Rachel because Rachel had condemned me…In the end Rachel left 10k richer. For a long time following the whole episode, many of the senior management team couldn’t even look me in my eyes, but me; I held my head up high. |
My God is a faithful God, through this experience, He had taught me to always have integrity and endurance through the storm. In the end, Rachel lost her job and reputation and the organisation lost financially but as for me, I got strength from the whole experience. I went on possibly another 10 interviews, but by now, had grown spiritually and now KNEW that God would give me what He wants me to have. In August 2009 I got the job I wanted, although it was a short contract finishing in March 2011, I took the job. Two years went by and I got the skills and experience that I wanted from the job, the people were nice and my team was awesome, they were so funny and have become great friends. In 2009 I also met Kevin who would become my husband, Kevin proposed after 1 year dating and we married in May 2011. 2 months before I got married, my work contract ended, I knew it was coming but with a wedding to finish paying for it was a not the best time to be out of work – again, I was faced with another storm as people were given the option to take redundancy of apply for the handful of jobs they’d created. My colleagues around me expected me to be anxious like them but I was at peace, you see, I knew that God would never leave me nor forsake me and that He would provide. 23For there stood by me this night an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I serve Because of what I’d been through at my previous job, I was prepared, what God had changed most significantly in me was the way He had shaped up my character and attitude to trials. The very situations that I faced were trials of endurance and change. God makes us walk through such times because it’s the only way to prepare us to meet His plans for your life. I applied for one of the newly created posts along with some of my colleagues. A couple of days before the set interview day I was called into the office and was offered the job on the spot, no interview. I’ve now been in my ‘new job’ for nearly 4 years, in a management position and still enjoying most of the people I work with. 5 years after giving my life to God I read Acts 27 with mature eyes, I now look at storms as character shaping seasons, knowing that it will end, and that even if I end up [paraphrase] ‘43Swimming, On large boards or holding on to some small parts of this ship’, I know I’ll land on my feet ’43 safely on land’. 43 But the centurion, wanting to save Paul, kept them from their purpose, and commanded that those who could swim should jump overboard first and get to land. 44 and the rest, some on boards and some on parts of the ship. And so it was that they all escaped safely to land. God will help you to get to land if you just trust in Him. |