Josh | Browns Bay
“Maybe through church, like a church organisation, just running into, because the community is quite big, so you bump into people that you don’t know.
We turn up every Sunday, and then on Wednesdays, there’s a life group. So, you sort of get to meet new people. So, the one I’m going to at the moment is married, married couples, because I’m recently married, and it’s a good way just to relate to people on the same level, and connect with people. I suppose it’s just good, on Sundays, because after the worship and that they’ll, they’ll get you to say hi to someone that you haven’t met before. So, that’s a good way to connect and just learn about someone new.
I was born in Gisborne. My parents, my mum was a Christian, my dad wasn’t, and sort of had to go along to church when I was young, but I sort of chose not to in my teenage years, and then went down kind of a rough path, and then decided, yeah sort of had quite a miraculous encounter and then got more involved in church, and stuff.
I was addicted to drugs and alcohol. So one of the drugs was the normal pot. I started on pot, got into acid and then eventually got into meth, and lost everything I had. I was on it for about six months, and a guy prayed for me on the side of the road, just random, just out of the blue, pulled his car over, asked if he could pray for us. So he prayed for us, and then I sort of got like, a little bit of hope. Then the next weekend my mum rang me up and asked me if I wanted to go to Hawke’s Bay with her, and I’d been trying to get off drugs for quite some time and I sort of took it as an opportunity to get away from drugs and alcohol, because I didn’t know anyone in Hawke’s Bay, and yeah I sort of went to a church on the Sunday. A guy prayed for me, and I got real, this real cold feeling, and just started shaking and feeling quite off, and then I, I felt like I wanted to make it back to Gisborne for the six o’clock service, and so Mum, Mum and I travelled from Hawkes’ Bay, made it back to Gisborne.
I don’t really remember what the message was on, but the guy did like a alter call; saying is there anyone who wants to give their life to Christ? I put my hand up, but he didn’t see me. Then, I walked up to the front and he looked down at me, and he just went, ‘spirit of suicide and depression get out.’ And, it was kind of weird, because this force, like this force kind of came over me, and I hit the ground, and I was like, shaking on the ground. My eyes were flickering, and the words that came into my head were, I love you, you’ve come home. I walked out of that service free of addictions, free of withdrawal symptoms, everything, and from then on, my life has just been so much better. So it was a real good healing process.
I’d say like, at times I am shy. I do kind of find it can be hard to step out and get to know people, but I do find it that when I do connect with people it makes me feel good, especially with people I haven’t met, just building new friendships. I suppose like, especially when you’ve helped someone that you don’t know as well, it gives you a good sense of like, a good feeling, like you’ve done a good deed.”
