In the first post I recounted my issues with ‘Religion’ and how growing up in the 70’s and 80’s painted religion in a poor light when I could see what was going on in Northern Ireland between the Protestants and the Catholics.
I was running around as an anarchic punk rocker, until, one day, I decided to join the Army as Biomedical Scientist, and this is where I met my wife.
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Thoughts Firmly Established
My biomedical training firmly cemented into my head all that I had been taught in school, namely Darwinian evolution. It was taught as fact and there was no counter argument, so I believed what I was being taught. I mean, teachers are an authority figure so it must be correct, right? Boy, how wrong was I?!?
But this brings up an important point; the power of indoctrination. And I make no bones about it, schools are there to indoctrinate you into the religion of secular humanism.
The humanist movement realised this some time ago, but Christians have been too slow on the uptake, and have been very weak in countering the indoctrination that is happening in our schools and colleges, and we wonder why so many wander away from the faith!
But that is for another article!
The Army Is Calling
Back to my journey. I did my basic military training, and then went to Millbank in London to start my training as a scientist. This was an intensive 3 month course, followed by a BSc in Biomedical Science.
I then did another 6 month intensive course at Millbank, followed by sitting my interview to join the state register of Biomedical Scientists, which I joined in 1997.
When I finished my initial 3 month training, I was posted to Millbank for a further 12 months. During this time, I met a lady on a subsequent course, who would later become my wife.
The Path To Love
My course consisted of 10 people, but Bella was on her own. As I had already done the training, I would spend time helping her with her studies. At this time, neither of us were looking for any kind of relationship, let alone with each other, but God had other ideas!
Spending a lot of time with someone does create a bond with them and eventually we got together. I was then posted to Woolwich and she was still in Millbank, so I used to get the train and we would spend time together.
At this time, she wasn’t a Christian (or rather, she was a ‘backslider’ in her faith), and she eventually fell pregnant. While she was pregnant, I proposed to her, and she said yes! And we had the first of 4 wonderful daughters in 1995, and I was posted to Gosport later that year.
We married in 1996 and spent the next few years in Gosport adjusting to married and family life, and it was a pretty good time for us.
Then in 1998 we had to move to Aldershot which was a horrible move for us. To make matters worse, I was sent to Kosovo on operations in 1999.
A Difficult Step
This was a difficult time for Bella, unbeknownst to me. We had our second daughter in late 1998, and now she was on her own in a garrison town, with a 4-year old and a very demanding baby girl, whilst I was in Kosovo.
Her struggle got so severe, that one day she walked into a church that was just behind our house and some people prayed for her, and she instantly felt a burden lifted and had a peace of mind that she’d been missing for a long time. I only found this out, when I heard her testimony; for years I’d been completely unaware of all this.
I got back from serving in Kosovo and did notice a difference but probably put it down to my being back home so she now had some stability.
She did tell me that she had found Christ, and she started going to church and taking the kids with her, but I was never persuaded to go.
In 2000 we moved back down to Gosport and had our 3rd daughter in 2001
The Issue Of Familiarity
You know that they say that ‘familiarity breeds contempt’ and this kind of happened in our marriage. We were settled and loved each other (that was never in question), but we started to drift apart. Bella had found a church in Gosport and started going there with the girls. I was an avid gamer, so spent every spare hour on my PC playing MMORPG’s.
We had very separate lives. And this really fills me with guilt and regret when I look back at how little time I spent with them. The only thing you can’t get back, is time, and it is so precious, so please don’t let it flitter away.
Any time Bella tried to bring up the subject of faith or religion, I immediately shut her down. I simply didn’t want to hear it, let alone discuss or debate it.
Isn’t it ironic that many atheists and agnostics identify themselves as ‘free thinkers’ but they are pretty much completely closed off to anything remotely supernatural? They are more biased and closed minded than the majority of believers of any faith.
So, we plodded on like this for years, and I eventually left the Armed Forces and started working as a civilian. I took some contact work, because the pay was very good at the time, whilst I looked into something more permanent.
This was another significant milestone in my journey, because one of my contracts was in Wakefield, and we decided to move to Yorkshire.
Why would I choose Yorkshire as a place to live? I’d never been there before. Once again, looking back I can see God’s hand moving in our lives. This was His plan.
In the final part of this journey (which is basically my testimony), I’ll explain the move to Yorkshire, and how we ended up where we are now…