My testimony - Vince Wilkie

In the latest in our series of testimonies from Redeemer Church London members, VINCE WILKIE reveals how an extraordinary moment at his wedding saw the Lord reveal Himself when he least expected it.

I’ve been a born-again Christian for 11 years. One of my favourite songs is called ‘The Lord is Real’. The chorus is very pertinent to my testimony: ‘I know the Lord is real, this is how I feel, in time He will reveal.’

My testimony is about the time when the Lord truly revealed how real He was.

Time for me is going back to September 28, 2012. I'm sitting in a memory clinic at Central Middlesex Hospital with my mum and dad.

The doctor is telling us something we suspected for at least years, that mum had dementia, but we were also being told that she was showing early stages of Alzheimer’s.

As you can imagine for the family that was a very emotional blow, but as a family we would pull together and support our mum in her time of need as she had always done for us as her children and her husband. In holy matrimony we quote the lines in sickness and in health.

My mother and father were certainly true examples of that, and it was amid this time that I also sought to quote those lines as approximately two months after my mum’s diagnosis, I proposed to my then girlfriend and now wife.

In planning for our wedding one of the dreams I kept having and was so looking forward to, was my mum and dad being able to see me get married in a church and be there sitting alongside me at the head table as my wife and I would celebrate our union in front of our loved ones.

We know that mum’s condition would bring us challenges and we were ready to accept them, but even those challenges surpassed what we could ever have imagined.

Over the course of the next 11 months as we were planning for our wedding, unforeseen challenges with mum’s condition were coming to light as her physical mobility as well as mental capacity was decreasing.

Getting mum to physically attend routine health appointments became an impossible task, resulting in us having to arrange house appointments for her.

She had not left the house since that fateful day in September.

I came to the logical conclusion that mum was not going to be able to attend the wedding. The physical challenge and emotional trauma she was experiencing was too much for her to bear and the family to see.

This was a feeling of deep regret for me, I really wanted my mum to be there at the church. However I had to press on with the planning and preparation of the wedding.

The date was now Saturday October 5, 2013. It’s a mild dry autumn afternoon, it’s our wedding day. I am sitting alongside my brother who was also my best man, I’m looking around the beautiful church and constantly in my eye is the Christ on the cross in the altar.

As I gazed on the cross, my brother said to me: ‘Vincent, I need to tell you something. Don’t turn around yet, but mum is here, she’s made it.’

Tears of joy filled my eyes and I turned around and saw my mum with my dad walking hand in hand down the aisle.

I went to my parents, hugged them and made my way back to the altar, again I looked at Jesus on the cross.

The Lord had revealed to me when I least expected it, but when I most needed it, that He was real, and He had revealed this to me in time in his house. A whole 370 days later. My faith had now been sealed.

My logic was not God's logic. He works outside logic, He knew my heart’s desire and fulfilled my wish.  Trust in the Lord and He will reveal Himself to you and at the time you need it most.

Jesus had done the same thing to Peter on the banks of Lake Galilee when Peter - jaded and demotivated - had sought to find fish all night. Jesus spoke to him, revealed Himself and suddenly Peter was provided with a bountiful supply of fish and became one of his apostles.

‘I know the Lord is real, this is how I feel, in time He will reveal.’

My testimony - Esther-Maria Cornford

ESTHER-MARIA CORNFORD, who is part of Redeemer Church London, reveals in her testimony how God broke the shackles of her past and will never let her down.

Jesus Christ came into my life unexpectedly in 2017 and transformed me and my life in the most wonderful ways. Through Him, I have found love, freedom, and grace.

I grew up as part of an atheist family in Germany. My childhood and adolescence were largely marked by a series of traumatic events.

I witnessed the difficult breakdown of my parents’ marriage and several of their subsequent relationships, experienced physical and emotional abuse and neglect, and lost family members in a variety of different ways.

Often, I was left feeling hopeless, unworthy of love, lonely, and depressed. The lack of stability in my life caused me to be untrusting and confrontational. I felt that I could not possibly forgive the people who had hurt me. These negative feelings caused inner turmoil within me.

Yet, something changed when I was 13 years old. A friend invited me to go to church with her one Sunday and I went along, not expecting or wanting to meet God, but I believe I did. When I walked into this church, I felt a sudden rush of warmth flood my body.

In that moment, I felt secure and loved. I did not understand the feeling or Who or what was behind it, but I felt a clear presence.

From this day on, I took classes about Christianity for a year, got christened and confirmed in the Lutheran church, and started reading the Bible and praying sporadically.

This year was simultaneously one of the hardest years of my life, as I experienced abandonment and violence, got bullied at school, and lost my aunt and uncle in a car accident.

At 14 years of age, I stayed with my cousin, who had lost his parents in this accident, in hospital while he was undergoing operations and recovering from the crash. The hospital we stayed in had a chapel, which I visited to pray and ask God for help and strength, which he gave me.

But as the years went by I became more and more withdrawn. In order to deal with the memories, feelings, and more unfortunate life experiences, I turned to self-destructive methods, such as self-harming.

In 2017, I moved to London to study Musical Theatre. Within the first week of living here, I was once again invited to church by my dear friend, Reuben.

When I attended my first service at Redeemer Church London, I met Jesus Christ. For the first time, my eyes and ears were opened and I understood what I was actually saying as I was singing and worshipping.

I truly understood the Gospel. God revealed to me who He truly is: not some positive spiritual force, but a person who I can have a relationship with.

Jesus revealed Himself to me as a Brother and Friend. For the first time, I felt God the Father welcome me into His loving arms. More than anything, I felt grace, freedom, forgiveness, and love. I physically felt a weight being lifted off my shoulders and the shackles of my past breaking.

Jesus has changed how I view myself and my purpose in life because I no longer want to live for myself, but for Him. Firstly, entering into a relationship with Jesus has taught me that while humans have let me down, hurt me, and left me time and time again, He never will. Only Jesus can truly satisfy, heal, and make us whole.

Through spending time with Jesus, I have been able to start my healing process, grow, and forgive those I never thought I would be able to forgive.

Where I was once self-seeking, obstinate, and closed off, I am now open, humbled, and wanting to love everyone. I have found inner peace.

While I came to this country specifically to pursue a career which would allow me to act as someone else and entertain people with my abilities, I now want to always show others who I truly am in Christ Jesus, and use what God has given me to help others.

Therefore, I have even changed the career I am pursuing to fit my new purpose in life because God is worth it and my heart has been transformed completely.

No one’s life is perfect. Having Jesus in my life has not fully taken away all of my pain and grief. What He has given me though is a new perspective. He is my ever present help in trouble, my Lord and Saviour, who I can speak to and lean on.

However, more than that He is a holy and praiseworthy God. He has saved me from the disasters in my past because He is good and to bring glory to His precious Name.

Wherever you come from and whatever circumstances you have faced in your life, God can use them for your good and His glory, and He can bring healing even to the most broken of hearts.

Throughout the years since I've become a Christian, Jesus has continued to be faithfully at work in my life. Growing up I did not have positive male role models to teach me how men and women should relate to each other healthily. Yet now I get to give glory to God for the wonderful husband He has given me.

Together we have welcomed our first child and our expecting our second. Our daughters are a blessing and gift that I can only humbly praise God for.

God the Father has drawn me into closer relationship with Him every year - revealing Himself to me ever more graciously, sanctifying me, and showing me more of Who He is.

He has answered prayer upon prayer, He has been with me through some highs and lows, He has grown me, and He has blessed me.

I continue to give thanks to God for the way in which He has taken me out of brokenness into wholeness, joy, and a life I can live to the full through Him and by His grace alone for His glory alone.

I Do

This Sunday we celebrated marriages in the church and heard a fantastic testimony from Chris and Tricia, a couple at Redeemer who have been married for over 50 years! We were also blessed by a visit from our resident poet Steve Page, whose poem - I Do - is below.

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Rather than offer my own advice to my son and his bride on their wedding day, I asked various Christian couples who have a few years of marriage behind them to offer their thoughts on the ingredients of a successful marriage.  And I then sought to weave them together.  So this poem is the fruit of around 250 years of marriage.

It’s called – “I Do”

Ignore the lyrics:

You can't pursue love.
You don't find love.
Love's not a thing to be kept or had;

it's a doing word that you both have to work at.

Love is a language expressed in deeds
and so clear expression of your love best succeeds when you
both discover what the other most dearly needs.

So spend time planting daily deeds of love, every one of them a fragile seed.

Continue to listen day and night
and learn what each other prefers and what you both like.
And then, when you get it right
you'll be answered by a unmistakable light in their wide
glistening eyes.

Do it on a date.
Do it with your mates.
Do it when you're tired and it's heavy eyed late.
Do it in the everyday mundane way
you pair your own socks
and clear away last night's takeaway.

Laugh often and have fun
especially when you feel life has you on the run
and be sure to surprise each other both regularly and often
Maybe even invest in a pair of water guns.

Share the fragile thoughts
you find at the forefront of your mind.
Reveal your vulnerability,
the hurt you feel when life's been unkind.

And in response to that revealed insecurity, ensure you tread carefully 
until you see the healing that comes from interlacing lovingly.

Speak your love every day.
Articulate it come what may.
And that way you'll ensure that it stays
at the forefront of each of your todays,
on the tip of your tongues
so when you inevitably take a step wrong
you'll both recall why you're together
and why it's worth the endeavour
that it takes to push through that unexpected foul weather.

Love one another through that gale
and sail on to meet the adventure
that's yours to discover:
Through the miles of your wherevers,
for the duration of your whenevers,
strong enough for your whatevers,
standing together,
forever relentlessly loving each other.

So may the Lord of your tomorrows bless you together.
May the Lord keep you smiling whatever.
May his face shine on you in all kinds of weather.
And may He give you peace
that will never cease
to give you pause to thank Him for his grace
forever.

And all the assembled people said

AMEN.

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We also heard about some other great resources on Sunday, which we hope will bless you if you as a married person during this time.

The first is Tim & Kathy Keller’s book - The Meaning of Marriage.
”In The Meaning of Marriage, Timothy Keller, along with Kathy, his wife of thirty-six years, draws a profound portrait of marriage from the pages of Scripture that neither idealizes nor rejects the institution but points us back to the relationship between God and man. The result is a vision for marriage that is refreshingly frank and unsentimental, yet hopeful and beautiful. This book is for anyone from singles, to couples considering marriage, to those who have been married recently or for a long time.”

The second is an app - available for Apple and Android devices - Toucan is designed for couples, and includes various tools to help you to build your relationship.

The third thing we recommend is the HTB marriage course. Designed and run by Holy Trinity Brompton (A church here in London), The Marriage Course is a series of seven sessions, designed to help couples invest in their relationship and build a strong marriage.