Barnabas Ministries UK

Rev. E. Anderson      

Eddie and June Grahamslaw - testifies

CHRISTIAN CONVERSION LASTS AND SATISFIES

Our Christian testimony goes back to the 1950s. June, my wife, started going to Carmel Pentecostal Church, Denton, Manchester, 6 years before me, where she gave her heart to the Lord Jesus Christ.

She found things a bit difficult at first but finally settled down in her new found faith in the Lord.

She often used to invite me to attend the meetings, but I refused. She used to pray for me regularly that I would get saved, but I laughed about it and would say –‘I don’t think so.’

One day she told me that she was going to be baptised in cold water. This aroused my curiosity so I said I would come along to this happen.

In those days, I was a staff sergeant in the Territorial Army which took up nearly every weekend of my life, so on the Sunday evening when the service was taking place I attended in my uniform and sat at the back of the church.

During the service when the people were being baptised a very strong conviction came upon me that I was unclean and dirty and for a whole week afterwards this conviction never left me, so that when the next Sunday came along all I wanted to do was to GET RIGHT WITH GOD, which I did that evening.

The following day, Monday, I noticed a change had taken place. I had stopped swearing. Smoking, drinking and gambling etc., followed on. What does the Bible say in 2 Corinthians 5: 17  ‘If any man is in Christ, he is a new creature (creation), old things have passed away: behold all things have become new.’

I became a member of the church along with my wife and children and we have worshipped and served the Lord Jesus there for 30 years. We moved to Yorkshire in 1989 and I became the pastor of Settle Pentecostal church where we served for 6 years.

In 1997 we came back to Denton and our son who is the minister at Carmel Church, Hadfield nr Glossop, Derbyshire, invited us to assist him in the work and there I was made Pastor Emeritus of the church, as a stand-by and always available.

This year in October is our Diamond Wedding Anniversary and most of our years has been spent in Worship, Communion and Service for the Lord. And He has never left or forsaken us and more times than we can think He has blessed us out of our socks! Praise his Name forever!

To spend nearly fifty years in fellowship will be nothing will be nothing in comparison to eternity spent with Him.

As Christians, we believe there is more in front than there is behind.

Eddie and June Grahamslaw

Rev. E. Anderson

Joan Anderson’s Testimony

A GREAT CONVERSION

I always remember leading my first soul to a knowledge of Jesus Christ and seeing her respond to the claims of Christ on her life. The Lord springs many surprises on us in our lives as we live in faith and obedience to Him and this was altogether different.

It was in late 1980 that I went to work on a farm to do my National Service and it was whilst working on it that I witnessed to the other farm hands. The foreman had three of his daughters work on the land and so often we had to work alongside of them planting and riddling potatoes, hoeing, washing carrots, cutting hedges etc. Inevitably opportunity was given to my friend Jack and I to give testimony to what Christ had done in our lives.

In the spring of 1951 at Easter tide the eldest daughter was to celebrate her 21st birthday and John and I were invited to share in the occasion. Later I was given to understand that those who invited us did not think we would attend because we were Christians. We decided to go just to prove we could join in on such a memorable event and entered into the fun and joy of that night.

The youngest daughter, Joan, had taken a liking to me and we got on quite well together. That night I gave her an invite to come to church on Easter Monday at Rotherham and to my delightful surprise she accepted and brought along two other young women. It was a very lively service with two preachers and one wondered what the reaction would be.

Again I was pleasantly amazed when she decided she would come to the local church that was situated in our village called Rossington, near Doncaster.

From the Easter to July of that year she attended quite frequently and showed quite an interest. It was on the 12th of that month that a special evangelist from America was speaking in Doncaster and she went along with me to hear him. We were transfixed by this inspired man as he shared the fact that the Lord had delivered him from a number of cancers passing them in the toilet. He had been miraculously healed and it was evident that he was affirming the truth.

After the service as we arrived back in the old village and went for a brief walk, I sensed in my spirit the need to challenge her to become a Christian. I never have forgotten her reply. She said: ‘I would like to be one but I could never live like you.’  The Lord prompted the reply by me saying: ‘It isn’t me but Christ in me and He will be the same to you.’ Her response was that she would ask Christ into her heart and so at the piggery gate 56 years ago the Lord became her Saviour and Friend. It was the beginning of a great change.

Since that time we of course fell in love and subsequently married and that was nearly 53 years ago. Christ has been the centre and dynamic of our lives and marriage and we owe an immense debt to Him for the untold blessing He has heaped upon us and our children. His input has been major and as a consequence each year has been filled with wonder, significance and worth. That decision made by Joan brought about the blessing of God on a very large scale and its repercussions have been felt not only upon the family but upon countless others, too.

Christ does make a difference, transforming people and giving them something to truly live for. He made a difference then, and still does.
 

Rev. E. Anderson

CONVERTED IN A MOMENT

One of the great advantages of my life in my earliest years, although I did not realize it at the time, was to be brought up in a Christian home. I was told the story of Jesus Christ from in those days about His great love and His desire to save from sin.

As a young man, however, I did not bother about Christ but was more concerned about having, what I thought, was a good time in this world. Going to church and becoming involved with Christians was not my idea of living. It was to low keyed for me. In spite of this, I always entertained in my mind a fear of coming judgment if I should die in my sins but I always thought and felt that I must enjoy life and that meant the pleasures of sin and all that such had to offer.

I also considered that I would give my life to the Lord in later life after I had had my fling and my fill of all the entertainment this world could give. Heaven could wait and I would make my choice when I got old.

One Saturday evening, while under in the influence of alcohol, I was drawn to a Christian service being conducted in the open air in the town of Peterhead, in the north-east of Scotland. All at once, when I heard the singing of the old gospel hymns that contained the message of Christ and what He had done, I sensed a deep spirit of conviction in my heart. The Spirit of God sobered me up immediately and I fell on my knees and wept bitterly.

One of the Christians in the ring of people observed my troubled state and came over to where I was and prayed with me. I truly prayed the prayer of one in the Bible – ‘Lord, be merciful to me a sinner.’ The Christian brethren around then took me home as I wept my way to the foot of the cross of Christ in repentance and faith.

It says in the Bible that ‘weeping may endure for a night but joy cometh in the morning’. That was almost forty years ago and since that time I have thoroughly known and enjoyed God’s rich blessing upon my life and I really enjoy serving Jesus.
God is good.                          James Cardno from Fraserborough, Scotland

Rev. E. Anderson

GOD KNOCKED ME OFF MY FEET

Lying face down on his living room floor, Nathan Morris wept uncontrollably. He had never felt anything like it.

For years he had been hooked on drugs, but this awesome experience had nothing to do with illicit substance.

As he lay there, terrified, Nathan realized that the Holy Spirit had knocked him off his feet.

He said, ‘I knew straight away that God was calling me. He said that he had a work for me to do. I was scared and was crying my eyes out and trembling.

‘God literally came into my room and set me free. I’d touched every drug going. I was bound by my lifestyle, but Jesus Christ came and washed me clean.’

The following day – the AOG church led by his parents, Peter and Pamela Morris, in Wath-Upon-Dearne, South Yorkshire – Nathan committed his life to Christ.

He was immediately given a raw hunger for the presence of God, and quickly began preaching the Gospel on the streets and encountering God’s presence in ways that changed his life.

Four-and-half years later Nathan heads up Shale the Nations Ministries, and preaches at Gospel Crusades around the world.

In 2006, he saw more than 30,000 commit themselves to the Lord, there were many stories of the blind, deaf and crippled being healed by the power of God.

Nathan said, ‘I remember spending hours in my room as the fire of the Holy Spirit came upon me. He would show me pictures of vast crowds – people were being healed and coming to the knowledge of Jesus Christ.’

Nathan, 27, describes his journey as a ‘rollercoaster that doesn’t have any breaks.

For more information on Shake the Nations, call 01709/872300 or visit www.shakethenations.co.uk

I am pleased to say that I can autheticate the story and testimony of Nathan because I was attending the Wath church when he was truly restored to God. We praayed much for him prior to it and saw it all happen. To God be the glory!

Rev. E. Anderson

 I have known Paul Randerson over many years and been delighted over what the Lord has brought to pass through his life and ministry. He came into the Assemblies of God Bible College as a student and then proceeded into Christian service where he has successfully served the Lord. Besides planting churches in the Norfolk area he has been very much involved in world missions in Brazil, Pakistan and Afghanistan and is presently involved in church planting in the Lebanon.

The following highlights his testimony on how he came to Christ and what has subsequently followed.

He writes:

‘Although he had been taken to church right from infancy, he grew up rejecting God and became heavily involved in the skin-head culture.

I was converted on Christian boating holiday on the Norfolk broads in 1970 at the age of 15years. It on a Monday evening that I responded to the gospel and was also wonderfully baptized in the Holy Spirit on the Wednesday evening with many others also on the boat as the Holy Spirit swept through and ministered personally to us.

God radically changed my life and I immediately began to feel a call to serve God in whatever way I could. Within six months I was leading the youth work at the Wath upon Dearne Pentecostal church situates near Rotherham, South Yorkshire, where God did some wonderful things.

After hearing a challenging message from John Carter General Secretary of the Assemblies of God  preached at our church one Sunday from Luke 11 on the subject of “I will follow you BUT” , I surrendered my all to Christ and His service. It was to be the time when things were to move ahead to fulfill God’s demand upon my life.

After four years in my local church I sensed my need to be properly prepared for future service for the Lord, I applied to be a student at Mattersey Bible College and was duly accepted.  I studied there for one year and went to help re- pioneer the AOG work in Havercroft ,West Yorkshire. It was to serve in aiding me for even much more in the coming years of ministry for the Lord.

In 1979 a clear call from God came to go to Norfolk and plant churches. God opened this door by a wonderful series of events and I responded.

I am still serving God here in Swaffham and King’s Lynn and thank God for the great churches He has built and the ministries that work with me as well heading up a small Network called “Networking Together in Norfolk.”

I am privileged to head up the Brazil project in the Amazon jungle, where 90 workers are supported. It has been a pleasure to visit this country and observe the great things God is doing there and minister to the leadership and churches there.

Further to this, I travel to Pakistan, Afghanistan, Jamaica and Lebanon and help the churches there, taking teams and holding missions and conferences for Ministers and Leaders of the churches.
 

Rev. E. Anderson

Introduction

In the early 1960’s I became a minister of a church in Denton, just outside Manchester. I was greeted there by a man by the name of A.J. Adcock who was elderly and had been an elder there and had made a major contribution to its life and growth. During my ministry there I got to know, love and respect him greatly. One of my final tasks there before leaving was to conduct his funeral service.

I have just come across a small book called The Book of miracles written by Gordon Cove, a former and effective evangelist with the Assemblies of God. I had the pleasure of meeting him in 1957 as he conducted a crusade just outside Manchester and work with him there and temporarily followed it up. In this small composition is the amazing conversion of A.J. Adcock that makes interesting reading and is a testimony to the power of the Christian Gospel.

It is called

THE STORY OF STRANGEWAYS GAOL

“Father passed away last night-Mother.” This was the news received by a munitions worker during 1914-18 war. Father dead! What a chance to go racing! So to Manchester races he went, while the rest of the bereaved family followed the remains of a good Christian father to their last resting place.

How callous, how utterly callous you say. Yes, so utterly callous that there must have been a basic cause.

A good honest lad

His parents were fairly well-to-do. Educated at a well-known Public School, he was considered a clever boy, and before he left was head of the school and captain of the cricket team. Leaving school, he went into a bank in a Midland town, and was boarded at Temperance Hotel.

Being lonely, he used to watch the hotel visitors playing billiards and became very interested. That interest resulted in him having a try himself and he got fascinated with the game. Playing ‘snooker’ and ‘pool’ with the commercial travelers followed and thus the gambling spirit was born within him. The billiard marker used to take bets for a bookmaker and suggested betting horses as a profitable pastime. His first two horses won and the lad was wholly gripped with the mania for gambling.

The downward path

Constantly losing money led to pilfering small sums from the bank, and having once started on the downward path, his whole moral structure gave way. Losing more heavily still, he commenced to systematically rob the bank, and in three years had embezzled over £600 before he was found out. No proceedings were taken and his father repaid the money.

Not being able to get work, he persuaded his father to set him up in business in Manchester. There he got married and for a time he tried to go straight. There was no real change of heart, however, and getting in with a fast set, he joined a sporting club. Then he lost his head completely, ran his business on the rocks and was made bankrupt.

Years of living on his wits followed, being in turn backer, tipster and bookmaker. Sometimes lucky, more often unlucky, he drank heavily and in every way led an evil life. No thought of other people’s feelings or rights bothered him in the least. Such was his condition when his father died.

More depraved than ever

After the war, being again out of work, he started off on the same lines, more depraved, if possible, than ever. When his finances were at their lowest ebb he got a job as a cashier on a false reference. By now his nature was so twisted that he simply go straight, and during the first year he embezzled over £900. Knowing that detection was inevitable, he ran away, and tried to make a living by betting in Nottingham, under an assumed name. Knowing that the police would comb out the race meetings he did his business in public houses, drinking very heavily all the time. The coal strike of 1921 stopped all racing, so, his money exhausted, he decided to ‘face the music,’ although he knew there was no indulgent father, now, and nothing to be expected but stern justice. He called to see his aged mother on the way, who, though her heart was broken, still believed that her prayers for him would be answered.

Six months hard labor

After being remanded on bail several times, he was eventually tried and given six months’ hard labour, his sentence being fairly light because he had given himself up an had not been in the hands of the police before. He was taken from Minshull Street to Strangeways is a ‘Black Maria’ with two drunken women. One of them looked over the partition and Said: “What have they given you, dearie?” For the first time for years he felt a sense of shame but he threw it off, and for the first month was quite unmoved.

One night a warder was exceptionally rough in his manner and for the second time that sense of shame came over him. This time he could not throw it off, and what he was, and what might have been wqas realised. Before long the hardness in his nature began to soften, and he sobbed as if his heart would break. He came to himself.

As sob after sob shook his frame, these words came floating through his brain, “Help of the helpless, O abide with me.” Was his mother singing them? How apt they were. Doubly helpless. As he repeated them again and again as his first prayer, all his hideous past came before him. Things long forgotten came to mind, until he felt as if he were damned already.

Remorse

His first letter was full of expressions of regret, remorse, confession of sin. He asked his wife and mother to forgive him, and promised to make all amends possible. Day after day he sought divine forgiveness but could get no relief. The prison Bible and hymn-book were eagerly searched. Was there forgiveness for such as he? This went on for two months, and so great was his anguish that he lost four and half stones in weight. The doctor was alarmed and asked what was lacking in his diet, but the sickness was not physical but spiritual. It was soul anguish.

A new creation

On August 27th, 1921, at 7-45 p.m., just as the evening bell rang he was praying when suddenly he jumped up. Relief had come. His burden had gone. He was forgiven. He was born again. He was a new creation in Christ Jesus. The Holy Spirit witnessed with his spirit that he was born of God, and as a seal gave him these words, “I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for He hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, He hath covered me with the robes of righteousness” – (Isaiah 61:10). That moment he knew that in God’s sight he was as if he had never sinned.

He was discharged two months later, a sane being with the promise to stand on, “Seek you first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you” – (Matthew 6: 33). He believed it and in three weeks obtained apposition again as a cashier. Within nine years, on the death of his employer, he was enabled to take over the business, which he runs for the Lord’s work ever since. Not once after his conversion did an oath pass his lips, not once has he tasted strong drink, not once has the mania for gambling return, and all the evil effects of his vicious life, have been cleansed away. When God saves He saves to the uttermost.
 
 

Rev. E. Anderson
 

FROM DRUGS TO CHRISTTHE BARRY WOODWARD STORY

Let me introduce you a person that I met just a few years ago and it has been a delight to see the developments in his life and work as a Christian evangelist. He has a tremendous testimony to the power of Christ to set free from a life of sin and to be a dynamic agent in the hands of Christ to preach the Christian message. Barry is totally committed to Christ having been remarkable transformed by Him.

BARRY’S STORY

Despite being brought to by two great parents I became a heroin addict. This lifestyle led to problems with my health, relationships and the police. After 12 years of taking drugs and living in the Manchester area I decided to move to Rochdale.

I had only been in Rochdale eight weeks when one day I got on a bus to go and do some shopping. While I was on the bus I got talking to this guy who seemed really genuine. I got off the bus and I thought ‘Hey, that guy was alright’.

The following Sunday I was taking my Jack Russell out for a walk at about 1.00 in the afternoon. As I was walking up the road who should be walking in the opposite direction but the guy that I had met on the bus just a few days before. We stopped and talked and then I asked him where he had been. He said, ‘Church’.  To be honest my inward reaction to that statement was ‘Church! Church is just for older people. Church isn’t relevant. Church is boring!’  My outward reaction was ‘O that’s cool’. He said to me, ‘Why don’t you come along?’  He looked over the road and said that they met in the hospital grounds over there. I said no and that I was OK. We said goodbye and we continued on our way.
 
A few days later I had an appointment to see a psychiatrist as my medical records had been transferred from Manchester. His name was Dr. Samuel; he was a very smart, well spoken African Gentleman. We had our meeting and I came out still able to get all my medication, which at the time meant a lot to me.

The next day I was taking my dog for a walk again and while I was walking up the road past the hospital I started to look for this church, but I couldn’t see one. I was looking for a big cathedral type of church.

The following day there was a knock at my door. I opened the door and it was a woman whom I had never met before. She said that she was my next-door neighbour and she had come to introduce herself. After a conversation I asked if she could tell me where the church was that was in the hospital grounds. She said ‘Yes I will take you, because I go to that church’.

The following Sunday she came and picked me up and she took me to this church. To be honest it wasn’t what I was expecting. It was a group of Christians who met in a wooden hut!

I sat down next to my neighbour, then there was a tap on my shoulder, I looked over and it was the guy that I met on the bus. He sat on the other side with his wife and children. After a short while the minister got up to speak, but just before he spoke I heard these words from behind me, ‘Hallelujah! Praise the Lord!’ I looked round. Can you guess who was walking through the door? It was my psychiatrist!

All three people that I had met in the last ten days were all in this room!

After the speaker finished his message that day, I received prayed for drug addiction, my mental health problems that had been caused by drug abuse and I encountered God in a powerful way. The following day I committed my life to Christ.

This was the beginning of a really exciting journey. After only four weeks I came of all the drugs that I was addicted too. I had been suffering form hearing voices for nine years. After becoming a Christian they disappeared completely! More to follow!

Later Barry will relate on another page what he is now engaged in his ministry for Christ.

Rev. E. Anderson

The most wonderful thing to happen to any person in this life, whoever they may and wherever they may come from is to be converted to Christ by Christ. He is the only One that has the power to dynamically renew a person from within and make them a true Christian and a follower of Himself. He meets ordinary and outstanding people in unusual ways to demonstrate His love, knowledge and ability. The following gives some instances of how such happened and what took place in them can also be your experience.

A SIMPLE GOD BLESS YOU

This is a simple expression that is used regularly by Christians and even sometimes by non-Christians – ‘God bless you!’ It is felt that in using the phrase meaningfully that you desire that its recipient will receive some choice favour from God. Does it happen? Well it occurred in the experience of my brother, Maurice, when he was not in a very nice mood and attitude.

Although he had been brought up in good Christian home there came a period in his being when he was bitter, resentful and critical of the Christians that were around him, especially the church leaders. It had not always been the case because he placed his faith in Christ the night I did in August 1946.

He married a minister’s daughter and was involved in Christian work at a local level. However, things went wrong and he went wrong in his spirit and became hard, aggrieved and angry at times at what he witnessed. In spite of his condition he still went to services on occasion to placate his wife and to hold his marriage together. He was always, in spite of this, a kind and generous brother to me.

But then, a wonderful and fantastic change came rather unexpectedly and unusually.

He went away with a new caravan to a place just situated outside Newtown, Wales for a week-end break. Little did he know that Christ was to make a breakthrough into his life!

When he arrived and put up the caravan on its rests he was quite angry when one of the rests subsided because it had been located on top of a rabbit hole. His temper was none too good or his language, so he told me. He slipped along at night to the local pub to drown his sorrows. Sunday being the next day he asked his wife as to whether she would like to go to church. She replied in positive terms and so they went.  Maurice was none too happy with the service and was not slow in saying so. But he was to be dramatically changed.

When he arrived on the Saturday on the caravan site he met another person and found out that he was a Christian. In some way this man must have shared with him the fact. On the Monday morning as he was crossing the field, in the middle of it, this person crossed his path and simply said to him – “God bless you, Maurice!”  He was immediately transfixed to the spot and the divine message went right home to his mind and heart and he was immediately humbled. He could go no further. At that point he repented and turned to the Lord.

In returning to the caravan he sat outside deeply contrite and broken. When his wife came outside she said: “What has happened to you?” His reply was simple – “God has met me.”  Without ado, they packed up the caravan returned home to their local church to tell the story. He was never the same as the result of that meeting and loved to serve Christ, His Lord and Saviour, and the people.

Just over four years ago Maurice went to be with Christ, and without doubt, rejoices in the fact that Christ met him in such a beautiful way.

May I extend this great greeting to you now – God bless you! He will, if you let Him.