Found by Christ!
I was born in Halifax 60 years ago and lived at Siddal in a loving and respectable home with a high standard of moral behaviour. I attended the local Methodist church.
At the age of 16 I became a cadet, and at 18 started my training as a registered nurse at the Royal Halifax Infirmary, serving in the NHS for 43 years until my recent retirement. In 1969 I married Peter. We have three children and one grandchild and have lived in Halifax for 32 years.
I want to tell you about the saving grace of my Lord Jesus Christ and how I came to know him as my personal Saviour when I wasn’t particularly looking for him!
My road to Christ began 23 years ago. I was walking my dog around Roils Head Moor, when I met one of my dog-walking friends, Dorothy. At the time it just seemed like an ordinary day. I had a loving husband and three well-behaved children, and yet I had an overwhelming feeling that something was missing in my life.
As we walked together, Dorothy asked me if I would like to attend a ladies Bible study meeting in Norton Tower. I must admit that the idea of a group of churchy ladies sitting in a room discussing the Bible didn’t appeal – but God had different plans for me!
I accepted the invitation and it proved to be the beginning of a wonderful journey. When I attended the first meeting, I found them studying Genesis, the first book in the Bible. They were talking about Adam and Eve and how they sinned against God by eating fruit from the forbidden tree.
Sleepless nights
This brought suffering and death into the world which we can all see today in the many wars, conflicts and man’s inhumanity to man. At the time I found it difficult to accept creation as taught in the Bible and often argued against it in the meetings.
This caused me many a sleepless night, which I now realise was the Holy Spirit working in my heart, convicting me of my own sin and disobedience against God, just like Adam and Eve. I wanted to rule my own life without God, but God had found me out.
Through God’s working in my heart and the many prayers of those who attended the Bible study, I came to realise that God had to become flesh in the person of his Son, Jesus Christ, so that he could take the punishment for my sin.
This led me to believe that on the cross Christ died for my sins. As the Bible says: ‘For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life’ (John 3:16).
In my work as a nurse, and as a wife, mother and grandmother, this truth has given me meaning and purpose. For without a living relationship with Jesus Christ, life would be meaningless. As the hymn of John Newton puts it:
Amazing grace! How sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found;
Was blind, but now I see.
Katherine Ward
