Meet the people
Here are some stories from a selection of people who make up part of the family at Cornerstone Church:
Madeleine's Story: One Sunday morning I was holding Mili, my granddaughter, while we were singing in church a song called "Who paints the skies into glorious day?” As we sang the second verse, "Who hears the cry of the barren one? only the mercy of Jesus" my eyes filled up and I had a lump in my throat as the past flashed up. I remembered how ill my daughter, Jess, had been because of an eating disorder and how I had thought I was going to lose her in the dark days when this eating disorder had its grip on her life. I couldn't believe she would ever be able to have children or that I would be a gran. It was God who set Jess free from the prison she was in because of her illness one Sunday morning here at
Jess now heads up a charity called I-Eat (http://www.i-eat.org.uk) that seeks to help others with eating disorders and support those who have someone in their family suffering. You can read her own story on the website.
Michelle's story: In my teenage years I turned my back on God but when I had a motorcycle accident I cried out ‘God, save us!’ and He did. When my 15 week old baby stopped breathing I cried “Jesus’ save him!” and He did. When I had no choice but to take my young children and live in a women’s refuge I asked God to look after us and He did. Members of my family have been involved in three separate car crashes and each time I begged the Lord to look after them and He did. Six years ago, I asked God to help me feel the love and trust to re-marry and I did. I know that Jesus is real and he does indeed live today.
Beryl's story: Beryl Hinder has been coming to
“Having been brought up as a Baptist, I spent some years away from the church before deciding a few years ago that I wanted to find a local church to attend. After visiting several, I came along to West Howe Baptist (now Cornerstone) one morning … and have been coming ever since.
In 2004 my husband died and that was a very difficult time for me; I put some distance between myself and God and felt that He had let me down. However, after some time, I felt that I really wanted to move on and I spoke to Ian, our minister. He suggested that I should do a course to help me understand what life with Jesus is all about. The course is called ‘Discovering new life with Jesus’. After completing that course, I then began a second one called ‘Growing in Knowing Jesus’ and about half way through that there was an opportunity to make a commitment to God. I said the prayer of commitment and remember sitting down on the sofa afterwards and feeling a wonderful sense of warmth and peace. After that, I knew that I wanted to be baptised and my baptism took place in June 2007.
Since I made my commitment to God, I have really known His presence with me. I have to say, I have also had times when things have gone wrong and I have been tempted to question God as to why, but I realise these things that happen are because God’s enemy, the devil, really wants to try to disillusion me. I know that God accepts me as I am and I am learning that it doesn’t matter if I get things wrong, so long as I come to Him and say sorry”.
Chris's story: My family began coming to
In 1972, I joined the army. Very slowly, as the years went by, I grew away from God and his teachings. I wouldn’t say that I had lost my faith at that point but I certainly didn’t have any kind of relationship with God and had stopped praying, even when things around me were going wrong.
1992 heralded a devastating time in my life: I was divorced and lost my children. I became very depressed and slowly became an alcoholic, drinking up to 3 litres of Brandy a week. Because of the alcohol abuse, I had to have a kidney operation which went wrong. I had blood clots on my lungs and heart and almost died, I was in intensive care for two weeks. After a lot of stress at work, I received a phone call from my brother-in-law to say that my father had died - he was 62. This news was ‘the straw that broke the camel’s back’. I totally lost it with God - I was so angry with Him; I was the bad person so why hadn’t He taken me? Instead, he chose to take my father who loved Him and served Him loyally.
Looking back now, I can see that everything that happened was part of God’s plan for me, although it was not much fun at the time. In time I met a lady called Ruth who had also been through a horrendous divorce and had many problems. This part of God’s plan was very simple: Get two people together who were in need of love and support.
After all the terrible times I had been through, God took a hold of me and in less than one year Ruth and I fell in love and were married. God also took a hold of my relationship with Him and showed me that no matter what things happened in my life, He loved me and would help me, if I would trust Him. Everything is possible with God. He can take the worst situations and turn them around.
Tom's Story: I’ve believed in God for a long time and I was fully aware of all the facts about Jesus but I didn’t really feel it was that personal to me until I went to Soul Survivor (a Christian camp aimed at the youth generation) this year (2009) and really felt a connection with God. God suddenly seemed very real to me and when I came back home, I felt it was the right time to take a step forwards in my personal faith and be baptised to show my commitment to God. Being baptised is just one step though, it doesn’t mean that now I’m sorted. What I want to do now is keep talking to God, keep learning about him and keep walking on the right path, the one that leads me closer to him.”
- Holloway Avenue
- Bournemouth
- Dorset
- BH11 9JR
07505 308823
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