12.3.23 evening Rev. Iain Morrison Testimony

[0:00] I must be fed up of the sound of my voice by now, hearing me and listening to me all weekend. Before I start, just kind of some facts here, and there are probably not many of you, if any of you know, but I built this place.

[0:17] Well, I didn't kind of build it on my own, but I helped build this place, because when I was in school in Stornoway, over the summer, I always used to work. And this summer, I was working, I think it was a hotel, and this place was being built, and Spud aired.

[0:39] Any of you remember Spud? Spud plastered this place, the walls, and of course, he needed a labourer with him. And I was labouring here for about five or six weeks with Spud, working in this place.

[0:56] I was about 16 or something, so that's my claim to fame. So you're here because of me, and because I built this place. Before I start my testimony, I kind of always say this when I share testimony, is God deals with us all in different ways, totally different ways.

[1:14] And one of the kind of things that concerns me is that when, especially people maybe who are searching or looking, or even people who aren't Christians, hear a testimony, and that's not the way God's working in their lives, that they're put off.

[1:31] God works through our personalities. God works through our circumstances. God works in mysterious ways for each one of us, and no two testimonies are the same.

[1:45] And my testimony is fairly dramatic, whereas actually my wife Sheena, totally different. God dealt with her in a totally different way. So please kind of remember that as I share testimony with you.

[2:00] I kind of grew up in, me abog in Harris, North Harris. I had no real thoughts.

[2:11] Although I did, I think, I remember once or twice as a, maybe I was maybe kind of nine or ten, I was imagining what God would look like. Trying to just imagine in my mind what it looked like.

[2:23] And I thought one night, in the middle of the night, I thought I woke up, and I thought I saw him. I must have been dreaming or something, but it stuck with me.

[2:34] I thought I'd seen God, or I'd seen Jesus. And it's just one of these things that, obviously from my childhood, it made an impact on it. The fact that I still remember it, and I remember it quite, quite vividly.

[2:47] And I also used to think about, I wonder what happens when you die. Do you kind of just, because there's the days of kind of Star Trek, those of you who are of that age. You know, Star Trek was on TV, I think it was on a Saturday afternoon.

[3:01] And I imagine, well, when I die, you just kind of float in space, in a galaxy far, far away somewhere. And that's just what happens to you. So, I had no real, growing up, no real kind of, any kind of convictions or anything.

[3:18] I occasionally went to church when I was dragged along. And I had to be dragged along. And I think when I reached the age of 16, or 17, when I left home, I never went to church.

[3:34] Because I was, my life was full, and my life was full of sport. I played rugby in the winter, football in the summer. I played basketball for the school.

[3:46] I played badminton here every Saturday night. You know, you name any sport, I played it. And I really enjoyed playing it. So, I filled my life with that. And it was great.

[3:57] I really enjoyed, really enjoyed my life. I really enjoyed parling about all my pals, and playing football, and all these sports. And I thought nothing, really, of church.

[4:08] I thought nothing of Christians. I knew that some people were Christians. Didn't bother me too much. And I just got on with life.

[4:18] And while I was in Glasgow, I left school. I remember going to Glasgow. And I was flying out on a Saturday. And Harris were playing Westside.

[4:31] No, Harris were playing United on the Friday night. So, I had to stay for that game. And Harris just needed a draw to win the league. And we won the league that night.

[4:42] Mainly because it got dark. It was in end of August, end of the season. And the referee had to stop the game. Maybe over 10 minutes before the end. Because although we were the best team in the league by far, we really had a rubbish night that night.

[4:56] But we got through and we won it. And off I was to Glasgow. Off I went the next day on the plane. And I spent a couple of years in Glasgow. Did some college work there.

[5:08] Again, never went to church. Probably didn't really come across any Christians for us there. If I did, they never told me there were Christians. And if they had, it wouldn't have bothered me anyway. And I enjoyed my couple of years in Glasgow.

[5:22] And, again, just sport. I used to play football on a Wednesday. I used to train on a Wednesday night. I used to play football on a Saturday morning. I played for a team on a Saturday afternoon.

[5:35] And just to finish my week, I played on a Sunday afternoon as well. So that was great. That's kind of just one of the things you do when you're that age. And you have nothing else to worry about in life.

[5:47] So it was in Glasgow. I suppose that I met my wife, who's from Harris, who lived just kind of not far away from me. Met Gina there. I'd met her actually the summer before I went to Glasgow.

[5:59] And we obviously worked out together. And we had our couple of years in Glasgow. And at the age of about 18, I decided, or we decided, to get engaged.

[6:12] And that must have been quite a shock to some people. And they got married when I was 20. So once we left Glasgow, I came back, worked with a collier, stayed in Stonyway for a year or two.

[6:26] Then built a house in Point and stayed in Point for a couple of years. And I suppose that's where kind of changes started to happen with me and in my life, as far as my Christian life was concerned.

[6:43] She was a teacher. She just retired a couple of years back. And her head teacher in Point, she taught in Laxdale School, was a Christian. And I think I can honestly say that, and maybe it was just because where I was then, that I thought that she was the only real Christian I'd ever met in my whole life.

[7:08] And I think what made me think that was that, you know, she spoke to me about her faith and she spoke to me about the Bible. But she accepted me for who I was.

[7:22] And she knew me, and she knew me really well. But she accepted me. And she would not kind of try and force things on me. And I really respected her for that.

[7:34] And I was really impressed with her life as a Christian. Really impressed with the way that she lived her life. Really impressed with the concerns she had for me as a non-Christian.

[7:47] And I think that's probably the first kind of movement of the spirit in my life, looking back. I think that's possibly kind of the first one.

[8:00] And so kind of, again, just did all that we did in Stornoway. I worked for the Collier. Still played football, played rugby. And it was great.

[8:12] Life was fine. As I say, we kind of built this house. And I spent a year almost kind of dedicated to working. I did quite a bit of the work myself.

[8:23] And I just kind of gave myself to it. And it was great. Life was really good. I had some good pals that I palled about with, mostly from the football.

[8:34] And it was great. And this lady, this woman cursed, who lived in the same village where we built the house, she would pop in almost every week.

[8:47] And she would chat about Jesus and chat about what was happening in the church. And it was fine. It was great. And then something really kind of strange happened.

[8:58] I found myself really being totally disrespectful of Christians. And feeling really as if all that they stood for, I had no time for.

[9:18] And not just didn't have time for. I kind of hated. I just hated Christians. I hated the church. And I suppose I kind of went through a period of hating God.

[9:33] And a couple of funny stories. And they are funny. We had just moved to Point to the house. And our bridesmaid was Liza McVicar from Scalpy.

[9:46] She's not from McVicar now. Liza from Scalpy. And she had become a Christian. And the Point Communions were on. And she phoned Sheena to ask if she could stay with us for the weekend.

[9:58] Because she wanted to go to the Communions. And Sheena said to me, Liza had phoned. And I said, what wanted she? I said, ah, she's coming. And she wanted to come to Communions.

[10:10] And I said, right, okay. So when are they? And she told me. And I remember the Friday night. Because I knew that they'd be there early. And I knew that Sheena would invite them to tea. And I had this old Morris Marina car that my grandfather had given me.

[10:27] When I was building the house. And it was an absolute wreck. And it needed any exhaust. And I came home from work on the Friday that this contingent from Scalpy were coming over to the Communion in Point.

[10:40] And Sheena had invited three or four of them who were travelling to come for tea. And that night I came home from work. And I went into the garage. Had the car up on a ramp.

[10:52] And I spent all the time they were in the house under that car putting on the exhaust. Because I didn't want to see them. I was thinking, ah, these Christians, what a chick.

[11:05] Can we go over to my house and eating my food? And it was just awful. That's how I felt. But it got worse.

[11:16] It got worse. Because Liza was a teacher then. And on the Saturday night, I think she phoned. And said, oh, we're getting the early ferry over to Scalpy on Monday morning to work.

[11:31] So that we're there in time for work. And I was wondering if we could stay. And Sheena said, oh, yeah, that's fine. We've got a spare bedroom. And she said, so who's coming?

[11:41] And I said, well, would it be okay if Mrs Smith, the minister's wife in Scalpy, stayed as well for the Sunday night?

[11:53] And Sheena, knowing fine well that I was going to go ballistic, said yes. And sure enough, after the prayer meeting on the Saturday night, on the Sunday night, they trooped into our house, two of them.

[12:10] And I just was absolutely livid. I was, it's terrible to admit, but I was, again, coming to stay in my house and not even me inviting them.

[12:23] But what was worse, it came to about kind of 10 o'clock or it was 10 and it was time for going to bed. And Mrs Smith piped up, oh, I think I'll do worship before we go to bed.

[12:39] And I thought to myself, what? And she said, oh, she got me a Bible. And Sheena got her a Bible and she read.

[12:50] And then she said, now we'll get on her knees to pray. So I said, what? I've never been with my knees in my life. And I ended up on my knees in front of this chair thinking to myself during this time, what on earth am I doing?

[13:09] What is this all about? So Mrs Smith, I don't know if she's still alive or not. She was the first person to get me on my knees. Even before Jesus did, she got me on my knees.

[13:21] So they obviously went away. But this real animosity about Christians and about the whole Christian faith and Jesus was really eating away at me.

[13:37] And I was aware of it and I couldn't make sense of it. And normally I'm a really nice person. And this was just totally contrary to my nature.

[13:49] You know, I would bring anybody into her house. I would let anyone stay. I would give hospitality to anyone. And I just couldn't understand, why do I hate this Jesus, this Christian thing?

[14:04] How do I hate it so much? And I really was, I was wrestling with this. And during this time, this friend of ours cursed. They were going to be having special evangelistic meetings in her church, in the Free Church in Point.

[14:19] And a month before, she told me about it. And said, you know, will you come along? I'd love if you'd come along. And I didn't go to church then. I'd love if you'd come along.

[14:31] And one of the nights, I said, okay, I'll come along. That's fine. So the week of the meetings kind of came about. And thankfully, they started on the Monday.

[14:41] And the Monday and the Tuesday, I was working in Uist. So that was okay. But I was coming home on the Wednesday. And again, I came home from work.

[14:53] And I was sure that Sheena was going to ask me to go to church with her because I had promised cursed that I would go. And I think that night was, it was a film in the school in Babel about Hudson Taylor.

[15:07] And I didn't have a clue who Hudson Taylor was. And had her tea. And the phone went. And it was a lady up the road phoning Sheena to ask if she wanted a lift to the film.

[15:24] And Sheena just shouted through to me, are you going to the film tonight? Or will I take a lift? And then I thought, pretty dodgy. If she goes to this film and there's all these Christians there, there's a chance that they're going to manipulate her and get their claws into her.

[15:42] And she could become a Christian. So I've put on the spot and I thought, well, I better go to the film with her. Which I did. And I was pretty livid about having to do it. Don't ask me what the film was about.

[15:54] I did not watch any of it. Came back home. So the next day, of course, went to work. Thinking all day, oh, she's going to ask me tonight again. And I'm going to be ready with an answer.

[16:07] And there's no way I'm going. And the same happened again. Had my tea. And I was kind of thinking to myself, oh, she hasn't asked me yet. Why hasn't she asked me?

[16:19] I was really, really annoyed that she hadn't asked me. If I was going to church. So that I could say to her, no, I'm not. And the same thing happened again. That woman up the road phoned about 20 minutes before the service was starting.

[16:35] This was a service in the church. And it was Douglas McMillan. He was going to be preaching, Professor Douglas McMillan. And the same thing happened again.

[16:46] She and I phoned. And then I thought to myself, dodgy if she goes tonight. Because after these meetings, this kind of after church meetings, and she'll end up going to them.

[16:57] And she'll end up becoming a Christian. And I was getting more and more annoyed. And I had to, again, I was in a corner. And I had to say, okay, I'll go.

[17:08] Now, if anyone has ever gone to church in a more, in an angrier, in a more disinterested state than me that night, I'd like to meet them.

[17:26] Would you stand up to pray? I wanted to make it as obvious as possible to everybody there that I did not want to be there.

[17:38] And I said to myself, I'm not going to listen to anything. I'm just going to leave it. And he started to preach. And his passage was, he was preaching the cross.

[17:50] And his passage was, or the text was, it is finished. And as he was preaching, I began to listen.

[18:02] I found myself listening. And I was hearing about this guy who loved me so much that he was willing to die on a cross. Not for kind of all the good things in my life, but for all the bad things in my life.

[18:18] And the contrast to that message was, what I was aware of in my own heart, was I had real animosity against this person, this Jesus.

[18:30] And yet, he was still wanting me to come to him. And as he preached, I realised, and the text was, it is finished.

[18:41] I realised that Jesus had come to do everything that he needed to do. On the cross, he completely did what he needed to do as far as salvation was concerned.

[18:54] It was finished. And I realised that it doesn't really matter how I feel. It doesn't matter how resistant I become. It doesn't matter how much I hate Christians and Christianity and Jesus.

[19:09] It makes absolutely no difference at all. Because for Jesus, the work is finished. And I can't undermine it. I can't do away with Jesus.

[19:20] I can't beat Jesus. But what was most gobsmacking was that this Jesus, despite how I felt, still loved me so much that he wanted me to come to him.

[19:37] And I came out of the church that night. And of course, Sheena said he was saying, we didn't have a clue what was happening. And I came out of church last night. And I said to Sheena, I wonder if Kirsty's having a gathering in her house tonight.

[19:52] Because I'd like to go. And I ended up going to that house. And what amazed me was, I walked in. And hey, there's three or four people I knew there.

[20:05] And there were three or four people that I'd played sports with. Football and rugby. And I thought, what are you doing here? I said, I'm a Christian. I've been professing for a couple of years.

[20:17] And then they said, what are you doing here? And I said, I don't know. But I'm here. And I just felt, I came out of church a totally different person that night.

[20:29] A totally different person. And I think what that confirmed to me really, and it stuck with me, is how God's word is a living word. And it penetrates the hardest of hearts.

[20:42] And the gospel, the message of Jesus, is all-powerful. And no one can stand up against it. No, if God is calling us and the Holy Spirit is working in our lives, it's just awesome.

[20:57] And that night, I went home. And I'd never really prayed. Oh, I'd prayed. Oh, God, we're playing point in the League Cup tomorrow night. Please let us win. Or, you know, these stupid prayers that we pray as non-Christians.

[21:11] Or, I'm going for a job interview, and I want this job. Lord, give me this job. I went home. And I'd never really prayed. And my fear was if I woke up in the morning and all this was gone.

[21:25] And the only prayer I knew really was the Lord's Prayer. And I thought, I know what I'll do. Because by this time, we got home about midnight. And then I got the Bible out.

[21:36] And I started discussing the Bible with Sheena. Until about one, two in the morning. And then I thought, I've only got a few hours to go for it. I have to go back to work tomorrow. Maybe I don't need to sleep. So I'll recite the Lord's Prayer all night.

[21:47] And then, of course, I woke up in the morning. And it was still there. And I remember driving to work that day down the Brahe, down towards Stornoway. And I thought, this is unreal.

[22:00] This grass looks greener than it was yesterday. The sea is more beautiful than it's ever been. The sky is more beautiful than it's ever been. What's happened here?

[22:10] And I realised that what had happened to me that night was that Jesus had come into my life. And I was really a new person.

[22:23] And there was a service on the next night. Or that night. And I thought, I can't wait to go to church again. I can't wait to hear more. I want to hear more about this Jesus. And sure enough, I was there.

[22:34] And I was at a fellowship afterwards. I was there the next night. I couldn't wait till Sunday. It was just totally transformational. Incredible. And then the following Monday, I thought, right.

[22:48] I'm going to have to tell people that this is happening. And, oh, yeah, I missed the Friday night. The Friday night, I used to run the Point Boys Club.

[23:02] And there was a football competition on in the old hangar at the airport. For, I think it was the under-14s or something. And I had agreed that I would take the boys. And then I thought, oh, I can't go to church.

[23:17] And they said, there's no way out of this. There's no way I can't not take the boys. There's no way I can ask someone else on a Friday night to do it. I can't go to church. And on the Friday afternoon, I got a phone call saying, oh, I'm really, really sorry, but the football competition has had to be cancelled tonight.

[23:36] And Europeans come in with some faults. And they've had to put it into the hangar to sort it and to look after it. And to get it sorted. And so the football competition has been cancelled.

[23:49] Incredible. Absolutely incredible. That meant that I could go to church that night. And I could hear more. So, as I said, the following week, of course, I knew I had to tell people. And we had football training for Point on the Tuesday night.

[24:06] And I was quite apprehensive about it. And it was in Babel School. And I remember, kind of near the beginning, we had to warm up. And we were running around the games hall there.

[24:18] And Robert, Ron Mackay came and kind of ran beside me. And he said, oh, hey, Cove, I hear you become a Christian. I said, what? Where did you hear that?

[24:30] I said, no, we just heard. We just heard. I think that's fantastic. What happened? So then kind of Robert told Robert and he would, someone else would come. I said, tell me what happened to you.

[24:40] What happened last week? And it was amazing. It was amazing. They were just all so interested and wanted to hear what had happened. Because they could see the transformation in my life.

[24:52] And the other amazing thing was they thought that I would maybe stop playing football. They really worried that I might stop playing football.

[25:02] And the manager at the time got all the boys together and said, look, we really want Ian to carry on playing. But that will mean some adjustments for us and for you guys.

[25:18] So in the changing room, the language, on the pitch, the language, if we want Ian to play, then you're going to have to.

[25:29] And I had been one of the worst when I was on the other side of the fence. And they said, yeah, we want that. And it was absolutely amazing. And the number of folk in the team who privately kind of sought me out and chatted to me and spoke to me was fantastic.

[25:48] Absolutely fantastic. I think at the time, I think I was the first kind of footballer to become a Christian since the likes of Colin McLean, who had played for Rovers.

[26:06] I think he had become a Christian a couple of years before. And he gave up. And then realized that other footballers were becoming Christians.

[26:19] And by the end of a year, we could have fielded an 11-a-side football team with a manager. Because one of the guys who really spoke to me a lot was John Creighton, the manager.

[26:35] Because he himself, I think, was really seeking the Lord as well at the time. And he was going to church on a regular basis. A story about him was, I think, he was the first I told.

[26:50] And I remember being at work and at lunchtime thinking, I need to go down the town. Because John always kind of drives around the town at lunchtime. And I need to speak to him and tell him what's happened.

[27:02] So sure enough, just kind of in the car park, there was John in his car. So I went into the car with him. And then I couldn't say anything to him. And I was in the car for about 20 minutes, half an hour.

[27:15] And then eventually I said something. And he said to me, have you become a Christian? And I said, John, how did you know? I said, I didn't know. He said, have you become a Christian?

[27:26] And I said, John, I have. So I spent another hour with him, telling him what had happened. And he was just, again, amazed. And that night, what was really amazing was that cursed mother, who was a godly Christian woman.

[27:41] An old, godly Christian woman. And she kind of adopted me as her adopted grandson. And I'd gone to bed and she phoned about 10 o'clock that night.

[27:54] And she was asking, of course, how I was and how fantastic things, kind of the news was and everything. Because it was her house we had gone to the first night.

[28:04] And she said, well, you know, I was really thinking about him today. And God placed him in my heart. And I put on the potatoes for lunch. And I really felt I had to get on my knees to pray for Ian.

[28:19] And Sheena was saying, okay, right? Because I had told Sheena about the situation with John Cracht and the incident. So Sheena shifted through to the bedroom. What time did you see John today? I said, oh, maybe met him about, kind of, quarter past 12.

[28:31] And when she was convicted to pray for me was the time when I was, when John kind of actually, he spoke to me about me becoming a Christian.

[28:46] I didn't have to tell him I'd become a Christian. He told me. And then, obviously, the conversation was open to tell him more. Just amazing things that God was doing.

[28:57] Oh, there's lots of, probably lots of other things. But one thing I did, I did feel very early on was God calling me to ministry.

[29:12] I was a young Christian. I think I'd only been a Christian for two years. But I really had a real thirst to get more understanding of God's word and read God's word and read books about God's word and hear God's word.

[29:27] And I really felt God was calling me. And he did that in a number of ways. I remember a couple of times, just through the preaching, really feeling convicted that God was calling me to ministry.

[29:38] I remember being at the Bayhead Fellowship a couple of nights, again, the speaker. Just God really speaking into my heart. At the time, I was working for the Prudential. And my patch was Point.

[29:50] And there was an old, retired missionary, literally on his deathbed, living with his two sisters in Point. And I'd never met him.

[30:01] I'd just gone into the house and would kind of get their money and run. And this time, one of the sisters said, oh, come and see. Come and see your brother.

[30:12] And I think this is the brother or brother-in-law. So he was kind of in his bed, old man, and chatted away to him. And when I was leaving and about to go to the door, he said to me, have you ever thought about becoming a minister?

[30:30] Now, he was about the third kind of sign I got of my calling. But what he didn't realise was Sheena was there against it.

[30:44] Sheena became a Christian maybe about three or four weeks after I became a Christian. But the thought of me going to the ministry was not on. We had just built a new house.

[30:57] She was pregnant with Christopher. However, the thought of leaving and heading off to study for five years to Glasgow or wherever, uh-uh, just wasn't for her.

[31:10] And she said, no, you can just work in the church here and do Sunday school and do things in the church. We ain't going. And it actually came to the point where I couldn't broach the subject with her.

[31:21] I couldn't speak to her about it. And I remember one night, again coming back from B.A.D. Fellowship, when I again felt God kind of speaking to me, I remember going home and saying, I can't even speak to her about it.

[31:38] And that night I said to God, God, if you show me clearly, not expecting him to, if you show me clearly that that's what you want me to do, then I'll do it because I had to go back to night school to refresh my highers, uh, to get me into university.

[31:55] Uh, there was things I had to do and put in place. I said, if you clearly show me that this is what you want me to do, then I'll do it and I'll leave Sheena in your hands to bring round.

[32:06] And I prayed that and I thought, there's no way on earth that God is going to answer that in any affirmative way that's going to convince me that he wants me to go in for ministry.

[32:22] And it's the only time I've ever done it and I wouldn't advocate it. But I just opened my Bible and I just read the first thing my eye fell on.

[32:34] And it was from the book of Jonah. And the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time. Get up to Nineveh and proclaim the message I give you.

[32:46] And I'll tell you, I just was expecting the, just the, the, the, the, the floor just to suck me up and for me to disappear. But I had to, I had to really believe in that and trust in that.

[33:02] And that's really what got me through. And again, within probably maybe six, nine months, Sheena had come round. And when we left, she was saying that just the other week to somebody.

[33:13] When we left, we only had three years in our new house in Point. And when we left and closed the door, it meant nothing to us. Really, absolutely nothing. And I'm, I'm really glad reflecting back now on my ministry and the places I've been and the challenges I've had and the situations I've had to deal with.

[33:34] I'm glad that God confirmed it so clearly to me because I had something to hold on to.

[33:45] And when the challenges came of ministry, then I knew, well, God, I'm not here because I wanted to be here. I'm here because this is where you want me to be and you've called me.

[33:55] And that's been, that really has been just great consolation for me and great assurance over the years. And I served in three churches, had a great time.

[34:10] In most of them, so people come into faith and that's great. You know, that's the brilliant bit of ministry is actually seeing people grow in their faith and people come to faith.

[34:20] And of course, there's a sad situation you, you share in as well. And that's hard and that's tough. But there is this blessing in that as well.

[34:32] Just being able to come alongside people and then trusting you and you bringing God into their situation and bringing God's grace into these situations.

[34:42] And one of the highlights of my ministry was, my years of ministry was, I think it was 2003, was it?

[34:55] Or 2004. Quite a number of us ministers played football. So me being me, thinking, oh, we could get a minister's football team. We could do a charity match.

[35:07] It's a good excuse always to kind of have a football match. And so we got kind of a whole crowd of us together. And then we thought, oh, we could, the politicians have a team.

[35:20] The SNPs and the MPs, they've got a team. So we'll ask them, challenge match. So ask them, you know, to play us. And I think it was for the big issue, the magazine charity thing.

[35:32] So let's set our expectations high. So let's see if we can play it at Celtic Park.

[35:45] So approached someone at Celtic. Someone knew someone at Celtic. And sure enough, no problem. And of course, I'm a Celtic supporter.

[35:56] So Celtic said, we'll supply the strips. The ministers can have the Celtic strips. The MPs, they've got their own strips anyway, because they play against other MPs.

[36:09] So brilliant, playing on Celtic Park against these MSPs. I think we won 5-2. I was up against Tommy Sheridan.

[36:19] He was an MSP at the time. And it was fantastic. And actually, we played on the Friday afternoon. And on the Saturday, the second or third page of the Glasgow Herald was a photo of me sliding in to tackle Tommy Sheridan.

[36:39] And Tommy Sheridan flying through the air with his hand out, like Superman. So, again, that shows you that God works through our character and through our personalities.

[36:54] And you don't become a shrinking violet just because you become a Christian. David is reminding me, actually, of... I must have told David a year ago about the situation.

[37:07] Because the first Christian, I think, who really impressed me, who was a footballer, was Kenny Customs. Kenny MacDonald, who ended up being a free church minister as well.

[37:21] And when I worked for the call here, we played five asides at least twice a week in the sports hall at lunchtime. And Kenny, he hadn't gone in for the ministry. He was just kind of thinking about going in for the ministry.

[37:34] But a well-known Christian in Stornoway, doing a bit of preaching at the time. He was down in the customs office and he would come and make up the teams. He would come and join us.

[37:44] And Kenny had been a professional player. I think he had played for Spurs way past. And at the time, he was probably maybe a bit, I don't know, ten years older than me. And me, a non-Christian, playing against him.

[37:57] And I remember one ferocious tackle he put in. And I did go absolutely horizontal and landed on the floor. And I got up and I thought, that's great.

[38:10] He's a Christian. That's great that he still tackles like that. So that's part of my, I could tell you loads of stories of things that had happened in ministry.

[38:24] We'd be here all night. But that's my story. That's kind of what's brought me here. I just thank God for what he's done.

[38:35] For the way he's kind of sustained me. For the way that he's worked despite me. Because I have a lot of failings and failures.

[38:47] And it's almost kind of, you feel almost hypocritical when you stand up here. And you preach. And you share testimony.

[38:59] Because God is still working in my life. The old man is still here. There's a lot of bits that have to be knocked off. Before I'm ready for God in glory.

[39:11] So very much a work in progress. But I thank God for that night. When he met with me. Now I was saying what I said last night.

[39:23] God comes looking for us. I didn't go looking for God that night. God came looking for me. And I praise God that he found me. So I think that's my testimony.

[39:35] My story so far. Thank you for listening. Cheers.