everything changed
Jim: We’d been married about eighteen years and we had a pretty good life with three lovely children. We didn’t need anything. There had been some difficulties when we first got married as Delphine’s mum wasn’t too happy about her only child marrying a miner, but I eventually changed my line of work and the relationship improved.
Delphine: We knew God existed – we were both brought up to go to Sunday School and we still went to church at Easter and Christmas but I can’t say it held any great attraction for us. We liked a drink and we went to a club most weekends with our friends. Of course, there were things we did and things we would never do, we just lived ordinary, decent lives.
Jim: Delphine was a red-head and she had the temper to go with it, quite violent sometimes – even throwing things at me. I could be very moody, I’d just switch off when the going got rough.
Delphine: So really we thought we were okay, we didn’t need anything. Then my mum became a real Christian and she and dad started going to a lively church. I could see she had really changed. She was much more interested in us and she started to pray for the children when they had problems. One of our daughters had asthma badly and she was healed. I know mum was praying for us too but I thought ‘Not a chance, I don’t need that!’
Jim: Then Delphine’s mum became ill and she had to go and look after her. Just before her mum died, Delphine’s car was stolen.
Delphine: I remember standing on mum’s landing and there were people praying in her room that my car would be found. I couldn’t believe that people would care that much about me to pray for that. It was found too, after her death.
Jim: We went to the funeral – the first time we’d been to that church.
Delphine: My mum‘s church was like a tin mission and not my kind of place at all. She’d asked me to promise to go to church with my dad sometimes as he wouldn’t go on his own – a wise lady. I wanted to go on a Sunday morning but dad said it was too noisy then, he preferred the evening. This made me curious to find out how church could be so noisy.
I went one Sunday, in very bad weather. A verse from the Bible was read out ‘My sheep know my voice and I know theirs’. I thought ‘He doesn’t know my voice, I never speak to him’ and I started to weep buckets but I didn’t know why.
I really wanted to start going to this church but I didn’t want anything that would divide us as a family. I prayed and prayed as I was washing up that Jim would agree to come as well.
Jim: So she asked me to go and I said ‘Yes’. That evening the pastor asked those who wanted to accept Jesus into their lives to go to the front for prayer. Out of the blue, I got up and went and Delphine did too. The pastor prayed that all the things we had done, that were not right – like smoking - would fall off us ‘like leaves off a tree.’ I thought ‘He must be mad if he thinks I would give up my pipe but within a week I couldn’t even bear to have it in my pocket. Delphine gave up smoking too – it made her feel sick.
Delphine: We went to the club early the next weekend to get good seats but we couldn’t stand the smell and we never went again. It had lost its attraction.
Jim: It was as if there were two distinct worlds. Everything from the past changed, it all became new. I used to swear a lot at work like the other men and that just stopped and even though they teased me when I tried to tell them about Jesus, it didn’t bother me. Our home life changed too, Delphine stopped shouting and the house became calm.
Delphine: That’s 32 years ago and in all that time God has always met our needs. We’ve had lots of struggles and battles with things over the years. I had a bad hiatus hernia and gallstones; I was very ill and about to have surgery and God healed me. The hospital couldn’t understand what had happened. I believe God always answers prayer when it is sincere.
Jim: The joy of knowing Jesus has completely altered our lives; we have peace knowing all our wrongs have been dealt with. We
have eternal life - even though we’re getting on in this life, our next destination is heaven.
Jim and Delphine
North Wales