2010 has been a year of change. Out went Gordon Brown, in came David Cameron and Nick Clegg. New leaders and new promises of a brighter future. A change for the better? I’ll let you decide! But now they’re in power, they say they’re going to make lots of changes. But I wonder, if you could change one thing what would it be?

I guess your answer will depend on your situation. If you’re unemployed you might want to create more jobs. If you have children you might want to give them a better start. If you’re a student you might want to get rid of loans! If you’re elderly, you might want to be sure that the country still cares for you. We all want to change something different.

But is the future going to be any different? Even if we can make changes, will that make any real difference?

You might remember in this newspaper last year, reading about the good news in the Bible. That’s one thing that hasn’t changed! 2,000

years ago one man changed the future forever. Jesus Christ who claimed to be God opened the way for us to live beyond the grave where there would be no heartache or tragedy again.

But one thing that has changed is the lives of all the people who tell their stories in this newspaper. Debra wanted to live her way, Keith just wanted to enjoy his pension, whilst Alison simply wanted to be clean from drugs. Yet Jesus Christ gave them far more than they could ever have imagined.

You might want your finances to change, the environment to be cleaned up or simply to relax and enjoy your retirement, but think about this: if Jesus promises life after death to those who follow him, is it not worth stopping and listening to what he has to say?

It would be nice to change our circumstances — but Jesus Christ offers something better. Real change on the inside. If you think that perhaps you’d like him to change you, then read on — and come along to the Real Lives events and hear how Jesus Christ has changed the lives of others.

Real LivesIssue 2: November 2010

Clydach’s very ownGood News Paper

Free!A brighter future? Choosing a different path

As a mother of two, Debra has to make lots of choices. Some small, some much more important. But of all the choices she makes, there is one choice that stands out as being the most important.

Whilst growing up in Clydach, Debra met John and Joan Davies and their children, a Christian family.

‘I was ten but I knew there was something different about the Davies family. There was such a peaceful atmosphere when I was with them. They were great friends and I loved spending time with them. They were kind, a good influence and they took me along to church.

‘At church I remember being taught about how God wants to save us. I remember one particular day at the young people’s meeting when I was twelve-years-old, I was given a piece of paper which said, “If I die tonight I will go to h…” I didn’t want to fill it in. I knew the answer and it frightened me.

‘I knew about heaven and hell from church but that day it really brought it home to me so I prayed asking Jesus to come into my life. I knew I needed him. I started reading my Bible and writing down things I was taught at church.

‘It didn’t last long though. For some reason I just stopped going to church. I wanted to do my own thing and just enjoy myself. I was a bit of wild

child – I did what I wanted when I wanted. I had lots of friends and I wasn’t really thinking about God. I sometimes stuck up for God in conversation but I certainly wasn’t living for him.

‘I met Mark when I was twenty-one. The following year we got married. We were blessed with two wonderful children in the following years and it was when they were young that I took them to Sunday School and started going back to church. I used to hide under my hymn book as we were singing. I was in tears, thinking, “What have I done with my life?”

‘I realised what a fool I’d been but I knew God was

“I wanted to do my own thing and just enjoy myself… I did what I wanted

when I wanted…”

working in me – he loved me and wanted me back. I started to live for God and not myself and Mark could see the difference in me. The church leaders saw there was a change in me too.

‘I think I’d finally understood that as Christian you have to walk with the Lord and choose a different path. I’d spent lots of time with different people when I was a teenager but I was on a path to disaster. You can’t walk both paths; it’s one or the other.

‘I do still get doubts – sometimes I think I’m not good enough but I keep reminding myself that it’s all about how good Jesus is. If I had that piece of paper now, I would write “heaven” knowing what God

has done for me.’

By Mark Barnes

Minister, Bethel

Church

Dramatic changePage 4

Credaf iTudalen 5

First things firstPage 6

Page � Real Lives

“Forgiveness” – a word so easy to say and so often used. C.S. Lewis said that “Everyone sees forgiveness as a lovely idea”. However he went on to add “Until they have something to forgive”. And that’s so true isn’t it? Forgiveness is so difficult to put into practise when you’re cut up at the traffic lights, or when you find out you’ve been lied to by your best friend.

Thirteen years ago the question of forgiveness became a very real one for me. Every summer my whole family (me, Mum, Dad and younger brother and sister), packed into a caravanette full of aid: food, clothes, medicine and Bibles and journeyed off to Eastern Europe, for six weeks. My parents had been doing it since they were first married — they had even been in Prague when the Russians invaded — but as we kids got older, we tended to stay behind in the UK.

This particular year, when Mum and Dad approached the Romanian border, the lights failed on the vehicle. They stopped in a lay-by to wait for daylight, but were soon disturbed by a loud knocking on the door. There was a young man dressed in black, holding ID stood before them, claiming in Hungarian that he was a policeman and they were illegally parked. Mum and Dad doubted his authenticity, but paid the fine of £14. They would go to the police in the morning

However, the lads had seen inside the vehicle – here was a western van, loaded with aid, in a remote place, ripe for robbery, and so they returned an hour or so later.

Trapped!As my parents were awoken

by loud bangs once again, Dad clambered into the cab and put the key into the ignition.

Suddenly a masked man smashed through the driver’s window with an iron bar and began beating Dad to death. There was nothing Dad could do — he was trapped in his own seat, receiving blow after blow. And it was there he died, suffocating on his own blood. The men fled the scene, leaving Mum to try and resuscitate my father.

Having realised there was nothing she could do for him, Mum hid all the valuables —passports , money, her wedding ring etc, and then sat down to find comfort from the Bible. She said afterwards that she knew a tremendous peace, she knew that God was with her and watching over her, even if the lads did return.

Well, return, they did, and in a further two attacks the lads beat Mum up, left her for dead and stole items from the vehicle. Help finally came in the morning, when Mum was taken to hospital.

Reality HitsI was working in Kent at the

time, and when the police had tracked me down, it really was like I was watching on from elsewhere, floating above the room or seeing things unfold on TV. At that stage I merely felt numb, obliged to cry, but not really upset. And all the time I just kept on thinking “God works for the good of those who love him” …so come on God, do something!

But still the penny hadn’t dropped. Still I hadn’t realised my Dad was dead. And it remained that way, until I walked into my Mum’s hospital room and heard the blow-by-blow account of what had happened a couple of days before, as she did a TV interview. Until I saw with my very own eyes what they had done to Mum, how they had bruised and mangled her face. Until I

listened to all my father had gone through. It was then, that I grasped what had happened. It was then that pure hatred flowed through my veins. It was then I wanted to lash out. It was then that my Mum uttered the most amazing words, “I don’t bear any malice towards them…in fact I actually pray they will become Christians”.

The Final StrawIt was the final straw. I

stormed out of the room, onto the balcony. I was absolutely furious. How on earth could she say that? And then, other questions began to flood my mind. Questions like: “Do I really believe God exists and is in control?”, “Do I really believe God is good and his plans are perfect?”, “Do I really believe God sent his son, Jesus into the world?”, “Do I believe Jesus died in my place, to take the punishment I deserve?”. And as I answered yes to each and every one of them, I was then left with the question, “well, how am I going to respond?”

I knew I had accepted that

God was the loving creator and ruler of the world, and that Jesus was His Son. I knew he was the king of my life and so knew I had to accept phrases like “Forgive one another” and “Turn the other cheek.” But I didn’t know how I could do that. How can I turn hatred to love, anger to peace, revenge to forgiveness? It wasn’t humanly possible and so I just prayed and begged God to change me. Instantly He answered. My mind was stilled, my emotions transformed, I was able to forgive. And that transformation has stayed in place over the past thirteen years. Through university, teaching and church work, through long, dark days and even longer, darker nights; through pain and confusion; through good times and bad; God’s help has remained constant, his enabling the same.

Truly forgivenMum visited the lads in prison

and kept in touch with two of them. She gave them each a copy

of the Bible and told them how she had forgiven them. Then, many years later, we received a letter. Inside the envelope was a note from Istvan Dudas. Istvan Dudas - the man who had killed my father. He titled his letter “I caused death but had received life in exchange”. Istvan went on to explain that he had realised for the first time that Jesus had died on the cross in his place and even though he had killed someone, God could forgive him. Istvan wrote “That night I prayed to God as to my father. I asked him to forgive me. As soon as I declared myself sinful I started to cry and the Lord Jesus lifted the burden off my heart. I also asked Him to stay with me forever.” It was truly fantastic to read. God had forgiven another person. Istvan realised he had let God down and not treated Him as king. He asked God to change him and take over the running of his life. God heard and answered that prayer, just as he heard and answered my balcony prayer for forgiveness.

The freedomand power of forgiveness

Meet Tamar and hear her tell her story at

Real Lives Ladies’ EveningSaturday 6th November, 7:00pm (ticket required)

Two-course meal. Speakers: Tamar Pollard and Roger Carswell Waterfront Community Church, SA1

Please contact us (see centre pages) for tickets.

“…they beat Mum up, left her

for dead and stole items from

the vehicle…”

Real Lives Page �

Christianity Explored is an informal course for people who’d like to investigate Christianity, or just brush up on the basics. It explores who Jesus is, what his aims are, and what it means to follow him.

See the centre pages for more information

No one I know asked to be born. Neither did anyone choose their family, the talents they would have, or even the personality that would be theirs.

Prince William did not choose his parents, nor did the little one born into squalor in an African shanty town. However, the vast majority of people I meet are glad they are alive. Most of us cling on to life – that’s why we try to keep fit, take vitamins, and go to the doctor.

But we don’t want to just

exist. We want to love life and live life to the full. How do we get that real life? That is the big question we want answering when life seems so ‘daily’.

Is real life only for the rich, the round-the-world sailor, millionaire entrepreneur, celebrity or footballer? Actually the biographies of many of these people seem to mask or betray emptiness. In contrast, the happiest people I have ever met lived in dire poverty in a slum area of southern India. They had no running water, sanitation or electricity. Their possessions were few. Yet in their church with a canvas roof and no walls, joy, enthusiasm and sense of belonging to each other was something I have rarely seen.

Whenever I meet an expert in something I love to ask them questions. I remember the details of deep sea fishing shared with me by a fisherman living in the north of Scotland,

or hearing of the pressures on a foreign correspondent based in South America. I asked the questions, they filled me in with their answers. So to me, it is significant that when one reads the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, in the Bible, we see that time and again Jesus is asked about life, particularly eternal life. Clearly, people near to Him recognised that He knew what life was all about.

Jesus said things like, “I am the way, the truth and the life…”; “I have come that they (people) may have life, and have it in all its fullness” and “I am the resurrection and the life…”. He even went as far as to repeatedly say that those who believed/trusted in Him would have eternal life. Eternal life is not just life never-ending, but life never-boring. It is life with a capital ‘L’ where the true and living God, who brought all things into being, comes to live within a human being.

Near to where I live, there is a famous set of five locks on the Leeds–Liverpool Canal. It is an amazing sight to see a canal boat gradually being lifted sixty feet to a higher plane by the power of the water underneath. When a person puts their trust in Jesus Christ, they are ‘lifted’ to a higher plane. They come to know God, and He gives a new meaning to everything.

Real life is possible because of the death by crucifixion of Jesus, and then His rising back to life three days later. When Jesus was crucified outside Jerusalem, on the first Easter weekend nearly two thousand

years ago, He was dying for you and me. Our sin, death and hell were laid on Him. He died that we might be forgiven and reconciled to God.

Jesus, who is the life, gave up His life so that we might know eternal life with God. Heaven is not a reward. It is a gift given to all who will turn from all that is wrong and trust in Jesus as Lord and Saviour. There will be ordinary people living near you who themselves have found real life through Jesus. Remember, He said, “I am the life”. His life can be yours if you will ask Him to take over your life, and bring you to know God.

Finding Real Life

By Roger Carswell

Roger is one of the speakers at Real Lives this year. If you want to find out

more about Real Life, why not join a

Christianity Explored course, or come

along to one of the Real Lives events?

Abused, broken home, rebellious, fostered, sectioned and criminal are just some of the words Alison uses when talking about her past.

‘I reached eighteen and lost job after job. I soon got caught up in the drug world and became addicted to heroin. But by the time I was thirty, I just wanted to be clean. I was five and a half stone and I just

wanted to be clean.‘This lady from Teen

Challenge, a Christian organisation that helps people like me, came to see me. She said that Jesus was the solution to my problem. I thought “What a joke!” but I wanted to be free and I’d already tried everything else so I gave Teen Challenge a go.

‘They were different to any other kind of rehab. They were kind and it was more like a

home than a clinic but staying was optional. Within those first two days, I opened a Bible and the words “the

truth will set you free” just stared at me. The next eighteen months were the best in my life. I left rehab a Christian and completely clean. Jesus was the solution to my problem. He had changed my life.’

Merthyr-born and Clydach-raised Nigel has a colourful past. By his late teens life was going just the way he wanted it to. He had no thought of God but he was soon to discover that God had plans for him.

‘I was a bit of a trouble-maker at school and after leaving Pontardawe Technical College at sixteen I worked as an apprentice at Smiths Industries (Tick Tock) in Ystradgynlais. However, I was made redundant in 1972 by which time I had become involved in the drug culture. Pop festivals and taking drugs became the norm, and so was the trafficking of drugs.

‘Life was going the way I wanted it to. I had plenty of money and was very philosophical. I thought if everyone just smoked dope, then the world would be a happier place and without wars. The aim was to turn the whole world on.

‘But then one day God dramatically began to turn my life around. As I was driving from London to Clydach I suddenly had a mental picture of three crosses in my head. Afterward, I had a growing sense that there must be a God. And I thought if there was a God, was it possible to know Him? I also became aware of a growing sense of my own sinfulness. This was not just because of the lifestyle I was living but sin was in me, in my heart, and was part of my nature.

‘I bought a Bible and began reading it. Within a few weeks I had the answer to my question and I came to know Jesus Christ as my Saviour. In John’s gospel in the Bible Jesus said “This is life eternal that they might know you the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” This became a reality to me – God was real, Christ was real, salvation and forgiveness were real! I knew God had forgiven my sin and I knew a wonderful sense of his peace and love for me.

‘I continued reading the Bible and just soaked it up like a sponge. But this was no mere intellectual or academic exercise. Maintaining this relationship with God and pursuing a growing knowledge of him became the most important thing in my life. This experience of God changed the whole direction of my life.

‘Now, at the age of fifty-nine, I am still pursuing the same goal – to know more of this great God that I met over thirty-seven years ago.’

Could I know God?‘When I was seventeen years-

old, we were evicted from our home in Clydach. Thankfully Mrs Phillips, a kind friend of my mother, took us in. Her son was a Christian who was training to be a pastor. He encouraged me to attend Trinity Church and it was there I realised that I needed saving by God. I began to trust in Jesus Christ as my Saviour.

‘After we were relocated to Hebron Road in Clydach, I started to see David who was in the Navy. David wasn’t a Christian but we were married when I was nineteen. I wasn’t really reading my Bible or going to church for the years that followed and I slowly drifted away from God.

Jesus died to save sinners, but there was no peace in my heart that he had forgiven all of my sins. I told all this to a friend and she said, “Are you calling God a liar?” I was really upset and felt even worse as there was no way I could call God a liar.

‘I remember opening the Bible and reading John 6:37, “all that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.” I felt a great weight lift off my shoulders. I knew that no matter how bad I’d been God would forgive me and not cast me away. It wasn’t about my feelings but about God’s promise to forgive those who turn to him and trust in Jesus. I remember being so glad and joyful as I read the Bible and its promise of forgiveness.

‘Today, I’m still happily married to David – he’s a Christian now too, and we are just so thankful to God that he sent Jesus to die to save us.’

Real or counterfeit?Page � Real Lives

Meet Alison and hear her tell her story

Wednesday 3rd November, 8:00pm, Admission Free Bethel Evangelical Church, Heol Y Nant, Clydach

‘Many years and three children later, I was a most miserable woman. I didn’t know where I was. I felt that I didn’t belong in the world. I started to attend Bethel church and really felt that God was drawing me back to himself. I started to feel happy again. But because of David’s work we had to move to Scunthorpe. I found no suitable church there and I started to drift away from God again.

‘Three and a half years later we moved back to Llansamlet and I started attending Peniel Green Church. I remember these wonderful words in a hymn, “O love that will not let me go”. It was amazing to see that even though I was struggling to follow God, he was still patient and committed to me.

‘On another occasion we were in Cardiff visiting Heath Church. The preacher’s message shook me! I remember the verse he was speaking on: “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” I was terrified and great doubts came into my head. I wasn’t committed to God. I asked myself whether I really was a Christian.

I knew I wasn’t right with God. I had no assurance.

Was I a Christian or a counterfeit?

‘I knew that

“I felt a great weight lift… I knew that no matter how

bad I’d been God would forgive me and not cast me

away.”

A five-week course that explores who Jesus isStarts Thursday 11th November, 7:00pmBethel Evangelical Church, Heol Y NantLight meal provided. No charge.

For more details about this or any other Real Lives events call Mark on 01792 828095 or Paul on 07951 257441

Cristion yn wir?Mae Owen yn cydnabod yn barod nad oedd fel crwtyn ifanc yn sicr beth oedd Cristion. Ond wedi tyfu’n ddyn daeth yn weinidog gyda’r Bedyddwyr. Beth, felly, yn y diwedd, a benderfynodd y mater yn ei feddwl?

‘Roeddwn yn ymwybodol o Dduw o’r dechreuad cyntaf, a

mod i’n gyfrifol iddo, ond nid oedd hyn yn ddigon i’m gwneud

yn Gristion. Ces fy nghodi i fynd i’r capel, fel y mwyafrif o’m

ffrindiau, ac fe ddaeth yn arfer imi gael fy newis i gymryd

darlleniadau o’r Beibl, ac i adrodd pennillion yn gyhoeddus.

Er hynny, roedd ansicrwydd yn parhau ynglyn a’r cwestwn

mawr – a oeddwn yn Gristion? Clywais lawer yn dweud

eu bod “wedi rhoi eu calonnau i’r Arglwydd” mewn rhyw

gyfarfod arbennig, neu eu bod wedi cael eu “hachub”, ond

yn fy nghefndir i nid oedd syniadau fel hyn yn dderbyniol.

‘Yn fy arddegau dechreuais ddarllen y Beibl ar fy mhen fy

hun. Des i ddeall bod bobl yn gallu honni rhywbeth ynglyn

a bod yn Gristion nad oedd yn ymateb yn llwyr a beth a

ddywed y Beibl. Ar yr un pryd roedd yn arferiad yn ein capel

ni i bobl ifanc tua pymtheng mlwydd gael eu bedyddio, ac

wrth hynny, yn eu tyb nhw, dod yn Gristion. Yn raddol, des

i weld bod dod yn Gristion yn golygu credu bod Iesu Grist

wedi marw yn ein lle, a’n dyletswydd ni oedd ei ganlyn a bod

yn ufudd iddo. Nid oedd hawlio profiadau anhygoel na mynd

trwy unrhyw ddefod yn profi dim.

‘Fel myfyriwr ifanc yn paratoi ar gyfer y weinidogaeth,

cofiaf ddarllen mewn cylchgrawn Cristnogol erthygl a oedd

yn gymorth neilltuol imi. Meddai nad oedd yn bwysig pryd y

daethoch yn Gristion; yr hyn oedd yn bwysig oedd eich bod

wedi dod yn Gristion. Rhoddodd hynny sicrwydd mawr imi

am fy mod yn gallu gweld arwyddion perthynas a Duw yn fy

mywyd. Nid oeddwn yn berffaith o bell ffordd, ond roeddwn

yn gwybod bod angen boddloni Duw yn fwy pwysig na dim.

‘Roeddwn yn dysgu nid yn unig beth oedd Cristion ond

sut y dylai Cristion byw. Mae’r ddau yn bwysig, a mae’r ateb

i’w gael yn y Beibl, Gair Duw. Gall bobl fod yn grefyddol iawn

ond nid yw hynny yn golygu eu bod yn Gristnogion.

‘Mae nifer o engreifftiau o’r

gwahaniaeth a wneir ym

mywyd Cristion. Rhaid i

bawb farw, a dwy flynedd

yn ol ces i drawiad

(stroke), rhybydd o

ansicrwydd bywyd. Mor

werthfawr yw gorffwys

yn y wybodaeth fy mod

yn nwylaw Duw’r Beibl, a

mae’r nefoedd yw

diwedd y

daith.’

Ym mha beth ydw i’n credu?Yn ei gwaith fel meddyg mae Siân yn wynebu cwestiynau pwysig bob dydd. Nid yw’r atebion bob tro yn rhai hawdd, ond mae ei ffydd Gristnogol yn ei galluogi i ddelio â’r materion hollbwysig hynny sy’n ymwneud â bywyd a marwolaeth.

‘Pan oeddwn i tua chwe blwydd oed, credais i yn Nuw ac rydw i’n cofio gweddïo, gan ofyn i Dduw faddau i fi am y pethau drwg roeddwn i’n eu gwneud. A barnu wrth safonau pobl eraill, doeddwn i ddim yn arbennig o ddrwg neu’n wrthryfelgar ond roeddwn i’n ei guddio’n dda, mae’n debyg. Roeddwn i wedi cael fy nysgu, serch hynny, fod gwneud y pethau drwg hyn yn golygu fy mod i’n pechu yn erbyn Duw ac o’i herwydd roeddwn i’n mynd i uffern. Cododd hyn ofn arnaf i!

‘Roeddwn i’n credu bod nef ac uffern yn bodoli, ond wrth i fi gyrraedd fy arddegau daeth pethau yn fwy anodd. Dechreuais amau o ddifrif a oeddwn i’n Gristion ai peidio. Roedd gen i gwestiynau mawr oedd heb eu hateb; cwestiynau am y creu ac esblygiad. I fi, y broblem oedd nad oedd syniadau am Dduw a’r Beibl yn cyd-fynd â’r hyn yr oeddwn yn cael fy nysgu yn yr ysgol.

‘Prynodd fy llystad rai cylchgronau i fi oedd yn trafod y creu ac esblygiad ac oedden nhw’n help, ond daeth trobwynt

farw ar y groes i dderbyn y gosb dros fy mhechodau i! Ac rydw i’n credu y byddaf i’n mynd i’r nefoedd ryw ddydd oherwydd yr hyn y mae Iesu wedi ei wneud drosof i. Dydw i ddim yn siŵr pryd y dechreuais gredu hyn, ond rydw i’n ei gredu nawr.

‘Fel meddyg rydw i wedi cael gweld nifer o bobl mewn sefyllfaoedd anodd a thrasig. Weithiau rydw i’n eu clywed yn gofyn cwestiynau mawr: Pam fi? Pam ydw i yma? Beth yw pwrpas popeth? Fel Cristion, mae’r Beibl yn fy helpu i ddechrau ateb y cwestiynau hyn. Mae’n dweud ei bod hi’n bosib i ni gael rheswm dros fyw, bod Duw wir yn gofalu amdanon ni a bod modd i ni gael rhywbeth

cymaint gwell na’r hyn y gallai’r bywyd hyn byth

ei gynnig i ni. ‘Pan aiff pethau

yn anodd i fi, mae’n gysur cael gwybod bod Duw yn

rheoli popeth a fy mod wir yn gallu

ymddiried ynddo.’

araf pan ddechreuais ddeall beth oedd ffydd mewn Duw mewn gwirionedd. Gall y gair ‘ffydd’ fod yn air mor ddryslyd! Dyw e ddim yn golygu dweud a meddwl bod pethau yn wir ond credu eu bod nhw’n wir. Felly, er na chafodd pob un o’m cwestiynau eu hateb yn syth, dechreuais gredu ac ymddiried yn Nuw yn araf deg, gan geisio ei ddilyn. O hynny ymlaen, drwy astudio’r Beibl, rydw i wedi bod yn dysgu mwy am Dduw ac amdanaf i fy hunan.

‘Dydw i ddim yn hollol siŵr felly pryd y des i’n Gristion, ond dydw i ddim yn meddwl bod hynny o bwys. Yr hyn sy’n bwysig yw fy mod yn credu yn Iesu nawr. Rydw i’n credu bod problem yn y byd ac mai pechod yw’r broblem honno. Rydw i’n credu i bechod fy ngwahanu oddi wrth Dduw. Ac rydw i’n credu bod Duw wedi gwneud rhywbeth i ddod â fi yn ôl iddo fe – anfonodd Iesu i

Real Lives Tudalen �

High Street

Heol Y

Nant

St. Jo

hn

’s Ro

ad

Sybil Street

Clydach

Spar

Barclays

Bethel

Dan arweiniad Peter Hallam a John DaviesMae Peter Hallam yn dod o Rydaman. Bu am gyfnod byr yn bennaeth Ysgol Gyfun, Ystalyfera.

Ganwyd John Davies yng Nghlydach, a chyn ymddeol, roedd e’n gwerthu papurau newydd ag ati yn y pentre. Mae’n dal i chwarae’r organ yng nghapel Mount Pleasant, Abertawe ar ôl mwy na deugain o flynyddoedd. Roedd yn arweinydd i Gôr Meibion y Faerdref am nifer o flynyddoedd.

Y Gair a’r GânEglwys Bethel, Heol Y Nant, Clydach

Dydd Iau 5ain Tachwedd, 7:30pmCroeso i bawb. Dim tâl. Lluniaeth ar gael.

Am ragor o fanylion:ffoniwch y Parch. John Mainwaring ar 01792 845957

ebost bethel@bethel-clydach.co.uk gwefan www.bethel-clydach.co.uk/ygairargan

To view an English version of this page, visit www.bethel-clydach.co.uk/real-lives/welsh

Page � Real Lives

Dan Walker is best known as the face of BBC’s Football Focus. He spends his working life watching the great teams, and mixing with some of soccer’s superstars. But football is not the best thing in Dan’s life — far from it. In fact, on a Sunday Dan says he would rather go to church than to the big game. And he’s got the evidence to back up his claim — he’s turned down opportunities to be at the Wimbledon Men’s Final, and the last day of the Open Golf Championship. Here’s Dan’s story.

To say I enjoyed my sport would be a slight understatement. As a boy, if I wasn’t playing sport with friends, I was practising in the back garden. I found that my dad’s vegetable patch was particularly useful. The runner bean rods provided an almost perfect defensive wall, and at

full height, the curly kale could almost be a tennis net.

I used to go to church on a Sunday, but most of my life was spent thinking about sport. I knew the right answers to all the Bible questions, I could reel off the names of the twelve disciples (not sure I can remember them all now), but they meant nothing to me.

Football was my real passion. My father was from Enfield in North London and by a process of osmosis I inherited his passion for Tottenham Hotspur FC as a young lad. So Spurs midfielder Glenn Hoddle was something of a hero of mine. My admiration for Hoddle was so high that I spent the entire summer of 1987 in my Spurs kit in our back garden, smashing a football into my dad’s shed. I asked my parents to call me Glenn for a while and, if it wasn’t for the fact that my mum cut my hair, I would have cultivated a Hoddle-like mullet!

While I was awake I was thinking about playing sport, and all of my dreams were filled with scoring goals, sinking putts, hitting sixes and winning gold medals. So when I was in church I wouldn’t sit still, my mind would wander and I would even scratch things on the walls. Once I even signed it ‘Dan Walker’. Looking back,

that probably wasn’t the wisest move. My dad hardly needed to call in the CSI team to work out the perpetrator. I was made to polish the whole wall as punishment. But that was me — paying very little attention to church services, and desperate for them to finish.

A life-changing dayThen, one Sunday night

in 1989, a man called Gerald Jackson walked into my life and switched on the lights. Gerald wasn’t the most dynamic speaker in the world, but he was warm and friendly. He preached about “weeping and gnashing of teeth”, the reality of hell for the unbeliever, and the importance of knowing Jesus Christ as your personal Saviour. I was rooted to the spot. For the first time in my life, my mind wasn’t wandering; I had no interest in scratching anything on the wall and I wasn’t day-dreaming about scoring a winning goal in the cup final. As Gerald spoke, I remember feeling the depth of my sin. I knew that I was offending God with the way I was acting and the life I was living, and the prospect of going to hell terrified me. I wanted to go to heaven — I wanted to be in the presence of God thanks to the saving love of his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

After the service, I was a bit of a mess. My mind was racing and I had plenty to think about. For once, I didn’t go round to the back of church to throw apples at the gravestones; I couldn’t stop thinking about what Mr Jackson had said. I wasn’t right

despite spending a lot of time outside the Headmaster’s office for fooling around, I loved every minute of school. I got good GCSEs and A levels and, after much deliberation got a place to study history at the University of Sheffield. This was to be a totally new experience. For the first time in my life, I was away from home, and my faith was going to come under real pressure and scrutiny. I’ll be honest and tell you that, for the first year of university, I didn’t live the Christian life as I should have done. I made some fantastic friends but did some things that I still regret. When I look back now, I wonder what I could have done for God in that year if I’d put my heart into it. I am still very thankful for one guy who lived in the room next door to mine in the student hall. I tried to avoid him most of the time because I knew he would disapprove of some of the things I was doing, but he was a good friend and, even though he probably thought I was a bit of an idiot and not a very good Christian, he was a big influence on me.

This might seem strange, but I reckon that, if I’d met myself that year, I would have found myself quite annoying. I was playing at being a Christian really. The knowledge was there but it was having little effect on me. I was legalistic about the Bible and always ready to tell other people what to do, but I was a long way away from walking the right path myself. The truth was that my Bible spent most of that year gathering dust on my bedside table. I suppose I was like a modern-day Pharisee: the life I was actually living was a massive hypocrisy. Thankfully things did change. I met some really good people at the church and, slowly I grew as a Christian and the preaching of God’s word started to have more of an influence on me.

Another thing that was

First things first

with God and I really knew that I had to be. I went home and that night talked for what seemed like hours with my parents. I wanted to be a Christian but I just didn’t know what to do. I have no recollection of what my mum and dad said to me, but I remember that I went to bed that night a different person. I knew that my sins had been forgiven.

Finding my feetI won’t bore you here

with further details of my school life. Suffice to say that

“During one church service I even scratched

‘Dan Walker’ on the walls.

Looking back that probably wasn’t

the wisest move.”

Meet Dan and hear his story at

Real Lives Youth NightSaturday 6th November, 7:30pm (free)

Llandarcy Academy of Sport (J43, M4) Please contact us for more details.

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taking up quite a bit of my time was university radio. Every Tuesday and Thursday my housemate Ed and I ripped up the airwaves. Some of our material was great, but we spend most of the time laughing at our own jokes, leaving on the microphones or forgetting to play the music! Despite the distinct lack of award-winning material, the experience gave me a taste of a potential career.

One Saturday afternoon Hallam FM, the local radio station announced they were running a football commentary competition. The winner would get the chance to work on the Saturday afternoon football show and cover a match. This was big stuff. I dug out my dad’s old tape machine, recorded that weekend’s Match of the Day and selected the goal I was going to commentate on. It was an Alan Shearer thunderbolt for Newcastle against Aston Villa. My first attempt was rubbish – it sounded as if I had called him “Adam Shearer”. The second attempt was equally rubbish. I struggled to get my words out and, when the crucial moment came, I sounded like an eight year old girl. But eventually I managed to hit the spot. Within an hour the tape was on its way to Sheffield, and a month later the radio station called: I had won!

The best-laid plans…Despite my success, I still

didn’t think that broadcasting was going to be a viable career for me. I had always fancied teaching, but I was turned down for the PGCE course in Sheffield for being “too immature”. I had always thought that was a prerequisite for teaching! I still remember walking home up the very steep hill after that interview. For a few hours, I felt as if my little world was collapsing.

If Sheffield had offered me a place that day, I would have accepted it on the spot and life would have been very different from that point onwards. Isn’t

lege and brings with it loads of blessings. Some of the greatest of God’s promises — for exam-ple, about knowing the glory of God, enjoying him and receiving blessing from him — go hand in hand with the idea of the Sab-bath. Some of the interviewers thought I was stupid, some felt sorry for me and some said they wished me the best for the fu-ture but that there was no way they could employ me.

But at ITV Granada in 2004 I went into the interview room determined not to have the same conversation about Sundays. I just went for it and told the panel that I understood that Sunday could be an issue, but if they gave me a chance – even a three-month contract – I would prove I was better than anyone else they could employ; and if I wasn’t, or if Sunday’s proved to be a problem, they could just get rid of me. I think they liked my feisty new approach. I was offered the job and six months later, when my

boss at ITV left for the BBC, I went with her. I had always thought that a job at the BBC would be beyond

my reach, but God provided a

way in there as well.

born just a month earlier. But none of that in any way reduced my excitement.

My Saturdays as a young boy were based around Grandstand and Focus. I used to annoy my mother by commentating on old ladies in the frozen food isle when I was dragged to the supermarket after school. I even wrote a letter to Des Lynam at the age of 11 asking him how I could get his job.

A guiding handBut I did always think the

Football Focus job was one I’d never get because of my insistence of not working on a Sunday, because it’s so high-profile. To be given it means even more for me because I’ve made my stand but still been handed this opportunity. I’ve grown up watching Football Focus, so now to be presenting the show really is a dream come true.

A wise Christian once told me that I should never forget that God has put me in a great position to talk to lots of people about my faith in Jesus Christ. It seems weird but during interviews I’ve talked to David Beckham about going to church and Noel Gallagher has asked me why I don’t swear.

When I first decided to take a stand about Sundays, I wasn’t sure how things would pan out. I wasn’t sure if I could maintain my Christian witness. I wasn’t sure I was in the right profession. Now, looking back, I can see that God has clearly guided my steps over the past few years.

Everything I have comes from God. I enjoy working hard and want to do my best, but I know that my current position is down to God’s goodness and his plan for my life. Years ago, before I worked in television, I was told that I would never get anywhere with “an attitude like that”. I’ve not yet bumped into that guy since, but hopefully, one day I will see him again and be able to testify of God’s gracious provision for his people!

After eighteen months in the North-West we were on the move again — still at the BBC, but now in London. My not working on Sundays wasn’t a problem for my new boss. I think he thought it would hinder my progress, but he was happy to help where

he could. I was determined to keep trusting in God. I ended up presenting and reporting on things like Six Nations rugby, the Grand National horse racing and The Open Golf Championship, and covering football for Final Score, Match of the Day and Football Focus.

It was while I was at The Open that I saw I had two missed calls from the head of television sport at the BBC. I thought he wanted to tell me off for something I had either said or done on the golf course, so I didn’t ring him back until 8.15 that night. I can’t remember exactly how the conversation went, but I was told that Ray Stubbs was leaving and there was going to be a bit of a shake-up in football.

I thought I was going to be asked to cover some shows while they sorted things out, so when I was offered the Focus gig I think my voice went a little high-pitched

and I might have squealed a touch. After I’d hung up I kicked a pebble in delight and called my wife. The bad news was the pebble took a nasty ricochet right and left a little nick on a

BMW! The next two weeks were pretty bonkers... press conferences, interviews and endless meetings in addition to trying to look after daughter number two, who had been

Real Lives Men’s BreakfastSaturday 6th November, 9:00am (ticket required)

Llandarcy Academy of Sport (J43, M4)

Full-cooked breakfast. Speaker: Roger Carswell Please contact us (see centre pages) for tickets.

it strange how God works sometimes? I was distraught. I thought I had my life planned out, and all of a sudden things were going wobbly-bob. I really didn’t know what to do.

After much deliberation, prayer and lengthy conversions with my fiancée Sarah, I decided that this was perhaps the time to have a go at this broadcasting lark. If I was “too immature” to be a teacher, then I’d be perfect for the radio or TV.

I went on a postgraduate journalism course in Sheffield and got an interview with Key 103 in Manchester. Soon I was covering three to four matches a week, interviewing sporting superstars and the occasional popstar or Hollywood hero. I loved the work but felt that I needed a new challenge.

Over the course of about eighteen months I had six or seven interviews for a new job. Each interview would fol-low a pattern: I would be asked about my attitude and enthu-siasm, the awards I had won at Key 103, and my plans for the future. Then the Sunday is-sue came up and things went downhill. At each interview I explained that I wouldn’t work on a Sunday. I was con-vinced that it was the right thing to honour God and follow his commandments, but I was also helping myself by hav-ing a day of rest and showing others that there was something more im-p o r t a n t than foot-ball or work in my life. My Saviour, Je-sus Christ, deserves the very best of my time and energy. And observing the Lord’s Day is a great privi-

“I explained I wouldn’t work on

a Sunday… My Saviour, Jesus

Christ, deserves the best of my

time and energy.”

Keith was raised in a household with good Christian values. Respecting and helping each other was what he’d always tried to do. Imagine his surprise then when he discovered that this wasn’t good enough to get him in to heaven.

‘There were some jobs going in the Swansea clerical office. I’d just left school so thought I’d apply as I always wanted a job where I could help people in the community.

‘My time in the pensions and benefits department lasted thirty-one years. I wasn’t due to retire, but things started to slowly change in the civil service. I wanted to leave and they offered me early retirement. I was looking forward to a few holidays and I was thinking of changing my car. I’d been working for a long time so the opportunity for early retirement seemed to make sense.

‘On my first day of retirement I did absolutely nothing! But it was kind of like that for a little while. I did start to think back to my working days – how long those thirty-one years had been. And I asked myself what I had to show for all that time. I felt something was missing.

‘I’d sometimes be driving in my car and pass various churches in Clydach. I missed spending time with people and thought I’d find some sort of community in a church. I knew the time the service at Bethel Church started but I was quite nervous about going by myself. Eventually, when I did go, it was quite reassuring. There were even people on the front door to welcome me.

‘Listening to the preacher came as a bit of a shock though. He said no-one was good enough to go to heaven but that God sent Jesus to save us. I thought that as long as your good deeds are more than your bad you’ll be fine and go to heaven but this wasn’t what God said in the Bible. I was terrified that because of my sin I was God’s enemy.

‘I was no longer enjoying my retirement as I started to see I wasn’t the nice guy I thought I was. God was on my mind more than ever and I knew I needed him so I started to go to Bethel regularly. I’d always assumed I was going to heaven but I realised this was a fairy story – I had to come to God. I often thought about the wrong things I’d done in my life and wondered if God really wanted me.

‘As I carried on going to church I came to understand that if I was sorry before God for the way I’d lived and put my trust in the death of Jesus to forgive me, then I could be God’s friend. I asked God to forgive me and then I knew I was going to heaven. I had peace in my life for the first time. God’s forgiveness is what everyone needs – I want my family and others in Clydach to know this too.

‘I’m still retired and life is not free from problems especially with my health, but I know that God helps me to face the issues and I’m looking forward to heaven where God promises there will be no more suffering.’

Good is not good enough

Where is God when disaster strikes?For us Christmas 1988 has become the watershed which separates all the events and memories of our lives. The first emotion I remember as I turned on the TV at 9pm on 21 December was one of sympathy, for the passengers, crew, and the people of the small Scottish town of Lockerbie. My sixteen-year-old son, Marcus, sat on the sofa while Lisa, my wife, perched on the arm and I stood beside her. “The poor people!” I remember someone saying. Then they began to give details – “Pan-Am flight 103, flying from London to New York, has exploded above the Scottish border at about three minutes past seven.”

“That’s Helga’s flight!” burst from Lisa’s lips. Even though I had checked her luggage in at the Pan-Am desk only a few hours earlier, the possibility of such a thing happening to our daughter just hadn’t crossed my mind. These things happen to others; we are normally observers of other people’s tragedies. You can imagine the stunned silence which followed as the unthinkable slowly expanded, filling not only our minds but every nerve and cell of our bodies.

“No! No! No! No!” broke the silence as Marcus screamed at the screen. “Helga, Helga, Helga” quietly, almost silently, managed to escape from somewhere deep-down inside my wife. I stood as if dumb; my tongue unable to articulate at all.

By day two there were already rumours that a terrorist bomb might have been the cause

I was still wondering at my wife’s answer when he shot another question at me. “Has this not destroyed your faith?” To this day I am amazed at how readily the words came and how inspired they were. “Well,” I said, “This is where we prove whether what we have preached and said we believed for most of our lives is real, or whether it is just a game.”

During the past twenty-two years we have found the grace and love of God and the strength that he gives to be more real than we had ever dared believe.

of the disaster and some of the relatives were howling for blood. When one early interviewer asked how we felt about it we said that we readily forgave whoever was responsible. “How can you forgive animals like that?” was the interviewer’s response. While I was trying to formulate a reply Lisa cut in. “Well, sir, Jesus said that if we don’t forgive those who hurt us God will not forgive us. We are also sinners and are trusting God for forgiveness through the blood of Jesus Christ. Sir, we just dare not play such foolish games as not forgiving.”

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Meet John and hear him tell his story

Tuesday 2nd November, 7:30pm, Admission Free Bethel Evangelical Church, Heol Y Nant, Clydach

Real LivesTues 2 Nov 7:30pmJohn Mosey on Where is God when disaster strikes?

Wed 3 Nov 8:00pmAlison Stewart on Freedom from addiction

Real Lives events last about an hour. They’re not church services — apart from those on Sunday, of course! At evening meetings the special guest will tell their real-life story and then introduce a speaker who will give a short talk from the Bible on the topics raised.

Tuesday 2nd November�:�0pm Real Lives: John Mosey

Wednesday 3rd November10:�0am Coffee Morning�:00pm Real Lives: Alison Stewart

Thursday 4th November�:�0pm Y Gair a’r Gân

Friday 5th November1�:�0pm Talk and Lunch

Sat. 6th Nov. (see pp 2 & 7)9:00am Men’s Breakfast�:00pm Ladies’ Meal�:�0pm Youth Night

Sunday 7th November10:�0am Real Lives Family Service and buffet lunch�:00pm Real Lives Guest Service

Everyone welcome. Refreshments and crèche

provided. Free entry.More info: 01�9� ���09�

www.bethel-clydach.co.uk/real-lives

High Street

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Sybil Street

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Barclays

Bethel

“Pan-Am Flight 103 has exploded”… the unthinkable slowly

expanded, filling not only our minds

but every nerve and cell of our bodies… That’s Helga’s flight.