A heart-warming experience.

All Methodists know the story of John Wesley, who on the 24th May 1738 went to a Bible study rather reluctantly, only to find his heart strangely warmed by the assurance of his own salvation through Christ.  It was an event that changed the man and his ministry forever.

I was ten years old when I accepted Jesus as my Saviour.  It was a very dark week in my young life.  I'd been told that my Dad who was ill in hospital was so ill that he wasn't going to be with us very long.  As if that wasn't bad enough, my Uncle Wesley who always visited us regularly had a heart attack on the way to work that morning and he died three days later.  I saw his body in the coffin - I'd never seen a dead person before and it was all so sudden that I wakened on the morning of his funeral in tears.  I wasn't going anywhere, not before putting my faith in Jesus.

It was 25th March 1975, and in spite of the difficult days we were experiencing as a family, I felt a warmth and a peace that a ten year old couldn't possibly have described to anyone.  Almost 39 years on, I still remember that moment so vividly.

As I look back on that day and all that has happened since, I know I've grown in faith and in confidence.  There have been times when that hope and that confidence was all I had left - and it was even more precious.  In 2013, I want on the Wesley Walk on 24th May along with Methodists from around the District and further afield starting at St Paul's Cathedral for Evensong.  It was a cool, damp evening as we stood by the Wesley Flame by the Museum of London and sang 'And can it be' and I could feel again that strange warmth on the inside and an assurance of salvation.  I was indeed called to be one of Mr Wesley's preachers, called to take the Gospel to those who have never heard it.

These words are etched upon my heart, from 2 Timothy 4:1-5

In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage —with great patience and careful instruction. For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.