INTRODUCTION
Back in 1989, I used to visit with Mum every so often, she had gotten a bit hard to live with since she got, as we all called it religion. Mum would go and on about Jesus, oh John shed say God loves you so much. Well, I found that a bit hard to take, I didnt think anyone could love me like this Jesus she was on about!
It got so bad, I remember saying to her Mum if you dont stop all this, Im never even going to visit you anymore! So well she stopped reading out loud the bible to me but I know my Mum. She would look up say, Johnny what does redeemed mean? I would explain to it meant buying something back that belonged to you at a great price (I think I used cash converters as an example) Oh shed say, looking intently at me. I knew she was pretending not to understand certain passages just to get me to read them to her, Id have to admit, she did seem a lot happier. Mum got saved two years earlier, she had enough of the Old Mans ways and decided to end it all. Deliberately running of the road into a telephone pole, in a bid to end her life. Waking up in hospital she was surprised and disappointed to find her alive with few serious injuries (the car was a write of though) After a few weeks recuperating, a stranger walked into the war, searching intently, he zeroed in on Mum. He approached and asked what did she think of Jesus? Mum shook her head and said He had never done anything for her. Well he said, God has sent me to you and told me to give you this bible, with this he placed in her hands brand new leather bound NKJV bible. It was not long after while at a travelling ministry she was saved. Now no one was safe from her from then on!
Mum only stuck mostly to a few scriptures while trying to convince me, John 3:16, Luke: 11, Acts 2:38 Isaiah: 53 were some I remember.
At the time I was working on the Goldfields in Western Australia so I went back to work. This time however I hatched a plan to steal a grader, Pretty easy, I thought, why they are all yellow, and who would miss one. Accordingly I applied for a job as a grader operator, but when I turned up to start work to my surprise they were all painted bright blue! Oh well, it would do to get some money. I was sent way out of town to build an airstrip at a goldmine, when the contract ran out, I asked for a job and got one. (It is very hard to get work underground) The pay was fantastic three to four thousand dollars a fortnight, however deep inside I was not happy In my heart, it felt like there was nothing permanent lodged there, Oh mum was there, but little else Id always reckoned if I could find a place well away from anyone, I would work out the questions I had, trouble was, Id never found time so far
One night, after I had been there about three months, I went to bed early for work the next day. During the night suddenly was awakened by the bed bouncing up and down off the floor! I hung on to the mattress for all I was worth after about forty-five seconds the shaking stopped. I thought Id survived some sort of natural disaster or something. Suddenly a voice spoke from just behind me, it said "I will touch you John, I came off the bed swinging punches all directions- the room was empty (the light was on) I looked at the clock; it was 2:20 am. Outside it was dead calm, no sign of any damage at all .I sat up the rest of the night trying to understand what had happened, the best I could come up with was that some relative had died and paid me a visit! I rang Mum early there next morning and I told her what had happened, she just said get right with God son, I always had thought I was ok with God (parochial school) I went to see the boss and told him my mother was very sick and not expected to live; I wasnt going back to that room!
Finally arriving in Kalgoorlie, went to a pub I drank at, as I entered the door Was astounded to see on the shoulders of at least sixty men (it was the wild west then) drinking at the bar, each of them seemed to have a demon either sitting on their shoulder or growing out of their shoulders, These creatures were getting drunk too I could hear them saying things like then I made him bash his wife and similar things, they would knock the beer out of the mans hand and laugh, this was getting weirder and weirder! The whole of Kalgoorlie had gone nuts! I decided to go home to see Mum in South Australia. Every time I closed my eyes, I would immediately be in this other world of leering demons by the time I got home I had not slept for about six days. In Mums kitchen I felt peace for the first time since this all started, Asked her did she have a cross I could wear, I was about ready to wear garlic! I heard her softly say son you need a cross on your heart and then Johnny will you receive Jesus as your saviour In a voice almost not my own I said yes Mum Kneeling on the kitchen floor, she put her hands on my head and begun to lead me in a sinners prayer, Jesus just walked into my life I was dumbfounded it was all true He really was real. He was alive!! All my sin had vanished, the demonic things were not there .I looked at Mums bible and just knew it was Gods word, it was all true; Walked around for the rest of that week, all you could get out of me was. He is real He is alive Its all-true.
Oh two other things, it was on my 40th birthday, and Mum told me later her prayer was shake him up in his sleep Lord .We have 100 descendants from Mum and Dad, she went on to lead 85% of them to Jesus, going home to glory five years ago, by the way, she also led the Dad to Him too. My story shows a lot of Dads bad side, however he could be a wonderful person if only he didnt drink I started to understand him more through my twenties and eventually grew to love him deeply by the time he was an old man. I was with him when he died of bowel cancer at the age of seventy-three. For all his faults, he loved mum all of his life. She also, although she divorced and remarried him, she never had another partner all her days. She died, after a long illness two years after him. Dad found Jesus six months before he went home, he would sit out the back porch feeding sparrows breadcrumbs, and reading his bible. He once said to mum, with tears in his eyes, mum how much we missed. Sadly, for all of us, how right he was
I was driving a semi through the Blue Mountains when I got the news about Mum. I can remember feeling numb, lost and desolate. I cried as I drove the tears shooting straight out and hitting the windscreen. Somehow the funeral passed, as I guess they all do, I tried to hold the family together, they were all heart broken, there wasnt much time for personal grief, and relatives came from all over Australia. I gave the eulogy for Mum, as I had for Dad, I didnt say much about her as a Mum, saying there was nothing to add. However I did talk about her love for Jesus and as my ministry partner, telling of all the times she had supported me with twenty or thirty dollars from her pension, how we had prayed for all the people I had met, and finally, about how we had prayed that everyone present would come to know Jesus as we did. I stopped short of an altar call, a decision Ive often regretted. A few weeks later I was sitting on their gravestone (I used to go every evening) it was a dull afternoon just before sunset, a few golden rays of sun had broken through, when it suddenly hit me they were gone. I howled and blubbered like a baby, strange sounds came out, Oh God what will I do. I didnt feel I could go on anymore; I curled up into a little ball huddled out of the wind against their grave and cried for hours. I knew it wasnt right to want to die, but Lord. I dont feel I can go on anymore. I had been a Christian for eleven years, I was divorced, most of my children didnt want anything to do with me; I had no money or possessions, I had cancer, a heart attack, and emphysema. The only thing I have left is my faith in you Lord.
Ive been sitting here trying to write what happened that night, needless to say, I did go on. Maybe somewhere later I will be able to tell you of His amazing grace and love, and what happened in that cemetery. Today I am married to a wonderful Christian lady, and we both work in fulltime ministry with homeless men. This story is not something I would have chosen to do; Im not really a writer. Although this is my story, it is also my parents, maybe it is yours too.
CHAPTER ONE
Books were my escape when I was young. I dont remember learning to read, I just seemed to know how. My Mothers True Romance stories were a favourite; they fascinated me with tales of other towns, and life styles. I didnt know it then. But they really just represented broken lives. They were accounts of real hardship. All the victims were women in hurting and broken relationships. At the time I didnt see much difference them and us. Mum and Dad both drank heavily and had violent arguments nearly every night, it usually just got worse on the weekends. I wasnt his child, so every time he went for Mum, I would try to stop him hurting her; this turned his anger on to me giving Mum time to escape out the door. I suppose reading Mums magazines showed me that we were in the same boat as many others; it was best to try to put up with it. Mum was a part Aboriginal from Dubbo in Western NSW. As a young girl she got into all sorts of trouble, finally being sent to Sydney for detention at the Parramatta Girls Home (a place well documented elsewhere) It was well known for the rough treatment of its inmates .The Governments idea back then was to segregate people like Mum from their cultural heritage in the belief they would assimilate better into white society. She escaped many times only to get caught and returned to the home. Finally, at the age of sixteen, she ran away for the last time, going to work in a roadside café art Cobar NSW. It was there that she met my biological father. . He took her to Melbourne. She soon fell pregnant. After my birth, he left her in a rough bush camp somewhere near Geelong for several weeks on her own. She told me how scared she was at the time, living under a piece of canvas with a new baby and very little food. Fortunately, some local farmers helped a little. When my father finally returned, she was relieved to see him again (she said he had something to do with the Melbourne underground, and had thought him dead) they, then travelled to WA, where he soon obtained work operating bulldozers and sign writing. Mum worked in yet another café. They argued constantly, and they separated a short time later. He left never knowing she was pregnant with my only full brother Bob.
There was no welfare in those days, Mum stayed in the same café, hoping he would come back, until Bobs birth. The custom then was to talk women out of keeping their babies, Accordingly, the Nuns where I was born, took Bob away. She never saw him again until thirty-four years later .Mum couldnt keep work and me any longer, so she left me with the lady who owned the shop. Her name was Lurline, then began two wonderful years, which although I cant remember them much, are nice in my memory.
Mum worked in hotels and on sheep stations as a cook for the next two years . Mum would not mind if I relate one funny incident of those times. Obtaining work on a property somewhere near Geraldton WA as a cook, Mum was taught how to make the bread. The next day, following the exact same method as shown, she turned out about twenty-five loaves; problem was these didnt rise, as they should have. In a panic, Mum quickly prepared another batch. These seemed to rise ok. Not wanting to be found out, she buried the previous lot in the garden. The owners wife came into the kitchen later that day and asked casually how did the bread turn out? Mum assured her it was fine! And showed her the second batch hmmm, the boss replied, lets take a walk in the garden Mum said she was mortified to see all the ones she had buried, growing like mushrooms! , The heat of the day had caused them to rise up anyway! Mum worked in these jobs for the next two years, sending what she could to Lurline for my upkeep. Working in a bar in Fremantle, she met my stepfather. He had jumped ship and headed to the nearest bar, they met and fell in love; the destiny of my life was changed foreve
well ,its a long intro, sorry thank you for letting me join
( bye the way, there are another 9 chapters)
copyright john dowell
Back in 1989, I used to visit with Mum every so often, she had gotten a bit hard to live with since she got, as we all called it religion. Mum would go and on about Jesus, oh John shed say God loves you so much. Well, I found that a bit hard to take, I didnt think anyone could love me like this Jesus she was on about!
It got so bad, I remember saying to her Mum if you dont stop all this, Im never even going to visit you anymore! So well she stopped reading out loud the bible to me but I know my Mum. She would look up say, Johnny what does redeemed mean? I would explain to it meant buying something back that belonged to you at a great price (I think I used cash converters as an example) Oh shed say, looking intently at me. I knew she was pretending not to understand certain passages just to get me to read them to her, Id have to admit, she did seem a lot happier. Mum got saved two years earlier, she had enough of the Old Mans ways and decided to end it all. Deliberately running of the road into a telephone pole, in a bid to end her life. Waking up in hospital she was surprised and disappointed to find her alive with few serious injuries (the car was a write of though) After a few weeks recuperating, a stranger walked into the war, searching intently, he zeroed in on Mum. He approached and asked what did she think of Jesus? Mum shook her head and said He had never done anything for her. Well he said, God has sent me to you and told me to give you this bible, with this he placed in her hands brand new leather bound NKJV bible. It was not long after while at a travelling ministry she was saved. Now no one was safe from her from then on!
Mum only stuck mostly to a few scriptures while trying to convince me, John 3:16, Luke: 11, Acts 2:38 Isaiah: 53 were some I remember.
At the time I was working on the Goldfields in Western Australia so I went back to work. This time however I hatched a plan to steal a grader, Pretty easy, I thought, why they are all yellow, and who would miss one. Accordingly I applied for a job as a grader operator, but when I turned up to start work to my surprise they were all painted bright blue! Oh well, it would do to get some money. I was sent way out of town to build an airstrip at a goldmine, when the contract ran out, I asked for a job and got one. (It is very hard to get work underground) The pay was fantastic three to four thousand dollars a fortnight, however deep inside I was not happy In my heart, it felt like there was nothing permanent lodged there, Oh mum was there, but little else Id always reckoned if I could find a place well away from anyone, I would work out the questions I had, trouble was, Id never found time so far
One night, after I had been there about three months, I went to bed early for work the next day. During the night suddenly was awakened by the bed bouncing up and down off the floor! I hung on to the mattress for all I was worth after about forty-five seconds the shaking stopped. I thought Id survived some sort of natural disaster or something. Suddenly a voice spoke from just behind me, it said "I will touch you John, I came off the bed swinging punches all directions- the room was empty (the light was on) I looked at the clock; it was 2:20 am. Outside it was dead calm, no sign of any damage at all .I sat up the rest of the night trying to understand what had happened, the best I could come up with was that some relative had died and paid me a visit! I rang Mum early there next morning and I told her what had happened, she just said get right with God son, I always had thought I was ok with God (parochial school) I went to see the boss and told him my mother was very sick and not expected to live; I wasnt going back to that room!
Finally arriving in Kalgoorlie, went to a pub I drank at, as I entered the door Was astounded to see on the shoulders of at least sixty men (it was the wild west then) drinking at the bar, each of them seemed to have a demon either sitting on their shoulder or growing out of their shoulders, These creatures were getting drunk too I could hear them saying things like then I made him bash his wife and similar things, they would knock the beer out of the mans hand and laugh, this was getting weirder and weirder! The whole of Kalgoorlie had gone nuts! I decided to go home to see Mum in South Australia. Every time I closed my eyes, I would immediately be in this other world of leering demons by the time I got home I had not slept for about six days. In Mums kitchen I felt peace for the first time since this all started, Asked her did she have a cross I could wear, I was about ready to wear garlic! I heard her softly say son you need a cross on your heart and then Johnny will you receive Jesus as your saviour In a voice almost not my own I said yes Mum Kneeling on the kitchen floor, she put her hands on my head and begun to lead me in a sinners prayer, Jesus just walked into my life I was dumbfounded it was all true He really was real. He was alive!! All my sin had vanished, the demonic things were not there .I looked at Mums bible and just knew it was Gods word, it was all true; Walked around for the rest of that week, all you could get out of me was. He is real He is alive Its all-true.
Oh two other things, it was on my 40th birthday, and Mum told me later her prayer was shake him up in his sleep Lord .We have 100 descendants from Mum and Dad, she went on to lead 85% of them to Jesus, going home to glory five years ago, by the way, she also led the Dad to Him too. My story shows a lot of Dads bad side, however he could be a wonderful person if only he didnt drink I started to understand him more through my twenties and eventually grew to love him deeply by the time he was an old man. I was with him when he died of bowel cancer at the age of seventy-three. For all his faults, he loved mum all of his life. She also, although she divorced and remarried him, she never had another partner all her days. She died, after a long illness two years after him. Dad found Jesus six months before he went home, he would sit out the back porch feeding sparrows breadcrumbs, and reading his bible. He once said to mum, with tears in his eyes, mum how much we missed. Sadly, for all of us, how right he was
I was driving a semi through the Blue Mountains when I got the news about Mum. I can remember feeling numb, lost and desolate. I cried as I drove the tears shooting straight out and hitting the windscreen. Somehow the funeral passed, as I guess they all do, I tried to hold the family together, they were all heart broken, there wasnt much time for personal grief, and relatives came from all over Australia. I gave the eulogy for Mum, as I had for Dad, I didnt say much about her as a Mum, saying there was nothing to add. However I did talk about her love for Jesus and as my ministry partner, telling of all the times she had supported me with twenty or thirty dollars from her pension, how we had prayed for all the people I had met, and finally, about how we had prayed that everyone present would come to know Jesus as we did. I stopped short of an altar call, a decision Ive often regretted. A few weeks later I was sitting on their gravestone (I used to go every evening) it was a dull afternoon just before sunset, a few golden rays of sun had broken through, when it suddenly hit me they were gone. I howled and blubbered like a baby, strange sounds came out, Oh God what will I do. I didnt feel I could go on anymore; I curled up into a little ball huddled out of the wind against their grave and cried for hours. I knew it wasnt right to want to die, but Lord. I dont feel I can go on anymore. I had been a Christian for eleven years, I was divorced, most of my children didnt want anything to do with me; I had no money or possessions, I had cancer, a heart attack, and emphysema. The only thing I have left is my faith in you Lord.
Ive been sitting here trying to write what happened that night, needless to say, I did go on. Maybe somewhere later I will be able to tell you of His amazing grace and love, and what happened in that cemetery. Today I am married to a wonderful Christian lady, and we both work in fulltime ministry with homeless men. This story is not something I would have chosen to do; Im not really a writer. Although this is my story, it is also my parents, maybe it is yours too.
CHAPTER ONE
Books were my escape when I was young. I dont remember learning to read, I just seemed to know how. My Mothers True Romance stories were a favourite; they fascinated me with tales of other towns, and life styles. I didnt know it then. But they really just represented broken lives. They were accounts of real hardship. All the victims were women in hurting and broken relationships. At the time I didnt see much difference them and us. Mum and Dad both drank heavily and had violent arguments nearly every night, it usually just got worse on the weekends. I wasnt his child, so every time he went for Mum, I would try to stop him hurting her; this turned his anger on to me giving Mum time to escape out the door. I suppose reading Mums magazines showed me that we were in the same boat as many others; it was best to try to put up with it. Mum was a part Aboriginal from Dubbo in Western NSW. As a young girl she got into all sorts of trouble, finally being sent to Sydney for detention at the Parramatta Girls Home (a place well documented elsewhere) It was well known for the rough treatment of its inmates .The Governments idea back then was to segregate people like Mum from their cultural heritage in the belief they would assimilate better into white society. She escaped many times only to get caught and returned to the home. Finally, at the age of sixteen, she ran away for the last time, going to work in a roadside café art Cobar NSW. It was there that she met my biological father. . He took her to Melbourne. She soon fell pregnant. After my birth, he left her in a rough bush camp somewhere near Geelong for several weeks on her own. She told me how scared she was at the time, living under a piece of canvas with a new baby and very little food. Fortunately, some local farmers helped a little. When my father finally returned, she was relieved to see him again (she said he had something to do with the Melbourne underground, and had thought him dead) they, then travelled to WA, where he soon obtained work operating bulldozers and sign writing. Mum worked in yet another café. They argued constantly, and they separated a short time later. He left never knowing she was pregnant with my only full brother Bob.
There was no welfare in those days, Mum stayed in the same café, hoping he would come back, until Bobs birth. The custom then was to talk women out of keeping their babies, Accordingly, the Nuns where I was born, took Bob away. She never saw him again until thirty-four years later .Mum couldnt keep work and me any longer, so she left me with the lady who owned the shop. Her name was Lurline, then began two wonderful years, which although I cant remember them much, are nice in my memory.
Mum worked in hotels and on sheep stations as a cook for the next two years . Mum would not mind if I relate one funny incident of those times. Obtaining work on a property somewhere near Geraldton WA as a cook, Mum was taught how to make the bread. The next day, following the exact same method as shown, she turned out about twenty-five loaves; problem was these didnt rise, as they should have. In a panic, Mum quickly prepared another batch. These seemed to rise ok. Not wanting to be found out, she buried the previous lot in the garden. The owners wife came into the kitchen later that day and asked casually how did the bread turn out? Mum assured her it was fine! And showed her the second batch hmmm, the boss replied, lets take a walk in the garden Mum said she was mortified to see all the ones she had buried, growing like mushrooms! , The heat of the day had caused them to rise up anyway! Mum worked in these jobs for the next two years, sending what she could to Lurline for my upkeep. Working in a bar in Fremantle, she met my stepfather. He had jumped ship and headed to the nearest bar, they met and fell in love; the destiny of my life was changed foreve
well ,its a long intro, sorry thank you for letting me join
( bye the way, there are another 9 chapters)
copyright john dowell
good testimony! 9 more chapters! WOW!
