I was baptised when I was a baby.  My parents were good Christian Anglicans, and wanted me to have a Christian baptism to start off my wonderful life.  

And it was so.

Much later, through a peaceful inner conviction, and a certainty, I came to the conclusion that God actually exists  And that Jesus, whose exploits were recorded in the Bible, also loves me – indeed He loves me so much that He actually died so all the wrong stuff I’d ever done, and ever would do can be forgiven.  I didn’t have to go on being remorseful about the old mistakes and failures,  

I am forgiven !

This is reality on a cosmic scale. We are talking actual existence here. This is what the universe is all about.

I confessed all the bad stuff in my life, and in a prayer I told Jesus I trusted Him, and asked Him to forgive my wrongdoings, and give me the faith to receive the forgiveness He was offering me.  I wanted to be made into a new person because of the sacrifice of His life that Jesus had made for me. I told him that I trusted Him for my salvation, and thanked Him for His amazing love, and forgiveness.

He forgave my sin and gave to me freedom, gave me rest. Freedom from guilt and worry.  Rest from anxiety. Free.  It is absolutely wonderful to be at peace with the world, myself and with my God.

In 1977, I was baptised again, at a Christian Family Camp at Chadacre, by total immersion in a big zinc tank!

Baptism is a symbol of washing away your old bad ways of living and welcoming in your new life with Jesus Christ.

Forty one years later, Ian Dent, a friend of mine who was there e-mailed me a photograph he took of the event, and here it is. 

The whole concept of Christian belief is amazing. I belong to Jesus. And Christians do crazy things like love one another, share what they have, and talk to Jesus about practical issues in their lives, and have peace and forgiveness and freedom. 

What a superb gift is your life, and how amazing to have the freedom to choose how you will live it!

I became a Christian, in 1972 at a presentation of a musical written by Jimmy and Carol Owens called ‘Come ‘Together’ at Sidmouth in Devon. In the early spring of 1975 I had an opportunity to join the National Tour of another musical written by the same couple. It was called ‘If My People’.

The central theme of ‘If My People’ is a prayer of intersession and I have put a copy of it below. I couldn’t find it on-line, and our nation is still so desperately in need of healing.

I was part of the technical team, which took care of projection, P.A. and lighting. It was a wonderful formative experience to be working with people like Jean Darnell, Teddy Saunders, Paul Harris, and a whole host of really dynamic Christians drawn from all over the UK. It was February 1975, the ‘Jesus People’ movement in America was well under way, and we were in the the high days of the Festival of Light, when marches and rallies all over the world were encouraging people to lives of purity and godliness, and when it really did seem that the tide of decadence in Britain could be reversed. I believ e it still can.

The tour started in London at All Souls, Langham Place. The following evening we were in the cathedral at Truro. This was followed by a whirlwind when we were in a different venue just about every nig the Festival of Light. We didn’t have the luxury of two tech teams leap-frogging each other, and Truro for example is a long way from All Souls!

Feb 3rd. – Truro Cathedral,
Feb 4th – Paignton Festival Theatre,
Feb 5th – Oxford Town Hall,
Feb 6th – Bristol Cathedral,
Feb 7th – Chester St Paul’s Baughton,
Feb. 8th – Liverpool Anglican Cathedral,
Feb 10th – Leicester De Mountford Hall,
Feb 11th – Nottingham Albert Hall,
Feb 12th – Newcastle City Hall,
Feb 13th & 14th – Glasgow Tent Hall,
Feb 15th. – Bradford St Georges Hall.

Initially we had rented some stage lighting, which we actually used at All Souls, but we quickly ditched it, in favour of using the lighting that the venues already had. With productions on consecutive nights, many miles apart, there was simply not enough time with only one tech crew to rig and strike everything and travel each day.

It was quite fun, to set up the PA and get the Kodak Carousel projectors and 12 foot square screens set up. We called the screens Spree 73 because they had been used at the ‘Spree 73’ festival that Billy Graham did at Earls Court and the Wembley Arena two years earlier. There was a certain degree of urgency to get the show on the road, even though it was February, and bitterly cold. The transport, a Mercedes truck with 8 seats and space in the back for the equipment, was loaned by a band called ‘Eleven Fifty Nine’.

After the tour, the show went up at the Royal Albert Hall back in London, where technicians had to be in the Union, so I was quite relieved not to have to take on such a large and prestigious venue.

I was quite glad to return home. But shortly after, I was asked if I would be able to join the team taking ‘If My People’ to Ireland. The ‘Troubles’ were at their height, having kicked off in 1968 and from then, it would be thirty years before the Peace Agreement, during which time around 3,500 people would die.

The ‘If my people’ team, choir, band, leaders and techies all met up at Heathrow and flew out to Aldergrove airport just outside Belfast. The place resembled a fortress with razor wire and troops toting machine guns. We were quickly moved to the hall in Belfast where the show would go up. Afterwards, we dispersed as individuals from our touring company were offered digs for the night by local Christians. As my host raced for home, his route took us down the Shanklin Road, where huge murals on the ends of houses and lit by street lights told of the war.

The next day the company all met up at the hall again, and we boarded the coach which would take us over the border to Dublin, where we did the show at the Catholic Cathedral. Straight afterwards we returned back to the north. We did one more presentation in Belfast, and immediately afterwards were taken straight back to Aldergrove to catch the plane home.

I will always remember a magic moment on our return, when in the dead of night at Heathrow Airport, the choir sang ‘Behold the Man’ from the show. It must have been one of the first Flash Mob events, and it sounded beautiful as it echoed around the empty airport.

From there we all said goodbye and the show just melted into the night. I never saw any of them again, with the exception of Teddy Saunders whom I came across years later, and who reminded me to keep my sword sharp.

During the show, we lead the audience in this Great Prayer of Intersession.

“Sovereign Lord, we thank you for our nation, and its godly heritage. So long as we have walked in Your ways You have faithfully poured out Your bounties upon us.

So long as we have acknowledged and served You, You have kept us a free people. 

But in our prosperity we have forgotten that all we are and have we owe to Your love and grace. Many in our land have forgotten the God who made them. Many deny even the basic concept of law. Selfishness and greed, distrust and thanklessness, hatred and indifference to suffering abound. Immorality and perversion, profanity and blasphemy are on every hand. But we identify with this people, O Lord. You have placed us among them. It is partly because of our failures that our nation and society are as we see them now. Had our salt not lost its savour, corruption would have been restrained. Had we all continued to beget life in the Spirit, we would not be the minority that we are in our society.

Because our light has shone but dimly. darkness has encroached upon our nation. 
Because of our silence, the clamour of iniquity has grown loud in our land. 
Because of our weakness, violence has increased in our streets. 
Because of our division, the united force of our enemy have met little resistance and have taken men captive at their will. 

Therefore O Lord, hear our confession and pardon our iniquity . Restore to Your church all that we have lost through sin. Turn away Your wrath from out land. Stem the tide of evil and stay Your hand of judgement.

Wake believers to a new ministry of prayer and fasting for our nation, with authority and confidence and power. May there come in the church a putting away of all that offends You, and a mighty crying out for deliverance. We cry for righteousness to reign, for holiness to preserve our nation!


Save and guide the leaders of our government. Where corruption exists, expose it and purge it out. 

Pull down the ungodly and raise up leaders who will be led by the Spirit of God. 

Establish truth in our educational systems, integrity in our news media and righteous judgement in our courts. 
Heal our homes and cement family relationships.


We lift up the name of Jesus! May it move in power throughout the land! Let Your face shine with peace and joy upon our land, for Your own glory, Lord. Comfort and sustain our brothers and sisters in other countries, especially those who are persecuted.


We pray, O Lord, that the Holy Spirit will renew the church in truth and wisdom, faith, holiness love and power; that there will be such a visitation of the Sovereign Spirit of God that all His fruit will appear in all His people, and that all His gifts may enrich the Body of Christ. For only then will the whole earth become a fit instrument in His hands, that the whole earth may hear His voice. 

Move the whole church to take the whole Gospel to the whole world, that we may see in our time the final great harvest that will signal the return of Our Lord Jesus in power and great glory. 

In His mighty Name we pray!”