Testimony Night at Listooder

Following the disappointment of expected speaker, Alan Bartley, being unable to attend the meeting, a Testimony night was arranged at Listooder. In the style of an interview, David McCoubrey was below asked to reveal how the Lord has directed his life and on the audio recording, Sharon Rice speaks of the opportunities she has had to serve the Lord as a teacher at Derriaghy Primary School for 10 years.

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So, David, tell us a little bit about your upbringing and home life. I am from just outside Ballynahinch, on the Belfast side of the town.  I went to Magheraknock Primary School for a couple of years and then changed to Spa Primary School on the other side of Ballynahinch.  My mum and dad were both Christians from before I was born and my older brother John became a Christian at a young age.

How and when did you first come into contact with the Gospel?

Growing up in a home with Christian parents meant that I was taught from the Bible from a very young age at home.  We went to the Congregational Church in Ballynahinch and so I would have heard the Gospel message in the Sunday services as well as through Sunday School and Boys Brigade.  My brother and I also went to a CEF Good News Club in Langley Road Estate in Ballynahinch where my Mum was a teacher in the club.  I can honestly say that the foundations of my Bible knowledge were laid in those early years of my life and the verses that I learnt then, are still in my mind today.  I am also thankful that we weren’t just taught from the Bible as a story book or even for the sake of knowledge.  Those who taught me wanted me to know Jesus as my personal Saviour.

What do you remember about the time when you got saved?

I became a Christian when I was eight years old.  I can remember one night becoming scared because I realised that because of the sin in my life, if I was to die, I would be going to hell.  I’m not sure if this was after a specific meeting or not.  I went into my Mum’s bedroom and I can remember her taking out her Bible and showing me specific verses that showed me how I could be saved from my sin.  How if I repented of my sin and trusted in Jesus as my Saviour, he would forgive all my sins and I could know that one day I would go to heaven.  It was that night that I was saved and the Holy Spirit came into my life.  Romans 10:13 says “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved”.

Did you find that there was an immediate change in your life and circumstances at that time?

From memory can’t say that there was an enormous change in my life at that point.  I was still young and I suppose that although there was of course sin in my life, it may not have been as noticeable as in an older person who has been caught up in serious outward sins.  I am sure that after that night, when I read my Bible and prayed each day it meant something more than before.  It wasn’t just a formality anymore that my parents wanted me to do, but was something that was real and important to me now.

What about later in your life? How did being a Christian affect things?

I suppose like many young Christians I found it difficult to be a Christian when I moved from a relatively small country primary school with some Christian teachers, to a large secondary school in the city.  I went to Wellington College in Belfast.  There was a strong pressure to blend in and not make yourself stand out from the crowd – especially not for something like being a Christian which would automatically lead to some people making fun of you.  So while I never got involved in anything too bad or actually denied Jesus, I do regret that I didn’t take a more open stand for him and not telling others about my faith.  However, never underestimate how much people observe your life and if your Christian faith is genuine it will shine through.  Especially when you are with those people every day in school.  People will see that you are different in a way that is good.  In my case, I think it might have been in third year when I realised this.  I was in some conversation with my friends, none of whom were Christians, and it emerged that they all knew that I was a Christian - even though this was something that I couldn’t remember directly talking to them about. It can be tempting to live two separate lives as a Christian.  One when you are at home or in Church and the other at school or out with your friends.  But not being ashamed of Jesus and taking your stand publicly for him is something that you will never regret.

Are there times when you have specifically known God guiding you and speaking to you?

One example that I can think of is a number of years ago when I read quite a number of Christian autobiographies – mainly of missionaries in the 1800’s.  I believe that God challenged me through the lives of these men and women.   Their sacrifices and the way they lived their lives fully for God and were willing to give up everything for him.  They left behind money, possessions, friends and family to serve him.  Their Christianity was not just a small part of their lives like an interest or a hobby – it was everything to them. More recently God has spoken to me through Jeremiah 32:17 “Ah Lord God! behold, thou hast made the heaven and the earth by thy great power and stretched out arm, and there is nothing too hard for thee”.  No matter how impossible a situation may seem, nothing is too difficult for God.

You've been involved in some Christian work over the last few years. Can you tell us something about that?

I started to help with CEF, that’s Child Evangelism Fellowship, during my summer holidays when I was 16 or 17.  I went to the summer missionary training week that they hold at the start of the July in Kilkeel and learnt how teach a memory verse, lead choruses, do a quiz and of course teach a bible lesson to children.  I was then able to put what I had learnt into practice by helping with CEF 5-day clubs around my local area.  So in that first summer I helped with children’s clubs in estates in Ballynahinch, Saintfield and Lisburn.  The next year I did the second part of the summer missionary training course in Donegal and helped with CEF 5-day clubs in the South of Ireland in places like Dublin, Cork and Limerick.  I learnt a lot by working with the people who led these clubs and in some cases had been reaching children in these areas with the gospel message for over 30 years.  It also increased my confidence to speak in public and to witness for God in public. In recent years I have had opportunities to travel a bit further and have been as part of a team to South Africa several times to help a missionary and local children’s worker with outreach to children there.  The experience I had in Ballynahinch and Saintfield was invaluable as we would be doing exactly the same kind of clubs and teaching the same message but just in a different country.  Last year I went as part of a team of five young people to Mongolia for four weeks.  There we visited different Christian outreach projects and did evangelism work with Mongolian teenagers.

Any particular advice you'd like to give us based on your own experiences with the Lord?

I was thinking about this question and the thing that came to my mind was something I heard a minister say once.  That you should not live your life with one foot in the world and the other in Christianity.  And that you will never be happy if you do that.  This is something that I think I often do.  I find myself looking to find my happiness in the things of the world and it’s easy to start to think that you are missing out by not living your life the way others do.  But I believe that is often because you are not fully committing yourself to Jesus, handing your whole life into his control and following him with your whole heart.  Instead you are trying to have what you see as the best of both worlds.  And that will only lead to unhappiness. Of course if you have never trusted Jesus as your own Saviour then my advice to you would be to come to him today and not to put it off any longer.  In II Corinthians 6:2 it says “behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation”.