A funny thing happened at ‘An Evening with J.John and Friends’ in Luton. I was reunited face to face with the man who led me to the Lord. I finished the evening not only listening and thanking God for all that has transpired over 30 years of fruitful service, but also sharing my testimony of how, in February 1985, I was confronted by the claims of the gospel and responded to Jesus as Lord and Saviour.
Let me explain by going back to that evening in 1985. If I had kept a diary then it would have read rather like this:
Monday Feb 4th: Been asked to confront some Christian guy this evening for daring to mention the name of Jesus in a sociology seminar. Got home late, very drunk and frustrated that, despite breaking into his home, I was prevented from doing something nasty to him!
Tuesday Feb 5th: Put the failure of last night behind me, on duty tonight at the student bar and some Christian Group has asked to do a drama sketch there. What a surprising evening! Rather than heckling, I was transfixed by the message of love that came over loud and clear. I even got talking to a girl about some guy called St Paul, how God had stopped him in his tracks and that God was going to do the same to me tomorrow!
Wednesday 6th: Earlier this evening this bloke came into my kitchen, whom I mistook for a policeman wanting to find me for the events of Monday night, only to learn he was a Minister of Religion. He invited me to some meeting in the University. I went, to my own surprise, loved it and, to make it even more bizarre, I heard some funny-speaking Greek guy called J.John talk about Jesus. When I heard him say that Jesus was weeping for me, I realised I was all washed up and that I needed to respond to Jesus confess my sins and give my life to him.
If I had kept a daily diary, life would have gone on in a similar vein until today, so let me summarise twenty-four years of my own history with God, and draw parallels with the heart for ministry J.John has passionately followed since before I was 'born again' under his ministry.
In the Summer of 1986, having thrown myself into evangelism in every way, I heard God's call to go further and deeper and that, just like Abraham, I was to “leave my land and my father and mother and go to a land that I will show you”. By the Autumn of 1986 I was on a two-year training programme with Operation Mobilisation in Pakistan. Over the next two years I was on the streets almost every day sharing the gospel, distributing Scriptures and showing a film about Jesus most evenings.
I returned to the UK in 1988 to work mobilising students for mission and ministry, before hearing God’s call to ask the local hospital for a job! I wrote to them, they placed me in the Haematology Department and I trained to be a biomedical scientist.
By 1991 the call to return to Pakistan was refreshed and things began to make sense. I was recruited to be part of a small team to establish an eye hospital in the town of Gilgit, North Pakistan.
Over the next 12 years so much happened in a roller coaster of ministry, opportunity, struggles and battling to see the church of Jesus Christ birthed in this location. I met my wife, Marie, in 1994 in Pakistan and we were married in 1995. Our first three children were born in this amazingly open country, before we returned to the UK to have our fourth child and to full-time ministry as church leaders in the small town of Rushden, Northamptonshire, where we live today.
As we left Pakistan we pressed through to see the birth of the first functioning church in Gilgit for over 1,000 years - a work that the local community has now gone on to develop to a community of over 200 people marked out for evangelism and totally committed to the spread of the gospel throughout the world. They now run a whole host of ministries, all to see Jesus Christ proclaimed to the unreached people of North Pakistan. That total commitment to Christ that J.John planted in me has been transplanted to the other side of the world and continues to grow, expand and bear fruit.
In the meeting in Luton, J.John shared how, following his conversion to Christ, his attitude and vision for people was totally transformed, as he testified how God led him to see and minister to all peoples, especially those in greatest need. This has been my testimony too, now as a minister in a local church in a radical way, following the model that J.John has been showing now for over 30 years.
As I sit here typing this summary and giving glory to God, I once again want to express my deepest thanks to J.John and all those who have discipled me along the road with Christ. I trust that J.John can echo my words, “Like Father, Like Son”, as he reads this testimony and that, as we all wait the return of Jesus, the Father in Heaven calls to each one of us, “You are my son”.
Revd Mark Lees
East Northants Faith Group
www.enfg.org.uk
