Faith Stories with Naomi Reed

It’s been a wonderful four years, for me, gathering 300 Faith Stories for Eternity News. Thank you for travelling along with me and listening to each person as they described their journey to faith in the Lord Jesus. I continue to be amazed, daily, by the way that God works, in every place, drawing us to himself, […]

“2008 was my first Christmas as a mother. Sophie, my eldest, was a newborn and I was so thankful. I didn’t care how many times I got up through the night; it didn’t matter how loud she cried, cuddling her was such a privilege. She was the best Christmas present I could have asked for, […]

“Thank you to all those who’ve been reading faith stories with me this year! It’s been an absolute privilege spending time in that sacred place – listening to people share from their pain and struggle, their questions and weariness, and then hearing their profound descriptions of the way God has held and restored them in […]

“From childhood I was raised to believe in Jesus. I still recall my Sunday school teacher giving us small cards with a text from scripture. They were kept in a tiny tin to bring out and practice. I was a devoted lover of Jesus. In my teen years, I sang on Christian radio and at […]

“I grew up in a secular home in suburban Australia, where religion was categorically rejected; it was seen as a crutch, and people of faith were derided as morally deviant hypocrites. I remember, as a teenager, writing poetry mocking belief in God. My mother threw enough profanity at religious door knockers to make even a […]

“I’m part of a ‘missionary’ family, and God has provided for us remarkably. But I’ve always been aware that death can happen. My parents went to India in 1949, taking me with them as a ten-week-old baby. They served in Belgaum, and after five years, they moved south to Bangalore. After two years there, it […]

“I grew up in an orthodox Christian household. It meant that I always believed that God was there, and I learnt to pray from a very young age. But the liturgy was conducted in Arabic, and I never learnt Arabic, so I wasn’t really hearing the message. Then my family went through struggles at home, […]

“I was born in the Philippines, the fourth of nine children. My auntie encouraged us to go to church, but I found that at church there was a lot of rituals and worship of saints. At that time I had no real understanding, and I hadn’t read the Bible. After school I went to Manila […]

“I was raised in a pastor’s home. When I entered my teens, I began to rebel against going to church. I didn’t reject God, but I rejected the church. I was committed to discovering truth for myself, and it left me with a fairly cold heart towards church right through my teens, until I was […]

“I grew up in a Hindu Brahmin family. Brahmins are the highest Hindu caste. We moved to Australia when I was seven years old. My family were high achieving and academic. Being Brahmin, we were suspicious of Christianity. My parents would tell me that Christians were bad for India because they were trying to upset […]

“I’m not a planner. When people tell me I must plan, it rankles me. I’ve had people say, “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.” That really aggravates me! I was brought up in a Christian family, so I heard all the Bible stories. But it wasn’t till my teens that it all […]

“Christian values were embedded in our family culture – going to church, praying, hospitality and generosity to family and strangers alike. I remember praying with my sister to accept Jesus as Lord and Saviour, when I was just six years old. Having that kind of background was an absolute privilege and a blessing. But it […]

“My mother died the day I was born, in a little bush hospital in western Victoria. As a result, my older brother and I went to live with my paternal grandparents, who brought us up to be ‘respectable.’ We never attended church, but we heard stories about Jesus from an old picture bible that my […]

“I was raised by a single parent – my mum. She did her best, but my childhood was pretty unstable and at times unsafe. We moved around a lot. I think my impression as a kid was that the whole world seemed unstable. At five years old, I remember I went to a Scripture class […]

“My first four years we lived in the Torres Strait. My dad was translating the Western Torres Strait Islander language into written form. Living conditions were basic; drop toilets, no stores. But we had a community that loved us and embraced us into their culture. Then we moved to the mainland for schooling. My parents […]

“I was raised in a faith-based home. As a young person I had a knowledge of God, but I didn’t have a heart relationship with Jesus. Then, at age sixteen, I developed bone cancer in my left leg. The only way to treat it was to amputate my leg five inches above the knee. I […]