Faith Stories with Naomi Reed

“In Tonga, 99 per cent of the people go to church and have a Christian faith. My family was like that. We always went to church.” “In 1960, my grandfather gave the land for the church, right next door to our own house. He gave it for free. He wanted his children and grandchildren and […]

“I’ve had severe, chronic pain for the last 13 years. It’s caused by a combination of health conditions and it affects my whole body. It’s relentless … and impossible to escape – every day and every night the pain is there.” “Sometimes I can’t leave the house, or even leave my bed. I can’t even […]

“For most of my life I was adamant that I would never have anything to do with Christians, or the church.” “My parents were atheists and they didn’t like Christians. They said that church was rubbish and a money-making thing. In our house, it was almost like my father was the god. He had to […]

“I live in Florence, Italy. In 1989, I was doing my final exams at high school. I didn’t know anything about Jesus, back then. But on the last day of my high school exams, I took the bus home from school and it was a really hot day. So I decided to get off the […]

“One day, my husband said to me, ‘I think we’re being called to serve in the Muslim world.’ It was completely out of the blue for me.” “I said, ‘I haven’t had that same revelation.’ I needed to think and pray. We had three small children and we were living ‘the dream’ – renovating our […]

“About 15 years ago, a friend invited me to join a Bible study. I said, ‘No, thanks, that sounds pretty boring. If I was going to read the Bible, I would read the Bible by myself.’ Back then, I wasn’t regularly going to church or reading the Bible. My wife went to church, but I […]

“I was the eldest of five children, and we grew up on a dairy farm. My parents didn’t go to church, but they were happy for us to go along to Sunday school, with a neighbour. I loved it. I loved the Bible stories and I learned the Bible verses … but I don’t think […]

“I can’t pin point a time when I became a Christian. I think I just grew into it. I was born into a dysfunctional family. Dad was an apiarist who later became an alcoholic, and my mother worked two jobs to keep us going. I heard of Jesus mainly as a swear word.” “I had […]

“My sister and I both grew up with a belief in God. We went to church. We believed in Jesus. And from when we were both young, we would talk about prayer. What is prayer? How can we understand it? How does God work through our prayers?” “I remember reading the words of Jesus and […]

“I came from a Hindu family, so after I accepted Christ, I was rejected from my family and my village. Because of that, I couldn’t study… and for a time, I had no work.” “I often wanted to know why. If I had sought God’s will for my life, and if I had responded to […]

“I grew up in Phillip Creek [Northern Territory], in an Aboriginal settlement run by the government. I used to drink milk from the goats and eat bush tucker. And my father, he drove the truck. His country was out west – Jipiranpa, out Willowra way. I went to preschool and Grade One there. But there […]

“When our second son was 15 months old, he started getting bruises. I should have known what it was. With my medical background, I probably did know, but I didn’t want to admit it. He went for tests and the doctor said that he had acute lymphoblastic leukaemia. I was in a state of shock. […]

“My parents never sent me to school. They sent my two brothers, but they didn’t send me. I had to stay at home and looked after the animals; we had two buffalo, two cows and 10 goats. So I never learned to read or write. And then, when I was 10 years old, my mother […]

“I have Parkinson’s Disease now. I can’t walk anymore and I’m mostly in my bed. I can’t leave this room, or go to church, or visit people. It’s a change for me.” “I spent my whole adult life sharing the Gospel. Back then, I walked through 72 districts in Nepal, preaching the Gospel. We had […]

“In 2005, I was working as a freelance sound engineer, but I didn’t have a lot of work, so I was wondering what to do. A mate, Rick, in the US had been doing short-term mission trips to South America, helping the local communities, and he asked me to come. He said they needed someone […]

“I was the eldest of five children, and we lived hand-to-mouth, in government housing. I remember being sent to beg for firewood. And my father could be violent when he was drinking. But I loved school. And in 1955, when I was in year 8 at high school, we had Scripture classes on Tuesday mornings. […]