Faith Stories with Naomi Reed

“My favourite verse is in John 14:27. I tell it to myself every time I feel troubled. There are lots of troubles in life! Jesus said, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do […]

“Both my grandparents on my father’s side were Jewish survivors of the Holocaust, and two thirds of my extended family died in concentration camps … so I always wanted to know why God allowed it. Did he look away? Did he not care about the Jews? Six million of them died!” “I decided that God […]

“As a teenager, I was often crippled with anxiety over exams. It was like I was cutting through a piece of timber with a bad saw … and the teeth of the saw were always getting dangerously close to the wrong side of the pencil line. I never felt like I could achieve what I […]

“There were times, as an architect, when the combination of my workaholic tendencies and worrying about big projects nearly crushed me. I was buried in it.” “We occasionally had contractual disputes over a project … and I knew that I was being driven by fear – fear that I wasn’t doing a good enough job, […]

“2019 was a challenging year! My marriage broke down and work was stressful. I was ill for two months and then my father passed away. By October, I was really looking forward to a break. I planned to reconnect with old school friends and go hiking in the Blue Mountains (New South Wales). I love […]

“I feel like a poor man, scratching for crumbs. But there are plenty of crumbs.” “At the moment, my wife is in Blacktown Hospital, having an operation to plug the hole in her heart. Three months ago, we were holidaying in Perth and she had a stroke. We’d been planning the holiday for ages, traveling […]

“I’ve found a new app. It’s an audio Bible, using women’s voices. It’s called ‘Courage for Life.’ I was listening to it this week and I was up to John 14 – ‘My Father’s house has many rooms… And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you […]

“I worked as an investment advisor for 27 years, to large pools of capital – hundreds of millions of dollars. We were dealing in billions. And I always wanted to do a good job, to help the recipients. If I did a bad job with the money, there were serious consequences for lots of people.” […]

“I was the pastoral care worker at our previous church, so my job was to visit people, especially people having a really hard time.” “One day, I went to see a beautiful, elderly woman. She had cancer and she was in her last days, at the hospice. I had seen her many times before, and […]

“I’ve always been a shy person. I find speaking difficult. And I never wanted to visit a prison. I was always fearful of the inmates. I didn’t know what I’d say to them, if I went there. So I avoided anything that might cause me to end up in a prison – or visiting one!” […]

“My mother was a Methodist. If ever I was having a problem as a child, she would say to me, ‘We have to talk to Jesus about that.’ I went to Sunday school and I was confirmed at age 14. But I was always a questioning person. I remember being told as a teenager, that […]

“I work as a dentist for the NHS in South London. It can be stressful at times. The patient orientated parts of the job are great, and I normally enjoy the clinical work, but my role is mixed. I also manage a team of about 40 people, and that can be difficult, especially now, in […]

“I was hoping to go straight home after the birth … but instead he was taken to the NICU. I was able to go up and feed him, but he was attached to tubes, and on IV antibiotics, and his oxygen was dipping. It was very stressful. On day five, they did more tests to […]

“I’m an ex-copper. I was in the police force for 20 years and then I sustained an on-duty injury, which meant I couldn’t carry out duties. So I started a bus company from scratch. We called it Cumberland Coach Lines. At the beginning of 2003, we bought one vehicle and we did one job, for […]

“I was born with congenital blindness. My sister was also born blind, four years later. Our older brother was born sighted, but he passed away when he was six. He was hit by a car. It was incredibly hard for our whole family. We have all grieved.” “My parents took me to Sunday school but […]

“I lost my dad a few years ago. I miss him. He spent a lot of his life making things in his shed, and restoring old cars. When I was young, I used to go down to the shed every day and spend time with him. He taught me how to use his tools and […]