My name is Joseph and I live in Stockport. As a child, I went to Sunday school in a church across the road from where I lived. I learnt about Jesus and the stories in the Bible, but I never knew God’s love.

I never thought much about heaven or hell until one day, the preacher talked about it. I was 17, and as I went home after the meeting, I knelt down in the living room and asked God to rescue me from this horrible place called hell. I went back the next Sunday and said the prayer again with the preacher and became a Christian.

Ever since then, I began to see life differently. It is like the song that goes, “Once you’re saved the grass is a deeper green, the flowers are a deeper hue.” I learnt to love other people and to see things I hadn’t seen before. As a young lad, I often looked at the stars and thought how wonderful God must be.

When I became a Christian, things weren’t always easy but God was always with me. I was called into the armed forces at 18 to Northern Ireland and Germany in 1946. At the time, there weren’t many Christians in the armed forces but I did find a few and we always prayed together.

God kept me through the war, and when I came back in 1948 I experienced God’s physical touch in my life. It happened at a church conference when a preacher put his hands on my head. I was immediately speaking in tongues and felt God’s joy bursting in my heart.

It was in that conference that I met my wife. We now have three wonderful daughters and many grandchildren. God is so good because they are all Christians now and have a relationship with God as my wife and I do.

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