Personal Stories: Ollie Head's story
I’ve Always Been A Believer, But Only Recently Have Come To Know God
I’ve Always Been A Believer, But Only Recently Have Come To Know GodI never seemed to fit in at school, because most of the people wanted to hang around in groups, smoking, vandalizing and causing trouble. I was not prepared to behave like this in order to fit in and was ostracised quite often.
It was in my last year of high school that it was worse. I was struggling to cope with all the work I had to do and nobody from school seemed to care – the staff virtually laughed at me. I started going downhill from there.
I was starting college after I left school, but it reminded me too much so I gave it up and decided to work instead. I passed my driving test and got a job at a car garage. I was conned into what I thought was an apprenticeship – all I ended up doing was scrubbing the toilet floors and painting and cleaning.
When I complained they promptly fired me. I didn’t have a job and wasn’t at college and didn’t really have any friends to socialise with. The friends from school I lost touch with. I then had a breakdown and severe depression and thought I had nothing to live for.
I was going to church at the time (Offington Park) with my mum and dad. The people were friendly, but I didn’t feel it was for me and I slowly lost interest and stopped going. I prayed every day for help and slowly, I started to get better.
I decided to go to college and got on an engineering course the following September. It was a struggle, but I managed to go and made a couple of friends. I still wasn’t attending church as I was angry with what had happened and it seemed like god didn’t care, but I knew he could help me.
I still continued to pray. It was then that Rob and Pam Blann told me about New Life. They explained all about it and I thought I’d give it a go. I hadn’t realised that there were people around my own age that are kind and that care and had the same values as me until I started going to Ignite (for youngsters).
I was a bit quiet and a bit scared at first, but I made a lot of good friends. I kept going to the services and kept praying to god. I went to a few services and asked god to connect with me. Then one day, in a service while singing I felt god’s presence – I was tingling all over and felt a massive warmth – I felt loved.
At that point, I knew god was there for me and I could rely on him. Each day got slowly better and I developed a relationship with god. Then, almost suddenly I felt much better and a weight was lifted from me. I was happy again. I had friends, a good college course, loving family and I was healed – god saved me.
I completed my college course last year and started a new one in IT this year. I am now the happiest I have ever been in my life. The only thing that saw me through was my faith that god was here and he could help and he did and I want to give the rest of my life to him. I will praise him each and every day and want to stay with him forever.
Ollie Head
