Power stations are familiar places to Bob. The Thanet great-grandad spent years helping to generate electricity in Belvedere, Littlebrook and Richborough. He also worked in the construction industry as a plant driver.
Looking back to his early working days, Bob describes how he could be a ‘very argumentative person. I’d argue my point. I didn’t worry too much about the consequences. Shift work didn’t help!’
Bob was not raised in a Christian atmosphere. In 1966 he joined 95,000 at Wembley to hear Billy Graham but recalls ‘it didn’t leave an imprint on me.’
Raising his family of two girls and boy, along with wife Yvonne, Bob had little time for God. It was not until he was around forty that great family sadness made him begin to think more deeply about life.
Bob was told the sad news that his brother’s wife had cancer and that her time was short. ‘Her death was a big shock as it was the first major death in the family. She left two children behind.’ Bob started thinking about the meaning of life and attending a spiritualist church.
But, despite trying three different spiritualist churches, the teaching made Bob uneasy. ‘I was told something about Jesus that made be think I knew nothing about the Bible. But I knew what was said was wrong and I decided to leave.’
A week later Bob got chatting to his Christian neighbour, who invited him along to a meeting for Bible Study in someone’s home. Soon he was invited to church and started to attend.
Bob recalls ‘This was the first time I’d heard the gospel since 1966. I realised I was a sinner, I’d broken God’s laws and needed forgiveness. This was the start of a journey.’
Having heard that Jesus died in his place, to pay the punishment for his sins, Bob prayed and asked Jesus to forgive him. He found that God did not just forgive him; he also began to change him.
‘One of the first things that changed was that I stopped swearing at work. Some people thought I’d gone a bit weird and I would get teased at work.’
Bob’s attitude at work was transformed. Looking back, Bob says ‘I wouldn’t have employed myself! I was a bit mouthy and it kept me back from promotion. When I was sent on courses I would be mucking about.’
‘When I became a Christian I started to look at life more seriously. I surprised myself and started passing NVQ exams. I even got a letter of recommendation from the station manager!’
Bob sees this as a process: ‘I’m not perfect. I still have to say sorry when I get things wrong.’
Bob’s conversion also affected his retirement, as he explains. ‘A few year’s ago, a neighbour had a stroke. I used to go and visit. I thought “this is something I’d like to do when I retire.”’
When he retired, after an interview and a training course, Bob became a volunteer hospital chaplain. He goes in to QEQM twice a week to listen and chat. ‘It’s really sad that some people have no visitors’, he explains.
Sometimes patients ask him to pray for them. Sometimes he reads the Bible and has ‘the opportunity to speak about the good news of Jesus.’ When asked, he often leaves a Bible so that they can the read good news too.
Bob is clear: Jesus’ forgiveness and power within changed him and will change anyone who seeks Jesus.
