Twenty years ago two young mums on the Sandringham estate in Bredbury began praying for the other young mums on their estate. I was one of the young mums they prayed for. The following is an attempt to show how much my families’ lives have changed because of their prayers.

David and I were married at 22 and 19 respectively; we had our first daughter a week after our first wedding anniversary, and our second daughter was born 2 years later. We seemed to struggle financially from the start of our married life. In 1983 when our youngest daughter was 15 months old I committed my life to Jesus. I had always thought of myself as a Christian but through chatting to a couple of other young mums on the estate who went to the local church of St. Barnabas I realised my faith didn’t make any difference to my life and was just empty words.

I took time to investigate and question this Christian faith of my friends and decided basically I wanted what they had, a real and living faith, and a purpose to my life. In October 1983 I started again with Jesus. I was as the Bible describes it born again. My family thought it was a phase I was going through and that I would soon grow out of it, and my husband accepted it as long as it didn’t affect him.

Having made my decision things didn’t suddenly improve, financially we still struggled. In fact within 2 years Dave had lost his job and was signing on unemployed and the family business I was a partner in was in financial difficulties and up for sale. We couldn’t keep up with the mortgage payments, everything we owned was on HP and often I was in despair at where the next meal was going to come from. This is when I needed my faith. As I asked people at St Barnabas to pray for us or took these problems to God in prayer myself, things happened; food parcels would arrive, money would be given to us which always just covered the latest outstanding bill and top quality clothing for both the girls and Dave and I would be given to us. God even provided a holiday for us.

In 1986 Dave too decided to become a Christian, after seeing so many miracles and events happening to us which he no longer could put down to coincidences he came to the conclusion that God was real after all.

As a couple we now sought God’s guidance for our lives. We closed the family business down and managed to find a buyer for the property, started a new business, as Dave had not secured any new employment and moved into a shop property on Osborne St., for a while things seemed to go smoothly, at least on the financial front. Between 1990-1992 we suffered a number of personal tragedies. First Dave’s mum died of Cancer within 12 hours of being diagnosed, then my Grandmother died and within 2 years Dave’s father also died of Cancer. It was a period of very mixed emotions we were deeply saddened to lose Dave’s parents but the love and support during this time for our whole family from the members of St Barnabas sustained and strengthened us. We were surrounded by God’s love and compassion. Friends took care of the children whilst we visited hospitals, prayed for and with Dave’s parents, and us and helped out in many other practical ways.

In the midst of all this the business hit hard times financially, and we were running thousands of pounds into debt. Enough was enough I could not believe this was God’s plan for our lives, so I sought the Lord for an answer, I prayed, read Christian books and studied the bible for guidance. God showed me his will for us was to live debt free and have sufficient to give to help others in need. How was this to happen - we were to tithe our income each week, that is to give 10% of our gross income to God and we would always have sufficient for our needs and to be able to give to others. We felt we had to put our finances in order- first we were to pay all our creditors up to date this seemed absurd as it would increase our overdraft at the bank and leave us with nothing to pay the mortgage or personal bills again. In faith we stepped out. Our overdraft soared at first but then we started to see God take control of our finances. We were left inheritances, unexpected tax refunds came, we received several financial gifts, more food and clothing parcels, the more we gave away the more we seemed to get back. We prayed for a job for myself and God directed me to one through a Christian friend, the initial job was for 6 weeks, 9 years on I’m still working for the same company.

We prayed for a reliable car, as we seemed to go through cars like they were going out of fashion, they kept falling apart on us. Amazingly since we started praying for our cars they have lasted us years and only cost us normal wear and tear with no major repair bills.

Within 12 months of putting our finances in God’s hands we had cleared our overdraft and the only debt we had was our mortgage.

In 1998 we felt the business had run its course and it was time for Dave to move on. Again we were to see God’s hand on our lives in a very special way. Dave had always wanted a job in sales but so many of the jobs were based on high commission figures and didn’t pay a reasonable basic wage. With two teenage girls both wanting to go to university at some point it wasn’t an option I was particularly keen for Dave to take. Then one day one of our suppliers added a footnote to a circular they sent us, asking if anyone was interested in sales to contact their office. On following this up Dave was given an interview with the company. The package discussed at the interview was our ideal job no commission, but a fair salary, and a company car which at the time was a RAV 4 (the kind of car Dave had always wanted to drive, but which we couldn’t afford) amongst other things and following a second interview Dave was offered the position.

We had to decide whether to take it and if so when as we were still running the business and had several long established clients. We prayed and felt it right to close the business from the end of March (a six week period) the company was happy to wait for Dave and amazingly we managed to find a buyer for the business (client base not the property) within that period.
God was so good to us he even provided the money down to the exact pounds for Dave’s new work suits from a very unexpected source.

Four years on we have now sold the business property and through changes to the structure of Dave’s employment and through God’s guidance have moved from Bredbury to Stafford.

It was very hard to say goodbye to so many friends at St Barnabas who have lovingly supported and prayed for us and with us through so many things, more than mentioned here. We’ve always said at St Barnabas it’s the people who make the church and not the building, and this is no cliché it’s true. The love and fellowship of St Barnabas is unique and real, we thank everyone there for their love and support and we hope and pray that God will continue to bless the fellowship. We thank Kit for his teaching, encouragement and support, but most of all we thank Daryl and Helen for praying for us and starting our family on this journey of faith 20 years ago.

Love in Christ

Diane and Dave Woolridge
Shelley and Melanie.

Diane and Dave moved from our congregation in July, the whole congregation prayed with them that God would guide them and use them in their new home. We praise God for their contribution to our church life, please continue to pray for them as they settle in their new location.