My guest for this episode is someone who knows all about shame, addiction, and desperation.
Cat grew up in a stable and loving family in Norfolk, England, but at the age of 16 she started to get into alcohol and drugs, and her life spiraled out of control.
What followed was a decade of addiction, pain, and torment which only began to end when, as a person of no faith she wandered into church and met with the infinite compassion of Jesus.
Since then, there have still been difficulties and hardships in her life, but even in times of doubt and questioning Cat found herself called by God to a ministry to set others free from the pain she had felt. That calling had led her to the ministry she is involved in today with the Naked Truth Project, a ministry to those struggling with pornography addiction, and their partners.
This is her story.
Hello and welcome to episode 27 of the Testimony Podcast. We praise God for those times in life when we can feel hope and joy, when we see God’s blessing in our lives, and when we rightly exercise the discipline of celebration. God is good and loves us. But sometimes the circumstances in our lives mean that it’s hard for us to be joyful, it’s difficult for us to be hopeful, and we find ourselves feeling angry, confused, and disappointed with God. Expressing these feelings to our brothers and sisters in the church can be difficult, many people won’t know how to respond to us, even if they know the circumstances that might have driven us to this point. Those we love might fall back on unconvincing and even unbiblical phrases like “God works all things for our good”, “we should be joyful all the time”, or “count your blessings and the negative feelings will go away”. There are times when talking to others can be an encouragement, especially wise people who have themselves suffered, but often we can feel frustrated and isolated, that no one understands our particular circumstances and needs. It is with all these things in mind that I want to share the next two episodes of the podcast with you. These next two episodes are two halves of a conversation I had with Sara Hall. Sara is a wife, a mum, a blogger and counselor and author of “Tasting Dirt – When you’re disappointed with God”. I have to tell you, this is one of the most important conversations I’ve had with anyone for the podcast, and I think there is real value and wisdom in what Sara has ...
My guest for this episode is the writer, publisher, and literary agent, Tony Collins. Tony has spent nearly fifty years working in the world of Christian publishing in the UK. He has worked for Hodder & Stoughton, Kingsway, Monarch, Lion Hudson, and SPCK. Over the course of his career, he has published at least 1400 books and owned three magazines. He is the recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Association of Christian Writers. In this episode, we talk about Tony’s encounters with the spiritual experience of God, and what it is like to encounter God in places where the culture and theology are very different from the one that we are used to. We discuss how these encounters challenge our beliefs and what they say about the longing within us to be in the presence of God. We also talk about Tony’s deep conviction for the care and stewardship of the Earth, and we discuss how we can both long for the spiritual home that is to come and also see the holiness in God’s creation here and now. This is Tony’s story. ...
My guest for this episode is someone who has an abiding memory of what it is to be a refugee. At the age of 16 he had to flee from Kenya and ended up as one of a family of fifteen living in a little corner shop in Shepherd’s Bush in London in 1967. He was brought up in a Hindu family, but was also influenced by the Sikh faith, and he spent a number of years at a Muslim school. But when he was a student at Imperial College in London he encountered some followers of Jesus, and this had a profound influence on his life. Today he can look back on a distinguished career in business and civic life, and he has plenty of stories to tell from it. My guest today is the author, entrepreneur, and former refugee Ram Gidoomal, a man who knows what it is to start with nothing and still build a successful career, and still have time to serve on the boards of a number of public and charitable organisations, and then be awarded a CBE in recognition of that service. This is his story. ...
