Until recently, Patrick was the Irish national service manager for a well known international company. He grew up in Finglas, and now lives in Blanchardstown with his wife (he has three grown up children). In 1991, Patrick was getting on with life much the same as everybody else, never thinking much about eternal matters. Everything changed as a result of a leaflet that came through his letterbox.
He relates his story … “At that time, I was entertaining Mormons who had knocked on my door, but the leaflet highlighted certain facts about the Mormon church that they had not told me. This leaflet gave me an opportunity to investigate them as well as many other (false) teachings that were out there.
I contacted the publishers of the leaflet – Blanchardstown Baptist church, and borrowed a video on the Mormons. As a result of viewing the video, I realised how little I knew about spiritual matters. I went to the library to do further research to make sure the video was correct. As a result, I then terminated my contact with the Mormons.
After a period of reflection, I asked myself – “how much did I unthinkingly accept from the religion that I was brought up with (Roman Catholic)?” I decided to go to the library again to research the various world religions but found that these did not satisfy me. After that I turned my attention to the teachings of the Baptist Church but remained wary.
One of the main things that attracted me was that they took the Bible as their sole authority. I felt inside myself that the Bible was a special book, and that anybody who took it as their sole authority cannot be wrong. I was put off the Jehovah’s Witnesses because of their many failed predictions – how could one trust an organisation which has been so wrong?
At this stage, I started attending a weekly Bible study group and continued for a whole year though somewhat sceptical. At this study, we were free to ask any questions we wished to satisfy our quest for answers. Finally, things gelled. A particular statement of Jesus Christ in the Bible challenged me – “you must be born again” – John chapter 3, verse 7.
What got me about this, was that it was repeated several times by the Lord. This showed me how important a matter it was. I needed to be born again through faith in Christ as my personal Saviour, like the Bible said. A struggle took place within, but I gave up my resistance on 16th December 1991, and asked the Lord to save me. He did just that and since then I have learned much more about the thrilling message of the Bible.
Patrick is now actively involved in serving the Lord in Blanchardstown Baptist Church, and is particularly keen to tell others about the wonderful gift of God – eternal life.
