Ian Q.

In 1963, when I was 15, my parents died. My brother and I slept under bridges and lived on the streets, getting by as best we could.

At 18, I was already drinking at 7am, often instead of food. I just couldn’t go without a drink. I would frequently drink all night and go to work in the morning drunk.

After I was married, my wife left me three times because of my aggression while drinking. I promised I would stop drinking if she came home. I tried, but I couldn’t stop. I drank even more heavily, I would rather have a drink than anything else in the world. Nothing mattered but another drink.

After my wife left me for the third time, I realised that the problem was me.

I used to pray... “Lord, send me someone who can show me what I

had to do to be right with God and to give away alcohol”.

I hated myself for what I had become.I stole the family housekeeping money to buy wine, often drinking two wine casks after the beer ran out. Our house had been repossessed, I couldn’t hold down a job, we were evicted for not paying rent and we had cars repossessed.

A friend got me a job where a workmate told me that God was my only answer. He prayed with me and I received the Holy Spirit, speaking in tongues. In that instant, I knew that I would never drink again. That was in 1980.

Both my wife and I were baptised as a result of this — our marriage was miraculously restored.

Our life of misery and hopelessness was turned around by a God who answers prayer.

Linda Q

My husband Ian was an alcoholic. His aggression destroyed any self confidence that I had and I was never able to trust him.

He became very possessive and threatened me physically if I left him. I sometimes saw him cry and cry — hating himself for what he had become. I was trapped with two young children, where could I go? Through it all, I still loved him. The children were afraid of him and would avoid him.

We were constantly being evicted — unable to pay the rent, we seldom had electricity and never had a phone.

The churches we approached told me that “It was the cross I had to bear.”

I was sceptical when Ian was baptised. I had been let down so often before, I was expecting this might last only a week or so like every other time he tried to stop drinking. The morning that Ian received the Holy Spirit, both of our young children hugged him — such a change in his manner was apparent. He has never had another drink.

The Lord healed our marriage, gave our children a father and restored my trust.

The miracle that was only ever a dream.

I began drinking socially for relaxation. Over time I drank more and more and eventually didn’t care about socialising, just drinking.

Nick-named “the drunk”, I thought, “If I don’t drink, what else would I do.” So I drank. Why shouldn’t I?

I knew that I drank a lot, but never considered myself an alcoholic. Until I tried to stop.

I began suffering intense withdrawals. I was sick, unable to keep down food or fluids, any noise became extremely painful and I started to get jumpy at objects appearing in my vicinity. I couldn’t walk unaided, having lost my sense of balance.

The pain was intense — I imagined what it must be like for someone with D.T.’s.

I only lasted two weeks and I started drinking again, just as heavily as ever. Apart from rent and subsistence, all my money went on beer. Breakfast was now 2 or 3 cans of beer to stop my hands shaking. I
carried a mouthwash to cover my lunchtime drinking. My life had been taken over by my craving for alcohol.

A workmate told me that if I was prepared to be baptised by full immersion in water, as it was done in the Bible, then God would prove himself to me. Nobody had ever told me about a God who was proveable.

I prayed and received the Holy Spirit, speaking in tongues. Immediately, I felt a calmness that I had never experienced before.

I never had another drop of alcohol. The desire for alcohol left me completely, no withdrawal pains, not even a headache.