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Atheist or Agnostic
"The Lord Moves In Mysterious Ways"
By Carl Storm
It was over ten years ago, and when I measure my
life now to what it was then, they are light years apart.
I was living in South Shields in the North East of
England then, a very lost character! No real faith, no real any
thing! A looser! And guess what my hobby was, brewing beer!
I used to make beer from the raw materials, I had
my own still/boiler and I used to import some of the ingredients
from abroad. It was such a big joke at the time in the Church when I
have became a convert.
Yes, the Lord certainly moves in mysterious ways!
And yes I was connoisseur of coffee, grinding mixing the beans, the
heavy stuff and I smoked.
Interesting thing, when I gave much of that stuff
up the arthritis that was crippling me disappeared considerably. If
I was a woman I probably would have notices this more; my skin
became clearer and ever thing in the man department started to work
a lot better. I felt stronger, slept better and had a sharper mind.
It was mid morning and I had just walked along the
beach and was making my way through a park area. It was what I used
to do in those days to walk off my hang-over from the previous
night.
There were these two guys dressed in suites and my
dog jumped up all over them. I was so embarrassed because my dog was
covered in mud and sand. They turn out to be to missionaries from
the states.
I got to know them quite well and through them was
introduced to the Church, where I was called to teach drama for a
while in the ward of South Shields, well was this a spring board.
I am now a fully qualified teacher now and for the
past five years, out of choice, I have worked in some of the
toughest schools in London (October 2001-July 2006). I have worked
with children whose behavior and socioeconomic backgrounds have, on
many occasions, been appalling.
Although being dyslexic I have managed to inspire
young adults to achieve fantastic results in Science and a range of
humanities, including Geography. During this period I created a
substantial musical ethos at a tough boys’ school by setting up and
running a blues club five days a week.
This sounds great but I have been assaulted on
five occasions over these years of teaching. There were times when
the darkness was absolute but I gave it up to the Lord and somehow I
saw it through and never gave up on these kids even when they had
given up on themselves.
I am currently working in a special unit where
children go after they have been kicked out of school.
The bishop of the ward of South Shields at the
time once said to me, the Church is not a place for perfect people
it is a hospital for sinners.
I think the church at the time saved my life
because I was on a road to rack and ruin. There are some lovely
people in the church and I would say to anybody at least give a go.
On the last page of my Novel I have quoted 1 CORINTHIANS 13 –Love,
because that’s what Mormons Christians are all about.
God bless you all!
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