The Open-Air Mission
‘Holding forth the word of life...’
(Philippians 2:16)
(Philippians 2:16)
‘Holding fast the faithful word...’
(Titus 1:9)
(Titus 1:9)
© The Open-Air Mission 2007
My Testimony
As a fun-loving teenager, I would never have dreamt that I would have become an alcoholic in my twenties, but, become one I did. Leaving school at seventeen, I started work on a Bournemouth newspaper. Alongside this I worked in various bands as a musician. Between these two career paths, I drifted into a pattern of increasingly heavy drinking. In one of the bands in which I played, I fell for the lovely girl singer. We settled down and in time a family came along. However it was the ‘settling down’ that I struggled with and refused to do. I again gravitated towards heavy drinkers in both the newspaper and the music worlds, and became increasingly selfish and reckless.
Things took a turn for the worse when my wife and I went separate ways musically she singing in the resident band in the Bournemouth Pavilion, whilst I worked as a freelance playing various theatres, clubs, functions, QE2 cruises etc. Over the years I spiralled downwards into alcoholism, becoming a ‘pain’ to family, friends and all who knew me. However, the witness of a young Christian man brought me to my knees - literally. I surrendered my life to Christ (in a toilet) and went home rejoicing, a new creation in Christ. Three months later, my long-suffering wife herself came to experience the joy of knowing Jesus Christ. From that wonderful day, it has been my deepest desire that all who walk this earth should know Him!
Mike Mellor