True Stories
Nathan’s story
Have you ever been looking for a new job, or house, and walked in through the door to be met by that assured feeling of this is the one, perfect? That’s how it was for me coming to Oasis City Church in 2004, like a home coming.
Having moved down to London to meet new musicians and further my chances in the music business, I was prompted to call an old friend of my brothers’, James, to see if he could further my opportunities. All I can remember from the conversation was his insistence that I come along to ‘this awesome church.’ I’ve never looked back!
Oasis City Church is definitely the church today for the people of tomorrow. If ever a generation needed guts, heart, leadership, friendship, character, it’s this one. Oasis City Church has been the catalyst in my life for all these things. The sense of family and belonging is hard to describe, but I know that the encouragement and love that I share in this church is a solid foundation for whatever my future holds. Vision for the future is exactly what I’ve found here. Such a sense of purpose and direction.
There are so many things for me to get involved in, from music to football, youth work to missions abroad. I’m more fulfilled than ever, and I’mjust hungry for more. There are so many reasons these days to avoid church. But if God created us and knows everything about us, then His church should be the most real, relevant and exciting place to go in any city. A place for every diversity of person. Oasis City Church is the closest thing I know to this. I invite you to walk through our doors just once, and see what it could mean to you.
Linda’s story
As a woman I was desperate to be loved and appreciated. A desire for this took me into a string of destructive relationships with men. Each relationship I entered into became more and more unsatisfying, leaving me with no respect for myself or men.
Six years ago visiting a dear friend, I was introduced to a young lady who introduced me to Jesus. She spent a whole year preaching the gospel to me until I decided to go to church. The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation, old things have passed away, behold all things have become new!”. I can honestly say that this scripture has become real to me.
My life has completely turned around. I know now that everything I need is in Christ. God is now restoring in my life all the things that the devil has stolen from me: Joy, Peace, Womanhood… I cannot imagine my life without my Wonderful Jesus, because of Him I have a brand new life in Jesus!
Ben’s story
As an unbeliever I thought I was a pretty good person. I was married to a lovely lady whom I met at university. I had a secure job as a school teacher and owned my own home. I became the British and world natural bodybuilding champion and achieved professional status in the sport. However even with all this I felt depressed in my heart, I would wake up each morning wanting to stay in bed and not face the world. I hated the state of the world and felt powerless to change the way things were. I wanted to know my true purpose, I knew there was a yearning in my heart to know where I came from and to know where I was headed.
My younger brother had been a Christian for several years and invited me to his local church on a number of occasions. Each time I made an excuse not to go. I had debated with him about religion and thought because I was a ‘good’ person I would go to heaven. I also thought that different religions were different pathways to heaven and God.
One evening my brother called and my wife answered the phone, during the conversation he invited us to his church. After the call my wife asked me if we could go to his church - O.C.C. and I agreed to go. When we got there, we were both warmly welcomed; it was like another world, everyone was so genuinely loving and caring. We both accepted Jesus Christ as our Lord and personal saviour that day.
Since becoming a Christian and attending O.C.C. my life has changed radically. The depressed feeling I had went and I have a greater sense of purpose. ‘He who is not content with what he has will not be content with what he wants.’ Basically true contentment for me came when I received Jesus into my life. Even though I had a beautiful wife, nice car and good job (not to mention I was the British Natural Bodybuilding champion) I was still not content. I believe that there is a God shaped hole in our hearts that can only be filled by God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. In the bible, 1 Timothy 6:6, tells us that Godliness with contentment is great gain. I believe that true contentment comes only with having a relationship with the Living God.
O.C.C. is a true church family. The teaching at O.C.C. has helped me to develop my relationship with God, I am beginning to understand what true love is. Before becoming a Christian I lusted my wife, I now love her. No one can know true love if you do not know God. 1 John 4:8, tells us that God is Love. God loves everyone and wants to have a relationship with everyone which is why He gave His only begotten son to die on a cross for us all - John 3:16. I thought all religions were a pathway to God, I now know in my heart that Jesus is the only way we can get to God and heaven - John 14:6.
James’ story
I was brought up in a Christian home, and was taken to Sunday school from a young age, but I could never understand what made the adults ‘endure’ a Sunday morning church service when there were so many other more fun things to be doing. As soon as I was old enough I stopped going…
Although I always believed in God, it wasn’t until I was 17 when I heard about the power of the Holy Spirit and the fact that you could have a personal relationship with Jesus, and that He is still performing miracles today. When I realised that EVERYTHING changed. I now have a peace that I know that God is in control of my life and a joy of living with Him everyday. I have witnessed and experienced many miracles since which I cannot explain with science. There are still ups and downs but I am no longer living for myself but Him.
I joined O.C.C. in 2001, and was amazed at the Pastor’s anointing to Preach. I am challenged week after week, and I wouldn’t change that for the world. God has done so much in my life since being a part of this ministry, and I am excited about what is ahead!
Claire’s story
I was taken along to Sunday school from a young age, but when I was given the opportunity to choose for myself I saw it all as boring and irrelevant. I still believed in God and liked to call myself a ‘Christian’, however my life didn’t reflect this and it was definitely a life of compromise. I chose to believe the parts of the Bible that I liked, and ignored the parts that challenged me! I used to defend the Christian faith, and people used to call me a hypocrite because I said one thing and did another - how right they were!
At 18 I left home for University and I found myself drifting further and further away from God. It was only when I came up against some frightening situations that I found myself searching for more to life. With an emptiness and loneliness that I was denying I gradually began to talk to God again, but I had a stubborn heart and refused to change my lifestyle and surrender to God. I thought He was a kill-joy and was angry with me so why would I want to follow an angry God?!
After 3 years I moved to London and a close friend invited me to go to Church. I kept making excuses until one day she asked me if I was frightened to go because it would mean changing my lifestyle and making some big decisions that I wasn’t willing to face! It was like a knife was pushed through my heart as that was exactly my situation! The next week I agreed to go to a cell group - a small group of people from the Church meeting in someone’s home during the week. (The leader of this group later became my husband!) As soon as I walked through the door I felt the love of Jesus, not the angry God I had conjured up in my head. I started to cry, releasing tears from years of loneliness and anxiety. That night I had an encounter with the Holy Spirit that was more real to me than the people around me!! I could no longer ignore the call that God was making on my life.
The next Sunday I went to O.C.C. and felt like I had walked into my ‘home’. I gave my heart to the Lord Jesus Christ that morning…and I have never been the same since! My language changed, my lifestyle changed, the desires of my heart changed and I can honestly say it is the best decision I have ever made!
As time goes on I can feel the reality and presence of the Lord in my life stronger every day and I am amazed at what He’s doing in my life. O.C.C. is like my second home and my second family! God is there - it’s a part of His worldwide Church! God has used Pastor Steve & Karina as an abundant blessing in my life and my growth in the things of God and the non-compromising stance that O.C.C. takes is a tribute to the Spirit of God and how real He is!
I can’t thank the Lord enough for not leaving me where I was…but taking me onward and upward in Him, forgiving me of my sins and having a plan for my future that’s full of hope! Surrendering to Jesus is the best thing anyone can ever do! ‘If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved’ Romans 10:9.
Lou’s story
Coming soon …
story
My life before I became a Christian was full of pride, pride and more pride. Everything came easily – money, girls, work and anything else I fancied YET I still was not happy because I was never content with what I had – UNTIL the beginning of 1999.
Whilst on a contract with the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford Upon Avon, I heard Pastor Steve Maile preaching and he spoke right into my heart. Right there and then I knew I had to change my way of life. I gave my life to Christ the last Sunday in August 1999.
More has happened in my life over the past few years than ever before. I now feel a strong sense of belonging to my Church, my Church family, and my Heavenly Father. - Now my wife Catharine is the greatest blessing in my life to date. Oasis City Church has challenged me to become more of a man and leader - which when lived according to Biblical standards isn’t easy. I am stretched and tested every week! Before O.C.C. I would never have considered full-time ministry. Now I am patiently excited in the prospect of one day serving God full time with my wife!
Niazi’s story
Like thousands of people in England, I have been a ‘Christian’ in name for as long as I can remember. If an official asked me for my religion I would say Christian. If asked to swear an oath, I would elect to swear on the Bible. In truth, by the time I had come to the end of university, the only belief I would have firmly defended would have been the notion of a Supreme Being - God, if you will - who had created the universe. After all, the scientists couldn’t account for how it had all started, they couldn’t create or explain creation, but they could, it seemed, account for everything else.
Besides, I was a successful law student, heading for a lucrative career. I had come a long way on my own talents. Ahead of me was a lifetime of achievement and acquisition. I was going to have a wonderful life, filled with lovely experiences and expensive things. The churches of England were places where I had listened to and sung beautiful choral music, but I hadn’t found answers to life’s questions there. I already knew that Christianity in truth was a relationship with a living God, not a ‘religion’ in the sense of a man-made set of precepts, ideals and ceremonies. But I wasn’t about to ‘follow Jesus’, that, surely, meant giving away everything I had and becoming a preacher, cleric, or general do-gooder of some sort. Why would I give up everything for a god I wasn’t sure about?
At the same time, I was exercised by the big questions of life. What was the meaning of life? Why was I here? Would death be the end? I had studied philosophy along with law, and had been fascinated by the theories of humanity and society put forward by men such as Plato, Hobbes, Kant, Hume and Wittgenstein. I had even developed a theory or two of my own. There was plenty of time, though. I was young, death was a long way off, and I had everything going for me.
I hadn’t actually read anything in the Bible for years. I still look back in amazement at how I completely failed to search for answers there, at how I completely failed to consider even reading it critically, ‘testing’ it.
I had been brought up in a Christian family and, during these later times, my family was praying for me. In the second year of my career, my fiancée and I, through my family, encountered two women and one man of God. We heard of their travels, of their experiences, and of the miracles that they had seen. My wife prayed with one of them, was deeply touched, and in my family’s drawing room knelt and repented of all her sins, confessing Jesus Christ as her Lord. As she knelt in tears I, also, was touched. I knew, deep in my spirit, that Jesus was Lord.
For some months that was it. We had both encountered God, but our busy lives hindered us from getting to know Him better. We ‘looked for a church’, however, no one we asked, however close to us or God they were, ‘pushed’ us towards their church or any other. Then, through a series of ‘coincidences’, we came to O.C.C. We had barely been there 5 minutes before it was powerfully confirmed in our hearts that it was God’s place for us.
We continue to be blessed powerfully by God through his works in O.C.C., the teaching of His Word by the pastors, and through the phenomenal worship and fellowship there. We have learned to put God first, instead of ourselves, and in doing so we have come into a fulfilment and joy that the world cannot give. When you choose to make God your god, instead of yourself, you allow Him to guide you in His perfect will for your life, into the perfect destiny He has for you. My wife and I have not become preachers, clerics or charity workers. God hasn’t told us to become those things. I am still a lawyer, and I still aim to make a fortune. The difference is that it is all under God. As He directs me, I will do. His plan for my life is infinitely better than the hit-and-miss path I would have followed by ‘trying to do the right thing’ without Him. When you truly love someone, you desire to know them intimately, you thirst for their company. So it is with God. His Word says that if we draw near to Him, He will draw near to us (James 4:8). I, like millions of others, have found this to be true. God is no liar; He keeps his promises. It’s exactly as Proverbs 3:5-6 says it is:
‘Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding. In all of your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your paths.’
Life in God is ‘abundant’ life (John 10:10). It is a life of victory, of needs being met, of problems being solved, of emotional and physical healing, of loving and giving, of supernatural peace and joy. God does not impose His perfect will on anyone. Like everyone, I was created with the complete freedom to choose or deny God’s life for me (see Deuteronomy 30:19). Choosing Him was, and always will be, the greatest thing I ever did.
Penny’s story
Coming soon …
