The Loom Rooms Podcast Show

Hello, and welcome to the loom rooms. I am your host, Matt, and at the loom rooms. We love to talk to various different people about their journeys, uh, with God, uh, their faith, and just find out a bit more about their, their story and, and how they came to be part of loom. And today we are joined by the lovely mark.

Hello,

mark. How are you? How are you, Matt? Yes. Good, fine.

Great to be you looking forward to it. It's great to see you. I know that we we've been thinking about this for, for quite a while. We've been talking about it for quite a while. I finally got you on camera. Fantastic. I, I, I note by your voice and our viewers might, might note, might notice, uh, that although I come with a, a heart for cheer, uh, border Essex, uh, twang, you don't come with that.

Do you, so where are you from mark? Where's the accent now from,

so I'm from south Wales. Originally from Cardiff.

Did you, did you grow up, um, in a, in a church? Did, did you have any faith or anything like that?

Well, my parents are, practiced a Mormon faith. When I was brought up in that faith and decided it wasn't for me by the age of about 16, . I walked away from that. Fine.

Um, and, and did you go straight into, you know, um, what's, what's the best way to phrase it traditional Christianity or, or what happened?

So after being brought up in the moment, faith, I walked away from you from God, even though I've always had a grid for, father God, Jesus mm-hmm holy spirit.

from the age of about 16, I walked away. And did what a lot of people did, to typical sort of teenager started going down the pub with my mates and, in the six form. And that's when I, I started going out with my rates in the six form. And, we used to go to local pubs and whatnot, and the usual things you do in the six form when you're in the world sort of thing.

And at 18 I moved in with my grandparents. I've always been very, when they were alive, I was very close to my mother's, mum and dad. I went to live with them because there was, there was no room in the house anymore.

I worked from the age of 18 to 21 and I decided, I've got a levels. I wasn't really settled. I wasn't really happy. And a, a good friend of mine, Rob, we went to school with, he. Gone to D university the year before. And I remember catching up with him. He said, why didn't you come to, why didn't you go to university?

Why didn't you apply for university? And I thought you I'm gonna do that. Do you know what I mean? There's no reason why I can't mm-hmm and I did, and I applied, I didn't know what to do. And I applied and I did a, uh, to, to do a business degree and yeah, from the age of 21 to the age of 25, I spent in Darby, I went to Darby university.

Got a, uh, a two, two in business administration met a lot of friends that funny enough, I'm not in contact with em anymore because you know, it's just live, I suppose, you just move on and right. And. You know, people got their, their separate way sort of thing.

Did you do after uni then? So you, you, you got this business administration degree. Did you, did you set up a business? I mean, I know that I know you've got, you know, various businesses. Um, you're very entrepreneurial. That's what I know about you.

Anyway, I've got a free hat because of it. So thanks. but, but like what, like early, early years, um, after, after uni, well, what, what

did you do when I come to, when I come back from university, my own call by this point is he's, he's gone from having a couple of, um, takeaways and Peter ears. He'd gone on to open, um, quite a few other businesses as well.

So back in 1996 is when I finished university. And when I come back, I went to work for him again, because he had, I think at the time six. Different operations. He had basically a, like a cafe style bistro, a couple of fast food outlets, a baguette shop. He'd opened up, a fine dining restaurant and bar and then a bit later on, then we opened up a nightclub and yeah, I basically became his operations manager.

So I, okay. I, I fell into working in business at quite a young age at quite a, a high level. Should we say, you know, operating six different businesses, at 20, what was I, 25 years old, you know, so. I learned I was thrown in at the deep end, basically, which is, you know, it's real blessing. Cause not many people get to have that amount of responsibility at that age.

You know what I mean? So when I learned fast, learned about P and LS learned about forecasting budgeting, the operational side of running a business, marketing promotions, accountancy,

buying, you have to wear many hats, don't you? When, when you've got a business, like, so we, again, you know, it's when it's multiple businesses, it's even more difficult juggling, juggling all those roles.

Yeah.

When I look back, we must have had, you know, I don't know we had must have had about over a hundred staff between all the different businesses. Wow. Easily. I mean, the nightclub alone had, perhaps 30 staff, so that's just one operation. I look back and I think, wow, I can't believe I did that actually,

10 years I worked for him. In that time I bought a house when I was about early thirties. And then that sort of came to an end. I sold my house and went traveling, which is another story.

Over the space of about 10 years my . Life slowly unraveled,

My lifestyle got worse and worse and worse. I was partying a lot and trying to work as well. And. In the end. Um, me and my uncle, like I said, we part company and I thought I need to get away from all this. Do you know what I mean? I need to get away from it. All right. So do you think you knew that there

was something wrong?

Do you think you knew that there'd been this? Um, and you did, I don't think you used this word, but I'll use it. Do you think there was this decline? Because from the outside, I mean, you said all the good things, you know, you had, you had this, this job, you know, by, by all accounts, a good job. You'd had this house, you know, you got this lifestyle, you know, from the outside, everyone's thinking, flipping it.

Yeah. Mark's got it all together. But I mean, do you think people thought that is, is that the image you tried to project or, or, or do do, do you feel you were pretty authentic about it? You let people in on no, I on

how you really was. I kept it all to myself. I mean, I, I was living, uh, a shard, you know, it was, you know, On the surface.

I was pretending I had it all together, you know, but I didn't at all. You know, my life was a, it was a bit of a train wreck, to be honest, you, I, you know, but it, like I said, , it didn't happen suddenly this happened over a period of 10, 20 years. Do you know what I mean? Okay.

See, when I was working for my uncle, we used to drink a lot. Anyway, , after work, , this is how it started. It's quite subtle, actually. You're in a night,

you know, what, what else you gonna do there?

A lot of people, well, it's see a lot of people who like REM pub and stuff like that end up being alcoholics anyway, because they're around alcohol all the time.

People wanna buy you drinks and stuff like that. You know, I tried not to drink in work initially during the first day I wasn't drinking in work, but I was drinking heavy outside of work and partying outside of work. Right. And trying to hold town, hold down a job, this job and partying as well.

I burned out do what I mean, it was, you know, trying to, burn in a candle at both ends, we always used to drink hard and drink heavy and we, and then I started drinking midweek and I'd sort of on my, you know, I'd finish work.

If I was working in the office, I'd finish work at, say six o'clock and I'd go for a, like for a session on a Tuesday night and then a Wednesday night. Some days I'd be, going out after work four nights a week. I remember just feeling rough in work the following day, I spent half my time just feeling hung over and then somebody in introduced me to recreational drugs and, and I'd go through sort of phases of, um, you know, take an ecstasy and then cocaine.

And then, you know, when I look back, it was a real hedonistic life, you know, real hedonistic life. The people I knocked around with, they were, you know, everybody was, was, were into the same thing, you know, recreational drugs, drinking. It's really weird. It's, you know, I think my uncle, you most probably knew deep down, we never really talked about it, but I think he, he knew that my lifestyle was not really fitting.

You know the job, you know, and people who drink and they take drugs, if you are working, you're not productive at all. You know, and I used to have these lucid periods in my life where I would, go six months a year and I'd be clean and I'd be really, productive and effective in work.

And then I'd go through periods where I'd just be, really hammering it. And I'd just, you know, I must have looked a mess, to be honest with you. I must just Stu were you

addicted to it? I mean, can, could you look back at that and you think, oh, actually I could pick it up and put it down. Some people are like that.

Other people just grabs hold of them. And,

well, this is it. The early years. Well, won't let go without a struggle. Yeah. The early years, the first 10 years from the age of like 25 to 35, it was your typical. Binge drinking. You go out after work and drink and you, I was a heavy drinker. Um, okay. Later on in life, that changed.

Oh, got I'll. I'll talk about that in a bit, but you know, it's, and this is the thing with alcoholism, for some people, for a lot of people, I think it's a slow, um, decay for what of a better word. It's a, you know, a slow, a slippery slope, but it's a slow decline where, you know, you, you lying to yourself a lot.

It's when, when I look back, you know, it's a bit of a haze, to be honest, you, you know, honestly, I just, I think back in some of the things I've done and I can, you know, there'll be a lot of stuff I can't even remember. And that's through alcohol. Do you know what I mean? I, it did get worse where, you know, I started drinking heavy and you can't, you couldn't remember the night before.

And that was, you know, that was a real problem. And that, that started happening more and more and more.

Yeah. Um, I mean, you noticed there was a problem then, cuz you, you said you, you stopped working for your uncle and you decided to go traveling. Where did you go? Where did you end up going?

When I was 35, I'd had my house about five years and I come up with this really, really clever idea. I would sell my house and travel the world with the equity from the house, which is the in looking back as story, one of the stupidest things I've ever done. Do you know what I mean?

I really did regret that because it was, you know, it, at the time, honestly, I thought this was gonna be a life changing experience.

And you know, it was gonna be a great adventure. I had this money in my pocket and we were gonna, you know, have a great time. And it was gonna, I was gonna see the world and LA LA LA, but. I took myself with me. Do you know what I mean? So, you know, all I did was just take my me and my problems and just took it around the world.

Nothing had changed. Do you know what I mean? So, you know, we landed in Thailand. That was the first stop. And again, just a drunken haze, but you know, again, it was just. It was just a drinking, just obviously this time I'm not working, I'm just traveling and just drinking. Or, and I just burnt through that money, you know, within a year I ended up in New Zealand in Auckland and I had to get a job because within six months of, of me leaving, I'd spent all the money that I'd, you know, the equity from my house and we were just partying, but just really, you know, looking back really not wise at all, in fact, a really stupid thing to do.

Do you know what I mean? Because you know, that house was a gift from God. You know what I mean? I, it was, it was a lovely home and, you know, I'd, I was very blessed to, to have this home in a, a moment of stupidity thought it was a really good idea to, to sell the house. And it's quite interesting.

When I come back from traveling, which was literally a year later, I had absolutely nothing. And that's when my, my problems really started because I came back. Right. And it was like, I, I came back home to, it was like, what have I done? What have I done? You know, not only have I given up a good job, I've sold my house.

And now, and I remember I had to get a, a friend of mine, mark. He had to pick me up from Heathrow airport in his van. The things that happen. I, in, in drink your life can just, we do stupid things in alcohol, you know, and I've done.

I've had my fair share of just idiotic, stupid, quite dangerous things at times in under the influence of alcohol and drugs. Anyway, I came home and I had 20 pound in my pocket and that's all I had to, my name, come back to Heathrow airport. I didn't have a penny. Oh, I got home from Auckland, which 20 quid is that's, you know, it's a miracle in itself.

Do how I managed to get back because I had to change my flights and there was a lot of messing around and I thought I'm ne I'm not gonna get home. And I've got no way, you know? Right. Um, again, and it, again, when I look back, it was God looking after me. Do you know what I mean? It was God, even before it became a Christian, he had his hand on my life and it's low to loads of different occasions when that happened.

When I look back at my life, the, the amount of times that I've been in some serious scrapes over the years, and to travel halfway around the world with 20 pound in your pocket. And then. Luckily, my mate picked me up and he took me back to Cardiff and then I had to try and rebuild my life.

And it was a very sobering, sobering, experience because I thought I've got absolutely

was sober in the word was sober in the word. They like, like, what was it

sober in or no, I was still in denial. Do you know what I mean? I got a job, right. In a bar, as a bar manager,

again, around alcohol. I was drinking, but this time, because I was quite depressed because of what I'd thrown away, I was drinking heavier and right. You know, partying heavier. And I think that was a turning point in my life before going into traveling, even though I was, drinking heavily and , my life was coming off the rails.

I had certain things in that kept me in check. So I had a home, I had a mortgage to pay. I had a job, I worked for alcohol and it was a good job. And, it was, it kept me in check. You know, when I came back, you know, I, I saw it as. Downgrade in employment. And I was just, you know, bar manager for this guy.

And, you know, my ego had taken a bit of a hit, I wasn't this sort of Jack, the lad around town anymore. , and then I got a job, running a pub in, in Salisbury. That was it. Mm-hmm and this, you know, this, I'm running my own pub at this point, and this is where I started drinking really heavily because it's just, I'm in charge of my own pub.

There's no limitations to what I can do. Do you, what I mean, I I'm in charge of, well, you control the books, don't you say?

I control the books. You control what comes in, what goes out, you know, what isn't

talked about. And it was quite a stressful job because it was only me and I was, I was working like hundred odd hours a week.

You know what I mean? It was 24 7. And, and I remember I was, I started drinking shorts then, and I, you know, and then I only did it for six months. I couldn't do it. After that, I was drinking really heavily and I had to quit. I was just like, I'm gonna have a breakdown if I carry on like this or I'm gonna die, you know, I was, it was.

A dark time.

, and my life is just going slowly downhill. You know, alcohol's taken more and more of a grip of me is start to control me by this point.

You know, mm-hmm, , um, lost that job. Couldn't keep it down then. And this is what happened there. And I, I went through phases of, of getting jobs. And then losing them, couldn't keep them because of drink. And, you know, by this point, I, I got a job as a, um, an operations manager. This, this was a really good job actually for hard rock cafe, because the skillset was always there.

Do you know what I mean? Yeah. But the only person who was sabotaging it was me. Do you know what I mean? I've always had business acumen and I've always been, gifted with in, in, in business. I've always had an entrepreneurial spirit. I love business. I'd like to think that I'm quite astute when it comes to business, but alcohol just got in the way.

I had to go for five interviews for this job for Hardrock cafe.

They sent me to Orlando to get trained. Again, still drinking, but just holding it together. But again, it was just the drink got, got the better of me I was working and then, you know, drinking heavily, I was living in Manchester on my own.

And this is the sad thing about alcoholism. Like I said to you, it can be a very slow demise

I had to leave because I'd lost my job and I had to, and at this point this is quite a low, I had to go come home and I was sofa surfing on my mum's sofa. Do you know what I mean? , you know, I'm at this point, I'm in my late thirties, and I'm going back to my mother's house.

I had to stay on a sofa for, I think it was about six months and I'm thinking to myself, what have I done in my life? And it's all alcohol based, . Um, but I didn't learn. I couldn't, because that's all I knew was the pub trade and the, and the restaurant hospitality trade.

I kept returning to that industry.

And then an old female friend of mine walked into this pub. This pub was on this. It was on top of a mountain. Believe it or not in south Wales. And I was working there and, um, I just finished work and, my friend, Anna, she come in, I had seen it for years.

She used to come in and the Latin nightclub that I used to run, 12 years earlier. , I just finished work. I was living in this HMO drinking, what little wages I had.

I used to wash dishes for a living. And any spare cash I had, I would spend on cheap booze. And that was my life, you

know, I lost sounds like you were living life in, in reverse mark. Yeah. You had it all and yeah. yeah, like you said, it literally is a slippery slope in terms of vocation. I, yeah. Living situation money, I lost,

I lost all confidence in my abilities.

Do you know what I mean? Because I couldn't cope with things. So anything that was stressful, it would turn me to drink.

I used to, walk around in these dirty tracksuit buttons that were just soaked from washing dishes all day. I didn't. Wardrobe as such. I had like a couple of items of clothes and I used to live in this little single, room in this HMO with a load of other people that were just that they were drifters as well.

And just up to no good. I used to walk to work. I used to walk a couple of miles to work up this long hill cuz I didn't have enough money to, there was no buses that's right. And uh, and I didn't have any money anyway. And I used to walk three miles up this big hill stroke mountain that with this pub was on.

And that was my life. I used to get paid weekly. I used think I used to get someone. 200 pound a week. If I put washing dishes and I, you know, after I paid my rent, I had like, I dunno about 50 quid. And I used to just spend it all on hardly eating my weight. I went down to about 12 stone, just drinking, nasty, cheap side and stuff like that.

And it was when I look back, it was really depressing, really depressing. And that was my life. I just, I had just didn't care. I'd hit such rock bottom. And then Anna came into this pub and she said to me, you know, I'm seeing for ages, I'm a Christian now, would you like to come to church

with me? surprise

Yeah. And I,

I think it was a, it was a Saturday night. That was it. I was in my dirty track through bottoms, having a pipe in the end of the bar.

And she was up there doing some amateur dramatics. And she just popped into the pub on the, on the way back with her brother. Funny enough. And, uh, yeah, and she, this woman's really evangelical.

Do you know what I mean? She's a hairdresser by trade. Okay. And what amazing woman though? Do you know what I mean? Absolutely amazing. Yeah. She's one of these that. Tells the gospel to anybody who will listen to it. You what I mean? And always looking to spread the gospel. Amazing. And if it wasn't for her, I'd probably be dead now, to be honest with you, because I ended up going to church with her and that's where

I remember.

Did she invited you to church that, that very night then she did. Yeah. And I,

I think the following day was a Sunday. Remember it was a Sunday night and I thought to myself, Joel, what have I got to lose? . I've got nothing to lose. You know what I mean? I knew I had some sort of belief system and something inside me just, just made me think, Joel, give it a go.

I was sort of thinking, what have I got to lose? You may as well just go. Do you know what I mean? It'd be nice to see Anna and stuff like that. And this is 2013 and I didn't know this at the time, obviously, but there was a, an outpouring of the holy spirit, in a place called MBR victory church.

It was called, okay. And this church was in a, like an old warehouse and they they'd done it up. And it was quite a big church actually with a huge plot of land up the back for parking and stuff like that. And she picked me up from the pub. Funny enough, I, I we'd done Sunday service. I washed all the dishes and, made myself as clean as possible and just tied myself up a little bit.

And she picked me up from the pub. And we went to come brand, which is about, about 30 miles from where I was working. And she drove me there. And I always remember, we. Turned up there. And there was like cues to the park car park going in, and there was all these, like, car park attendants, and he looked, I was thinking, these guys look a bit shady.

And it turns out that was it legit. Yeah, it was. Yeah. So victory church is, is, an outreach center for people who come out of prison and were caught up in addiction and they wanted to turn their life around.

They had a building where people would literally they'd come out prison or come off. If they were addicted to anything, they would go and live in this house, like a commune and, , You know, it was run by Excon X addicts and it was like quite a, you know, you went there, you were, you completely, it was complete ABST explanation from anything.

And you lived with that as a, as like a load of guys together. And, you know, you'd go to church and they, you know, the, the guy you sort of headed up the church, Richard Taylor's name was, or is, and, um, he had all these guys that there that were, you know, ex-cons and ex addicts and they were, they were sort of the car park attendants.

So I was like, come in. I was like, what? What's this about? This is really unusual anyway, to be parked up. And it was like hundreds and hundreds of cars during, and a Sunday night of, I was thinking, this is crazy. Do you know what I mean? Where are all these people coming from? And we went inside and it was about must have been about 2000 people in there inside this warehouse and the guys preaching.

And I remember just, you know, it was quite dark in there and there people all. Big big warehouse and converted into a church. Everybody was stood up. It was quite dark. And I remember just standing there listening to, and there was a guy next to me and he was speaking in tongues, I didn't know at the time.

And I was like, so, you know, these people are just speaking in this funny language. And I was like, yeah, you know, I'd heard of speaking in tongues from the Bible, but I didn't, I'd never, ever seen it. I said, and this is crazy, man. This is really, but you know, it really. And the outpour in the holy spirit, in that place for, I think it lasted for about six months was it was church every single night of the week.

I think apart from, I thought apart from one night, I think it was a Saturday night during every result. I can't remember it was one night, but six nights of the week you'd have two to 3000 people turning up. Worship. Can I interrupt

you there, mark? Just for, for those who don't know, when you say an outpouring of the holy spirit, can you just, can you just describe what you mean by that, for those who, who maybe thinking what on earth

is that?

Apparently the story goes , that a guy was in a wheelchair and they prayed for him and he was completely healed and he ended up picking his wheelchair up and running around the auditorium.

Why would that lead to people coming from all around the country and Europe , and people would listen in from Australia and New Zealand, cuz , they used to have a live feed as well. And I was, I always remember thinking, this has to be God, this has to be the holy spirit, you know, in this place because why would all these people just come from nowhere?

Just because somebody got healed, they wouldn't have known, and to see a move of God is quite interesting to see, see it in reality cuz it's messy. It's crazy. You know, it's impromptu, it's unorganized. They had a, like an overkill area where. He had to open that up and it was, you'd have cues, hundreds of people queuing to get in.

Now that has to surely there has to be a, a work of.

So, so from what I understand you're saying is, is that it's like a concentration of the holy spirit, you know, and God moves in power. So you've talked about miracles, you've talked about, you know, every, like people just being hungry to just turn up to this place.

So you're talking about hundreds and thousands of salvations happening in a concentrated place. Yeah. I remember people going on, on, on a journey, they were saying they were going to Wales to this church because the word they used there was this revival going on, you know?

And again, I heard stories of people saying now to queue out outside of this church, it's definitely, it's definitely the same place, but, but you're saying you, you literally were, were there you're in that place enough? Yeah. You're a non-Christian. Yeah. You know, you, you, you, your life's sorry. Sorry, mate.

But like you said yourself, you're like your life, you were at rock bottom and you find yourself in this place where apparently God is. Yeah. So what happened?

well, it, I just couldn't get my head around it all. I couldn't understand this. Like KOBR is just like this little. Town in GWE right. They've got a shopping center there.

Uh, it's not really known for anything in particular. Do you know what I mean? It's just a little market town in south Wales and the church, I think , their normal congregation was maybe a couple of hundred people if that on a Sunday. And that went from that to every single night to two to 3000 people every single night, unless went on for like six months, something like that.

Yeah. And you'd have people coming from everywhere, non-believers given their life to, you know, you'd have Analar call and every, but 300 people had come to this front and just to be prayed for. And then, one thing I noticed was that they had loads of people with blankets and I was like, what's going on here with the blankets?

They were like modesty blankets. They called them, I think, where women would fall on the floor after being touched by the holy spirit, they would put the blanket over there, you know, if they had a dress on or skirt yeah. To just cover their legs. And it would be people there'd be people, you know, they would have catches, dedicated, catches, so people catching people.

So then, so the pastors that were, uh, um, administered in prayer to the congregation, um, you imagine the best we can describe it. Imagine, like, I don't know, like glass, Andre, a similar like that, where you've got loads of people at the front of a, you know, on a smaller Le um, on a smaller stage, don't get me wrong, but you'd, you know, you'd have like all these people, just five, six deep, you know, at.

At the front of this sort of stage area. And then the pastor would come down and just lay hands on or whoever was preaching and you'd have other pastors there as well. It was like a team of them lay hands on people. And it just, people falling over left, right. And center, you know, in the holy spirit.

Cause God's

powerful. Right. You know, you come, you come into the presence of God. What I'd never seen before. Like bam power. Yeah.

I'd never ever seen it before. I'd never seen. I was like, and I've gotta be honest. I thought, oh, what's what is this gonna be gotta be making this up. Surely this, you know, people doing this for effect or what, but I thought, well, why would you want do that?

Anna was really good to me. She come alongside me, like I said, I owe my life to that woman. Do you know what I mean? She really blessed me. She looked after me, in the early years of becoming a Christian. And we used to go to church together and I used to go to church in Cardiff and I needed something radical really for me to turn my life around, and it was that going every day of the week, you know, we used to go, literally I I'd finish work and I would go, to church.

And around that time, then I'd finally, uh, ditch working in a pub. I got a job, um, working for British gas in, I feel a contact center and I kept that my eyes had open. I thought, right, I gotta cut this, this tie to alcohol and to, to working in that environment. And that was the last time I worked in a pub and I was done with alcohol.

and I just worked for British gas flow. I think I worked for him for about two or three years. And, the Lord helped me clean my life up, you know, it was, it was a touch from the holy spirit. I believed that I was able to start turning my life around. And was it, was

it at one of those, those evening services mark then when, when you made that decision or cause what was it like the first time you were like, you know what, yeah, I've heard the pastor preach about Jesus.

You know, I've seen the work of the holy spirit. I've seen God move. Bam. That's it.

I didn't have , a monumental. Bang I'm healed, it was a process for me, you know, I took me a while to, to clean myself up, should we say okay.

But I kept going back. I kept wanting to go back. I kept wanting to, find out more about what was going on. And then about a month later, then I got baptized the pastor there. This little Scottish guy, he was one of the, the, one of the pastors at this church.

Remember him saying to me, oh, do you wanna get baptized? And I said, yeah, yeah, I wanna get baptized. And you know, I'd give my life to the Lord. And I got baptized in this little paddling bull income brand , I remember there was, you know, they talking volume that particular night, I think there was about 20 people getting baptized.

You know, and that was a regular thing. Every people getting baptized and then got baptized and we kept going there whilst also as well, going to a church in Cardiff , Comran sort of, it lasted for about six months, this impartation of the holy spirit in this place.

And then the holy spirit moved on and mm-hmm, you know, they just went back to normal church. Yeah. And it was strange I, to this day, I, you know, the kingdom of God's full of mystery, isn't it? You know, and I don't understand how the holy spirit can land on a place for a while and why it, the holy spirit then dissipates or go somewhere else.

We'll it doesn't though. Does he mark like, like, like there's a bit, because again, you know, I don't understand how the holy spirit can turn up at night. Yeah. And just heal, heal a swollen eye and for the swelling to disappear, you know, it's not, it's not like, it's not like, okay, fine. He's here.

Um, he's at work and he's gone again, you know, the holy spirit as the, as the word says, he lives in us. He does. Yeah. Um, and I you're right. I mean, there are concentrated areas and timings and that sort of stuff. And we, I we'll never understand why God turns up in those, those areas, but yet he's still at work every single day and every single Christian.

I

mean, I went to, it's funny. I went to a conference recently in Eastgate. It was an encounter weekend and it was interesting because they, what they were saying and what I believe as well. I believe that God and the holy spirit I believe is in constant encounter with us. I believe that that, we, if we choose to, we can be in constant encounter with God.

It's it's us that break that encounter, whether it's we're too busy, whether we're, you know, our lifestyle is not what it should be, whether, you know, we're just not for whatever reason, we're just not encountering the Lord. But I believe that he wants to be constantly encountered with us, you know, he lives in us you're right.

But for whatever reason in that place, it stopped. And, I don't know the reason why I I've got no idea why that my team move and the holy spirit went, but it did.

, you think of all the thousands of people though, whose lives were changed? Well, Think of your life cause, cause you you're not in Cardiff anymore.

No, you're here. , you know, you're here in, in Bishop store. Um, you're part of loom as well. I mean like having, having you, as part of loom has been fantastic, just knowing you as a friend and, and having you, um, just, just love people and support people. I mean, why do you do it? Why , why, why are you here? Why are you at loom?

What, yeah. What are you doing here

at the minute? It is a good question. I think back to Anna and I think, you know, that woman took time to help me to reach out to me and, you know, help me turn my life around, cuz it was a train wreck. And like I said to you, I most probably wouldn't be here now if it wasn't for her because I've lived and walked a life that's unraveled over time.

I can see how that can happen with people. People aren't, you know, they're not born addicted to drugs or addicted to alcohol or with mental health problems or, lost lonely, whatever their issues are, life can be cruel and life deals. You can deal you a bad hand. And also we make wrong decisions and foolish decisions along the way like myself, you know, everything God's plan for me, wasn't, what happened to me for those 20 years?

These were poor decisions by me. I made those decisions myself, I believe God had a better plan for me, you know, I got there in the end. it's like a sad nav, isn't it? where you, go down the wrong direction and the sad nav eventually redirects you to, to the right path.

And I think, , our life can be like that. eventually I was able to get on the right path. I believe God, has always had a wonderful plan for me. He predestined it. He chose me to, to come to this earth and to live a wonderful life.

And I believe that that is his plan for everybody. Now. Mm-hmm, going back to why I am passionate about loom is because when I see people that are broken and lost.

I wanna be like, Anna, I want to pay that forward and help people if I can, to find their way back to Jesus, to find their way back, because it it's easy to lose your way, I've become more and more passionate about leaving the 19 nine and going after the one it's a real big thing for me at the moment.

I see people and in their brokenness there's goodness in people and everybody, you know, and everybody deserves a second chance and everybody deserves to live their best life. But I think it's, it's down to us to, to reach the loss, to find the loss to mm-hmm to help people get back on track

what God originally had planned for them and what he wants for them. And there's, there's some amazing people out there, you know, that are just lost. Mm. You know, and it can happen over the course of time. You know, I know loads of people that have, think to themselves, what, what is this? It is, this all is to life.

You know, people are just really overloaded with work. People have got a couple of kids, and they're married, but they're just, they're slogging the rat race, going into London, and you see people on the tube . They just look drained and they, you could see in their faces, they're thinking, what has my life been about?

You know, what, what on earth is this? This can't be.

I heard it described, um, a certain way, and this is the thing that resonated with me, that we're all born with, um, like a, a God shaped hole in our heart. Yeah. And the busyness of life leads you to believe that actually there are other things that can fill it.

Yeah. Um, it's a life, you know, drug drinks, friends, relationships, money, sex, power, job, you know, position, all that sort of stuff. And again, from your own story, and again, I don't wanna put words in your mouth. Clearly you try to fill that with you, try to fill that whole, um, with alcohol, with, um, position in terms of your job, in terms of busyness, you know, looking, looking the part, then you try to fill it with freedom and attract and traveling around the world.

Yeah. But nothing fits it quite like God. Yeah. Like that's, that's the thing, you know, we're we are missing a piece. You're right. I'm just as passionate as, as you to, to help people figure it out. But I think you can, like you said, you can only figure it out if you've, if you've been there yourself, if you, if you've

tried yourself, I was listening to something last night and I've I've, this is most, probably one of the most profound things I've heard.

It was, um, bill Johnson, his father, I Johnson once said, you, you, until you wash someone's feet, you don't know why they limp. You don't understand why they limp until you've washed their feet. And that pretty much sums up what looms about do we come alongside these people? And we just try and show them who God is, I suppose.

It's an amazing thing. You. Heard about it, but until I got involved fairly recently, I didn't realize what a powerful connect group it is. like yourself and Beth and Ian and Jackie,

the work that you've been doing over the years, to come alongside people is just so profound. Selfless is what I'm trying to say.

What would you say to the people aren't listening to this that, that have maybe connected to. To some of what you've said about, you know, I mean, you used, used the word brokenness and downhill, you know, what, what, what advice have you got? Sorry, mate, just bring this on you. No, no, no, no. I sort it out in a sentence.

I believe that God has a plan for us all, and he wants the best for us. Always has done . And he's walking with us even when we don't realize it, God was walking with me long before I became a Christian Long before I gave my life to the Lord.

He's always had his iron me, , he's a gentleman and he's patient , the one thing about my story as well. I, you know, when I came to the Lord, I didn't just, have it all together. You know, I, it took me a while. I fell away and come back and fell away and come back, you know, unless it's story for another time, but, God is a loving father, and he loves us all more than we'll ever ever know more than we'll ever, ever, ever comprehend.

And it's never too late for anybody. Doesn't matter how far gone you are in an instant, he can orchestrate something, send somebody to a, a pub on a mountain to come and get me in my darkest days. Wow.

as you know, I love a bit of scripture yeah. Just to wrap things up.

Like, um, a lot of people will say there's a particular Bible verse. Uh, a life verse. I've heard it called before. Have you got anything like that? Is there anything that, that particularly Springs to mind or, or even now as the, the holy Spirit's prompting you, is there any, any verse that you particularly wanna

highlight

It's Joel 2 25 and it says I will restore to you what the locus have taken. that blew me away when I heard that all those years ago, eight, nine years ago. And I thought, if God can do that he's restored me.

You know, I've an amazing life. Now I have a beautiful wife that loves me. I have a loving home, a peaceful home, a lot of amazing friends, we've got a business that we, we love and, we've got dreams to sew into the kingdom and to sew into our community, you know, and again, that's that's for another time, but, he's restored to me what the locus took and I think he can restore directly what the, the locus have taken.

And that's a, quite a profound, amen

verse. I agree, mark. Thank you so much, um, for your, your openness and your honesty and, and just sharing with us your story. I've got so many more questions that I I'm going to ask you about as well. I'll probably, I'll probably invite you back, to go into more detail.

But yeah, I just, I just wanna thank you. And, um, yeah, if, if anyone out there is, is listening to this and, and you've got questions, please, visit the, the loom website or, or do do contact us, um, uh, loom meets every Tuesday, at seven 30 at the car center in Bishop starford. Um, please, we'd love to see you there.

Um, uh, and if you wanna meet me or, or meet mark and, and ask some questions, please feel free to come along. We we'd love to see you there, but, uh, for now that's, that's the end of this episode of the loom rooms. Thanks

for joining us.