We'll now invite our sister, Mrs Cameron to come and tell us
about how she met the Lord Jesus Christ.
Thank you, sister. Well, I thank God tonight I can
give a word of testimony. I thank your minister and
session for inviting me along. I have to refer first of all to
the Word of God where it says in Romans 1 and chapter chapter 1
and verse 16. For I'm not ashamed of the
Gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to
everyone that believeth to the Jew 1st and then the Greek.
And tonight I only stand and give a word of testimony because
of what the Lord Jesus Christ has done in my life.
I'm a held a servant Sinner saved by the grace of God.
I was born unto a Roman Catholic family.
If you're ever going from Belfast to Londonderry and you
got the Glentian Pass, you'll see a road in your right about
halfway up the pass called the Ranahan Road.
And it was on that road that I was really reared.
Our own house had to be tumbled to build the Glen Chien Pass.
So we went to live with my grandfather.
Daddy had been an only child. Granddad was led to get him back
home again and whenever he got, whenever he asked my father to
go back, he, he asked my mother and father and three of us.
And before Mummy and Daddy was finished, there was 10 of us.
So you can imagine in a wee tiny country house that was quite a
crowd. But I thank God tonight for the
family that he placed me in. I was placed there by the
Providence of God for a purpose. And none of us choose the family
we're born into or placed there. But you will choose where you
spend eternity. And all I can do tonight is to
say to you, choose well and choose heaven tonight.
I was reared with my grandfather from an early age.
I was about 3 when we moved up and I I can remember very
clearly my granny, my Granny McCluskey, that was my Granda's
wife. She had died when she was 54
with an aneurysm. So he was on his own and as I
say, he was glad to get us all back home again.
Now I can say that from my earliest memories we were taught
in the things of Rome in the house.
Mum and Daddy were devout Roman Catholics as was Granda and I
can remember being made to kneel around the fire set at night and
maybe Granddad give out a rosary or my mumma and daddy and we had
to answer it. I never learnt to pray until the
night I got saved because all I learnt was really a ritual and a
rhyme and I never really knew what it was to talk to the Lord
to that night that I got saved. I can say that from then on I I
was sent to school very young. Well, it wasn't sent.
Actually. My two sisters started school
the same day because there's only 11 months between them and
I was at home. I was just 3 1/2 coming four
years of age, and mummy said I roared that much.
She sent me the next day and they kept me and they did their
best to educate me. I have to say, before God, we
had a good education both in primary school and in the next
school that I went to. But whenever I went to school,
when I wasn't taught about Rome at home.
I was taught in school. We were taught about all the
sacraments that a Roman Catholic child had to go through to
become a soldier of Christ. That included your baptism, your
first confession, your your first communion.
It included confirmation and all the rest of the sacraments.
And you know, I thank God tonight for the word of God.
I didn't know it at the time, but I was later to come to know
that it says in First Timothy chapter 2 and verse 5.
For there is one God and one mediator between God and men,
the man Christ. Jesus.
But I didn't know any better at that time.
And I followed after the things of Rome.
I followed after what I thought would get me to heaven.
And I don't know what you think you're following tonight if
you're not saved. But there are only two places,
that is heaven and hell. And if you don't come to the
Lord Jesus Christ, ask him to forgive your sins, to make you
ready for heaven, you'll never be in heaven.
But I did what I thought was right that time.
I followed on and the Roman Catholic ways.
I remember going to school and learning all the things of the
Roman Catholic Catechism, which is entirely different from the
Catechism I adoption to learn within our own church now.
But at that time I'd left out that I shouldn't bow down poor
idols, that one that suited the Roman Catholic Church.
I just learnt a different catechism.
I learnt that and then whenever I was about 6 years of age.
We had to go into confession classes where we were taught how
to give our confessors since the priest and once we were taught
for about 6 months in that way and again my two sisters and
myself did it together because we were so close in age and
there was a lot of other children that last in it as
well. Whenever they thought we knew
enough, the priests would have come into the school every
weekend questioned us. We went along this Saturday,
Saturday afternoon to the Chapel to have our first confessions
heard. And I can.
Remember sitting as well. I was the last child in the Pew.
Ours was a small country school with three classrooms.
But that day there was 2 full pews of children to make their
confessions. We were a family of 10.
There was a family of 23 in that school and there's two families
of 22. So you can imagine what that was
like. And these two seats were just
packed full of children. And I was the last child to go.
And, and as we moved along the Pew and onto the front Pew and
then next to the confessional box, I was that nervous.
I forgot everything I'd ever been taught.
And I remember going on to the confessional box and going to
see my confessions and I couldn't remember one thing I
had to say, so I made it up. I imagined I might have done
these things, so I told them. As a priest, I just told more
lies. And you know, my mum and dad
never taught me to tell lies. They never had to.
It was naturally on me because I was born like the rest of you.
I was born with my face towards hell and my back towards heaven.
I was born with the son of Adam on me and it was natural for me
to son. And I went on that day and I
told the pile of lies I come out after he had heard my
confessions and he'd given me what he talked about absolution.
And he gave me some prayers to see around the Stations of the
Cross, which is 14 pictures depicting the life of Christ
from he was born until he was crucified on the walls.
And I went down those pictures and I prayed as I went around
them, and I thought. I was doing something to get
myself into heaven. I don't know what you think
you're doing, but think again. Anyway, I had the confessions
heard and after that the next milestone is very soon you make
your first communion where you're sent along to communion
classes again. The priest comes in and he put
us over the 1st. Communion and what it meant and
how He would be changing the wafer into the body and blood of
Christ. I didn't know at the time what
God's Word says of this, but very soon after I got saved, the
Lord took me to Hebrews chapter 10 verses 1011 and 12 and it
says in Hebrews chapter 10 verse 10.
Steve, now if I can. Write by by the which will your
We are sanctified through the offering of the body of Christ
once for all, and every priest standeth daily, ministering and
offering often times the same sacrifices which can never take
away Son. But this man that is the Lord
Jesus Christ, after he had offered one sacrifice for sons
forever sat down at the right hand of God.
That tells you very plainly in the Word there is only one
mediator and that there is only one sacrifice that can make a
Sinner ready for heaven, and that's the Lord Jesus Christ
when he shed his blood and Calvary.
And I think about it now, but at the time I didn't when Christ.
Was on the cross, He remembered my name.
He paid the price for my sins and through that I can be saved
and go to heaven. Anyway, that passed and I made
my first communion. I took the wafer thinking I was
taking the body and blood of the Lord Jesus Christ into my mouth.
I really did believe that that was what we were.
Taught to believe and I went on on the things of Rome for a
number of years the next big milestone was coming up to her
confirmation and I was coming up near I think it was nine years
of. Age.
But there's a lot of things happened in my life around that
time which I believe the Lord started to.
Use to speak to me. Whenever I was about 8 1/2 and
there was more and more children coming into the house, I can
remember coming home from school one day.
We used to walk up the Denshan Pass.
It was much safer then. And we used to walk home and I
can remember going into the house and there was police in
our house and there was never police up the Denshan Pass
unless they were dropped down by helicopter and lifted.
This was the late 1960s and into the early 1970s.
It was a very dangerous place. Not that I went on home and I
wondered what was going on and I was just fascinated by this
whole thing. But when I get in, I could find
my father in floods of tears. And my mother, they see him and
I remember saying what's happened?
What's happened? And my grandfather that we lived
with had been killed on the Valencian Pass that day.
We later found out many years later he had actually been
murdered. But it didn't come out for many
years. And I'm so thankful to God that
it didn't because it's saved my brothers and maybe some of us
been involved in things we shouldn't have been involved in.
But I can remember that day Grandda had been killed and my
father, I looked at him and he nearly lost his mind because he
was so close to Granddad. What had happened was Grandda
had been, we had a small farm or Granddad had a small farm, but
it was very rushy ground. He only could graze cattle and
sheep. And he took a full time job with
the DOE. It's now called the Department
of Social Development, or some. Other such name but at that time
it was the DOE and he was called a service man.
I'm sure some of the older people here remember them.
They used to keep the drains clear and the hedges cut back.
We could do with a few of them now, I think.
But anyway, Grandda had been on his way home from work.
He was pushing his bicycle. He'd gone into the Chapel, Glenn
Chapel, and he had said the rosary over Granny's grave, and
he'd come out onto Glenn Chien Pass again, and he was pushing
his bike up the hard shoulder. And this Land Rover mowed him
down and he was killed outright. And he knew that had a profound
effect on our house for very many reasons #1 Granddad
contributed to the household. But we all loved him so much.
He was a great old man. He was a storyteller and he used
to keep us entertained with his stories and we just loved him to
bits. And there he was gone on an an
incident and I can remember waiting for him to, there was a
whole, he had to go and have a postmortem done and all.
But eventually they brought the coffin home and it was the first
time I ever really witnessed death in the home.
I, I know my granny had died earlier but I was too weed to
understand. And they brought Grandda's
coffin into the house, which had to be closed because he was
badly damaged. But I can remember over those
couple of nights a week and until the next day when he was
being buried, people came into the house.
The house was packed full of folk.
And they would have come in, they would have left a pound or
a fiver on the coffin to have a Mass set for granddad.
And the priests would have come in every night those two nights
and lifted all that money and took them to see a Mass from a
granddad. The granddad was dead.
You don't pray for the dead. We have to pray for our
relatives and friends and family while they're living because
when they're dead, the decisions made.
Anyway, granddad was buried and I often wondered where he was.
Even as a child I often wondered.
Anyway, our home was very much changed after that and about six
months later my granny and granddad on my mum said they
lived up just about. Maybe it made-up the road in a
place called Money, you know, I'd say to Ripperstone and
Granny had very bad rheumatoid arthritis, grandda had very bad
bronchitis and grandda took very ill.
You know, my granny was going about an hour later.
At that stage we I had an uncle lived at home.
He didn't get worried. He was 5056 so he's still at
home at that stage and I can remember Mummy and Granny had a
conversation and Granny says I can't really.
Keep up with the housework and I was wondering if one of the
wayans could come up with me, come up to me for the weekend
and help me out with stuff and to do some.
Cleaning on that, Well, anybody that comes from a big family
will understand what I what I mean when I say the pecking
order kicks in and the oldest asks first and then the second
and then the third. And they came to my sister
Susanna, who's the oldest. And they said to her, Susanna,
would you go up and stay with Granny at weekends?
Oh no. She didn't want to do housework.
She thought we were all there to serve her and very much she
wasn't going up. So then they came to my sister
Bridget and they asked her and Bridget was a home bird.
She had been away from home and I was just sitting praying in my
childish way that they would ask me for I wanted out of the house
for it was that jam packed and our boys were half mad most of
the time and I you couldn't get a bit of space to yourself
really. And I knew if I went to live
with granny at weekends I would get a bit of space.
So they came to me and mummy looked at me and and I said
mummy, I'll go. And she says no, you're too E
Margaret and I. Said Mummy.
I have to work around here. Sure.
I had to get up and had it again turf and I had a.
Chopsticks and had to do the dishes and peel spuds and all
the rest of it. I said I could do that with for
granny and eventually it was decided I could go in love with
my granny at weekends and on school holidays.
And I believed the Lord took a deal in my life at that stage.
Now I still went to school from home.
I had to behave myself and Uncle Joe left me off on a Monday
morning on his way to his shop and then he picked me up again a
Friday evening and I could stay on those weekends and all of the
summer holidays with Granny. And it was just marvellous
because I love Granny to bits and I love my granddad, but I
loved having a room of my own even more.
I think it was that selfish. But I wasn't very long staying
with Granny at weekends, not until my granddad McGuigan was
taken onto hospital and he died with bronchitis and I think
nowadays if he was diagnosed he would have had cancer.
He just wasted away. So Grandda passed away and I can
remember the wake, his wake as well, and I can remember them
bringing him home. And this time the coffin was
open. And I remember being fascinated
looking on the coffin and wondering where he was.
And I can remember the same thing with my granddad and
McCluskey. They came in on the three money
onto the coffin and prayed for him.
And they're still praying to have masses said for them.
And that's futile. But anyway, that's that's the
custom and I'm not here to ridicule Roman Catholic.
People, I'm here to say that we all try on our own way to do
things to get ourselves into heaven.
And there is no way except the Lord Jesus Christ, He's the
door. Well anyway, Granddad passed
away and Mummy and daddy, our mummy and grandma had another
discussion and by this time I was coming up near 9 and a half
ten years of age. I was to get ready for doing the
11 plus. Susanna had done it and passed
it and went to the convent in Baker felt Bridget was had done
hers and she was just about to go to the convent and they came
to me and Granny and mummy had a conversation.
You know, my mother always had more brains than I gave her
credit. For.
Because she knew if I stayed where I was at, I didn't study
that hard. I liked school, I loved everyday
I had at it. I loved the school dinners,
maybe even more, but I loved school.
But I didn't apply myself the way I should have.
And mum and granny had this conversation that they would put
a card in front of me and they said that if I was to stay with
me, if I wanted to stay with my granny full time, I had to pass
11 plus. I hadn't worked for her but I
put it in the head and worked very hard for three months and
past 11 class and I was allowed to go to the convent school.
Now Mummy's reason behind that at Granny's was that when the
Glenshin passed, when the snow came up was closed off and we
couldn't get to school. It wasn't clear the way it is
now, but if I stayed at my Granny's, the school bus stopped
outside the gate. There were streets ahead of me.
They had it worked out. So anyway, I went to stay with
my granny full time whenever I came secondary school.
Age. And I went to the convent.
Maker felt now if I thought that the school I was in was
religious and devout to Roman Catholic things, the convent was
even more so. We were taught by nuns and
priests, except for one, we had one Protestant maths teacher.
And I never really got all that well with him for I never really
worked for him. So Moham and I were always at
loggerheads. But when I went to the convent,
then that year I was due to make my confirmation into the Roman
Catholic Church. And this is where you meet with,
you do confirmation classes, you meet with the Bishop, he gives
you his blessing and he tells you you're now a soldier of
Christ. And I can remember that event
thinking to myself, well, I don't feel much like a soldier
of Christ. And I left the confirmation that
day and I went home and went on about my wages thinking I'll get
through this, I'll get through school and get left and get out
to work. But God had another, another
idea after I lived with Granny for that first year for, well, I
didn't live the whole year with her.
I lived with her about maybe six or seven months of the school
year. And I came home from school the
last day and Granny wasn't in the house, but my uncle was
there and he wasn't supposed to be there that day.
He was supposed to be actually in the shop.
He had 1/2 day on a Wednesday, but it was on the House that
day. And I said to him, Joe, where's
Granny? He says she's in the hospital.
Margaret, she's very ill and I knew granny had very bad pains.
I would allay beside her some nights when she wasn't able to
get an out of bed herself but I didn't realise she was as bad as
what she was. What had actually happened was
she had been taking codeine for the pain that was the main pain
relief at the time and codeine's a very dangerous drug if it's
spilt up in your system and it had damaged her kidneys and she
went into the hospital and renal failure.
So he says to me that day, go you and get your school clothes
off and get on your ordinary clothes and I'll take you over
to the hospital or go over and see her.
So I rushed off and got my clothes, changed my way over to
the hospital. And I knew when I seen Granny,
she wasn't coming out again that evening.
And the next day we sat with her.
During that time the priest came in and shook holy water over and
gave out the rosary. And we answered him and he gave
her the last rites. But the third day I, I sat
beside her in the evening and she went out and he turned to
crying. No assurance of heaven.
And I remember thinking if that priest couldn't help my granny,
he's never going to help me, for I'll never be as good as her.
And God started to use that to make me question in my childish
mind what was going on here. I can remember going home from
the hospital and then the coffin came home afterwards and it was
the same performance. The priest was in and out of the
house. They were paying to get Masses
said and given on mass cards. And I can remember thinking,
well, if you couldn't help my granny, you're not going to help
me. And after Granny was buried, I
went up to the same Chapel, but I never went back near
confessions because I thought he did nothing for my granny.
Now I thought I made that decision, but God was starting
to take the scales off my eyes even at that age.
I continued on loving with my uncle and looking after him, or
I could see he looked after me for the first year or two.
He had a rough, he had a rough, a rough menu with me.
I can tell you I had to learn to cook for Granny, did most of the
cooking. I did the carrion but he put up
with me and he was very gracious to me through that time.
I worked on through school and then on the summer holidays I
had to help them in the shop some days or did the housework.
My mummy, very mummy and daddy very much had to say in my life
what was happening. But I enjoyed school.
I didn't really put my head down and learn the way I should at
the convent either, although there was a good education to be
had if you took it. But I went through that school
until it was time to decide what I was going to do with my life.
15 1/2 I had to decide what I was going to do next.
If I didn't get my GCSE or GC ES were at that time or I forgot
them, what I was going to do. And I knew there was very little
hope of me getting all I needed. So we had a careers day and we
had to prepare for that. And my careers teacher was a nun
called Sister Anne. And I can remember her taking me
in that day. The parents were coming over in
the evening and she interviewed us all that day, throughout the
day. And she says, Margaret, what do
you want to do with your life? I said I want to be a
policewoman. I always wanted to be in the
police, although there was never any police about ours.
The reason I had an interest in the police was Uncle Joe sold
guns and ammunition in the shop. He sold Wallpapers and paints,
and then he sold guns and ammunition legally.
I have to say there was a lot of illegal guns around that area,
but Uncle Joe was very straight and he would have sold them for
clay pigeon shooting or duck shooting or pheasant shooting.
And I've always been interested in that.
And whenever they were going out to clay pigeon shoots, we were
done out with them and they all, we all had a wee gun and we
would have been shooting. And I can remember thinking I
would love to be a policewoman. Because I would have a gun in
the uniform and all that shows you the what I had at that age.
A very dangerous time in Northern Ireland where people
were losing their lives through illegal means and through
terrorism. But anyway, I can remember
saying that to the nonman, she says to me does.
Urani know who you want to be and I says no, I never discussed
it, but I knew that look at her, she was going to discuss it with
them. And that evening Mum and Daddy
came in and Daddy sat down and took off his wee flat cap and
Margaret respected the nun and before he got open his mouth she
says to him and your daughter's going to be a policewoman.
He says I don't think so. She'll get us all shot.
He says she'll be a nurse like them other parents, she'll like
it. This was my two sisters who had
already decided nursing. So my career was chosen by my
father, by the grace of God. Because it was.
There I was to hear about God's word and God's way of salvation.
I didn't know that at the time but anyway I was decided I would
go to the Tech in September and as there was such a small chance
of me being able to pass all the exams I needed, I would go and
do a pre nursing course at the Tech.
And God took me to the Tech in 1975 and Mackrefelt, Mackrefelt
Technical College. And it was the first time I've
been in Mack School, but it was also the first time I knew there
was such a thing as been saved. I didn't know.
I never had heard tell of it in my life.
And the first day in the class, there was this girl and she was
wearing a sweet tiny badge. And I took a wee look at it to
see what it said. And it said, Jesus saves.
And I can remember saying to a girl that was had come from the
convent bus me, what does that badge mean?
And she says, well, Margaret, don't go near those boys because
they're Bible thumpers. They're very dangerous people.
Stay away from them. We had been reared among the IRA
and this was the dangerous person.
But anyway, I watched that girl for the nine months of that
course and I can tell you her testimony spoke loud and clear
to me before ever she spoke a word to me about the Lord Jesus
Christ. I was able to see that her
language was different from mine, her behaviour was
different, her walk and her demeanour was different from
from mine. By that I mean that whenever we
went on to to open her school books, I just rushed her head
and opened my school books and she would have bowed her head
and said a word of prayer. Not in an exhibition kind of
exhibitionist kind of way, but in a very quiet and godly way.
She opened her books and she prayed over them.
Whenever we went for lunch and the rest of us would have been
eating like mad, she would have been sitting with her knee, head
bowed and saying a word of grace before she had a bite teeth.
And then when we went on to do exams, I would have watched her
and she would have been saying a word of prayer before she opened
the exam. Booklet.
And her walk really does speak to me.
I knew she had something I didn't have anyway.
I don't remember ever having a long conversation with her, and
I don't know that she ever knew the impact she had in my life,
but she'll know in eternity. I watched her and I throughout
that whole nine months, and she really doesn't make an impact on
me. At the end of those nine months,
we had to do a series of exams. I was called the DC test.
It was kind of like a zoped up 11 plus.
And if you pass this, you could get on to do nursing.
So I worked and I passed the exam and that we had to apply
for nursing, just not last month.
And I had applied to do mental handicapped nursing.
It was called at the time, it's now called intellectual
disability, but it was called mental handicap nursing.
My two sisters general nursing, which is now called adult
nursing. But I wanted to work with people
with special needs. We had a neighbour and he had
special needs and he always interested me and God drew me in
that direction. I did the exam and I got word
I'd passed it. I got word the next day that I
had been accepted unto Muckamore Abbey to do my training as a
mental handicapped nurse. And I got word the following day
to say I could go to Muckerfelt to train with my two sisters who
were general trained and my father because I had got the
letter first from Muckamore Abbey.
He says you make up your mind and he'd have been happier with
me going to Muckrafelt, but I felt drawn to go to Mucklemore
Abbey Hospital to train as a nurse.
And you know, that was the start of the Lord speaking to me at
the tech. I can remember starting at
Mucklemore Abbey in July of 1976.
And from the day I went on and and not July, God took a deal
with me that I wasn't going to miss and I have to see here
tonight. God sought me and He bought me
by His redeeming love. I didn't seek the Lord, He
sought me. And I'll say to you tonight, if
you're here and you've had the opportunity of coming to a Bible
teaching church and a Bible preaching church, then God has
been gracious and merciful to you and long-suffering towards
you and He is seeking you. So listen to Him when He does
seek you. Anyway, I went that day and the
Sunday mummy and daddy left me off.
He left me into this wee room. It was just a wee single bedroom
with a single bed, bedside locker, a wee desk and chair, a
wash hand basement and a wardrobe.
And I started to put away all my stuff.
Not that I hadaway a lot, but I. Hung up my.
Crucifix and I put out my rosary beads and I put out my purple.
And just as I was doing that, my door got a knock and I answered
the door and it was this girl was standing on the other side
of the door. She'd been a wee bit older than
me, but I I remember thinking, who's she now?
And she says you're Margaret. She read the name of the door.
She says, I'm just saying hello to everybody.
I'm giving out. I have something for you.
And I says, what is it? She says a gospel tract.
Now I I didn't even know what a gospel tract was.
That's how ignorant I was. And I says to her, what is it?
And she says, Margaret, it tells you the way of salvation.
It tells you about the Lord Jesus Christ and how he paid the
price for your son. And she looked up and she saw,
she saw the crucifix. And she says, do you know that
the Lord Jesus Christ stayed in the cross for your sons, for you
to get you into heaven? While I was raging at her, I
could have boxed her ears. I remember looking at her and
thinking, she thinks that I'm an ignorant, weak girl from the top
of the Lensian pass. But Sharon was very gracious and
she said, I'm just going to leave these gospel tracts here
with you and you take your time and read them.
And she says, explain the way of salvation and remember Jesus
died for you. And I remember her going out and
she said to me going out the door, my bedroom, she said,
Margaret, I'll see you tomorrow when we start in the School of
Nursing. And I remember thinking not if I
see you first. And I can honestly say I purpose
in my heart I would stay away from her.
The next morning we were to start in the School of Nursing
for eight weeks. I knew nobody, only Sharon who
had just met. I can remember going up in the
morning for my breakfast. We weren't allowed to cook in
the nurses homes because there have been too many people
starting up fires on them trying to cook.
So we were told to eat up in the canteen and I went up to the
canteen for about to eat and for breakfast time at half six and
there was Sharon Sutton. I thought I'm never going to get
away from her and how true that was.
I can remember going over that day to the School of Nursing
after breakfast and there's a crowd of us.
There were 32 started in our group and the 32 people were
going on to the School of Nursing lecture hall.
And I remember thinking where's she going to sit?
And I sat and I watched or stood and watched.
When she sat down and I sat at the opposite side of the room.
I could keep an eye on her but it was far enough away from her
so she couldn't speak to me. But I, and I remember I did that
nearly every day I was in that School of Nursing and there for
8 weeks there wasn't a day I didn't meet her at breakfast.
There wasn't a day I didn't have to walk to the School of Nursing
with her. There wasn't a day I hadn't to
walk home with her. And every one of those days she
had a word in season. You see, she had learnt the
scriptures as a child and she had hid them in her heart.
And without carrying her Bible with her, she was able to quote
God's word to me. And I, I hadn't a word to go
back to her with. We had a Bible in our house.
We had a do version of the Bible, but we weren't allowed to
bring it down and read it unless the priest was in the house to
tell us what it meant. We were too ignorant.
And that's the way we were taught that we weren't smart
enough to interpret the word of God.
And yet God says in his word that a man know a full.
Shall not err thereon. Anyway, Sharon made sure I heard
the word of God. She made sure she gave me
tracks. She gave Me 2 tracks in
particular that had a an unpacked to me.
And one was called the Catholic Bible has the answer.
Near the front of it, there was a picture of the Pope.
So I took it over, of course. And the other one said the
priest was an ill Prince in his hands.
And I took that offer because it tied in with what I believed, I
thought. But when I read it, I knew very
well that you needed to be saved for those eight weeks anyway.
As I say, I was tortured. And as the weeks went on, I kept
thinking she's a pick against Roman Catholic people.
But I watched her and she spoke to the Protestants that were in
the class. She spoke to the tutors who were
teaching us. She would have give them tracks.
Any of the patients that we came in contact with that had
understanding, she gave them a track.
So I couldn't really have got her on discrimination.
She spoke to everybody, but I can remember coming up near the
end of those eight weeks in school, we get kitted out in her
uniform. And we thought that day, just
the week we were going to finish, that we were nurses when
we got a uniform on us and we knew nothing, but we had this
uniform on us and we came back to the School of Nursing to see
which ward we were being sent to the next week for a 12 week
placement. And I went into that School of
Nursing hall and I looked at the list.
I didn't look for myself. I looked to see where Sharon was
going and then I looked for I was going.
Would I be far enough away from her?
At that time there was 1200 beds in Mucklemore and it was a good
hospital and I can remember looking Sharon was going to C8
and then I looked for I was, I was going to C9 and there were
like 2 semi detached wards, both together.
So it meant I had to see her in the morning going to work, had
to see her in the evening coming home.
But then I figured out in my head at least when I get into
that ward I can lock the door. We had to lock the doors because
there were some of the patients not able to maintain their own
safety. So I thought when I get the door
locked, she's outside it and I'll get peace.
All day. I didn't realise how powerful
God is. I remember walking over that
first day with Sharon and she says to me, I'll be praying for
you today, that it all goes well for you.
And I remember going to locking the door and think, well at
least I'll be talking to you throughout the day now.
Well, the first task I was sent to do that morning, we sat on a
handover and I was sent to wash the patients.
We called them patients. We were sent to watch the
patients and get them up from bed, just like home.
I did for me, 9 brothers and sisters or me, seven of them
that were below me and I was sick of it.
So I was doing the same now when I went to be a nurse and that
was no better, I thought, and I was writing grumpy at that
stage. After I'd finished that, then
they sent me to put away the laundry.
Laundry for 12 in our house was bad enough, but laundry for 32
patients was far worse. So anyway, I had this big basket
of laundry and they sent me up to the laundry room, up the
stairs again. You had to open the door with a
key and lock it again when you went on to it.
But I was just on the door and I felt a presence behind me.
And I turned round and this girl standing behind me and she had a
second stripe on her hat. So I knew that she was a year
ahead of me. And I said to her, hello.
And she says, I, I'm up to help you with the laundry.
I said, I'm glad to hear it. And she says my name's Mary
Orange memory had to be a Protestant was a name like that.
But she was a born again Christian.
And she had me locking the laundry, doing the patients
laundry. And as we put away the laundry
that day, she told me my need of salvation.
And I thought I can't get away from these people.
Of course my conscience was checking me.
And she said the same as what Charon said about my need of
salvation and how Christ had died in the cross.
She was very faithful and she chatted all the whole time.
We must have took us about an hour and a half and I had the
gospel for an hour and a half. Anyway, that passed and I
thought, well, if I can get into the war without Sharon, fine and
me, and if I can get onto a different shift from Mary, I'll
be alright. But when Mary wasn't on shift,
there was another girl called Elizabeth Atchison, and
Elizabeth was a Christian yearn and born again, and she was a
Brethren girl. I didn't know what the Brethren
was, but I knew that she was different.
So whenever Mary and Sharon and Elizabeth had finished with me
throughout the day, I was exhausted.
But I certainly knew that I needed to be saved.
I knew how to be saved and why I needed to be saved.
And I often wonder in my daily life when I kneel down at night
to thank God for the day that I've had.
Have I missed out on what listened to people?
They never missed out on what listened to me.
Anyway, that went on for 12 weeks.
I had eight weeks of charter school, 12 weeks on the ward.
And my head was a bit boiled by that stage because I had tracks
coming out of my ears. I had gospel pieces of gospel
literature that other booklets that Charn had given me, Charn
had given me a Bible as well. And I thought, look, if I can
ever get finished here Christmas, I'll get away home
and I'll get my head charred over the Christmas holidays and
at least that'll ease off a bit. But the Lord had another plan
for me. I can remember coming.
We had a wee booklet called the pupil nurse booklet.
You had to have signed off that you you were competent to
complete some tasks as a nurse and we had to get the charge
nurse or the sister of the ward to fill that out.
And the weekend I was finishing on the ward, there's a whole big
racket on the ward because they were renovating the whole place
in Muckamore at that time. It had been built I think in
1959 and it was a bit dilapidated.
So they were starting to renovate and fix the wards and
there was a crowd of joiners who had come into the ward to change
all the wood and fix it up. And I can remember for by all of
this going on, I was going to be coming 18 years of age the
following February. This was November and I was
hoping I would find a boyfriend soon.
And I can remember thanking one of the joiners that was in.
It was quite a nice chap and I would like to keep speaking to
him but I never got the opportunity during those weeks.
I was that busy. And I thought to myself, well,
if it's not to be, it's not to be.
That day I left on my my book to Marty Holmes, who was the charge
nurse. And I said to Marty, can you
fill that out for me, Marty? And I'll go through it with you
what I've done and you can sign me off.
And he says, well, I haven't time the day, Margaret, but come
back tomorrow and I'll get it done for you tomorrow.
He had meetings in the afternoon.
I said, that's OK. And as I was going off the word
that day, I was a bit grumpy on it.
And I remember going out and thinking, never got speaking to
that joiner, never got my book filled.
And I'm going to be way behind. I've always liked things done on
time and I was going off the ward and who did I catch the
sight of in the corner of my eye but Sharon?
I thought not today, I can't take it today.
But I remember I also caught sight of my other two friends
who were finishing that day as well in the ward, and Bruna and
Anne. And they come run over next to
me and we were chatting away and Sharon just caught up with us as
quickly and she, of course, she was witnessing to us.
And I just was at scunner to the whole thing.
I said to her, I said something smart to her.
I can't remember what it was. And I remember her stopping dead
while we were walking and we all stopped and she said, Margaret,
I want to say something to you. Don't you mock God?
You can see what you like about me, but God's Nora's word is not
mocked. And I knew in my heart what I
had been doing was wrong. We were taught to respect other
people's religion. We were taught not to mock
people. But there I was doing it just
because I was a bit thrown that day.
And I can remember her saying to me, I want the three of you
girls to come to the nurses fellowship in the and and hear
the gospel, and then I'm going to leave his alone.
And for a split second I thought, well, that would get
rid of her. Wondered, you know, sometimes
whenever you're on saved and you're asked out to a meet and
you've got to please somebody and you think that's going to
keep them quiet. Well, I thought that.
And then the next thought that came into my head, I can't do
that. And I turned around and I said
to Sharon, we can't do that because I love to go on to it as
a son for Roman Catholic to, to come to a Protestant church.
And she says, well, Margaret, you'll be fine then because in
the School of Nursing you just spent eight weeks in it.
I thought she has me every way. And anyway, we thought, well, to
get rid of her that day, we'll say I will go on the Monday
night. I'd been intending to go home at
the weekend, but we said we would go and we got rid of her
then. And I had every intention of
making up an excuse or saying I was going home.
But it turned out that I didn't get away home the next day.
I went over to the ward to get my book filled out and Marty
brought me and went over a few bits and pieces and signed them
off for me and I had to do something that delayed me going
home that weekend and I decided then I would go to the nurses
fellowship with Anne and Brunnan the Monday night.
Anyway, as I was going back off the ward that day, I went back
to the school, back to the the nurses homes and I was packing
up my clothes to go home for Christmas to get everything
ready. I thought I'd get a fast escape
on Monday night whenever I'm finished.
And my door got a knock again. And I answered the door and
there was the joiner standing there.
And I thought this was great. He's over.
He asked me out. And he says to me, Margaret, I
asked Marty Holmes your name. And I asked him where you
stayed. And I hope you don't mind me
coming to your room. And I says, no, that's all
right. And he says, well, I have
something to ask you. And I was getting pretty
excited. And he says, I want to ask you,
do you know that you need to be saved?
I thought they're coming out of the woodwork.
I couldn't get rid of them. I thought, the Lord has swept
all those Christians up and put them on to Mucklemore anyway.
I thought to myself, you're nice enough, but that'll do that.
And I got rid of them as quickly as I could and I thought, well,
that's not to be. I waited until the Monday
evening and Bruna and Anne and I had a conversation and we'll go
along and see what these boys done and at least we would get a
laugh. And on the Monday night of last
weekend in November of that year, last week of November, we
went along to the Nurses Christian Fellowship.
And I hadn't a clue what went on in the meeting, but we've done
that. And there was about 12 people
including us in the room and they were sitting in a semi
circle. And I sat down and I said to
her, I wonder what goes on, I'm here.
And she says, well, you're about to find out.
So Sharon got up and she had the Bible on her hand and she said
first things, you never start a meeting with an apology.
But she says I have to apologise.
The pastor was to come tonight from Elam is not able to come
into chart trouble or something, but she says I'm going to read
God's word to you and I thought to myself, well, this is going
to be a laugh if nothing else. Sharon's going to preach.
She went to our Bible and jump into John chapter 3 and verse 16
and you'll all know it, I'm sure from your youth and the first
time I heard that verse of Scripture.
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son,
that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have
everlasting life. Do you probably see it and you
don't even think of what you're saying.
But I heard that that night, and you know what I done had told me
directly from God's words that if I was to believe in the Lord
Jesus Christ, I could be saved. I didn't know.
I we were taught on the Roman Catholic Church that was the son
of presumption. And you weren't to presume you
were going to heaven. Nobody could presume that if you
were a child in your day, you went to Lumbo.
If you were an adult and you died, you went to purgatory and
then you prayed your your family's prayed your way out of
it. No such in a place not
mentioning God's word. It's heaven or hell.
That's your choice tonight. That was my choice that night.
And you know, I never understood until that night that I could be
sure of heaven because the Lord Jesus Christ had done the work.
He had paid the price. And I had completed the work and
he sits now at the right hand for the Father.
And Sharon told all of that in the most simple way she could.
And then she went to Matthew chapter 24.
And I always, I always said to her, I still need her an odd
time for coffee. But I always said here that was
the oddest portion of scripture to read that meeting.
She says it wasn't a bit old. Margaret.
The Lord told me to read it. But this is what she read in
Matthew 24 verse 36. But of that day and there was no
man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.
But as in the days of Noah, where, where, so shall the
coming of the Son of Man be. For as in the days that were
before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying
and giving a marriage until the day that Noah entered the ark
and knew not until the flood came and took them all away.
And this is about that really spoke to me.
So shall the coming of the Son of Man be.
So shall, so shall the coming of the Son of Man be.
Then shall 2 be in the field. The one shall be taken and the
other left. Two women shall be grinding at
the middle, the other taken. The 11 shall be taken and the
other left. Watch therefore, for you know
not whatever your Lord does, come.
And I knew in that instance, if God was to come, I was going to
hell. I knew I'd never get into heaven
the way I was. I can remember thinking back to
when I was 15 and Joe was away buying stuff for the shop and I
was in the house in my own. There was a wild storm that
night and the trees were coming down and it was powerful and I
can remember letting down 3B statues and pre entering that.
I wasn't going down to darkness as a child I knew I was going to
darkness. I had seen it when people die
without the Lord. What happened with my granny's
and I just didn't or meet granny and my granddad's and I didn't
want to do that. And I thought well she's just
told me from John chapter 3 and 16 that I can go to heaven.
And I was wanting to be saved that night in November.
But I looked to my two friends to see if it was affecting them
and they were sitting laughing and giggling and I laughed and I
giggled along with them but I was the most miserable of
people. I went back to the nurses home
that night and I thought I need to be saved but I'm not going to
get saved yet. And I started to bargain with
the Lord and it's a very dangerous thing to do.
I can remember that day I got this letter.
I had always wanted to be in the forces of some kind and I had
applied whenever I got onto Mucklemore to go to the REINS,
the Women's Royal Navy Corps of Nursing.
And I thought when I finish here I'm going to go on and do that.
And that was a general course. So I thought I'll do that
whenever I finish here. And I'd got word back that day
that I could go to that one as soon as I finished.
I'd never told Mummy and Daddy I'd done it.
Maybe it would have been a different story of that I'd
known, but anyway I thought Lord let me do that first and let me
do this and let me do that other thing and then I'll get saved.
Anyway, I wasn't a bit happy that night.
It worked on me. Sharon gave me the OR took the
Bible from me and she had marked some portions of the scripture
for me to read. I packed up the next day and I
went home to for Christmas and I helped mummy out round home.
I helped my uncle get ready for Christmas.
Mum had everybody for Christmas, we all helped out and that was
OK. On Christmas Day I was sitting
and I suppose I had a long face and my mother says to me
Margaret, what is wrong with you?
There's something bothering you and you haven't been the same
since you come home for Christmas and I says there's
nothing bothering my mummy. I was too cuddly to say
anything. I was afraid of what would
happen. Anyway, Christmas came and went
and after Christmas I was to do a new placement and I was to go
down and work on yet nards and the general nursing side of
things for 12 weeks. So I went down and I thought at
least when I go to Newton Arts, there's normally on boys down
there, I'll get a bit of peace. And I went down on New Year's
Eve. The sister told us to be there
on New Year's Day and she would induct us into the ward.
And I can remember starting that New Year's Day and the ward, it
was very quiet. There was no admissions that day
and she had plenty of time with me and another girl that was
doing a placement. She brought us in and she
allocated the other girl to a staff nurse and she was going to
be her mentor. And sister says to me, I'm going
to be your mentor Margaret. So you and I have gone to my
office and we'll go for what you need to learn when you're here.
So I went into her office and she closed the door and she says
first thing is Margaret, I want to tell you I'm going to be
praying for you during this placement.
And I got a bit annoyed right away.
She says I'm a born again Christian and she says as well
as praying for your learning and your nurse trainer when you're
here, I'll be praying for you that you that you come to know
the Lord. Well, I had heard for the next
20 weeks and I thought they're everywhere.
These people are everywhere and I laugh about it now and I am so
glad they were. But when I was under conviction
of son, I was torture. I can remember I did all the
things that I had to do and one of the one thing that was left
to do before I left that ward and sister made sure I was on
every duty that she was on. She murdered her duty off mine
so she would be able to witness to me whenever I was on the
ward. But the last thing I had to do
was admit a patient myself, follow them through theatre
night the other end. And I was dreading this because
I had never seen any of that glory stuff before, but I was
going to theatre and she says now I have a patient coming in
and I'm going to allocate him to you.
So next morning this gentleman came in, he came in fasting for
he was going down for a laparoscopic examination of his
abdomen. And he came in that day and I
thought this isn't too exciting. He was 83.
They were going to look and see what was bothering him.
I thought 83 was well, ancient at that time.
I don't think it's so old now at all.
But anyway, I sat down beside the man to do his admission.
Go through the E booklet and there's a part, it was a model
of nursing called the Roper, Logan and Terney model of
nursing. And he came to which was a bit
death, dying on spirituality. And you had to ask them about
did they need to see a minister or whatever.
So rather than scare the man, I said to him, would you like to
see a minister of religion when you're in here?
And he says, no, dear, I don't need to.
I, I go to the Brethren Hall, the assembly.
I thought, well, whatever. And he says I, we have a
teaching elder. But he says more than that.
He says I'm saved. I've been saved since I was 14
years of age. And he said, my wife has gone on
before me, she's in glory. And whatever they find, I'm
ready. Are you?
And there's the man in the sun for the operation and I'm sudden
supposed to be helping him and he's what listened to me.
Well, you've never seen a book getting filled in as quick in
your life. I had to go and get him
Temazopan tablets to put him to sleep and I was glad to see him
going over because it was the only time he stopped telling me
my need of salvation. I gave him the Temazopan and he
went to sleep and then the Porter arrived and I went down
with him through the theatre. First of all, you got to the
anaesthetist room and the first thing they had done was waking
him up. And anaesthetist woke him up to
check his ID and to check that he was who he was supposed to
be. And I remember he woke him up.
And at the minute that man woke, he started to tell the
initiatives he needed to be saved and if anything happened
to him, that he wasn't to worry, he was ready for heaven.
But would he be ready or would I be ready?
This was me. And I'm thinking, yeah, I'm back
over to sleep as quick as you can, would you?
Anyway, he put him back over to sleep and I followed him to
theatre and you'd have thought that's it, the Lord's not on the
air. I thought I'd get peace in
theatre. But when I went into theatre I
stood back as far as I could because I didn't want to see
much. And the the professor, it was a
Professor Mead Smith who was operating that day.
And he said, was there not a student nurse come in there?
And I says, where are you at? I says, I'm back here, get up
here. He says.
So he took me up beside his elbow and he says I'm going to
make these wee incisions and put in the camera and you'll be able
to watch it on the screen there. I thought, right, So he put in
the, he made the incisions and he put on the camera, but he had
blocked and blocked and he couldn't get it through.
And he said I'm going to do an open incision here.
He says just check the OR the permission sheet there.
And we checked the sister and, and myself checked the sheet and
he had given permission to be open if it need be.
So he's, he opened the mop and you know, when it sits in the
Bible and it says very clearly we're widely and wonderfully
made. That is just it because the
surgeon started to open him up and he took out this this mass
of stuff. I didn't know what it was, but I
thought I would have a guess at it when I was asked.
And the professor says to me, what do you think that is?
And I says I think that might be the large bell.
And he says that's right. And he pulled a whale more.
He says, what's this? I says that might be the small
bell. That's right.
And he pulled a whale more and he looked all round.
He says, what's that? I says I don't know.
And I had a wee look. He says that's cancer.
And it's right through this man. He says this man goes to the
same assembly as me and he's saved since he was 14 years of
age. He knew his testimony and he
says he's ready for heaven. What about you and friend
tonight I'd say to you, what about you?
Are you ready for heaven? Because nobody knows when their
time will come. You don't know what hour the
Lord does come. Anyway, he says I'm going to
just stitch this man up and I'm going to put him back together.
And he says we'll give him tender love and care.
So he stitched them all up. And as as he was doing that,
he's explaining that he did the incisions and he did the cutting
and he did the stitching, but God did the healing and he
witnessed the whole time he was operating.
And anyway, I came out of theatre and I thought my legs
were like Jelly. And it wasn't because of the
operation. I remember going out and sitting
beside the man and taking his observations every 15 minutes.
And after about an hour and a half he started to come round
and the first thing he did was put in his hand, cut my arm.
And he says, well dear, what did they find?
I said, would I get you a nurse? And I'm sitting there dressed
like a nurse, like I'm sure he thought I wasn't right.
Anyway, he I said to him, I'll go and get to the doctor.
He says, sit your ground. He says, I know what they found.
And he says, I can praise God, I know now I'm going to be with my
Saviour and I'll see my wife again.
And he says, what about you? If it was you a nurse?
And you know, that rang out in my head, I could have cried
there and then because I knew where I would be if it was me.
I came out as the whole thing that day and finished on that
word and the sister says to me, are you OK?
And I explained to her what had happened and she says the Lord's
speaking, listen for his speaking.
And I can remember I had two more weeks to do in yet Nerds, I
was just two weeks in the children's ward.
I was never going to be a children's nurse, so I had a
very short placement and I had those two weeks round there.
And I have to say God really spoke to me in that ward.
For the first nine days. I had 10 days to do.
For the first nine days everything went alright.
Her sister still saw me because she was still me mentor from the
other ward. But on the last day that I was
working on that ward, every morning I'd sat on to the
handover and I'd heard about this week girl that was in, she
was four years of age, she had leukaemia, she was end stage.
Her parents were with her all the time.
They weren't expecting her to live very long.
I hadn't really worked with her. I had just gone on to do wee
bits and pieces around the ward because I wasn't going to be a
children's nurse. And I can remember that morning
going on last day, trying to get things read up.
I, I went, I went past the mother.
She was sitting holding the wee child, holding hair, not all
Corliss. She was a beautiful child.
And I can remember the mother stopped me and says, nurse,
would you mind holding the my child?
When I go to the bathroom, my husband's just going for his
breakfast up to the canteen. And I says I, that's OK.
So I sat down and I took the child in my arms.
And the mother went off to the toilet.
And just as she went out the door, the child took her last
breath and my arms. And the Lord spoke to me, and I
said, You know not there, you don't know there that I've come.
Nobody knows whenever the Lord will come, or when her time will
be up, only the Lord himself. And that child laid in my arms.
Now I know she went out unto heaven because she wanted the
age of understanding, and I know she went to heaven.
But I knew that it had been me, or I would have been.
Well, that was the end of nearly the end of February going into
March and I was glad to get back to Mucklemore.
It wasn't such a bad place after all.
I thought it might get a bit of peace back in Mucklemore.
My next placement was starting the next week in Mucklemore.
Back there I went and on the Monday night after I finished my
1st shift in that word, I went over to a nurses home and got
changed. Went to went to a nurses
fellowship. I had no notion of going to the
Nurses Fellowship, but I knew I needed to go to it.
And I went to the Nurses Fellowship and somebody was
there and they opened God's Word and read God's Word.
But all I could think about was if the Lord comes, I'm in bother
here, I'm going to hell. And that continued for the next
three weeks. And on the.
Last week, it was the 25th of March 1977, I went to the Nurses
Fellowship. I, I couldn't, I Can't Sing a
note. But they were singing choruses
and the joiner had started to come up.
He knew Sharon from Ballymena. He had started to play the
guitar. They were singing and these
courses, and I couldn't sing them.
Even if I could have sung, I couldn't have sang them because
I wasn't going to heaven. And I can remember that night,
the gospel was preached and I went back to my room and I was
really miserable. I couldn't even speak to anybody
coming out of that meeting and way back over to my room.
And I closed the door and I got down my knees at the bedside and
I said, Lord, let me be and tell.
I'm older. Let me be and I will get saved.
I need to be saved, but I will get saved.
If I get saved, there's going to be an awful racket at home.
So when I got into my bed after I had said the rosary and after
I prayed and after I'd read the Bible's charm give me, and I got
into bed really confused and I went to sleep and I didn't have
any vision or I just had a nightmare.
And I remember waking up and I was ringing with sweat and I can
remember thinking I'm still alive.
I've time to get saved. And I went down the corridor to
Sharon's room. It was 1:45 in the morning and I
thought, I'm going to awaken her, but I need to awaken her.
And I went to put my knuckles on the door.
And just as I did that, the door pushed open and she was on her
knees beside the bed. And I said, Sharon, I need to
get saved. And she says, I know you do,
Margaret. She says Elizabeth and Mary and
myself and a few of us knew that you were under conviction of sun
and we said we'd pray all night for you.
It's such a blessing to people that would pray all night for
you. Well, I got down my knees beside
that bedside and I don't know what to say.
I don't know what to do. But Sharon says to me, Margaret,
I'm just going to read a few portions of God's Word.
So she read a few portions of God's Word and as she was
praying, I said to her, Sharon, I know I need to be safe, but
you know, I'm not that bad. I'm not that bad a person.
I know that I need to be safe to get to him, but I'm not.
I don't live in a moral life. I don't smoke when I don't
drink. I'm that busy pointing the
finger at other people. Well, Sharon says, Margaret, I'm
not going to argue with you, but it says in John's and God's word
and 1st John chapter 1 and verses 8 to 10.
If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves.
It's just I'm going to take you to God's word and you decide
whether God's talking about you or not.
And she went straight to Exodus chapter 20.
I'm sure yous all know the the commandments from you're a
child. And she started to read down
through those commandments and she said I am the Lord thy God,
which has brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the House
of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods
before you before me. Thy shalt not make unto thee any
graven image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above
us. Now spending my life kneeling
down before statues and clay and wood.
And then she went on. She read all of that.
Thy shalt not take the name of thy Lord, thy God in vain.
I blasphemed every to my my mouth.
She went on to say, Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.
I spent my Sundays Mass in the morning, come over in the
afternoon, out somewhere at night.
And you know, I knew that before Sharon went any further that I
was the Sinner that Christ died for.
I had no right to point my finger at other people.
And if you think tonight you're sitting in the Pew and you're
not as bad as somebody else when you look at God's word and look
at what he says in the commandments, and you tell me
that you haven't broken God's law.
If we say we have no Sinner and us we're liars, That's what
God's Word says. If we say we have no son and us
we're liars. Well, I was a Sinner and I was
the sonner that Christ died for. And I remember saying to Sharon
that night, I need to be saved. Now she says, you do indeed.
And you I confess my sons to the Lord Jesus Christ and he saved
me that night and he has kept me ever since.
And you see, the minute I had finished praying with Sharon
after I got saved, the devil said to me, you'll never keep it
because I'd never kept done in my life.
And I said, Sharon, you know what I'm going to tell you?
I'm never going to be able to keep this.
I'll make a fool of the Lord and I'll make a fool of myself.
And she says, Margaret, you're right, you'll never keep it, but
I'm going to show you in God's Word what it says.
And she turned to Jude verse 24. Now unto him that is able to
keep you from falling and to present you faultless before the
presence of his glory, glory with exceeding joy.
The Lord has kept me and He has presented me.
He will present me to His Father when it comes time with
exceeding great joy. I just think that's powerful,
that the Lord Jesus Christ, the only sunless, spotless Lamb of
God, picks up a Sinner and puts his feet on the rock, Christ
Jesus, and then goes on to present that Sinner before God.
Blameless, because I'm covered in the blood of Christ.
And you can be saved tonight if you asked him unto your heart.
You have to look at, I remember somebody sent to me one night.
Well, what about the prodigal son?
I says look at the prodigal son. He came to himself, He confessed
his son to the father, and he was accepted unto the fold.
And you must come to yourself and realise you're never going
to get into heaven because of your son.
Not because God's not a God of love, for he is a God of love.
He's that much a God of love that he sent his only begotten
Son, that you would be saved. And you know, there's no other
way into heaven, not through good works, not through
charitable works, not through any organisation or church.
You've got to come to Christ. And I thank God tonight.
He's saved me and he's kept me. And I knew there would be a
racket and there was a racket at home.
I didn't tell mummy and daddy for three weeks.
I got frightened. And I remember praying with
Sharon one night and she would help me study the Bible.
And I remember saying to her, Sharon, I'm really frightened to
tell mummy and Daddy that my next door roommate was the girl
that I had went to primary school with and I'd always been
friendly with her. And if I wasn't going to tell
her at home, she would have a toll.
Anyway. She said to me, Margaret, you've
got to go home and tell your mummy and give your testimony.
Tell them how you get saved. And she says, tells us in the
Bible that you'll overcome the devil by the word of your
testimony. So I prayed about it and I said,
Lord, you'll have to help me because I can't do this.
And I remember going home to my mum and dad's house and mummy
was in the wee scholar at the back and mummy, her daddy was in
the living room and I said, I want to speak to you and mummy
together. And I went into me bag and
brought out the Bible. Now Sharon had given me a Bible.
She's given me 1111 word, but Danny had the Sharner had given
me the the King James Version and had marked portions of
scripture out for me to read. I started reading John.
That's where I started my Bible study.
And I can remember bringing out the Bible and saying to my
father, look at one of the my friends gave me a muck more.
He says, what sort of people you're on the boat with
Margaret? Are the are they Catholic
people? I says, no daddy, there's
Christian people, they're born again and I'm born again now
too. I could save 3 weeks ago and the
next thing I knew Daddy had knocked me out.
I never, I never remember daddy hitting any of us.
Mummy gave us many as a thrashing because we needed it,
but Daddy knocked me out. And while I came round and he
left to be the scruff of the neck and he says, you'll get
down to Mucklemore, you'll pack your bags and you'll come back
here or we can get you sorted out.
I says, no, Daddy, the Lord saved me for time and eternity.
Of course, I wasn't very long saved.
This was about three weeks after I got saved.
And I didn't know what I should be saying, what I shouldn't.
I said the worst thing possible to my father.
I says, Daddy, the Lord saved Martin Luther, he'll save you,
too. He was a monk.
Well, he caught me to the scruff of the neck and left me outside
the front door and he says don't you come back here to you while
he's up. So I went out to the house that
day and I thought I'm never going to see my family again
because that he didn't make foolish promises.
Whenever he said something that you did, he knew he was going to
do it. And I remember praying about it
and getting back down to Mucklemore.
When I go through the door of the nurses home, the phone was
ringing. So whoever was about answered
and got whoever the call was for and I answered the phone, it was
my mother and she says have you changed your mind?
I says mummy, I'm safe now, that's the way I am and I'm
going to go on with the Lord. And she slammed the phone down.
And for many, many months and years, it was a year and a half
until they asked us back home again.
I would have rang home and should have slammed the phone
down on me, but I started the joiner asked me out then when I
arrived got saved and I started out with the joiner.
We went out together and you know, you think you lost things
when you get saved. I didn't think I would lose
things and I thank God for the things I lost tonight.
I lost my world experience that would have took me to the wrong
places. The Lord supplied me the good
godly Christian people that would help me in my pathway.
I thought I would lost my family, but the Lord was in
control of that and whenever I had days off I spent them in
Muckamore Abbey and I would have been way bigger reading or maybe
doing a bit of study and a bit of shopping or whatever.
I had nowhere to go and Danny had told his mummy about me
getting saved and Mrs Cameron senior had said to Danny bring
you that wee girl down here and I'll help her.
So Danny said to me, Margaret, when's your next days off?
And I told him and he says, well my mother says you're to come
and stay with us. And I says no Danny, I'm not
going to impose. And he says you're coming down.
He says we're going out together, you need to meet my
mother and father and you need to be in company.
So I went down and I have to say before go out tonight, I had the
best. Mother-in-law.
She was a thoughtly woman. She'd got saved in her very
early years and she left school at 14 to work on the farm.
But she was so wise because she knew the Scriptures and she knew
the Saviour. And in those days when the men
went out to work and I was off, she would have sat me down with
the Bible and I would have read the Bible along with her and she
would have taught me things from God's Word.
She taught me what a woman should be in a church.
She was always very wise. She would always have said to
me, now whenever you and Danny get married, if that's the way
you're going, she says you will find a church, you will settle
in it and you'll not be the cause of contention in it.
And she says if you see contention, get out of the way
of it because you're not there to do that.
And I was so grateful for the years I had with her.
The Lord took her home in 1992 through a a bus crash in
Carrickfergus. But I had many years with her
where she was a really wise woman and a soul mate, for she
sat down and helped me through God's Word.
Danny's father was the same and his brothers and sisters the
same. So what I thought I was going to
lose, the Lord replaced one hundredfold.
I lost nothing but my son that night and the price that had to
be paid for it. And the Lord saved me and he has
kept me. And you know, there is nothing
too hard for God. Maybe you're here tonight and
you're saying to yourself, oh, I couldn't be saved, but I'm too
bad. I'm too bad.
Well, that's not what it says in God's Word.
And you always go to God's Word because it is His Word and it
tells the truth. And you know what it says in
Isaiah 55 verses 1 to 8 or verses sorry, verses 6, Seek you
the Lord, while he may be found, call you upon Him while he is
near. Let the wicked forsake his way.
Doesn't say you're too wicked, we are all wicked and deserve
hail. But it says, let the wicked
forsake his way and the unrighteous man has thoughts and
let him return on to the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him
and to our God. He will abundantly pardon.
The Lord abundantly pardoned me, and he will abundantly pardon
you if you come tonight. I thank God for being saved for
him keeping me, and He will Take Me Home when it's His time.
I can turn your minister already referred to tonight to Psalm
103. And that's my wee portion of the
Scripture that I always go to because it just sums up my
testimony. And it says there and verses 3
and four, who forgive us all thy iniquities, who healeth all thy
diseases, who redeemeth thy life from destruction, who crown us,
leave with loving kindness and tender mercies.
And that's exactly what the Lord has done for me.
You'd come to him tonight and be saved.
You know, it took me to see the priest, and the priest threw me
out. I used to get used to being
thrown out. I used to leave my bag at the
door for I knew I was going out at some stage, but the Lord
always opened the door again. And I thank God tonight that He
has saved me. He has kept me.
What I thought was too hard to face, He had already sorted out.
And it says in Job 22, and I'm finishing this verse of
Scripture and this is a lovely verse of Scripture.
Acquaint thus acquaint now thyself with him, and be at
peace, because everlasting peace is found in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Come to Him tonight.
Don't put it off. Come to Him tonight and be
saved. I would like to thank our sister
Margaret for coming tonight and sharing this personal word of
testimony and telling us about the many people that were links
to the chain. And the Bible says, Let the
redeemed of the Lord say so, who may have redeemed from the hand
of the enemy.