David Law, a young apprentice in Perth, took his ‘super bike’ out on a Friday night to pick a girl up.
“Even though I was half an hour late, I stayed below the speed limit because the police were blitzing ‘super bikes’ like mine”, says David. “The next thing I knew I was groggily waking in the hospital rehab unit with brain damage. I had been unconscious for about three months. After three months rehab I tried to go back to work, but I needed even more rehab.”
David moved to Boulder in Western Australia to continue his apprenticeship. “I was well accepted but nothing went right for me. I had no knowledge to fall back on as I was in a different field of the trade and more importantly I couldn’t remember what I was taught five minutes after it was shown.”
All his hopes of a well paid career and a great family life were dashed and it seemed nothing could change that.
David began working in an underground mine as a loco driver to make ends meet. One afternoon, a man asked if he could sit at his cafe table and they began talking over a coffee. “I found out he was with the ‘Jesus people’. Although I did not agree with him he invited me to their Bible study, so that Wednesday night I went to his old miner’s shack.
“The Bible study was a little above my ability to participate, but something kept making me go week after week. After five weeks I went to his place to discuss something and found no one home. As I was waiting around the back I worked out that I had nothing to lose if I tried to pray to God. So talking to the sky I said; ‘Father, I believe that you love me and want me to be your child. I know that I have often done things wrong and for this I am sorry. If you do want me as your child then I am yours, as long as you take the whole of me, the good, the bad and the ugly. All or nothing!’
“Nothing happened. I didn’t feel any different. The next day though was so different – I was really happy, perhaps for the first time in my life – and for the rest of the week that continual happiness remained.
“I had received the Lord Jesus Christ as my Saviour. I had found the real joy of being a newly ‘born-again’ believer, and this joy has stayed with me for years.”
Yet David still battled to work with his ‘brain damage’. Not able to settle anywhere in Boulder, he returned to live with his parents in Perth but work was scarce there also. He was assessed at a mental hospital and put on a pension. “This allowed me to help people who needed help especially in their gardens or house maintenance. I have great peace and happiness for which I praise the Lord my God.”
David began looking for female friendship, but no one was interested. “I was so frustrated with my lack of success that I prayed, ‘Lord I have had enough, if you want me to have a girl-friend and maybe later get married it’s up to you. She will have to approach me and start our friendship then later it will be up to her to talk about any stronger and lasting relationship.’ As it was in God’s hands I left it at that, and did not worry about girls. Months later, one afternoon while travelling on a train a young lady passed me a note, saying that ‘she would like to meet me and become friends’. I moved to sit beside her and we introduced ourselves. I was invited to go home with Sharon and meet her parents.
“That morning I had met another Christian lady on her way to stand at the gates at the Royal Show. That woman was Sharon’s mother. Two years later Sharon and I married. Since then our love has continued to grow. We have two children. Bethel and Jacob, and our love is still growing and maturing.
“God has healed most of my brain damage and given me a tremendous peace and confidence. Through Him I am content with what I have and where I am. My God has supplied all I need to the point that I live better on a married pension than I did when I worked for a good wage. I am now a deacon in the Esperance Baptist Church and am enjoying living daily for my Lord.”