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Message from the pastor
Hi .. I'm Nigel Merrick, the pastor here at Rockingham Church of Christ. I welcome you to our website. Please read my personal testimony of how I became a Christian.
Testimony of Pastor Nigel H. Merrick
For Gideons International, June 2001
“Secure in Jesus”
A young person growing up craves for security, and it is one of many factors that make the family unit of utmost importance; as for me, in those impressionable years, leading into adolescence, I knew nothing but insecurity due to events that took place in our family in the late 1950's whilst we lived in western Sydney.
Ours was not a God-fearing family, indeed, my father insisted that he was an atheist due to his experiences in World War ; “... if there was a God then why all that suffering and loss of humanity?”, I can hear him say as he would down another glass of alcohol. His emotional and physical pains were great, due to the legacy of being on the Kakoda Trail in New Guinea. My mother had some Christian understanding having been raised in a traditional church but now having had several abortions she was clearly not herself and depression held sway over her emotions.
It was one morning that I awoke and left my bedroom for a drink, only to discover my mother was on her knees with her head in an oven and with the smell of gas forcing me to cover my nose due to the pungent smell I raised the alarm. The house broke out into bedlam as my father, being a medic during the war, sought to revive his wife.
The days that followed could only be described as unbearable, as my mother was placed in hospital and then a mental institution for nearly a year; then there were the school bullies who hearing of the lot that had fallen to our household were intent of punishing me for bringing, I suppose, disgrace to the neighbourhood – any excuse will do for such behaviour!
What does an insecure child approaching his teens do when confronted with such pain and humiliation? I looked to cover the pain in my heart by applying myself to sport - cricket, soccer were the order of the day both at school and on the weekends. However much these wholesome activities were; the pain and hurt surfaced and I was forced to ask the meaning and purpose of life.
It was in my first year at Parramatta High School in 1959, that the students were brought together at an assembly and presented with little red covered New Testaments, these were from an organisation that I had not heard of before, “Gideon's”. With me never having owned a Bible like this I can remember eagerly taking it home and thumbing through its pages. I was particularly impressed with the section which contained something like, “Where to Find He1p”, this was to provide a wonderful resource for a struggling teenager who continued to examine its passages as the difficult days passed. I cannot say that I read through the Testament but tended to rely on reading the passages that were marked when one was fee1ing in a low condition, they were extremely comforting especially the Psalms. How pleased I was for these aids for I had no idea of where to look in the Scriptures for anything but deep within me there was this realisation that this was God's Word and it salved my tortured mind.
A watershed in my life took place when I was 16 years of age, it occurred when my father was offered a
promotion in Perth and it seemed to me that such a place would solve my difficulties that I was having in the
family and at school. Nothing like changing one's location to do away with life's problems, well, so I thought!
It within sight of the family moving when a protest was made on government circles about my father obtaining
the position and it went to appeal. Those were anxious days for me and in that dark time I can vividly recall
saying to God, “If you are really there, then I will give you my life if the appeal is overthrown and we go to Perth!
In God's sovereignty we left for the West a month later and what lay ahead could only be
described as the outworking of the Lord's marvellous grace.
Promptly forgetting the request I had made of God, I set out to leave school and enter the business world. In looking back one can see the hand of God moving in His strange ways that are beyond human reasoning or explanation - I had given up on Him but He continued to seek after me!! I was directed by the employment agency to an insurance company and at the interview was informed that I was to commence as a junior clerk and the person who was to train me, I later learned, was a Christian youth - a year older than myself, who was the son of a Churches of Christ evangelist, Pastor Jack Bond.
Ken and I developed a friendship and he invited me to his father': church one Sunday night, it was the first church I had ever entered and I was scared to death. That night, at the Scarborough Church of Christ, I was to hear the Gospel presented for the first time, that God loved me so much that the Eternal Son of God went to Calvary's cross in order to die for my sins. The congregation was called upon to repent toward God and believe on the Lord Jesus and you would be saved - the preacher was speaking to me!! I was challenged to publicly declare my, faith but I was afraid. Interestingly, this church would later have me to be their pastor for ten years!
On many occasions Ken invited me to meetings, whether in church or at tent meetings and several times l attended - hearing the same challenge, and believing l should own Christ publicly in the light of the "bargain" I had made a few years before. All this time l would read that Gideon's New Testament and say to God, "one day"'. That day came when near my 21st birthday, there was no particular event that occurred but a realisation that there continued to be a void in my life, that now, tennis, a girlfriend, a car, a job, money in the bank could not fill and l determined that one Sunday night in June 1966 would be the time when l would attend the Gospel Service and dedicate myself to the Lord in accordance with my plea some years before. l told my girlfriend of what I intended and asked her to consider to do likewise, but she refused - it was a tense drive to the church, which was over the other side of the city. Our relationship broke up a little time later.
The evangelist gave his appeal and l struggled again with the thoughts that I was good enough, but the Spirit of God was strong on my mind that l needed to yield to God's purpose for me. Taking that first step was the most difficult thing l have ever had to undertake - having made it, it was like light was everywhere enshrouding me and l walked on air! l knew God had done a work in my life.
Several days later I was out on our unit's balcony thinking over the events of the past that had led to the decision for Christ and my insecurity with people came to my mind and overwhelmed me, it was at this point that the Spirit brought to my mind the thought, that if God accepted me then l could accept myself and it mattered not what others thought - l was to follow Christ!! The assurance that I was secure in Christ was a liberating though for me and texts like John the Apostle's "I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you might know that you have eternal life"' (1 John 5:13) sustained me as l came to understand that I was now a child of God and that God was now my heavenly Father.
Time does not permit me in this presentation to relate the threats I faced from my father when he learned of my decision and subsequent baptism but especially when I shared my desire to respond to the call of God into a Theological College and train for the ministry. Those were extraordinary days when the Lord's presence was fulfilled that He would be near.
Since that time I have served in three churches for a total of 25 years in the pastoral ministry and in recent years I have been serving Far East Broadcasting Company (FEBC), an international Christian broadcasting mission, as their National Director in Australia.
In looking back over those years I can thank the Lord for what has occurred and l praise Him for His marvellous grace toward me. I will always remember that Gideon's Bible that was used of the Spirit to sustain me in trying times and which paved the way for God's seed being planted in my life and the fruitfulness that the Lord has been pleased to work through my life.
Pastor Nigel H. Merrick