By the end of the Alpha weekend John no longer wanted drugs

Alpha was a life changing experience for my husband John Jeftha. About ten years ago John was a drug addict who didn't go to church. We got an invitation to do Alpha and he decided to give it a go. The week before the Holy Spirit weekend we realized that both of us wouldn't be able to go because of finances. That Tuesday I went to work and my employer, Annemarie Petit, gave me an envelope with money to pay for John's weekend. She told me to tell him that God told her to sponsor him and that he is going to be a changed man. I thanked her and gave John the message when I got home. 

On the Saturday morning when we were ready to leave John pleaded for money to buy drugs. I told him that I won’t give him money but promised him that when we return on the Sunday that I will definitely give him money to buy drugs. He said that he will take my word and we left. That Saturday evening something amazing happened to my husband. The next day when we returned home and I asked him if he still want the money he said no and went to bed. Today John is still clean and is still attending Alpha. He claimed the technical position for himself because he says that he finds joy in putting out the chairs for the Alpha teams. 

One Alpha teaching changed my life

When I started Alpha I really had so much going on in my head. I had heard a lot about Alpha from church and seen people attending it but it really didn’t come to my mind that I should try it. Then things got so bad and I had many unanswered questions in my head, I felt so lonely and invisible, I thought to myself at times that no one cares about me not even God, because if He did He wouldn’t allow this feeling in my heart. So when this year started I just decided that I am going to try Alpha, and just maybe I will feel much better. 

I joined Alpha and I enjoyed it. I felt so much joy and fitted in with people around. I learnt a lot about how God loves us and when we think He is not there it’s just the enemy. The biggest part that touched my heart was how Jesus is standing at the door waiting for us to open it; He doesn’t force Himself to come in. I realized that day that even when we as Christians sometimes don’t open for Him to give us more of His blessings, He still does not force Himself into our lives. From that time I felt so much freedom and also felt love from the groups chats (when you are just free to be you and get to mingle with people of different age groups and sharing different ideas). I learnt so much, I gained a better personality and all those questions in my mind were just answered by one teaching that I needed to open doors for His blessing. 

I decided from the first Alpha that I am going to do it again-and-again because it's like feeding my system to gain more knowledge of God. I love Alpha so much, I love the weekend and just everything about it.  It changed my life when I realised there are so many things I was holding back. 

Noxolo Mtwesi

Prostitution & Ghettos couldn't stifle God's love for me

I was invited to Alpha by a friend. I was quite a difficult person to deal with and I had lots of excuses as to why I shouldn’t attend Alpha. I used to hang around Ghettos as a place of comfort, rejected by family due to a lifestyle as a prostitute. I dropped out of school too early, living on my own with friends on the street; smoking Marijuana; drinking alcohol; prostituting for money; being a street fighter that led to many police detentions. With several attempts made by my friend to attend Alpha, I finally decided to give it a try to investigate what Alpha is about. Her main catch for me to attend Alpha was the domestic help given to me. 

During Alpha, I came to love God when I found Christ; it was quite a challenge in this new relationship with God with my bad past. I committed myself to attending Church services; Bible studies and began praying and reading the Bible on my own. The turnaround of my life was on the day away to the Waterloo Community. Before completing Alpha, the Alpha Adviser, knowing my lifestyle encouraged me to pick up my life by learning a trade. I enrolled in a tailoring institution with financial support from the church family. After Alpha, I was driven by passion to meet my old friends and tell them about the love of Christ, though I was never taken seriously. I told them of the predicament of living on the street with “more pain and no gain”. Alpha turned my life around and now my life is a great testimony and is bringing my family and friends to God. 

Ayo Harding, age 21, Ebenezer Methodist Church, Sierra Leone, West Africa.