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Testimony

Well, here it is. You have found the most important page in my whole website! I am glad that you have arrived at this page, and would be honoured if you would spend some time reading about how God has changed my life in so many different and wonderful ways!

If you are a Christian friend, you may recognise yourself in some of the photographs used in this section.

If I can help others by telling this testimony, then please contact me. I perform an abbreviated version of my testimony which I tell whilst performing with a variety of juggling equipment (please visit my Christian Gospel Juggling page on my juggling website for more details). This routine is ideal for Children's addresses and juggling workshops in an outreach setting.

I grew up in a semi-Christian household. My mum is a Christian. I grew up going to Sunday School at Viewfield Church in Stirling and met lots of Christian people who taught me all about God. The first mission I went to as a child - Cornton Mission.  I am near the bottom left, and my mum is wrapped up as a mummy in the top right!
When I was 10, my mum told me that I could choose whether or not I wanted to go to Sunday School. I decided that I would prefer to sleep in and watch cartoons instead! When I was 12, a mission team came to my Church, and I had lots of fun playing all the games and learning all about Jesus, but I still decided that I preferred sleeping in to actually getting up early on a Sunday morning! Viewfield Church - picture taken before a Christmas nativity play

Although I didn't know it at the time, God was still at work in my life; he wasn't ignoring me, even though I was ignoring him. It was at this point that God gave me some skills to bring me closer to serving and worshipping him.

When I was 15, my parents gave me a set of juggling balls for Christmas, and I developed an overwhelming desire to learn the art of juggling. Within a matter of weeks, I had mastered the easy 3 ball tricks, and began learning more advanced patterns. I still didn't realise that God had given me a gift, but within a few months, I was performing at Church, and for Charity events. I kept on learning, and moved on to more and more difficult tricks and bought new equipment such as the diabolo, stunt sticks, spinning plates etc. Teaching Spinning Plates on mission in Stenhouse (Edinburgh)

Although, I never lost the willingness to learn new tricks, perform routines and master new juggling equipment, I was still not going along to Church or praying.

When I was 17, I left my job and had a summer free before I started at College. I was asked to put on a show for a group of people in Perth who were on a training day for a children/youth mission to Dunbar. The Dunbar team (which my brother Stewart co-led) was made up of about 20 Christians of all ages and talents, and after my performance, some of them asked if I would consider joining the mission team. I said yes, and a few weeks later, I was on my way to Dunbar to meet up with the team, and I spent a week doing Children and youth events as well as enjoying worship with the team and locals.

When I got home to Stirling after this amazing week of feeling God's presence and seeing God at work, I wanted to know more about him, so I started going along to Church (not Sunday School). My Dad bought me a bible, and I read it occasionally. After just one mission, I had suddenly developed a taste for telling others about this wonderful amazing God who transforms lives (just as he had transformed mine!)

When I was 18, I was asked if I wanted to join the Perth Easter Mission team. At the end of this mission, I was asked on to another 3 or 4 teams for the summertime, and I ended up going on all of them! God was working in my life, and I was using the talents he had gave me to entertain people all over Scotland. God knew I was a shy person, and through time, he began to take my shyness away by giving me a great group of friends on these mission teams. Some of Perth Mission Team - 1996 (my second ever mission)

My Grandad then gave me a keyboard for my birthday. I went through the same process of learning the keyboard until I became good enough to take it with me on mission and perform in Churches and for worship events.

I joined Viewfield Church in 1996 (When I was 18), which is when I stood up in front of the whole church and declared my faith in God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit.

Worship Band at Coylton and Drongan Mission (l-r:  Kirsten, me, Fraser)
When I went to University, I became involved with my Christian Union and became the e-mail co-ordinator. This allowed me to encourage everyone in the CU through the use of e-mails, attachments, bible verses etc and it was a joy to watch the number of e-mails around the CU grow every day! I also started to go to Central Baptist Church and really enjoyed the teaching there. The Christian friends I made in the two years at University are a real blessing to me, and encouraged me throughout my Honours Degree (and still encourage me). Broughty Ferry Team - Going Bananas in 1997
During the summer between my third and fourth year at University (1998), I joined the Church of Scotland CORE Scheme, which is a scheme that enables young people with mission experience to do mission work for 8 weeks. My faith grew considerably in this time. CORE 1998 Team
In January 1999, I got an e-mail from the Church of Scotland Mission Co-ordinator to ask if I could build a web-site all about mission for the Church of Scotland. He knew that my Honours Project was all about web design - "Applying Human-Computer Interaction Principles to Web-site Design". When I had finished the site, I knew that designing websites was the type of work I wanted to do full-time, so God had helped me once again to realise where my life was heading, and guided me to my chosen careers (web design and juggling). Abertay University CU - end of term 1998/99

God has looked after me every step of the way since I graduated from University on 3 July 1999. On the weekend that I moved out of University and back home, I was a Youth Counsellor at Festival '99. It was very moving seeing hundreds of people all come forward to be saved every night. I had the privilege of counselling three such people. I travelled all over Scotland doing mission work for the summer, and was able to become involved with my Charity (Jump Juggle Jest) fully again, when I had a starring role in their production - "It's the end of the world as we know it".

Various jobs followed, which helped me to gain more skills as a web designer. God continually pushed me forward and gave me the web design skills I needed at the right times. After leaving SEPA in July 2000, I had plenty of time to learn more web design skills from home, and build various sites for Church organisations. Various church and charity groups approached me and asked me to design sites for them, which is when I decided that it would be worthwhile setting up my own web design and juggling business.

I have also got involved with my Church (Stirling Baptist Church). They have been great and offered me the chance to do youthwork on Thursday nights and lead football on Monday nights.

On 6th May 2001, I was baptised along with 4 friends at Stirling Baptist Church. This was the most important day of my life. I am still glowing! God means so much to me, and the feeling when I came up out of the water was awesome! Please visit my Baptism page to see the photographs and find out more!
Me getting baptised - (for full size picture, please visit the Baptism page in this section)

On 16 July 2001, I launched my trilogy of websites (Stevensworld, Webdesignworld and Jugglingworld) and also my new Web Design and Professional Juggling businesses. In recent years, I have given up the web design side of the business, and focussed on the Professional Juggling side of the business, and have been able to set up an online Juggling Equipment and Novelty Items store which you can visit here - Jugglingworld Store. I developed my Juggling to involve telling the Gospel through juggling, and now have a full one-hour one man Gospel Juggling Show! One more indication of the way that God is steering my life and helping me to get involved with many outreach activities all over the UK!

God has given us all gifts. We just have to learn what they are and practice them. He will then give us many opportunities to glorify him.

BIBLE TEACHING (Romans 12:6-8) Living Sacrifices:
"We have different gifts, according to the grace given to us. If a man's gift is to teach, let him use it in proportion to his faith. If it is serving, let him serve. If it is encouraging, let him encourage. If it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously. If it is leadership, let him govern diligently. If it is showing mercy to others, let him do it cheerfully."


Conclusion

Even in the early days when I didn't think much about God and ignored him, he was still thinking about me and preparing me for the day that I could declare my faith in front of a church and then follow him, and do what he asks of me. He has given me so much out of life. I have made wonderful friends through mission work. God has given me the ability to juggle and do web design for a living - which is two activities which I am very passionate about. Who knows what the future holds - the sky's the limit!

God is at work in all of our lives. We may not realise this, but it is true. God has given us all talents and wants us to use them to glorify him and bring others closer to him. If you are good at something, then consider using this talent wherever possible to tell others about God. He has changed my life, and I know that he is at work within all of you.

If you are a Christian
I encourage you to realise your gifts and use them to God's glory. Don't be modest! We all have talents. Everyone is good at something, and enjoys doing certain activities. Please pray to God for the opportunities to use your talents and keep developing them.

If you are not a Christian
I encourage you to consider becoming a Christian. Please contact me or make an effort to find out more about the life that God wants you to live. God is real, and involved in all our lives. Please consider this way of life, AS IT IS THE ONLY WAY.

Consider visiting these sites to find out more about following God...


THANK YOU FOR READING MY TESTIMONY,
MAYBE ONE DAY I CAN READ YOURS...

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(Christian Intro) (Baptism) (Church)
(Help Others) (Mission) (Resources) (Testimony)

Steve is a professional juggler - www.jugglingworld.biz
and retailer - www.jugglingworld.biz/shop.html