The Potter's House

What happened according to Teresa as I cant remember alot of what happened.

On sunday 17th 2006 at about 5am Errol woke up with flu like symtoms. He could not get out of bed, so I gave him some pain killers and prayed for him. The symtoms seemed to be getting worse. By 9am I decided to call NHS direct. They called an ambulance, By the time they came Errol's body was stiff. By the time he got to hospital he could not recognise me, but he was was praying in tongues. Anyway after hours of tests they kept telling me that the tests kept on coming up with dead ends, they kept on asking me if he has diabeties, it could be maleria, but the most shocking thing that the doctor was that they said they were 99% sure that he had HIV.

It was around 6pm when I rang the brothers to pray for him, I did'nt believe the lies of the devil. The doctors kept asking me if my husband had slept with other women and that the kids and I may also have HIV. By 9pm Errol had really got worse and was moved from A & E to intensive care. We waited and prayed I knew that God would not take im and make me a widow I knew that this was not his will, and that this was a test. Anyway brothers filled the waiting room and they continued praying into the early hours. At about 2am the doctor arrived to tell me to prepare my self for the worst and that I would not make it through the night. They told me to say good bye to Errol, they also said th at he only had a 10% chance of survival. I said to the doctors dont worry I will get my chuch to pray for him, the doctors looked at me funny and said to me what ever makes you feel better!

At this point I asked to see Errol and to really find out what was happening, they were treating him with medication for HIV. When I looked at Errol I noticed that Errol had a funny rash on his hands that I did not see before, I pointed this out to the doctors, they now looked shocked and they knew exactly what it was, it was not HIV it was meningococcal septicaemia meningitis and pneumonia. We prayed all night 2 brothers were allowed to stay and pray for Errol, a fter this a miricle happened and Errol started to repond to the medication that he was getting. The doctors now said that his organs that were failing and his blood that was poisioned by the meningitis was now begining to work again. Everyday after this Errol got a little better with the support of the church and my friends I knew that he would make it, thats why I took the photos, I did get a few negative words but I prayed to God for strengh. I was told that if he makes it he would loose his fingers and toes, I did not believe this for him, anyway 3 weeks later Errol was allowed to leave hospital to go home.

2.5 yrs later no side affects and healthier than before, and I was able to witness to Errol's Family through this situation.

Errol & Teresa Lodge

My name is Morgan I am 20 years old and live in south east London.

I grew up in a single parent home my dad left when I was 8. At the age of 12 I started hanging out around my area and at this age I held my first gun. Where I live you have to learn quick how to be streetwise so I started hanging around with older guys who were making money. At the age of 14 I got involved in petty crime. Smashing windows, robbing shops etc.

At 15 I got involved in the music industry and through that had a lot of trouble with other record labels. At 16 I had someone trying to set me up to get shot but when I saw the gun I ran away. From there I was plotting revenge and also started to plot other ways to make money. At 17 I was planning a major armed robbery. 3 days before I was meant to complete the robbery I came to potters house church to watch a play. And I got saved (gave my life to Jesus Christ). My life changed instantly I did not go through with the robbery and never again have I carried a weapon and have been changed dramatically. I am now happily married.

My name is Funsho Lampejo and I am 19 years old, I gave my life to Jesus Christ when I was 16 years old. Before I started coming to church I used to do lots of crazy things. I was misbehaving in secondary school; I use to go to Archbishop Michael Ramsey Technology College which was one of the worst schools in London. I got excluded about 9 times; I was kicked out of school just before I did my GCSE exams, so I left without any qualifications. I used to smoke a lot of weed and used to be a bully. I got arrested for theft and I tried to be a mug.

Coming to church has really changed my life. When I started coming to church I went back into education and I now have a decent job and the age of 19 I am now married to my beautiful wife. I have turned into a responsible man rather than a threat to society.

My name is Benjamin Baiden. I have been coming to The Potters’ House Church for the past eight and a half years. Before I came to know God, at The Potters’ House, my life was a mess. I came from a broken home, no father figure around, and I was being looked after by my mother (a single parent). I started dabbling in drugs (weed) at the age of fourteen. Because of rejection at home I started mingling with the wrong crowd to feel accepted. At the age of sixteen I got arrested for theft. I got let off by the police that time. However, at the age of eighteen my life went from bad to worse. I got arrested for burglary on my 18th birthday. Two days after that I got arrested for theft also, this time I was going to get a jail term. I got bailed out, but instead of staying in the country and reporting back as I was supposed to, I went to Ghana. I stayed there for three years and came back when I was twenty-two. I started dabbling in hard Class A drugs, like Cocaine and Crack. This led me to sell it to others as well as taking it myself. Even though I was clubbing every week and looked happy on the outside, my life was a real mess with drugs. Unhappiness was eating me up. I was so addicted to drugs that I literally had to be high all the time. This made me look thin with my face drawn in. I was a young man on the verge of prison or death, but one day I met a man at a tube station who told me about The Potters’ House Church and since I hav been coming my life has changed drastically. I no longer take drugs or steal, and am longer a man with no love or direction in his life. I am now married with a child and happy because of The Potters’ House Church and the people who directed me there.

My name is Theo, I am 16 years old, I have been a Christian now for two years and I am loving it.

Before I became a born again Christian my life was going on a downward spiral. I used to be in gangs, rushing innocent people and doing things that a gang does (e.g making violent music, getting the girls). I also used to play football semi-professionally so I thought my life was good and I didn’t really need God.

Just before I became a Christian, I was about to go into ‘shotting’ (selling weed). But one day I was invited to the Potters House Church. I heard what the preacher was saying and it directly hit my heart. So I answered the alter call and gave my life to Jesus on the 8th June 2007.

My name is Josephine Morondiya, I am sixteen years old. I was fostered and lived in North Lincolnshire.  For the first twelve years of my life I was the only person of an ethnic minority in the area where I lived. And through I had friends; there was one girl who constantly bullied me this resulted in my first criminal record in September 2003.  As I was walking down the road with my best friend, and my boyfriend we saw the girl that bullies me in school approaching, she was holding a shiny new phone in her hand and was flashing it in my face, I snatched the phone off her and teased her, and she ended up punching me in my face. As she did this I froze and didn’t know what to do and watched as she rode off on her bike. The next day as I was on my way to the shop I saw her again, she was cursing me and as she walked away I grabbed her by her long hair and threw her to the floor, I kicked her face, her back, her stomach and stamped on her ankle. I actually broke her ankle. A couple of hours later the police came and arrested me and my foster grandma followed me to the police station where they took my photo and fingerprints and a swab of my saliva.

Again at the age of thirteen when I was in year seven my second criminal offence occurred when a girl called my mum a fat pig behind my back so I found her and asked her what she said, she had the audacity to say the exact same words to my face so I slapped her across her face and we ended up in a big fight. I ended up scratching her face and left scares on her, and broke her nose. The police came to the school and took me away. Thank god she didn’t press charges and so I got away with a caution.

The last incident happened in year ten when I was fifteen, I was in the park with a load of girls and a fight broke out. I jumped in to help my friend I hot lads of girl’s with a crow bar, It was brutal. Once again the undercover cops caught us and we all got arrested but, they let us off, Thank God.
I have been a Born-Again Christian for five months and since I gave my life to Jesus Christ my temper is a lot calmer, I still get angry but I am not as fiery as before, God is working in me! Praise God.

My name is Olumide Ogunyinka, I am 31 years old. I got saved when I was 22 years old. Before I got saved I was a very religious person but I didn’t know it. I lived in sin but I knew of God from what my parents had told me and even from going to church with them but I was not living for God. Though I would have gone straight to Hell in my state, I later realised how helpful it was to have known something about God.

When I was 19 years old, my dad was deported back to Nigeria and my brother and I decided to stay. I was still in college at the time and I had to fend for myself and my brother. I became angry at the government for being so inconsiderate and I started to live a very careless life. Prior to dad leaving, I was living in sin; lying, stealing , disobedience and all sorts but I avoided certain things because my dad was around but as soon as he left, I started living a life that was destructive for myself and my brother. I became a very violent man…not thinking about the consequences. Though I never went to prison, I was in and of police cells for violence, possession of weapons , drugs, fraud and theft.

Around the age of 21, just before I got saved, I got into a really bad fight and I nearly died. In my religious state I cried out for the mercies of God because none of my friends were there to help me. That night I was beaten mercilessly, I was beaten with a baseball bat, I got bottled and I was just about to be stabbed when I asked God for help. The two guys started arguing over who should stab me and suddenly a car alarm went off and they fled. News went around that the guy (me) should be dead or at least never walk again but I walked away without even so much as a headache or a scratch.

In 1998 I found out that my girlfriend was pregnant and she started to tell me that the violence had to stop, no more midnight calls for gang fights. So I started to try and change by stopping drugs, raving and fighting but I just couldn’t.

One afternoon a friend of mine came and spoke to me about the change that had taken place in his life and how he had become a Christian, he started confronting me about the issue of sin, heaven and hell. I was a bit defensive at the beginning, trying to argue that I wasn’t that bad, in the end I agreed to at least go to a gospel concert that night. I enjoyed the music at the concert and at the end of the night I gave my life to Christ. Without me really understanding all that had taken place, God started to work in my life and the first thing I noticed was I was able to turn my back on the life of crime, police cells, drugs, raving, violence and everything else that came with it. My friends used to say that I was only getting saved because I was trying to be responsible for my girlfriend since she was having a baby. I remembered them saying it would wear out in a few months, that was nearly 9 years ago. Since then, friends have died, rival gang members have died but I am alive serving Christ and I know that even if I should die today, heaven will be my resting place because of what Christ did for me at the Cross.

Between the age 14- 24 I had got involved in crimes such as Burglary, Robbery, Fraud, Arson, driving offences and Selling crack cocaine, heroine and various other drugs. During this period I was sentenced on three occasions to prison sentences. When I was 19 I started to take crack cocaine, cannabis and drink alcohol every day. My life was a mess, I thought life was just about money. I got to a place where everything started to fragment in my life. In January 2001 when I was 24, I was invited to the Potters House Church, during my attendance at a service I decided to surrender my life to God. I received great support and encouragement from my Pastor and the members of the congregation. I had a court case pending and I was told by my Barrister that the minimum sentence would be 3 years, I continued to attend church during the trial. At the end of the trial I was given a probation sentence and a fine. The church then helped me to stop smoking crack cocaine, other drugs and drinking alcohol. I got a job and begin to earn an honest living, within two years I got married and then we had 3 children. After 9 years of being in church I was ordained a Pastor. I am currently a Pastor and I thank God for the Potters House church.

I started getting invovled in a bad lifestyle from the age of 14 my first offense started off as criminal damage  (Graffiti). At the age of 14 I smoke my first spliff and from there on it was an on going thing.
As I was getting older more things were taking part in my life the drug taking became heavier the seeking for money became more appetising. At the age of 16 I got convicted of GBH and was sentence to a supervision order and a £350.00 fine life had no vision I was just hanging around on the streets of london having different girls and smoking drugs. I was a angry person because of the way life treated me.

It was the day before the Notting Hill carnival and I was arrested for possession of having a few bags of cannibis which I was charged for and ended up with a fine. The next day I went to carnival with a few friends early evening I got into a confrontation with another guy which he then pulled out a knife and stabbed me a few times one of the blows was near my heart I ended up escaping and reach the hospital in which I had 9pints of blood transfusion. My life didn't calm down I was I started smoking heavier drugs such as crack and herion my life was fading and I was stuck in a circle.

When I was 19 I got caught carrying a knife in which I was sentenced to community service. Life started taking it's toll and I ended up with mental health issues which brought me to a low point. My life change when I was in a gym and some guy told me about God I knew there was a God but never really understood I attended a church call the potteres house and thats when my life started having some meaning I never grasp it straight away but I started going properly in 2005 with my partner in who I was with from the age of 19 years and we went church together and we got married and we have two wonderful children see God as changed a dead life to a fulfilling life in the world I was trying to make money on the street now I'm making money legal working a job and serving God with my family if it wasn't for God I don't know where I would be. THANK YOU JESUS.