"Christians In Touch" -- Geoff's Jottings Archive

Remember the wonders He has done

October 2003

Praise be to the Lord, for he has heard my cry for mercy. The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trust in him, and I am helped. My heart leaps for joy and I will give thanks to him in song. The Lord is the strength of his people, a fortress of salvation for his anointed one. Save your people and bless your inheritance; be their shepherd and carry them forever. Psalm 28:6-9. (NIV)

Praise be to the Lord, for he has heard my cry for mercy. The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trust in him, and I am helped. My heart leaps for joy and I will give thanks to him in song. The Lord is the strength of his people, a fortress of salvation for his anointed one. Save your people and bless your inheritance; be their shepherd and carry them forever. Psalm 28:6-9. (NIV)

Since moving to South Wales I have had four homes, or to be more honest, four upheavals. I have always tried to ensure that each time we move I have some form of workshop or somewhere I can work with wood. The last house was blessed with a substantial workshop. I love making things for the home as well as Christian gift items in native hardwoods. Besides the normal type of woodworking I had always wanted to master the lathe, I had always admired the wood turners when visiting exhibitions or craft fairs. I was fortunate that a pastor I knew was very much into wood turning and I popped round one day to see him, I explained what I wanted to do and he agreed to teach me the art. I was able to purchase a very nice lathe that was quite large, I was thinking of the future with bigger ideas. When the lathe arrived it was in several boxes which was just as well as it took my brother and I all our strength to lift each box onto a sack barrow and wheel it down to the workshop. When we had it all assembled I realised that I would have to stoop slightly when working so using a number of car jacks we raised it up and placed blocks under the legs. I dont know how much the lathe weighed but I dont think it was much short of a ton. Most wood turners work stooped over the lathe but because of my back problems I needed to work in an upright position.

As the months went on the pastor along with another friend would come round on a regular basis and teach me and I took to it like a duck to water. God really blessed me. I entered a competition in one of the magazines and won first prize, it was a weeks wood turning course with the countries top wood turner and it was in beautiful Devon, we made a holiday of it and I really enjoyed myself and learnt so much. It was a bit like being back at school, at the end of each day I would take home the item I had made and showed my wife and children.

I was down my workshop one day and working at the lathe when I had the most horrendous accident, or so it seemed at the time. The chuck of the lathe caught the sleeve of my jumper and in a split second had snatched my arm into its jaws, the force was so great that the lathe came off the blocks and I was falling backwards with the lathe following me, I must have cried out to God, I had managed to switch the lathe off with my good arm, I put one leg behind me to act as a brace and with my one good arm I reached out and grabbed hold of the lathe and lifted it back onto the blocks. In my own strength I could never have done that. I must have stood rooted to the spot for a minute or two trying to come to terms with what had happened in just a few seconds, My left arm was in a real mess and I knew that I would have to go to hospital.

I managed to cut away my jumper and free my injured arm from the chuck and holing it to my chest I went down into the house, my wife called an ambulance, the paramedics got me into the ambulance where I spent half an hour being attended to before we drove off to the hospital with the lights flashing and the siren wailing. Matthew my son came with me. We got to the hospital and while I was being x-rayed the doctor went up to my son and advised him to make his way home, the doctor said I would be there a long time having my arm re-built with metal plates and rods. When I came back from x-ray the doctor was amazed, nothing was broken. The gaping wounds were treated and I returned home heavily bandaged up soon afterwards.

Two miracles happened within the space of an hour. I had lifted a good ton back into position and God had saved my arm. God is watching over us all the time, He loves us dearly and when one of His children calls out for help He hears and He acts. Praise His wonderful name.

Give thanks to the Lord, call on his name; make known among the nations what he has done. Sing to him, sing praise to him; tell of all his wonderful acts. Glory in his holy name; lets the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice. Look to the Lord and his strength; seek his face always. Remember the wonders he has done, his miracles, and the judgements he pronounced. 1 Chronicles 16:8-12. (NIV)

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