"Nothing is impossible to God"

I was born in a little terrace house in Constance Street. I was one of a family of eight children, four boys and four girls, my parents were not Christians but they were very loving and caring and it would have been hard to find more loving parents anywhere. As a young boy I went to Avoniel Primary School then to Euston Street P.E. School. On leaving school at the age of 14 I started work in Loopbridge Weaving Factory and my working day was 8am – 6pm 5 days a week.

At 16 I started my trade as an apprentice joiner. In the workplace there were Tenters’ Fitters Dressers Slashers and though we were all different religions there was a common bond in that we all loved sport. We played cricket for the same team as well as football in the ‘Works League’ minor division. We also swam in swimming galas and played Water Polo for Belvior ASC and Donegal ASC we also went to dance halls and other places, Catholic or Protestant it made no difference.

I never smoked cigarettes nor had much interest in girls rather just having a good time with my mates was the way it was for me until coming to the age of 18 when I saw a young girl “new to the factory” she was a very quiet girl but after some weeks I asked if she would go out with me. She said “yes” our first date was on my 18th birthday. I found out then that she had been a Christian for some years, but like many couples love grew and it was long walks, or a gospel meeting. That didn’t change much for me I still enjoyed my sport and time with my mates.

I was now almost 19 and I left the factory to continue my joinery work in the building trade. The firm I worked for had a contract to replace all the clear panes of glass with wired glass in every police barrack in Belfast, to help improve security as there was terrorism problems even then. My job was to take the sash frame out and the glaziers replaced the glass.

It was while I was working in Hasting Street Barrack that I had a wonderful experience. When the glaziers and I were having our lunch in the boiler house, it was in the basement and as usual we debated, discussed, argued about anything. This day it was about impossible things. It was impossible to drop an egg and put it back in it’s shell, and such nonsense, then for the sake of argument I said I believed that nothing was impossible with God, and so the discussion went on.

Then I saw what looked like a book on a ledge below a window, I reached up and lifted it down it was covered in dirt and soot, I wiped it down and found that it was a Bible which had been torn in half, across, part Old Testament and part New Testament. I knew a little about the Bible, but as I had it in my hand, one of the men said it would be impossible for you to put that through the eye of a needle. Not to be outdone I replied “If I could roll it up like a thread then I could”, the men said “we give up” and left me on my own.

There I was on my own in a dark boiler house with a torn Bible in my hand so I just opened it and the first words that I read were ‘For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God’ Luke Chapter 18 verse 25. I was on my own nobody to talk to, I knew that this was a verse speaking to me. I didn’t know what to do I never had a feeling like this, What did I do, I just asked God to please forgive my sins and come into my heart. That was on Wednesday the 23rd of March 1955 from that day on my old life had changed, that same night I told my mates that I had been saved and would not be going to many of the places I once did. I have often thought of that day and wondered who the man was that tore the Bible and who was the one who put it on the shelf, I may never know but I know that ‘the entrance of His word giveth light’, God gave the light to me in a dark boiler house.

Now instead of the dance halls it was mission halls. I loved the singing and people seemed so happy and now I knew why. Eileen and I went to many mission halls I was still a young Christian of a few months but I enjoyed going to Iron Hall and at the age of 20 I became a member of the male choir, the fellowship there was sweet and still is. Eileen and I were married by Pastor Evans in Iron Hall in June 1957, we have four children one daughter and three sons all are happily married, we have nine grandchildren whom we love dearly. God truly has blessed me.

Jim Simpson

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