No Pit Too Deep - Rescued and Redeemed by Love
We are an ordinary couple with an extraordinary story to tell. Today, our marriage of nearly 5 decades, masks abandonment as a baby, abuse as a teenager and the shattering impact of these in our married life, where only the willingness to repent and forgive was key to opening the door to healing our relationship and continuing to provide a stable home for our three precious children.
No Pit Too Deep is our story, written with a brutal honesty, it traces our origins, and vividly illustrates how the traumas of childhood impacted us as adults, devastating our supposedly strong marriage, and leaving us in a pit so deep that there seemed no way out. And yet, as the Psalmist says (Psa 40), in the midst of darkness there was a faint glimmer of hope, a hope that enabled a shattered marriage to be rebuilt into something stronger than we could ever have imagined, and one where we have absolute trust, respect and understanding of each other. It is a story that has been an inspiration to numerous people, across several continents, as they realise that that there is no pit too dark and deep, no situation so awful, no hurt so grievous, no sin too great that is beyond the redemptive power of Jesus Christ. If God could reach into our broken lives and bring such an amazing transformation, then nothing is beyond Him.
Slowly, and often with a lot of apprehension, we started to do this, sometimes during times of one-to-one ministry, and at other times being able to share with groups of people. In this we have been privileged to be able to share not only here in the UK, but also in many churches whilst staying with our family in Texas. We have also been associated with the Explore organisation, which has opened the way to speak to teenagers as a part of the relationship curriculum. Some of their feedback has been so revealing, as so many have expressed surprise that we are still happily together after everything that has happened, often giving hope for their own future. It is such a testimony to God’s grace.
Many times over the years we were asked to write our story down, and so the journey of writing this book began, encouraged by one of our prayer ministers, who exhorted us never to stop telling our story. It has not been an easy journey, with many false starts and disappointments on the way, and when the Psalmist talks about putting all our tears in a bottle (Psa 58:8), all we can say is that it is a mighty big bottle!