About Me

I am a Christian, living in the south west of England, who has worked in the area of mental health for many years. I am not an academic or expert of any sort. I first prayed a commitment prayer to the Lord Jesus Christ at a Billy Graham evangelistic meeting held at Ashton Gate stadium in Bristol, England, in 1984. I did not immediately link into a local church and it was only two years later that a friend took me to a House Church in Bristol where I truly discovered the love of the Father and the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

Since that time I have been working in the areas of mental health, addiction and homelessness. However since getting saved I have had a desire to understand God's word and I have had a particular interest in bible prophecy and chronology. Now that I am approaching retirement I am working less hours and have time to produce this website. My hope is that it will publicise the work of some writers who are not so well remembered and kindle an interest in bible prophecy.

My Testimony Video

AI image of Bedminster, Bristol in the early 1900s.

My Testimony

I was born in the city of Bristol, England on July 25th 1958. However my testimony really begins with my grandfather, Ivor Bollom, known as Bert.

Bert was born in Whitehouse Lane, Bedminster, Bristol in 1896. His father was a baker and he had an older brother called Sam. later he also had a younger sister called May and a younger brother called Fred. Bert’s early years were blighted with polio, known at the time as infantile paralysis. This left him lame for the rest of his life and he required a surgical boot with a metal brace on it in order to walk. Bert’s mother Elizabeth spent most of her time looking after him as he had to be taken to hospital every day. His father died in 1911 when Bert was 15

When Bert left school he got a job as an apprentice tailor in Park Street Bristol and he was able to contribute to the family finances.

Philip Street Chapel, Bedminster, Bristol

Bert’s life changed when he heard the gospel preached at Philip Street Baptist Chapel in Bedminster. Church records show that he became a member in 1915. For the rest of his life he was a devoted evangelical Christian and lay preacher.

Through his church contacts Bert met his wife Ruth Gear in 1921. She was the daughter of a London Baptist lay pastor who was also a departmental manager in Harrods, the world famous department store. One of his father-in-law’s responsibilities was to head the dry cleaning section at the store. He encouraged his own son Harold to set up in the dry cleaning business along with Bert. In 1924 they set up the Super Valet Service on Redcliffe Hill in Bristol. Harold died tragically young but after a false start, when Bert went back to tailoring, Bert persevered with the dry cleaning business with the help of his brothers. Over the years the business, now known as Bollom of Bristol Ltd expanded rapidly and at its height had shops all over the South of England.

A Bollom shop in Yeovil in the 1970s.

My father Philip was born in 1926 and he worked all his life in the dry cleaning industry. Firstly for the family business and then for Johnson Group Cleaners which bought out Bollom of Bristol Ltd. He eventually became chairman of Johnson Group Cleaners which was, in the 1980s, the world’s largest dry cleaning company.

I have always looked on my grandfather’s life as a testament to God’s grace and power. Bert was not even expected to live, as a child, and yet with God’s help he was able to create a successful business and have a family of his own.

Even with this example in our family I did not become a Christian for a long time. I was never an atheist but I did not have any firm beliefs. After school and University I just drifted, doing temporary jobs, unable to make any sort of progress. In 1984 I was working in Bristol for a company called Rediffusion installing cable TV in people’s houses. This involved driving round Bristol in a van with my workmates and connecting customers’ houses to the Rediffusion cable network.

Billy Graham preaching at Ashton Gate football stadium 1984

As we were driving around we would see posters for an evangelist called Billy Graham who was coming to Bristol in May of that year to preach the gospel at Ashton Gate football stadium. My workmate Mark and I decided to go along and in fact we went three times. On the third evening we both went forward and prayed a prayer of commitment to Jesus Christ. I believe this opened the door for God to start working in my life although outwardly I did not change. I could not find a local church to attend and did not follow up the commitment I had made. However my life did start to improve. I passed an exam to get into the Civil Service and was able to get my first decent job in Bristol. I bought a flat and thought my life would be simply earning money, getting married, having a family and a better place to live.

Things didn’t work out that way. I suffered badly with kidney stones and in 1986 I went into hospital to have them removed as they were blocking my ureter.

By this time in my life I had just met some people from a church in Bristol called The Fellowship of the King and had been to some of their meetings. I remember walking home from a meeting in a hall in Bedminster and realising that I had to make a definite commitment to Christianity and stick to it. Anyway, shortly after this I went into hospital for the operation. I was in for ten days and during this time God started to soften my heart. Watching the nurses go about their work, I realised that any one of them was a better person than me. At least they had chosen to care for people whereas my own life up to this point had been completely selfish. I had never thought about anyone but myself and my heart was as hard as stone.

I felt this so strongly that I actually started weeping in my hospital bed. Once I was discharged from hospital I went back to work but immediately the old kidney pains returned. The pain became so bad that I had to come home from work and return to my flat.

Songbook from the Fellowship of the King. The worship in this church had a profound effect upon me

The pain at this point was so bad that I just wanted to die. I curled up in a ball and felt myself going cold. My fingernails turned blue. I started saying sorry to God for all the things I had done wrong as I wanted to put myself right with Him before I died. Right at the back of my mind there was a thought that I should leave the job in the Civil Service but because I had waited so long for a secure job I resisted the thought. Eventually it occurred to me that I should tell God that I would leave the job if that was what he wanted. As soon as I prayed this prayer the pain left me. I went to the toilet and passed urine. All the blood and gunk that had been blocking my ureta came out. I went to lie down, pain free at last. I just lay on the floor in my flat. The sun was shining through the window and I actually felt the love of God. For the first time I wasn’t just free of pain but I was free of all anxiety and worry.

The Broken Hearted

I believe that this was the time when I was filled with the Holy Spirit. Shortly afterwards I started to speak in tongues after asking God for the gift and receiving prayer from church members. Since that time in 1986 I have never again had a recurrence of kidney problems.

I handed in my notice at work and for the following year worked for the Fellowship of the King for the equivalent of unemployment benefit.

My desire was to be an evangelist and preach the gospel but my gifts weren’t really in that area. The pastor of the church thought I would be a good psychiatric nurse as I had a heart for hurting people. At the end of my year with the church I did my nurse training and since then I have always worked with people on the margins. By this I mean people, with mental health issues, homeless people, addicts and what the bible calls “the broken hearted”. This isn’t actually what I would have chosen to do but it’s where God has led me and I find that as long as I stay in this area of work there is fruit in it.

That is essentially my testimony. God has allowed me to start this ministry which I have called Prophecy Workshop. I have always been a reader and consumer of information but a few years back I felt God was saying to me that I should stop consuming and start producing. Consequently when I feel I have something to say I publish it online.

As far as my personal testimony goes, there are three main points I want to highlight from it.

God has to be first in our lives. If I hadn’t agreed with God to leave the Civil Service job he would have ended my life in 1986 because the job would have been higher in the pecking order of my life than Him.

2. We can only be fruitful in the areas where God calls us. There are many good things to do but we should stick to the areas where we are called.

3. Be specific in what you believe. Jesus is The Way. there is no other way.

Everyone has a testimony to give and this is mine. I hope to meet you in heaven if not before.