| A Life Transformed |
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For the past 37 years Glaswegian Bill McGibbon has been working with ex offenders, offenders on release and those at risk of custody. Bill knows fr  om personal experience that Jesus Christ can change lives. His life was transformed when he became a Christian in prison. Here is his story. Bill’s birth was not planned or anticipated with joy. In an outside toilet, his mother tried to abort the baby she carried. If it hadn’t been for his Aunty Annie, Bill would have not survived his birth. ‘She saved my life,’ says Bill. Rejected by his mother and neglected at home, Bill was taken into a children’s home for his own protection. ‘My mother and I loved each other from a great distance. Aunty Annie, I discovered 20 odd years later, was a Christian. In 1944 God had put her in the right place at the exact time of that day because He knew He had something for that child to do in his time.’ Bill returned to live with his mother in a single room with little or no money. The young Bill longed for all the things his friends possessed; thieving seemed the obvious answer. ‘I learnt to steal at an early age,’ he recalls. This proved the slippery slope into a life of crime, violence, drink and drugs. To show just how poor and how hard their lives were he says: ‘I slept in a bed for the first time the day I got married – 1st August 1964. I’d slept on fishmongers slabs, in drawers, in wardrobes. ‘I became foul mouthed. Because my mother was so violent, I thought that was the way you had to live. It came as no surprise when I was finally put in prison.’ Bill first met his wife of 45 years Margaret when she was just 11. Margaret has been a constant loving support to Bill through the bad times and the good. ‘I always knew he would come back to be the boy I knew and loved,’ she says. In HM Barlinnie Prison for attempted murder, Bill unexpectedly found himself in the chapel listening to the preacher. ‘Take off the old and put on the new’ was the message he remembers. Returning to his cell, Bill picked up his latest Dennis Wheatley novel. He’d always been fascinated by black magic and Ouija boards but imagine his surprise when the passage in the book spoke of getting to his knees and asking for God’s forgiveness. That night in 1972, Bill McGibbon did just that. He made a decision to follow Jesus Christ. He asked God for forgiveness of all the wrong in his life, accepted Jesus as his Saviour and Lord and started a whole new life. ‘I felt so free and great inside,’ he says. ‘I believed what the man said in the Bible class. I had become a Christian. I wrote to Margaret: Dear Margaret, I’m bringing home someone you cannot see… I still have that letter at home!’ On his release from prison, Bill contacted the same preacher to ask ‘what do I do next?’ Gordon Haxton has been faithfully leading Bible studies in Barlinnie for 58 years. ‘You find like-minded people, people who love the Lord’, Gordon told Bill. And that’s what he did, becoming good friends with Gordon in the process. Bill also made a vow not to do drugs, drink or smoke ever again. Margaret found the ‘new’ Bill hard to believe so she followed him to church. She made her own commitment to Jesus Christ that night. Bill and Margaret’s lives changed for good. The family moved to Dundee where Bill got a job, after five interviews, in a girls’ borstal. He studied social work, went to theological college before becoming a governor of an institution for men coming out of prison. Now Bill is continuing his ministry by heading up Transformed Ministry in Scotland, helping ex offenders, their families and friends. You can see Bill tell his own story on YouTube/TranformedLives. ‘Why am I still here?’ he asks. ‘Because the message that was preached was pure gospel (good news) from the Word of God.’ He finishes his story with the words of an old preacher. ‘Lord, fill my mouth with worthwhile stuff and shut it when I’ve said enough!’ Transformed Trust – Raleigh Park Baptist Church, Arodene Road, Brixton, London, SW2 2BH Monthly meetings are held in London and Southampton. See website www.transformed.org.uk for details of meetings around the country. |
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