TIM'S TESTIMONY
(The true testimony of
Tim Carré, Australia).
Many thanks for your wonderful site, Museltof, may God bless your ministry richly. Do you want
to use my true testimony? Tim Carré, (Australia).
PART ONE
Biarritz,
France Oct-Nov 1981
We set out from St Malo,
France after a quick trip across the channel in the Hydrofoil, The kombi van we
were in was just our means of a cheap 1000 km one way petrol shared taxi as the
driver and his girlfriend were to continue on to in Northern Africa to surf
Moroccan waves. It was all such an amazing experience for me to be part of a
real life surfing adventure through Europe (I was then turning 19 years old).
On arriving at Biarritz we found the local campsite at a place called La Barre near the famous hangout of
Les Sables Les d’or a café complex filled with the
coolest of international surfers and other such adventurous young people. As it
happened we managed to pitch our tent alongside others who were likeminded from
other parts of the world, from memory our new friends were from South Africa,
California, England and somewhere else. We placed our tents in a circle to
stake out our claim. We had come to find this a team of eight adventurous
surfer mates that were on fire with our surfer lifestyle. When the surf was
down we would explore and shop together in the daytime for French cheese,
French bread, French wine, the nights we partied on with the local girls. We
caught some amazing waves and one time we even train tripped over to San
Sebastian in Spain for a few days to experience some more pretty wild and
exciting moments of worldly youthful, fun and games.
Encounter with a difference.
One night we went out to Les
Sables Le Dor to party with some French girls we had
met and after some time of drinking and chatting I sat down next to a Spanish
girl on her own. After getting to know her a little we went to the beach for
privacy to undertake the usual non-Christian thing, after the moment of
intimacy she turned to me in broken English and said “my boyfriend is a
Warlock, if he finds out what has happened here he will destroy you !” this did not mean much to me at the time but I went
away feeling a little weird from what she said. Maybe it had some bearing on
some of the things that were about to happen next !
The
Wave
A few nights later we were all
sitting around our camp fire in the camp site up on the hill of Le Bar when we
began to hear the sounds of distant explosions, these noises were like great
loud pops or claps (the release of air when the top of a large wave peals over
and drops), it was the Atlantic swell (and a great one) that we had been
expecting for three weeks. I excitingly motioned to the guys that we would surf
at dawn and so I chose to go to bed early for the early rise. When I awoke I
shook a few legs and realised that the others had stayed up and drank much more
Bier the night before so I grabbed my wetsuit and surfboard and ran down the
street towards the beach. As I peered over the sand dune I could see a great
site for any surfer, perfectly shaped large glassy waves with lines way out to
sea. I put on my wetsuit quickly and without caution I entered the water.
I remember paddling hard
aiming straight out to sea, the waves were mounting up like small buildings and
I remember paddling vertically over giant swells, I was in a time period of
what surfers call a ‘lull’ (the calm period between the sets), this was a lengthy
lull but I convincingly thought it was the period of the ‘sets’ (when the waves
were coming in the biggest) even in this time of ‘the lull’ these waves would
have been 15 feet on the face. I managed to get to where I thought was the safe
spot on the outside of the sand reef and took a break to watch how the waves
were breaking behind me and to consider my next move and if I had the courage
to catch one of these monsters. After about ten minutes I was looking out to
sea for the next set to appear when something strange and awesome began to
happen (by this time I was probably 350 yards off the beach and therefore a
long way out). I began to notice that out to sea it seemed that the horizon was
moving, there was a distinct rising of the ocean positioned in front of me and
a very long way off. As I continued to watch this area of ocean (possibly a
mile wide) it began to rise higher and higher and I began to panic like I have
never done since. Coming towards me was a very large wave likened only to what
I could imagine a tidal wave could look like. I remember that I was stunned to
see it keep rising and rising and recalling this moment has always returned
fearful tears and a panic to me as it is doing now. I have often described it
as if you were sitting at the sideline of a large football stadium and watching
the whole field turn up vertical on its side.
I began to panic severely and
I remember the thought going through my head “I will never make it to the beach
if I paddle that way”, “it would be better to try and paddle towards it”, “that
is crazy” and I decided that the only thing I could do is to stay where I was,
aim my board towards the beach and hold on with all my might as hopefully if
get pushed down deep then I will have a better chance of floating to the
surface again. I remember watching the wave peak up to its highest and the top
section came exploding down about 150 or so yards in front of me. The white
water was also a massive towering wall, an explosive loud roaring lion speeding
towards me. I started to call out to God to save me and just before the
collision I let out a blood curdling scream from deep within everything in me
“””JEEEESSSSUUUUSS !!!!! HELLLPPP MEEEEE””” the fear was tremendous and
absolute as I knew that there was no hope for me and in a few moments of time I
was surely going to die!
I remember the impact of the
great wall of white water to be explosive, my board just disappeared and I
didn’t even feel the leg rope attached to my leg snap, my body was stretched
from limb to limb under the water and I was thrown like a rag doll in every
way, it was too powerful to slow down, I was too far out and this was not any
ordinary wave.
Suddenly
everything went perfectly still and as this happened everything increased to
become bright white, the total fear instantly disappeared turning into a total
peace and I was surrounded by an awesome love feeling that simply consumed
every part of me, there was stillness and an this awesome whiteness of light
was all around me, everywhere. I had no sense of a physical body, it was just
this incredible awesome eternal place (I had a sensation of timelessness), a
place that you would not ever want to leave, perfect peace and love like
someone was holding you in their arms. Like if you were an infant and went
shopping at a busy location with your mum, if you were to get lost and
terrified and screaming then suddenly her hand appeared, picked you up and
tenderly cuddled you in her arms.
On writing this down tonight I
am reminded that it is exactly 21 years ago to the month that this happened.
The thought of this moment quickens to me the reminder of that awesome fear, it
still chills me and the fear returns momentarily bringing me into a place of
trouble and tears. It is a vivid moment that I really don’t want to recall but
I know that it is important to tell this story and I must add that it does not
stop here.
I remember some time later
opening my eyes high up on a wet sand dune probably 4-6 metres above the
elevation of the tide level and maybe 60 metres up from the waters edge, I had
no pain and my lungs contained no water, I looked up the beach away from
Biarritz to my surfboard which was Northwards about 100 metres away also high
up on the beach. There was no one to be seen, as it was still early in the morning,
I was stunned by what had happened and simply just left it at good luck that I
was not hurt! I waited a while then I walked home to the camp. Looking back on
this moment some twenty years later I know now a life principle that ‘our
disappointments are often Gods appointments’.
A few
days later.
The swell of the ocean had
subsided but it still was biggish surf by any surfer’s estimation. I was out in
the water one morning and said bonjour to a face I had recognised from our
camping ground. He was a young Frenchman who had pitched tent with his mates
nearby to us. I could not speak his language and he could not speak much
English but we knew enough to communicate that he was inviting me to his tent
to share a joint together (marijuana). When I had returned back from surfing
that afternoon Pete chose to cook dinner and at that moment I was called over
to the nearby tent to where the French surfers were. They instructed me to
enter the tent and join them and out of wanting to maintain the image of coolness
I entered. The tent was closed behind me and they began to say there hellos and
I could tell that they had already become quite stoned. One guy in the back was
instructed to do something but I could not see what he was doing. They handed
me what I thought was a normal joint to smoke and implied that it was for me
and as I begun to smoke it the atmosphere of the attitudes inside the tent
began to change. They began to laugh in a strange cackling manner that made me
feel very uncomfortable much so that I knew that I had to politely leave. A few
moments later I was sitting at the apex of my tent when Pete handed me a plate
of baked beans. I began to waver, dropped the plate and began to scream, what
was going on inside of me was extremely horrible. If I had a few days before
experienced something of God then at this moment it was definitely the
opposite. What I remember was I entered what seemed another place spiritually
where things were totally out of control a place of absolute fear with
unrecognisable monster type beings attacking my again non-bodied soul. It was
awesomely horrible, I remember how it stopped, it was at the sound of a loud
thunderbolt that went crack and I snapped out of it instantly. Pete said later
that they had to hold me down and put pillows over me inside the tent to keep
me quite as I was having a screaming fit from a bad trip. Before you all write
me off as a weirdo druggie I must say that I have never ever taken any heavy
drugs and I absolutely abhor them. I have since researched the situation and
have been informed of two facts, the reaction was from probably being
(unadvisedly) given what was called then ‘Angel Dust’ and secondly people just
don’t instantly snap-out (thunderbolt) out of such a trip. I know now that God
had his hand on me and he was not going to let me go !!
After this moment I walked to
the beach feeling pretty much bedazzled by my experiences, I sat on the sand
dune and looked out to sea. I closed my eyes and I remember seeing clear
pictures of what I can only describe as unknown individual people filled with
love and joy fade into my mind then out again in the sort of a way you can do
this on a video camera. These people all seemed extremely happy and again
filled with a joy that I had yet to discover, at the same moment Gods spirit
began to speak a clear message to my heart to return immediately to Australia.
(More of these people later)
From the point of that day
onwards in France a series of clear miracles happened, precisely one after
another, miracles of perfect and immediate provision. (Ask me about this if you
like) This led to a few weeks later landing in Brisbane airport in Australia
and as we were touching down at about 5am I looked out the window and I was met
with an instant feeling of peace.
Please go on to Part Two of my
story and expect surprises!
PART TWO
A Season of Change
Following this I had an
interesting 18 months, in that time every one of my imaginable worldly hearts
desires were given to me to every extent imaginable. Beautiful sexy
girlfriends, wild parties in my free home, I became a good fighter through
attending Tae Kwon Do, I had the coolest of jobs in the then biggest surf shop
in the world, a cool Kombi Van (even with a Les Sable Dor
visor sticker that went right across the top of the windscreen), mr cool with all my friends, plenty of money, more girls, a
store of the best dope in Australia (and was selling a bit also), frequenting
the night clubs, everything that I thought was the ultimate in life.
Regardless of this I remember
clearly saying from my heart near the end of this 18 months period “THERE MUST
BE MORE TO LIFE THAN THIS and IF THIS IS ALL THERE IS TO LIFE WHEN A PERSON
GAINS SUCCESS AND THE THINGS THAT THEY HAVE DESIRED THEN WHAT IS THE POINT” my
mates could not believe that I could entertain such thoughts as in their eyes I
had it together and was everything they themselves were aspiring to be. It was
not enough, it was the dry revelation that I needed to seek the truth and do it
with all my heart. In that 18 months period I had truly been opened to many
areas of interest including mind power techniques (including books written by
Bruce Lee), the study of body language interpretation, Eastern Meditation
(including the use of it within Martial Arts) and other things like theories
and secrets such as the survival of ancient cave dwelling Inca/Peruvian
civilisations. All sorts of things I looked into but could not find that
missing piece of the puzzle of my life and the truth and meaning of life had
become the hunger of my heart to find. Near the end of this period some
interesting things began to develop.
It seemed like over night
everything was striped from me totally, immediately everything fell to pieces,
I lost my short term memory so I lost my job, my beautiful looking girlfriend
attempted suicide, I lost the house, my money was gone, my kombi blew up, every
single one of those things were simply taken away and way out of my control. I
was left unemployed and totally alone. I moved in with my best mate Gary and his
brother Glen in a city apartment and my girlfriend would visit on the weekend.
Glen had a girlfriend named Savannah and ultimately she became friends with my
girlfriend Karen. Savannah and Karen became good friends and they began to go
away together to the North Coast to visit Savannahs sister who was married to a
surfer who was a Pastor of a coastal church. Over this same period I began to
buy a surfing newspaper named ‘Line-Up’, it was a normal newspaper/magazine for
surfers with one exception the Christian Surfers association had rented a small
section in each addition where they creatively wrote clever little surfing
stories that related to parables that Jesus taught eg
the parable of the sower of the seed/word of God
would become the parable of the introduction of surfing to a few different
types of guys. These little stories stood out to me powerfully but I would not
tell anyone. One day I was invited to the North Coast for the day just to surf
and to hang out with the girls. We stopped at Savannahs sisters
house and a young lady rushed out to meet us in the driveway, she did not know
we were coming. The first words she said to us were “God just told me that
three people were going to arrive this morning and he wants me to tell them
about Jesus” I straight away decided that she was a crack-pot and went in for a
coffee with the others. She was very enthusiastic and couldn’t stop telling us
about how the Holy Spirit would help her when she was out in the waves surfing
and that the Holy Spirit would teach her things. Later I met Savannahs brother
–in –law and he seemed like a cool guy, he did not say much about God but he
spent some quality time with me showing me surfing photos and we talked about
the local waves. There was something different, special and real about these
people, something shiny, something that I didn’t have
and I knew that I wanted it.
Soon after this meeting both
Karen and Savannah became Christians, they would invite me to church and I
would decline saying that it was just another trip people go on. There was no
way in the world that I would ever become a Christian at all
! and that was final.
Changes started happening in
me when I began to see changes in them, I saw Karen transform into an innocent
and pure hearted young lady (and I knew Karen!), I remember thinking “this type
of change just does not happen to a girl like Karen”. I remember that I started
to sneak into church and hide up in the balcony week after week, they never
knew. One day the minister turned, looked up at me in the balcony and spoke his
entire message directly to me, it was as if he were Jesus himself, he knew
everything about the deepest unknown secrets of my heart and this was too much
to ignore. I later got hold of a Good News Bible and read it from cover to cover
and the incredible thing was for the first time ever every word came alive to
me and the stories and lessons remained with me. I knew all these things were
doing something but I still did not want to be known as a Christian not only
that but from my reading of the Bible and the Christian Surfers parables I knew
that the commitment would have to be everything for always and forever.
Turning Point
One Friday night Glen, Gary
and I decided that we would go out on the town, we would be loose and we would
make a great evening of it, ‘no holds barred’, and we did !
We started off with a meal at
a popular social hangout, started drinking then we taxied to numerous clubs,
picking up girls as we went, dancing, a bit of fighting, smashing glasses on
neon signs and running from bouncers belly laughing as we went, we did
everything that excites three guys out on the town in one evening of great guy
stuff, we were still pumped up on returning home the next day. When we arose
from sleep later that afternoon Gary turned to me from his bed next to mine and
said “hey are you awake? in all the years of our raging and nights out that was
the greatest night we have ever had out Tim” in reply I said these words “Yes
Gary it was ! but I have made up my mind on something,
that is the last time for me, today I am going to become a Christian”. He
replied with some choice words that I would not repeat. When he was not around
I knelt down next to my bed and gave my heart fully to Jesus.
Confirmation
I began to attend the Church
where Karen and Savannah were attending, two weeks later I was asked if I
wanted to be baptised in water along with them both, I told the youth Pastor
that I had just read about Jesus being baptised and if it was something that I
needed to do I would do it also. That night something awesome happened,
something very special took place. When I was under the water being baptised in
that split second of time I had the same experience again that had taken place
in Biarritz, France over 18 months earlier, the experience of the light, the
love and that awesome eternal revelation, as I came up out of the water I began
to speak in a new language, the language of the Holy Spirit that I previously
knew nothing about, I was drained of energy, I was shaking and I could not speak
normally for literately hours after. Jesus had set me free, free to be who I was meant to be and free to experience a new world and
a new adventure and the start of a full and amazing new life.
Since Then
I made a firm commitment to
Jesus and was baptised in August 1983 at the age of 20 years. I then moved into
a guy’s discipleship houses in Brisbane before moving to the Byron Bay region
into a dynamic Christian community named “True Vine”. In 1984 the Lord showed
me clearly to go to New Zealand, after this he showed me the reason, he wanted
me to attend a Bible and discipleship school within the organization named
“Youth With a Mission”. In August 1985 I left
Australia and said goodbye to the girl I was keen to marry in my church and
have been associated both directly and indirectly with YWAM now for a period of
18 years. I have also had periods of self-employment as an Interior Designer,
Renovator and a Sub-contract Painter in various countries. I have been involved
in serving ministries within Australia, NZ, the Pacific Islands, the UK and USA
(Hawaii)
Currently
I believe that Gods Holy
Spirit spoke to me when I first went into YWAM training college in 1985 saying
that “it is to the degree that you allow me to deepen the foundations of your
life then it will be to the degree of the ministry that I can build upon this
foundation, the wider the foundation the taller the building”. After twenty
years of walking with the Lord and extended full time periods of serving
discipleship and mission ministries I sense that he desires to keep releasing
me further within areas of international evangelism, teaching and Christian
ministry.
Currently I am producing
Christian television shows and documentaries in Australia that major on life
changing testimonies in the lives of committed Christians,
we are being led in particular with targeting specific and unusual people
groups with sharing the gospel.
I believe that God has been
shaping me for many purposes in him. I am open to his leading and intend to see
great things take place as he continues to guide me on his invisible mapped out
path. I have a strong desire to continue to see others facilitated and
mobilised into missions work and to see others trained and discipled
to fulfil Gods highest calling for their lives.
Encouraging
I have seen God's hand at work
and I know that he has all power and authority to change circumstances and I am
totally convinced that I should not be alive today to have made the account of
this story.
Psalm 91:11-12, 14-15 says, he will command his angels
concerning you, to guard you in all your ways, they will lift you up in their
hands so that you will not strike your foot against a stone. “Because he loves
me” says the Lord “I will rescue him, I will protect him for he acknowledges my
name, he will call on me and I will answer him, I will be with him in trouble,
I will deliver him and honour him, with long life will I satisfy him and show
him my salvation”
1 John 1:5: God is light, in him
there is no darkness
Tim Carré.