Ian Bleakley
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Hello to you! Well most of you reading this probably know me already - but for those who don’t, I’m the son of a preacher man (Ken!) and my name is Ian. I’m now 23 and I’m easy to find as I’m the tall one with the Irish accent in the church.
So now the intro is done, I’d like to take this opportunity to share a wee bit about me and my life with you. I was fortunately and thankfully brought up in a Christian home and have been a Christian since about the age of 7 or 8. This was the age where I started to understand a bit about God - it was all basic knowledge, but gave me a good foundation in my early years. It wasn’t until I was mid-way through secondary school, about 15 or 16, that I started to build on this foundation. I knew God was always there but I just never really thought about Him as much until this stage. This was when I got involved in more activities in Mountpottinger Baptist Church (Belfast) like Boys Brigade and the youth fellowship. These, along with the Church services and Bible studies helped me to gain more knowledge and progress with my faith.
At this stage I was more confident as a Christian, whereas before I was a very shy guy who just plodded his way through school. I never liked school, but just sort of kept my head down and got on with it. I then got the opportunity to go to Romania when I was 17 to help out with kid’s camps for two weeks. This was a great experience for me as it brought me out of my shell and more in to Gods word and all that surrounds it. I enjoyed it so much that I ended up going out again to the camps for the next two summers, and one winter – and one more winter just recently at the New Year. It was actually the last summer I was in Romania that I got a phone call from home saying that dad had been offered the position at Larbert. For me, I just felt somehow that it was the right way to go and didn’t need to think about it a lot.
It’s really been since that stage where God has been much more prominent in my life and in everything I do. I’ve noticed God working in my life a lot more, as well as the whole family. For example, as I said before I never really liked school but decided to give university a go anyway. This turned out how I thought it was going to be – pretty rubbish! But if I hadn’t left after the first year I would not have been able to come to Scotland and so I don’t think this was a coincidence. Also, my friends back in Belfast were all starting to do their own things like university/work and so we were all at the stage where we were sort of breaking up – again no coincidence I believe.
And so since moving over here, God has really blessed me with a job (which still remains in Next unfortunately, but keeps me ticking over!), friends and many opportunities from simple things like travel and hobbies to getting more involved in Church activities. As for now, I am still looking to see what God has planned for me. I don’t know what He has planned but I know it when it comes along it will be the right way forward. If you told me three or four years ago what I would be doing now, I would never have thought or said ‘living in Scotland!’ But in these past years I have learnt a lot and am still learning. One thing I have learnt is that although we know that God is always there, we don’t know what He has planned for us. To help with this, I continue to remember Hebrews 11v1 – ‘Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see’. My faith has brought me this far, and trust it will continue to do so in the future.
Thanks for reading! God Bless,
Ian
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