Turning Point

Thursday, July 7, 2005, is a day that is etched in my memory.

I had arrived in London on March 1 with a two-year working holiday visa, as many Australians were doing at the time. Living in a suburb north of London, I commuted into the city via the underground so I could work at a large tertiary hospital.

I awoke to my normal morning alarm on July 7 but decided I needed to snooze the alarm for another five minutes in bed. Strangely, I never heard a subsequent alarm and slept in. Oh no! I thought, I’m going to be late for work! I rushed about to get myself ready and bolted out the front door, walking briskly toward the train station, hoping I would get there on time. At the station, the platforms were uncharacteristically full of people.

Then I heard an announcement that officials had suspended train operations. At a public pay phone, I called work, explaining that I had no way to get there.

As I walked back home, I passed a shop with television sets in the window. What I saw on the screens shocked me! I saw emergency vehicles and personnel, mangled train parts lying across the tracks, human bodies covered up, and carnage everywhere! I did not fully understand and rushed home to turn on the television news.

At the same time, I grabbed my mobile phone, which I had inadvertently left behind in my dash for the train not long before. I had eighty-one missed calls, including international calls from my family back home. Then reality hit. The very train I normally took to work each day had been the one blown up! I began to weep uncontrollably.

The undeniable truth was that God had intervened to save my life. Only recently, after straying from my Christian upbringing, I had reluctantly begun to attend church with my two housemates. Though I still had doubts about God, He, in His mercy, would find a way not only to draw me back to Him but also to show me that He cares for me, has a purpose for my life, and wants to give me a hope and a future (see Jeremiah 29:11). That day, seventeen years ago, will forever be a turning point in my life. I can boldly say, “I have found my way back to God.” He has blessed me in my career and personal life in ways I could never have imagined.

He cares for me. I hope you know He cares for you too!

Jenny Rivera