September 16, 2024

A New Beginning

We’re pleased to announce that David Jamieson was accepted as a Scripture Reader and started this month.

The first three words of the Bible read, ‘In the beginning…’. These words have resonated with David throughout his life and still today, ‘because every single day is a new beginning.’

David served with the RAF Regiment from 1979 to 1986, during which he completed tours of duty in the Falklands and Northern Ireland.

He wasn’t a Christian during his service years and never met a Scripture Reader. When he was growing up, he was dragged to Sunday school because his mother wanted peace and quiet on a Sunday. But upon joining the RAF, David heard a rumour that anyone who attended church would be relieved from Sunday duties.

David and his wife Laiyee met at Bethany Christian Trust. ©SASRA

I proudly declared myself Church of Scotland, thinking there wouldn’t be a Church of Scotland place of worship in England where I was based – that would mean I’d get time on my own. They said, 'You’re in luck, the Chaplain is Church of Scotland, and he holds services in that hanger.' I’d dug a hole for myself and attended church all the way through my military time.

David’s transition into civilian life wasn’t easy. He experienced homelessness, bereavement and bounced from job to job. During a particularly dark season of suffering, he climbed to the top of Arthur’s Seat with his Bible. The rain poured down on David and soaked through to the skin, he cried, screamed and shouted out, ‘God are you real? Are you not real?!’ He spent the entire night there. In the morning, he got an answer:

When the sun rose through the clouds, I saw two great big sunbeams, which were like big open arms, and without sounding silly, I felt God say, 'Here I am, I’m here.'

All David’s hurt, pain and anguish disappeared. He said, ‘Ok God, how do I get to know you?’
He felt God say, ‘Let’s start at the beginning.’

Confused, David picked up his Bible to leave. It fell open at Genesis and he read, ‘In the beginning…’. And so began David’s journey with Christ.

Fast forward to the 2020s. David and his wife Laiyee were involved in their church yet sensed the Lord was calling them to be involved in ministry. They took three months out to discern and laid everything before the Lord, asking Him to do whatever He wanted.

During this time, David had been working with an organisation that supported the mental health of veterans, and two people had mentioned SASRA to him on separate occasions. While the organisation he worked for acknowledged that faith positively helps with moral injury, nobody wanted to talk about it. David found this very difficult and persistently raised it with his team, trying to explain how faith is such a big help. He prayed and asked God what he could do. He felt God tell him to reach out to SASRA to see what would happen.

Now a new Scripture Reader, David says:

If I can make a difference to people by giving them the hope of Jesus before they come out of the military, then it will make it a little bit different…By giving them the resilience before they ever get to that point is what I’m excited about...I’m looking forward to sharing my faith and having meaningful conversations with whoever I encounter.