A man who felt a wave of peace as he waited to be rescued from a major car crash says it wasn’t until he was asked to print UCB’s Word for Today that he finally began a journey of faith.

Sid O’Neill broke his back and lost a friend in the horrific collision, but thankfully recovered.

He says it was in the wreckage of the car crash that he first encountered God: “I felt somebody reassuring me it was going to be OK. A wave of peace flooded over me,” the former print factory manager says.

His journey to faith took time. He was angry with God for allowing the accident and his friend’s death but experienced another sense of peace after allowing Christian colleagues Jim Donnelly and Neil Calland to pray for him. Still, he ran from God.

“You’d think after an experience like that I’d run to God,” he says. “Instead, I did the opposite. I quit my job and took a contract as a manager at a print factory in Kuwait.”

Sid told how he was sucked into a world of partying, drinking and corruption.

“I made a complete mess of my life and came home 12 months later with nothing,” he explains. But Neil extended a lifeline when he asked Sid to help him print the launch issue of Christian broadcaster UCB’s Word for Today. It was here, reading the magazine, that Sid first read the Scriptures. He quit his Kuwait job and went to work for Neil. One evening, he was brought to tears and faith as he listened to a song based on Psalm 23 while he worked.

“I sat there saying sorry to God. I said, ‘I’ve been running from you but now I’ll run to you.’”

A passionate biker since he was 15, Sid feared becoming a Christian would mean giving up his motorbike. But a week after finding faith, he came across a group of men belonging to the Christian Motorcycle Association.

“I was amazed a Christian could be a biker, but God knew what I needed and these men discipled me.”

Since then, Sid, who attends Elim’s church in Halebank, Widnes, has travelled the world with the organisation, sharing his story.

“God used my passion for bikes to reach other people.”

In September, he was thrilled to be invited to the factory printing Word For Today to be presented with the ten millionth copy of the magazine, and is pictured above receiving it from UCB CEO David L’Herroux.

“I was there for the first copy and I’m so pleased it’s still going strong,” Sid adds.

This article is from Christmas 2021, Issue 80 of iBelieve Magazine. Order your copy today …