The miracle healing of Robert Conway's wife was a Damascus road experience for the former partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers.,,,
In the early 1990s it seemed Robert Conway had it all. A partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers, he lived in a beautiful home in Andover, Hampshire, with his wife and four children.
But his world began to fall apart in 1994 when wife Sue became seriously ill with ME.
“We had great private healthcare and went to see all the best doctors. But nobody could do anything for her,” remembers Conway.
“At the time I would often come home late because I was not only a workaholic but also an alcoholic. I worked hard, played hard and wanted to stay out of the way because life at home was very difficult.
“Then one night my wife asked me to take her to a Christian meeting. I told her, ‘I don’t really believe it, but I love you, so I’ll be your taxi driver.’”
That night proved life-changing for them both as Sue went forward for prayer and Robert prayed for the first time in his life.
“Sue was miraculously healed and filled with the Holy Spirit. To me that was like Paul’s experience on the road to Damascus,” says Conway.
“A friend later took us to Elim Andover Church where we felt the love of God radiating – it was beautiful. One evening Pastor Colin James asked if anybody there was ready to receive Jesus. I went forward and he prayed for me, and I believe that’s when I was born again. We’ve been blessed to continue to be active members at Elim Andover since that life-changing evening.”
SERVING JESUS
Over the next decade Conway was passionate to share his Christian faith with his colleagues in the business world. But then in 2005 he gave up his successful career to launch Parable Trust, a not-for-profit company that would serve Jesus in the marketplace.
“The vision was to create a storehouse for God in the marketplace to help start and grow businesses. And it wasn’t to be like the way the world does it. It was all based on faith and generosity. So everything that we’ve done was by the way of generosity, by providing seed money, professional support and prayer to help start-up businesses and rescuing struggling businesses without creating loans or taking equity.
“Over the last 16 years we have seen God’s favour and many miracles as we’ve been able to help countless people start and grow businesses in the UK and internationally.”
Since starting with their first £10 seed offering, the venture has helped create global businesses generating sales of £30 million per year and with more than £8 million in net assets.
Now Conway aims to inspire many others, co-writing a book called Conquering the Marketplace which tells the story of the Parable Trust. “Far from being a manual about the marketplace,” says Conway, “this is much more a transparent and often frank guide to the lessons we’ve learned along the way.”
