I began visiting Salem in 1993, was baptised there 18 months later & accepted into membership.  

These past 12 years have brought about so much change for me. Until 1992 I ran my own construction company until I became disable through meningitis. Overnight my life fell apart, I lost my business, my house, & my wife & I parted. My son Adam who was 8 years old remained with me & we moved into a temporary flat near to Dover town centre. The flat was fine but the neighbourhood was terrible. We had drug addicts & dealers living close by & it was impossible to sleep at night with people constantly back & forth, shouting & banging on doors.

It was at this time that I began to think about my faith. I had not attended a church for many years but felt that God was calling me back. One evening I asked my brother to look after Adam while I searched out a church. My intention was to go to the fellowship now known as "The Ark Christian Fellowship". Many years previously I had lived very close to their church in London Road. They had since moved out of those premises as they had become to small & they were now using rooms in South Kent College. On the evening in question I arrived at the gates to the college to find that the vehicle access gate was locked & only the pedestrian gate was open. I was using a manual wheelchair at this time & was unable to manoeuvre it very far unaided. Disappointed I drove around the town to find another church & although there where many, not one of them appeared very inviting (with hind-site & can see that the problem was with me, not the churches). I had all but given up & was heading home when I found myself in a queue of traffic at the five ways traffic lights. I looked to my right & spotted Salem, it looked perfect. A beautiful garden, the minister was at the door & it was level. The only quandary I had was that I did not know of the Baptist tradition, I really didn't know what they stood for. (It sounds very strange now but I think it shows just how important evangelism & community work are to the future of the church).

A few weeks after I began attending Salem, my son also made the decision to join me. I had not pushed him as I could remember bad experiences of church when I had been his age. Instead I had prayed about it & one day, as I was getting ready to take him to my brother, he suddenly said he would like to go with me. Like me he found it a very rewarding time. He made many friends within the church & it improved his confidence. He went on to do a year in Brussels, working with the youth in a church. On his return to Dover he was baptised at Salem & has gone on to work as Outreach Youth Worker with Crosslinks, on Buckland Estate. He loves his work & hopes to continue in youth work for many years.

Over the years we have seen wonderful things in our church & witnessed many happy events. We have also experienced some very tragic times with the deaths of several members, some of them quite young & then the death of our Minister, Reverend Nigel Booth in a terrible accident on his way back from a Christian holiday with his wife June. This in particular hit many of the members very hard, including myself. I wondered how God could have allowed this to happen. Some of the people drifted away from the church but I felt that God was urging me to stay; He had work for me to do, although I did not know what this could possibly be. I have felt from day one & still feel quite certain that God led me to Salem. It was where he could best use me & mould me. Yes there have been occasions when I considered moving to a church closer to home. I had by now moved away from the centre of Dover to River. I still had health problems & getting to Salem at times took a lot of effort, but thanks to God I stuck in there. I sometimes feel frustrated that I cannot take part in all that is happening at Salem but I do know with absolute certainty that the Lord knows me better than I know myself & He will continue to guide me & help me to grow in Faith.

I had undergone a period of counselling after my illness & had gained from the experience. I began to feel that God was perhaps pointing me in the direction of training in counselling & some months later I enrolled at South Kent College to complete a Certificate in Counselling course. I did in fact finish the course & achieved a pass but then realised that I wasn't up to the further training that would be required. I just did not have the stamina to study for the length of time that would be required.

Over the past three years I had also become interested in computers & found it more fascinating getting to grips with the working of them rather than using the applications. I received a great deal of help & support from a friend who has been working in computer engineering for many years. I then found myself, by chance (or so I thought) helping older retired people with their computers. I would set them up for them & give them support with learning. It was in these situations that I found the counselling skills I had learned most helpful. Many of these people live alone & have little contact with friends or family. They look forward to my visits & it is as much a social event as it is learning & they can chat to me as much as they like. I think I have become a better listener now. Before my illness I was always so wound up and always in a hurry, I didn’t have time to listen. I have also found it gave me an opportunity to talk about my faith & I began to realise that God does indeed find the most appropriate tasks for us.

Our original web site had been built by the son of one of our members, as a part of his A level project. He is away at University now & the site quickly became out of date. I began to think that I would like to have a try at rebuilding it. I spoke to another member, George Kerley, who is a web developer for a local company. George gave me a lot of support & between us we have now launched the new site. There is still a lot of work to do, we intend to add a lot more information & graphics, but that is how all web-sites should be considered, improvements can always be made. That is also how we should view our relationship with God. It is a constant journey of improvement & enlightenment. We still will find ourselves going through difficult periods in our lives but God can shine through if we allow Him to.

Sometimes people say to me “It must be difficult being disabled after being so active”. Yes sometimes I have periods when I feel a bit down, especially when I am in pain, but in fact my life is more rewarding now than ever before & for that I thank God. I believe that God is directing my life & I pray that he will continue to use & enable me.                                                                                    John Dixon