Beloved King Ministries is a Christian Internet Fellowship founded in Brisbane in 1999. The name itself refers to our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ as supreme King of Kings. As at July 2001 there are over 2500 members worldwide who share their experiences and inspiring stories about the love of the Lord through the Ministry's on-line E-mail Magazine, "Making A Difference" with membership growing at the rate of about 10% per month.
Jesus told us, as there is more joy over one lost sheep that is rescued than over ninety-nine that do not need rescuing, so there is more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine that do not need to repent (Luke 15:7). If only one person who visits this site experiences the absolute joy that a personal relationship with Jesus brings then making this web site was worth all the time, expense and effort to do it. That joy and inner peace is indescribable in mere words but, when experienced, it surpasses all other feelings of pleasure and happiness combined. It is our prayer that you will experience such joy and, when Jesus returns to resurrect His own to be with Him for eternity, we will meet in His Kingdom - maybe for the first time.
"God's Deal With YOU" was written by David Rex Holt as a result of a message he received from the Holy Spirit, his experience of Christian faith and as the outcome of adversity. The book was researched over a three-year period as a mission to share God's truths with people everywhere.
It is being made available through this web site to many people around the world for as little cost as possible. Through the Internet, there is a much greater potential readership and interactive participation. Therefore, all feedback and enquiries are welcomed. It was not written to make a profit. However, any donations to offset costs will be gratefully received and used solely for maintaining and upgrading the site and thus furthering God's Word of Truth. "God's Deal With YOU" is also available in paperback copies and an order form is available on this web site.
DAVID REX HOLT BA. APSNZ.
|
You are listening to my favourite
hymn: "How Great Thou Art" by Stuart K Hine
|
||||
Then sings my soul, my Saviour God to Thee, How great Thou art, how great Thou Art! Then sings my soul, my Saviour God to Thee, How great Thou art, how great Thou Art! |
Born in Cheshire, England in 1942, the son of a pharmacist/professional photographer, my education was in various parts of Britain as my family moved around the country. My mother, who worked in Dad's chemist shop, was a committed Christian and I will always be grateful to her for my name - David being Hebrew for "Beloved" and Rex being Latin for "King." As a teenager I was a member of her Anglican Church choir so I grew up knowing about God although I can honestly say that didn't know Him personally. However, I have always believed that there had to be someone greater than us who carefully designed and created us and the world in which we live.
Whilst not a very keen scholar, once I had completed and passed my ordinary level GCE exams, I left school at 16 to work for Ian Allen's Locomotive Publishing Company near London. Having learnt the basics of publishing and the book trade and living away from home, I soon became homesick. I returned to live with my parents in Christchurch, Hampshire where I got a job with a small printing firm. A few years later, when a large wallpaper manufacturing company moved their operation from London to the old De Havilland aircraft factory at Christchurch, I was one of the first local recruits to join their workforce. This resulted in my rise to full qualification and within a very short time, I was a tradesman twelve-colour wallpaper printing machine operator.
In 1964 I met my first wife, Carol and we were married two years later in her family's Methodist church. After we returned from a European tour in 1967, my employers announced that an associate company in New Zealand needed tradespeople and would completely finance relocation there if there was anyone who wanted to go. A new start in a new country seemed like quite an adventure so I volunteered.
In September 1968, Carol and I arrived in Wellington. For the first month, we spent half the time crying at the thought of our families being 12,000 miles away beneath our feet and the other half exploring our beautiful new environment. Talk about mixed feelings! Eventually, we found a lovely home overlooking the Paremata Harbour and settled into our new life. At this time, Carol found a job at a local real estate office where she met a Salvation Army officer who invited us to their Sunday service. As newcomers in a strange land the welcome we received was wonderful and we soon became regular attendees.
Sunrise from our balcony at Paremata
In 1971, our first son Daniel was born. He timed his arrival well as he was born about twenty past midnight on the very first day of new legislation allowing fathers to be present at births. According to the hospital staff, I was one of the first fathers in New Zealand to witness the miracle of a new life entering the world. Two years later, son number two, Clinton came along. At the time, our doctor was somewhere out on a golf course and so it was left to the nurse and me (and Carol) to make the delivery!
Soon, both our sons were dedicated to the Lord at the Salvation Army and Carol had settled into being a full-time mum. Also in 1971, my parents planned to emigrate from the UK to New Zealand on my Dad's retirement. But sadly, just two months before the birth of her first grandson, my Mum passed away and so Dad made the trip alone. That year, the family along with Carol's parents and my father went on a holiday from one end of the country to the other. If you have never visited New Zealand, you have missed a real treat. It is a wonderfully diverse and beautiful country and all in two islands that can be easily toured in less than a month. As a result, I now enjoy a sideline business planning itineraries for people planning to visit New Zealand.
Before leaving Britain, I had become interested in photography and had joined a local photographic society. When we arrived in NZ, I continued this interest and founded the Kapiti Camera Club. After leaving the wallpaper trade, I became a representative for the NZ Canon and Mamiya agents. This took me into the studios of professional photographers across the country and certainly stimulated my interest in the art. Click here to view a portfolio of some of my photographs.
During my time in the photographic equipment supply industry,
a friend and I opened a small part-time studio in Wellington and as time passed
my experience grew with the result that I became more and more keen to go
into the profession full-time. In 1977, the opportunity presented itself when
a client in Hastings told me that he wanted to sell his business and so we
moved to sunny Hawkes Bay. Not long after going full-time I was awarded an
Associateship of the Photographic Society of New Zealand.
Sadly, this move produced a negative aspect in that, when we went along to
the Salvation Army in our new home, we did not experience the same loving
fellowship that we had enjoyed in Wellington and eventually stopped attending
Sunday worship. It was at that time that I drifted about as far away from
God as at any time in my life.
In the spare time that I did have, I took up Orienteering. I served as president of the Hawkes Bay Orienteering club for two terms and, in 1981, won the silver medal for my grade at the New Zealand National Championships.
In 1982, we acquired a home with vacant land beside it on a busy arterial road in Hastings. I built a residential studio that incorporated everything I had seen and admired in the studios I had visited all around New Zealand. Many photographers from around the country came to see our facility and admired what we had created. During this time, I served two terms as president of the Hawkes Bay Professional Photographers Institute. <
From a very early age, I have always been an avid railway enthusiast and my youth was spent "chasing" - no, not girls - but steam engines with my schoolmates. I well remember the Rev. W. Awdrey, creator of Thomas the Tank Engine and how I often wondered about a church minister who had the time to write about trains! Not very long after arriving in NZ, I met some steam locomotive enthusiasts who had acquired from NZR two main line steam engines that were being retired in favour of diesels and who were building an engine shed to house them at Paekakariki, just 5 kms from my home. Needless to say, I joined the group, Steam Incorporated and became part owner of one of the engines, J1234. Click here to visit the Steam Incorporated web site.
Photo of J1234 by Christine Johnson
Click here for my own rail pictures.
The move to Hawkes Bay meant that I was now over 200 kilometres from Steam Incorporated. With a business to operate, there was now not a lot of time to make the trip to Paekakariki. However, in 1986, I was invited to give a slide show of pictures of NZ steam I had taken over the years to a railway enthusiasts club. At that meeting, an announcement was made that a small group was investigating the possibility of building a live steam miniature railway in Hawkes Bay. An invitation was extended for people interested to attend a meeting to be held the following week. Needless to say, I went along and thus began a nine-year odyssey of building and operating what has been declared by visiting enthusiasts from around the world as one of the ten best miniature railways in the world - The Keirunga Park Railway at Havelock North. In 1994, Havelock North Live Steamers hosted the International Convention of Model Engineers, "Steam On The Hills" with great success. As the publicity producer for the event, I assisted with the production of a 40-minute video by Video East of Napier commemorating the convention. I was also editor of the club magazine "Keirunga Park Platform." Click here to visit the Keirunga Railway web site.
Me Driving Sinclair Mallet at Keirunga Park
Sadly, in 1989, my marriage to Carol ended in separation and subsequent divorce. I married my second wife in 1991 and we started attending a Pentecostal church in Hastings and were baptised together in February 1992. My experience with this church is documented in "God's Deal With YOU." Following the death of my father-in-law 1995, my wife, stepdaughter and I moved to Queensland, Australia to be closer to my father and stepmother. By then in his 90th year, my father had been ill in hospital and I wanted to be closer to them. However, four years later, sickness eventually overtook him in early 2000. My eldest son, Daniel had already preceded me to Australia in 1990. He now lives in Toowoomba with his partner and four children whilst Clinton is still in New Zealand and has one daughter, Madison whom I met for the first time just after her sixth birthday in May 2003.
Many early readers of Making A Difference will probably remember that, when Madison was born with a defect in her respiratory system, she was given very little chance of survival. For the first three years of her life she lived in the ICU at Auckland's Starship Children's Hospital and breathed through a tracheotomy. Unable to speak, Maddi learned sign language to communicate her needs and thoughts to those around her. From the very beginning of her life, Maddi was loved by everyone who met her. After her throat was virtually rebuilt and she was, at last, able to speak, she was transferred to the Hastings Hospital much nearer to Clinton and her Mum, Jenny. At that time, in an effort to make hospital a slightly more friendly place it was decided to give the corridors street names and the main corridor in the children's ward was named Madison Avenue.
When I first met her and Clinton told her that I was his Daddy, Maddi immediately held up her arms to be picked up and said, "Hello Papa!" and from that moment on, there was no looking back. In some ways her beautiful, outgoing and friendly attitude is a bit scary because one wonders how she would react to a potential child-molester. However, many, many prayers brought her through her early difficulties to the point where she is a happy little schoolgirl and I pray that God will never take his eyes from such a precious jewel.
Just a few weeks after arriving in Australia, to my absolute horror, my wife became involved with the Scientology cult. Despite every effort to deter her from this, it only made her more determined to join them. One day, her new friends arrived and took her and my stepdaughter away. In a strange country with no friends except my aged father, stepmother and my son, this almost destroyed me. For a while it looked as though we may have been reunited as my wife ended her association with the Scientologists, but this was not to be and unfortunately I have not seen her since. It was then that I believe I hit rock bottom.
Fortunately, praise God, a friend in New Zealand wrote telling me of a Christian convention due to take place in Brisbane early in 1996 and suggested that I go along. This certainly took my mind off my woes and reminded me that, no matter what happens, God never stops loving me and, after the convention, I began to attend a church near my home. It was there, some months later that I received the message that I believe came from God's Holy Spirit which prompted me to do some very serious Biblical research, the result of which was a book that, over the next three and a half years, grew into "God¹s Deal With You." My research not only clarified the message that I had received but also opened up a lot of other questions and provided, as the Bible always does, of course, the answers to those questions.
The absolute joy of coming to know God intimately through His Word is very hard to describe. It is like a wellspring bubbling up inside until it completely overwhelms. On more than one occasion I have received puzzled looks from people in the street when I have spontaneously burst into "How Great Thou Art" as God's love embraces me. There is nothing to compare with that sort of joy.
When the book was written (to a publishable stage), it became very apparent that I would have great difficulty finding a publisher who would even consider it. Most secular publishers are not too interested in becoming involved with what they consider to be a "religious" book and just about all religious publishers are affiliated with some denominational church. As readers of "God's Deal" will see, I am pretty scathing of Satan's deception of the vast majority of Christendom. Thus, I figured that most religious publishers would reject "God's Deal" too. It was then that I decided that I would publish it myself on the Internet. This was done in December 1999, and soon after, I started receiving emails asking questions and offering comments and ideas. By February 2000, I realised that many questions were covering very similar topics. In response, I decided to send out a "generic" email in the form of a short "newsletter."
This was sent to 51 people in various parts of the world. By the end of that month a number of people had replied with emails including nice Christian stories and testimonies and Newsletter number 2 was sent out on March 1. The response to this was even more exciting. It was obvious that the recipients had forwarded the newsletter to their friends as requests to be added (or to add friends) to the mailing list started arriving almost daily. By June 2001, what started out as a little email newsletter had become a magazine with a title ("Making A Difference" - suggested by Florida reader, Jan Guilbeau) and was sent to well over 1200 people. One recipient has told me that he forwards each issue to over 2000 people in his Christian web circle and so I have no idea of how many actually arrive in email inboxes all around the world each month.
One other event which, in hindsight, I can see God used powerfully, was when, in 1998, I fractured my vertebrae trying to move a piece of furniture one evening at home. At that time I was employed as general manager of a small local company and, in fairness to my boss, I resigned my position since I was not permitted to work for several months. It was during that time that most of "God's Deal" was researched and written. Had the accident not happened, I doubt that the book would be finished now! Once again, God had used calamity for good.
Eventually, when I was able to at least walk short distances, I was sent to the Commonwealth Rehabilitation Service for assessment and direction to a job that I could do without further risk of damaging my now very fragile spine. Following some discussion, my case manager asked me why I had never attended university, as he believed that I was capable of obtaining a degree. I told him how, as a teenager, my main objective had been to get out of the classroom! He then suggested that I should consider going now. When I stopped laughing, I realised that he was dead serious. To cut a long story short, I applied to be admitted as a mature-age student and was accepted to Griffith University in Brisbane in 1999. By doing extra courses each semester, I graduated as a Bachelor of Arts in Screen Production in 2½ years.
To enable me to enjoy the necessities of life, I work in Brisbane as a taxi driver. It has surprised me how many opportunities to spread the Word this has afforded. Meanwhile, producing and mailing out "Making A Difference" takes more and more time as the mailing list grows ever longer.
I am indebted to Graham Parker and the team at Workin4u Pty Ltd for their contribution of design skills and ideas in the making of this web site. I would not hesitate to recommend them to anyone who needs the help and guidance of professionals in promoting their business or for personal web pages at affordable prices.