Peters Story
Peter Hamlett is a solicitor specialising in Commercial Property and Corporate Matters in Halifax, West Yorkshire. He is married to Beryl and they have one daughter, Sarah and two grandchildren!
Peter's Christian life story could be described as a journey from religion to relationship, from formality to faith.
Brought up in a Salvation Army home (being a fourth generation Salvationist on both sides of his family), Peter invited Jesus into his life when he was only seven years old. He knows that the experience was real because he remembers it so well. God accepts the childlike response of a child, to Him! The problem in Peter's case was that, although, hopefully, he matured in all other areas of his life, he did not 'grow up' spiritually for many years. Nevertheless, he became involved in the busy activities of Salvation Army life, especially brass banding. He is grateful for this framework within which he was held until at last his experience of God became a day to day reality for him.
It was not much less than thirty years after his initial response to the Lord as a small boy that everything changed for Peter. By then he was a local leader in the Salvation Army in Halifax which has been his home since he married Beryl (a Halifax girl born and bred!) in 1965. But he knew that there was something vital missing in his spiritual life. He saw in others evidence of a reality of relationship which he knew he didn't have. He occasionally sensed the presence of God in his life but it was a rare experience. For the most part he was trying to 'do his duty', to attend meetings regularly and to fulfil his responsibilities as a 'pillar of the church'. He said his prayers and he read his Bible but now comments that there was usually little 'praying in the saying' and, as to Bible reading, it might just as well have been a railway time table about as interesting and, in terms of practical application, probably less useful!
So, what changed and how did it come about? Well, a good friend of Peter who was his close colleague in the Salvation Army, had experienced something entirely new in his spiritual life. Peter had hardly even heard about the Baptism in the Holy Spirit and was completely bemused by reference to the charismatic movement but it seemed that his friend David had met with God in a new way and something had certainly happened to him. So David and his wife Jean began a series of meetings at the Salvation Army to introduce others to the discovery which they had made. The problem for Peter was that, not long before this, he had decided to make an honest man of himself, to stop pretending to pray, to give up on a chapter a day Bible reading and to excuse himself from future prayer and Bible study meetings (which he had dutifully attended whilst, generally speaking, being completely bored by them). So he wasn't going to go to these strange new meetings was he? His difficulty was, though, that he was a pillar of the church and the meetings were being arranged by his very good friend. What was he to do? Eventually he made the only honest decision possibly open to him he sent his wife! Although Beryl was, at first, disturbed by the meetings, she was fascinated too. God had been speaking to her during the previous months and preparing her for a release of the experience with Him that, for so long, had been contained inside her. As Peter witnessed the release, he knew he had to make his own response. He began to attend the meetings. He hated them at first; they seemed alien territory to him, but God was working on him! One beautiful morning he was out jogging all alone. Without realising it, he had begun truly to pray, reasoning things out with God, expressing his confusion with an honesty which has the ear of God far more than many a structured prayer. That morning he prayed something along these lines, "God, I see things happening in the lives of others that are changing them completely. I don't know what's going on but if there is something different and better for me in all of this, OK I'll have it". He didn't really expect anything to happen but he returned home a changed man.
Peter could never properly describe what happened that morning but people began to see the same kind of changes in him that he had observed in others. He hesitates to put 'labels' on experiences, including his own, but he now realises that he had a powerful encounter with the Holy Spirit. It took time for evidence of spiritual gifting to appear but something began that day which has been, truly, life changing. Not much altered outwardly but, inwardly, it was a different matter entirely. Peter discovered a great love for the Bible. The Word often seemed to jump off the page in its relevance to him. For some time Peter had frequently been invited to lead Salvation Army meetings. He might have done a pretty good job at entertaining the people but nothing really seemed to happen as a result. Now, when he had the opportunity to preach, God moved and lives were changed! Suddenly he wanted to pray, to read Christian books and he couldn't get enough of fellowship with God's people. As a result he was introduced to the Full Gospel Businessmen, first at Bradford, then as a member at Huddersfield, before becoming President of the newly formed Halifax Group. It was a complete shock to him to be asked to assume this responsibility, which he went on to fulfil for some nine years, even though he had been sensing that God would soon have a new challenge for him. Peter recalls with amusement that, not long before the meeting to establish the Halifax group, Beryl had met a lady in the town who remarked that there was to be a Chapter of FGBMFI in Halifax and that Peter was to be the President. When he was told about this Peter entirely discounted the likelihood of becoming President! He certainly did not regard himself as a typical FGBMFI man but he has come to realise that there is no such thing God deals with us, each one, as an individual.
Having served as a Field Representative and a Regional Director, Peter is now Treasurer for the UK & Ireland Council of the Fellowship. He has travelled widely with FGBMFI, having been astonished (but delighted) to become a member of its European Council. His life has been immensely enriched by his experiences with the Fellowship and he commends it as being unique. Where else are ordinary men so trusted to minister and to be used by God without any qualification other than their desire to serve Him?
Beryl and Peter have for some twenty years been partners in the Christian Bookshop business in Halifax, together with their friends Helen and Trevor Bendrien whom they met through FGBMFI. This is something to which they are convinced God has called them. Peter remains in practice as a solicitor although he is looking for partial release from this soon, to free him to be more available for what God calls him to do. He and Beryl left the Salvation Army in 1996. They thank God for all they experienced within the 'Army' over the years and for their many wonderful friends within that movement, but they are so grateful that they have been led into a local church situation where the power of God is known, there is a reality in worship and the gifts of the Holy Spirit are frequently in evidence. Experience in FGBMFI has taught Peter so much to prepare him for what God is now doing in his life. He never ceases to marvel at the change that has taken place as he has been released from the formality of religion into the reality of faith and above all else into a living relationship with God.