What fears have you overcome and how?

My greatest fear that I have overcome is the fear of public speaking. I guess this is similar to most people.

I can remember being in primary school and being terrified of reading aloud in class. On days I had to do a talk I would take the day off school.

As an adult I would do everything I could to avoid public speaking. Even small things like doing a brief introduction of who you are in a training course terrified me.

I can remember in the early 1990s a friend asked me to be best man at his wedding. Rather than seeing it as an honour, my first thought was I will have to make a speech!

So how did I overcome this? Here are a few things helped me.

1. I prepared early and wrote everything I had to say out word for word.

2. I practiced even the smallest talk or reading about 100 times. Not exaggerating!

3. I prayed a lot. My biggest prayer was, “Please be with me Lord and please help me Lord”.

4. I wrote out scriptures and put them in my pocket. At every chance I would read them.

5. I got books from the library to help. These days you can look online for help on making speeches.

6. I asked for tips from people who were good public speakers. I spoke to Pastors and teachers.

7. I realised that public speaking is a great way to reach and encourage people towards God.

8. I looked for opportunities to speak publicly and overcome my fear. This was very very scary!

This process probably took about ten years to feel comfortable with speaking in front of others. It was a long hard road for me, but it was worth it.

So what were the main verses I kept in my pocket?

Philippians 4:13 NLT – For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength.

Ephesians 2:10 NLT – For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.

What Olympic sports do you enjoy watching the most?

Wow this is a very hard question. To make it easier for me can I just say all of them! Being a sports fan I love most sports. I especially love the Olympics – both the Sumer and Winter Olympics.

In the Summer Olympics I love Athletics and the Cycling. In the Winter Olympics I love the Ice Hockey and the Short Track Speed Skating.

In saying this though, these are the sports I did as a child and some as an adult. As a child I did Little Athletics and as a teen I played Ice Hockey and did Speed Skating.

As an adult I took up cycling. For most of my adult life I have done some sort of cycling. Some times it was on my road bike, sometimes on my mountain bike, and sometimes on my indoor trainer.

If you really pushed to make a choice for just one sport at each Olympics. It would be athletics at the Summer Olympics and Ice Hockey at the Winter Olympics.

If you could be someone else for a day, who would you be, and why?

The person I would like to be for a day has passed away now, but if I could choose it would be Billy Graham at one of his crusades.

I would love to know what it felt like to look out over huge crowds and see people streaming to the front to receive Jesus as their Lord and Saviour.

In the image above from 1973, there was 1.1 million people present in Soul, South Korea. Imagine preaching to 1.1 million people and tens of thousands receiving Christ. It would be truly amazing.

Before I finish I want to end with one of his most famous quotes.

Someday you will read or hear that Billy Graham is dead. Don’t you believe a word of it. I shall be more alive than I am now. I will just have changed my address. I will have gone into the presence of God.