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By Rev. Noel Maturlu,
Executive Director & Founder
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I became a committed Christian when I was 12. Since then I’ve loved God with all of my heart- trying to live a ‘holy’ life by avoiding all the ‘big sins’. From the age of 16 I’ve served in a number of churches and ministries both in Africa and in the UK where I now live.
In truth God has been really good to me. Over the years He has blessed me relationally, materially, financially and spiritually. By no means I’ve been one of the affluent individuals but I have tested His grace both in the depth of African poverty and at the pinnacle of European prosperity.
For all these years I was made to believe that ‘holiness’ and faith should make one immune from adversity until one fateful night.
A couple of years ago I was on a special Ministry assignment thousands of miles away from home. On that particular night I had experienced one of the most powerful services I have ever had in my over thirty years of Ministry. At the end of that eventful service I had a phone call from my wife saying our marriage was over.
Frankly this happened without significant prior warning and couldn’t see this coming. To say I was shocked when this happened is an understatement. I knew my family was in crisis and it needed my immediate attention. I took the next flight back home to England.
For the next four years I fought a heartfelt battle to try and save my marriage but sadly, my fight ended in deep frustration when my wife of almost twenty years decided to file for divorce.
This experience and other painful lessons that followed completely turned my life on its head.
Since then I have separated from my wife and my three wonderful children of whom I gave so much for. I also lost many things including a house and a career. Consequently I suffered acute financial difficulties – many times going hungry and homeless. For days I had to live on food supply from charity food bank.
After being locked out (at one time in a rainy freezing night) I ended up sleeping rough, sharing an appalling accommodation with drug addicts, alcoholics and ex-offenders (God bless them). For days I slept in my car and moved from one place to another to avoid detection.
Because of what I was going through many people – including those that knew me as a Minister treated me with contempt. Even my fellow Ministers never gave me an opportunity to minister to their congregation because to them I was more of a liability than anything else.
To say the least I felt rejected, betrayed, isolated, useless, and hopeless. Many times I thought God has deserted me and I completely lost the will to live.
Thankfully, God supplied His grace to match my pain. Every time I thought I was down and out somehow He gave me the courage to start over again. Not only that, He has given me the task and strength to strengthen the weak.
For years I had had a privilege to serve the needy, the homeless, the hungry and the hurting. But never had I found myself at the receiving end of help. But my recent experiences have made me a better steward of the hurting because I know how pain hurts.
I strongly believe God put me through a series of life changing situations in order to recharge my spirit and add important ingredients to my destined career.
I might not be the king in waiting but in a way my life has been like that of young David.
David was anointed to become a king, but Saul wanted to kill David and terminate his dream of becoming king. In a spur of a moment the king in waiting lost almost everything including his family, prestige, possessions and became homeless, moving from one place to another hiding from Saul whom he had saved from Goliath and gave Israel victory .
Eventually David moved to the cave in Adullum (the Canaanite City). Here he met fellow distressed losers – people with debts, vagrants and misfits. He became their leader and together they became a formidable force. (1Samuel 22)
My divine mission now is to enrich people’s lives by making them feel loved, valuable, and important as well as inspiring them to enrich others the way they are, with what they have and in whatever situation they are in.
In what ever I say, write or do my primary goal is to show respect, appreciation and affirm every person as a valuable, important and unique individual with basic rights to life, love, freedom, dignity and prosperity.
Like a young David the two things that qualify me to be a servant of the heart-broken are His grace and the fact that I’m heart-broken too.
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…the man who wants to kill you is trying to kill me too. But if you stay with me you don’t need to be afraid. By God’s grace we shall prosper… (1 Samuel 22:23)
…you shall not die but live to declare the good works of the Lord…
(Psalms 118:17)
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Dreamlife Mission 