Chaplaincy Support Workers: Scotland Area

Therese Reid - HM Naval Base Clyde

My name is Therese Reid (pronounced Terr ezz). I am fifty years old, the mother of three. I have two supportive sons, a beautiful, caring teenage daughter and a loving gentle daughter in law. I am a Grandmother to two wonderful boys aged 5 and 2 years and blessed with three sisters.

I am still filled with wonderment at how the Lord has taken me on this incredible journey. At the age of 50 I somehow, in the dim and distant past imagined that my life by this age would be settled, nice home, nice car, nice social life, financially secure, easy street! Guess what? The Lord, our Lord, had very different plans for me.

'For I alone know the plans I have for you, plans to bring you prosperity and not disaster, plans to bring about the future you hope for. Then you will call to me and I will answer you. You will come and pray to me, and I will answer you. You will seek me, and you will find me because you seek me with all your heart.' Jeremiah 29:11-13

I believed myself to be a good Christian, an Elder of the Church of Scotland, a Sunday School co-ordinator and teacher. I was involved with Christian Aid, the Glasgow Simon Community Soup Kitchen, I attended Bible Study and various other church groups. I had my own business, a Christian bookstore and coffee shop in our lovely town of Helensburgh. I had everything materially one could wish for. God decided to challenge me.

My journey over the last seven years has been incredible. Through changes in circumstances I lost the family home, the business, the fancy car and the financial security. However right at the beginning God promised, 'I will never leave you nor forsake you', and He never has. He has blessed my family with good health, happiness and a hope for the future. He taught me to lean on Him, to turn to Him, to never give up, to hand it over, pray, listen, wait, be obedient. To love the Lord, my God with all my heart, with all my strength and lean not on my own understanding.

I did not journey alone. Each step of the way I was upheld in prayer. He placed someone alongside, wonderful loving caring friends, brothers and sisters in Christ. Sometimes complete strangers, each with the relevant skills to guide me along this unknown, unmarked and occasionally rocky path!

Now, here I am, at HM Naval Base Clyde, the new CSW, strengthened, moulded and polished by our precious Lord, to do His work. I look forward to the new challenge and I look forward to meeting people and sharing more how our Loving Father God has so wonderfully blessed my life and prepared me for today.