The next evening it was there again. Then the third evening – still there. It felt like it was haunting me. I finally grabbed it, tucked it under my arm, and rushed to my cabin, hiding it in my desk. I didn’t want anyone seeing me read a Christian book.

I loved it! It spoke about the supernatural reality of Christianity and angelic encounters around the world. This, I thought, is what I’m looking for – not religious rubbish. Graham also wrote about God sometimes having to humble a man or woman, to make them childlike and trusting.

That hit me. I thought about when I rolled my car and crawled out through the smashed windscreen; a rock-climbing fall when soloing a 25-foot overhang and falling the full distance with my right foot nearly torn off, bones through the leg and two bones broken in the left foot; failing my Chief Engineer’s exams after hundreds of hours and pounds spent.

I realised God was trying to get my attention. So I prayed, “Jesus Christ, I believe you exist. Take my life and use it. I don’t deserve it – I deserve only hell.” Then I started to cry. I wasn’t a soft man as I was raised in a broken, violent home. The tears shocked me. What’s going on?

The next day in the engine room men were shouting and swearing. I thought, “What’s wrong with them, can’t they just talk?” Then it hit me. My foul mouth was gone. I was stunned! For weeks I kept thinking, “Who are you? You’re supposed to be me”, and “I don’t know who I am.”

When I got home I thought, I’m a Christian, I think – so I should go to church. I told a man what had happened. He said, “You’ve been born again.”

It rang completely true. I was a new creation.