An Atheist’s Adventures with God

About the Book

This story traces the life of a self-confessed atheist as he passes through an eventful, sometimes interesting, and often troubled childhood. Concluding a five-year printing apprenticeship, he is called into national service and a posting to Vietnam. By now, God is definitely not in life’s equation. Dominated by a restless spirit and a desire for adventure, the author sets out on a season of world travels. Eleven weeks’ camping throughout Europe ends in London. Here, while working at restoring an old taxi shelter near the Thames River, he is severely bashed. He believes this assault was, literally, to death. But by God’s grace, he experienced being hurled up out of what appeared to be a funnel, seemingly from the very centre of the earth. Subsequently, eternity became something to take more seriously. After all, what did lie beyond life’s murky horizon? The decision to try God finds him in Darwin, Northern Territory. In this alcohol-drinking capital of the world, a surprise encounter with the true divine begins a journey of self-discovery. Christian missionary service in Africa grows his unwavering faith and trust in the Creator God, whose amazing love and works appear constantly in this tale. The kid who is forever told he would never amount to anything, even by family members, at last learns that when God is allowed to be in control of one’s life, anything is possible and anyone can become a real winner not only while on this earth but forever on planet heaven.

About the Author

John Waddell was born five weeks premature in Toowoomba on the Darling Downs, Queensland. This was just nine months after the end of World War II, making him a true baby boomer. He grew up in the Brisbane inner-city suburb of Ashgrove, where the family moved to when he was four years of age. His tempestuous childhood of bullying and rejection ensured a bitter and rebellious mind-set. John’s mother had instilled in her only child a strong ethical conscience of truth and honesty. This further solidified a strong resentment towards all dishonest, greedy, and self-seeking persons, particularly those found in positions of power and authority. Failing to secure a position as a journalist, his greatest ambition, he undertook a printing apprenticeship in Brisbane City. At various times, he worked in Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, Western Australia, and the Northern Territory. National service in the army unsettled him to the point where he moved restlessly from one printing factory to another, finding little satisfaction. He travelled widely, ultimately working on three other continents, still seeking something but not knowing what. Although admitting all problems weren’t solved, his life changed in an instant when he met the Living God of the Bible. The final result is a story of how one person, denying completely that anyone or anything lies at the end of life’s journey, a total atheist, turned about one hundred and eighty degrees to be an author for God.