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I Felt Like a Little Child.
The Testimony of Jimmy Tibbs
Abridged transcription from the Testimony given by Jimmy on Sunday 29th December 1991

Listen to the complete Testimony

When I was a teenager I was an amateur boxer. I had a good life as an amateur boxer, then I turned professional and boxed for England. I started off on a good professional career, but the spiritual side of my life went into the background.
I just called upon God when things went wrong in life, like most people, I suppose.

When I was doing boxing there was a lot of trouble in the East End of London, and I happened to get involved.
I finished up going to prison - I got a 10-year sentence.

I'd had a good upbringing at home. I had a good mum and dad - a mum who brought me up to be like an ordinary person and to go to work. But when this thing happened in the East End of London, I couldn't help but get involved.
When I came out of prison, I got to work with my brother, but then the Greater London Council wanted a road through the scrap yard which I had with my brother.

Some of you might have heard of Terry Lawless. He was a professional manager. Well, I used to walk up to the gym and he asked me what I was doing. I was looking to get into the game.

He said,

I knew most of the boxers as they came from West Ham and around the East End of London, so I was to look after them and do a bit of training.
I have been a fighter, a boxer, all my life. I had trained a couple of fighters before and they liked it. They asked me if I would be trainer so they went to see Terry and he agreed. It went on from there.

I was working at West Ham Boys Boxing Club when I heard that a friend of mine named Benny Stafford had become a 'born-again Christian.' (Another friend of mine told me). So I just said to my mate:

I just left it at that.

A few months went by. I was at the gym and who should put his head in the door, but Benny Stafford. He said,

By the way, I must tell you this. I don't want you to think I am boasting; I wouldn't do it as a Christian.
But I have had a lot of things happen to me physically, like I have been shot at, blown up, but no one's ever made me cry. No man in prison or outside of prison has ever made me cry.

One day Benny and I were sitting in the office near the gym having a cup of tea. I was on the phone as usual. He could see I was fed up with it all. He said:

I looked at him and replied:

He said,

So I just asked him to leave off, but something in my mind said, I wonder what he means, that I need the peace of Jesus?

I went back to him and I said,

I didn't have a clue. He replied:

Now I began to ask him silly questions, obviously nothing reflecting on the Bible, for I hadn't read a Bible for years - not since I was a kid. I was asking him about life really, I suppose.
He answered some of the questions, but a lot he couldn't answer.

God had touched me that day, else I wouldn't have been asking all those questions.
But I wouldn't make the commitment. I used to meet him at the gym and go and pick him up and I kept wanting to know what this was about and that was about and he was explaining, but he could only go so far. So I said to him,

He said,

I started to think,

This was really making me ill. I kept thinking about it every day and every night until he mentioned about a friend of his, a vicar, whose name was Robert. So we goes round there.
There was so much I wanted to ask him. I wanted this all cleared up once and for all. I wanted to know what I was doing before I made the commitment.
So I walked into the man's house and he shook hands with me. He asked me if I wanted a cup of tea and it was then that Jesus touched me.

I felt like a little child. I just sat down. I wanted to be cuddled, just like a little boy and I sobbed my heart out for about five minutes.

As I said, all my life no-one has ever made me cry, but I sobbed my heart out.

Jesus had reached down into my heart that moment. Robert didn't say to me,

So I had the cup of tea, but still went away without making the commitment.

About two weeks later I was sitting in my house one day when I made up my mind. I had given it a lot of thought, but I knew that there was something going on inside of me.
Something turning around inside of me and I didn't want to go to hell.
I knew that there was a heaven and a hell and I didn't want to go to hell and so I made that commitment. I have had bad times and good times since I have been a Christian, but I thank the Lord that He chose me, that He is gradually cleaning me up.