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fear-god-shun-evil · 5 years

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After Escaping the Shackles of Money, I Am Free

“Money isn’t everything, but without it, you can do nothing.” Many people approve of this view, thinking that in today’s society, you need money to make others look up to you, and that without money, you are a second-class citizen. Once, I used to believe this as well, and I strove to earn money, but it only brought me endless bitterness and torment …

My Determination to Become Rich and Escape a Life of Poverty

When I was young, my family was poor. We couldn’t afford the 500 yuan tuition fees for my brothers and sisters. Even borrowing money from everywhere we could, we barely got by, and our neighbors all looked down on us. I remember how the children in the neighborhood would often brag about the new appliances in their house, and when I saw how proud they were, I admired them. I thought society was precisely this materialistic, that “Money isn’t everything, but without it, you can do nothing,” and that if we had money, all of our family’s problems would be resolved, that our material lives would improve, and that we wouldn’t be looked down on by others. Those thoughts made me very impatient to grow up so I would have the ability to get work and earn money.

Entering Society and How I Began Living for Money

Finally, when I was 17, I was able to leave home and begin my life of working at a job and earning money. At my factory, I was paid per piece, so to earn more money, I gave up chances to go out with my friends and instead worked overtime. Finally, when I was too tired to keep my eyes open any longer, I would drag my exhausted body back to my dormitory. Sometimes, the factory had rush orders, and the bosses would raise the piece rate, so to earn even more money, I would work overnight, sometimes going three days and nights without sleeping. Even though work was very tiring, each payday, when I saw the amount of money in my bank account growing, I felt that my sacrifices were worth it and worked even harder. And so, through several years of effort, my family’s lives took a turn for the better. But when I saw the people around me buying foreign-style houses and cars, I wasn’t satisfied with my current conditions, and wanted nothing more than to earn even more money.

Later, I came to Hong Kong, and there, I could earn in a day what it took me a month to earn in my hometown. I looked forward to having my house and car before long, and very quickly, I found a job as a waitress in a restaurant. To promote the restaurant’s seasonal products and earn more commission, I spent every day enthusiastically greeting customers, and some days I was even too busy to eat. As time went on, my irregular diet caused me to develop a stomach illness. Despite the severe stomach pain I felt, when I saw customers coming, I had to bear the pain and greet them with a smile. Before long, my boss promoted me to shift leader, and though my salary increased, so did my workload. Aside from ensuring my customers were appropriately taken care of, I also had to wrack my brains to find ways to build relationships with them and keep them happy, so that they would be willing to come to my restaurant and buy its seasonal products. Every night, I dragged my exhausted body home. The lifestyle was physically and mentally draining, but at the end of every month, when I received a thick stack of banknotes, I felt like all the hardship I endured was worth it.

After several years, I had saved some money, and even though I knew Hong Kong’s housing prices were high, I bought one anyway. After that, burdened with heavy mortgage payments, I worked even harder to make money. I was so exhausted that I didn’t have time to take care of my children or family, and my husband often fought with me about that, but I didn’t care, because I thought nothing was more important than making money. All I knew how to do was, like a robot, to work with all my strength and make money. My years of hard work caused me to suffer from sciatica, and the doctor advised me to take a break, but to make more money, I endured the pain and continued working 12 hours a day.

An Unexpected Debt Sets Everything Back to Zero

As I was desperately running myself ragged for money, I suddenly and unexpectedly received a debt letter. I had no idea that my husband had been gambling behind my back the entire time, and he had actually bet the house and lost. It was like a bolt of lightning from the blue that made me completely collapse. I never imagined that I endured so much pain, and even made myself sick, only to see the house I had worked so hard for taken away from me. I was so crushed I wanted to die. After losing my house, I felt that there was no hope in life. It was as if I had completely fallen apart … Although I was still busy every day, I felt like a soulless walking corpse, my health got worse and worse, my sciatica recurred, and I began to suffer from insomnia. I became very unhappy and had no interest in doing anything. During that period, I often asked myself: I worked so hard to make money, and what did I earn except for illness? But isn’t money what people should live for? What should I pursue if I don’t pursue money?

The Revelations in God’s Word Allow Me to Clearly See an Evil Trend

I didn’t know who I could tell my troubles to or how to proceed in life, and this was the moment one of my colleagues preached God’s gospel of kingdom to me. During that time, my brothers and sisters often read God’s word with me and fellowshiped with me on God’s will regarding my difficulties. At one meeting, I read this passage of God’s word, “‘Money makes the world go round’ is the philosophy of Satan and it prevails among the whole of mankind, among every human society. You could say that it is a trend because it has been instilled into the heart of every single person and is now affixed in their heart. People went from not accepting this saying to growing used to it so that when they came into contact with real life, they gradually gave tacit approval to it, acknowledged its existence and finally, they gave it their own seal of approval. … So after Satan uses this trend to corrupt people, how is it manifested in them? Don’t you feel that you couldn’t survive in this world without any money, that even one day would just be impossible? People’s status is based on how much money they have as is their respectability. The backs of the poor are bent in shame, while the rich enjoy their high status. They stand tall and proud, speaking loudly and living arrogantly. What does this saying and trend bring to people? Don’t many people see getting money as being worth any cost? Don’t many people sacrifice their dignity and integrity in the pursuit of more money? … Isn’t this a loss for people? (Yes.) Isn’t Satan sinister to use this method and this saying to corrupt man to such a degree? Isn’t this a malicious trick?”

My sister fellowshiped, “From God’s words, we can see that the torment we suffer in life is caused by Satan’s evil trends. We have been inundated with satanic toxins like ‘Money makes the world go round,’ ‘Money is first,’ and ‘Money isn’t everything, but without it, you can do nothing.’ We believe that people will only look up to us if we have money, that when we have it we will be respected wherever we go, and that without it, we are somehow beneath others. To live a life that surpasses others’ lives, we make the pursuit of money our lifelong goal, we work overtime and on extra tasks, and we even ignore our health. The ways we constantly struggle to earn money, work day and night, abuse and exhaust our bodies, and live inextricably trapped in torment with no hope of release are the harms caused by Satan’s evil trends. In the end, they doom us, and we don’t even realize it …”

After hearing God’s word and my sister’s fellowship, I was deeply touched. I recalled my family’s poverty when I was young, how the other children would refuse to play with me, and how everyone in the village looked down on us. Back then, I thought all those problems came from a lack of money. To earn more money, I gave up all my time to rest, I worked extra hours and did extra jobs, I refused to rest even when I was sick, and even when I earned money, I had also gained a host of illnesses, but I kept earning money like a machine. I was living numbly, and not happy at all. Worse than that, everything I had worked so hard to earn had been lost by my husband, which left me in deep pain and torment, feeling as though death would be preferable to life. This is when I suddenly realized that satanic toxins like “Money is first,” and “Money makes the world go round,” had already been planted deep within me. They had twisted my thoughts and views, caused me to pursue in a mistaken direction and torment myself to an unthinkable degree, and without the revelations in God’s word, I still wouldn’t have known to stop. When I thought of these things, I prayed to God, repented, and expressed my desire to stop following evil trends.

After that, I often had meetings and read God’s words with my brothers and sisters, which allowed me to feel a degree of release in my life, and step by step, I began to emerge from my torment. This was all due to God’s love. I recalled that at my most painful time, God used my colleague to bring me before Him, allowed me to hear His voice, and showed me the root of my torment in life so that I could wake up. Wasn’t all this God’s love? When I thought of these things, I swore an oath in my heart: No matter how busy I was, I would never depart from God, and would diligently pursue the truth.

Clearly Seeing the Essence of Money, Refusing to Make the Same Mistake Again

But before long, I saw that my family needed money for many things, and I thought that I needed to earn more money so that we no longer had to live such an impoverished life. I secretly began to do calculations in my heart: I worked 3–4 days a week, so outside of my meetings, I still had some time, and I wanted to make use of this time to earn more money. With that in mind, I began to look everywhere for part-time work, and whenever I had free time, I earned extra money. Gradually, meetings became just a formality for me. While I was at meetings, I was actually thinking about ways to make more money. In the evenings when I got home after work, God’s words didn’t sink in when I read them, and sometimes I was so tired that I went straight to bed and fell asleep…. I was further and further away from God, and had returned to my previous life of living for money.

Just as I was again becoming trapped in the vortex of wealth, I read this passage of God’s words, “Because people do not recognize God’s orchestrations and God’s sovereignty, they always face fate defiantly, with a rebellious attitude, and always want to cast off God’s authority and sovereignty and the things fate has in store, hoping in vain to change their current circumstances and alter their fate. But they can never succeed; they are thwarted at every turn. This struggle, which takes place deep in one’s soul, is painful; the pain is unforgettable; and all the while one is frittering away one’s life. What is the cause of this pain? Is it because of God’s sovereignty, or because a person was born unlucky? Obviously neither is true. At bottom, it is because of the paths people take, the ways people choose to live their lives. Some people may not have realized these things. But when you truly know, when you truly come to recognize that God has sovereignty over human fate, when you truly understand that everything God has planned for and decided for you is a great benefit, and is a great protection, then you feel your pain gradually lighten, and the whole of you become relaxed, free, liberated.”

God’s words touched my heart. I thought that although I followed God, I didn’t have any real understanding of God’s dominance, nor did I possess any real obedience. During this time, I had only thought about how to make more money. I hadn’t even bothered to read God’s words or pray regularly, and meetings seemed to get in the way of my earning money. But now, I saw that I still lived by the satanic notion and view that “Money is first,” and saw money as supreme. The Lord Jesus said, “For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Matthew 16:26). Yes, what was the point of earning money if it cost me my life? I thought of how for all these years, I hadn’t understood the significance of life. I only knew that I had to struggle with all my strength to earn money, and the result was that I was riddled with illness, lived in unspeakable torment, and now, even as I had come before God and knew that God expresses words of salvation for mankind, I still didn’t take them seriously, and I still single-mindedly pursued making money based on satanic notions and ideas. Yet, through this pursuit, I was only damaging my own life. The fact is that I earned enough for my family’s needs at my usual job, but I had extravagant desires, and wanted enough money to live a wealthy lifestyle, which is why I returned to my single-minded pursuit of earning money. I didn’t want to make the same mistakes again. I wanted to betray these satanic notions and views, pursue according to God’s words, place myself in God’s hands, and obey God’s orchestrations and arrangements. I offered this prayer up to God, “God, thank You for lifting me up and bringing me into Your house. However, I have been blind and ignorant, I have clung to the notion of making money and been unwilling to let go, and I have clearly known the truth yet not pursued it. God, I don’t want to continue like this. I wish to obey Your sovereignty and arrangements, and not live by satanic views.”

In the days that followed, outside of work, I spent more time pursuing the truth. I practiced spiritual devotion and prayed to God every day. My relationship with God became ever more normal, and without my realizing it, my health greatly improved and my sleep became normal.

Finding Release and Freedom After Ceasing My Struggle for Money

One day, when I had just arrived at my workplace, my manager greeted me with a smile and asked me if I wanted to be a shift leader, a promotion which would come with a raise. When I heard the manager say this, I was a little moved, and my colleague next to me said, “If it were me, I wouldn’t even have to think about it, I’d say yes immediately.” When I saw the longing in her eyes, I couldn’t help but think of how I was willing to pay any price to earn money, of how desperately I worked to earn money, I had driven myself to exhaustion and illness, and I lived in torment. Now that I had come before God, I knew that all of these harms come from following Satan’s evil trends, and I was determined to betray them. If I took the job as shift leader, it would occupy all of my mental energy, and I wouldn’t even have time to go to meetings. In addition, I still suffered pain in my legs, and if I tired myself out that way, I would only aggravate my condition, and I would have to return to the pain I experienced before. The amount of money I can earn is preordained by God, and not something I can change through my own effort. The path I had walked was too difficult, and when I thought of that, I swore an oath in my heart to never again walk that path. So, I said to the manager, “I haven’t been a shift leader for a long time now, and I’m still suffering from sciatica. Thank you for the thought, but I think you should find someone else.” When I said this, I felt a peace and steadiness I had never felt before. Through this environment, I became more certain that money cannot bring me true peace and joy, that only pursuing the truth and walking the path of obedience to God is valuable in life, and that this was what I should pursue.

In the days that followed, I went to spread the gospel with my sisters, and every day I felt especially at peace. Whenever I see that there are still so many people living under the influence of Satan, who run themselves ragged for money and for lives that surpass others’ lives, and who don’t know what pursuits are meaningful, I feel God’s eagerness to save people even more urgently, and become even more determined to pursue the truth, perform my duties as a created being, and bring more people before God to repay God’s love.

#Christian Testimonies #Return to God

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love-god-forever · 5 years

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I Stop Being a Slave to Money and Live Happily

By Shixing, Malaysia

When I was young, my father, a compulsive gambler, lost all of the family’s money and fell in debt to loan sharks. As a result, our family of three started living like vagabonds and was looked down upon by our relatives and friends. So I made a resolution: After growing up, I will strive hard to earn money to change my family’s difficult circumstances so that my family will lead an abundant life and all those around us will look at us in a new light.

The Days When I Was Endlessly Busy in Pursuit of Money

At the age of sixteen, while attending school I did part-time jobs, selling things in a mall, brewing coffee in a coffee shop, washing dishes in a restaurant, and so on. Sometimes, I had blood blisters on my hands from so much work, and they even felt itchy because of an allergy. But to get more money, I was unwilling to give up and willing to do any job that offered a salary.

When I was eighteen years old, I dropped out of school to work in a factory. I worked 12 hours every day, and to get more overtime pay, I never had a day off on holidays, even on New Year’s Day. Besides, I alternated between day and night shifts every month. Because of lack of sleep, I felt drowsy and nearly had car accident several times on my way home from work. Although working like this tired me out, when I got my salary at the end of the month, it gave me great happiness and I felt all the tiredness and pain was worth it.

Later, through significant effort, I was promoted to team leader, then manager, then top executive, and my salary went up as well. I not only was able to pay back my father’s debts, but was also able to buy a house of my own. After achieving my dream, however, I wasn’t as happy as I had expected, for I thought that having a house was not a big deal, and that I still couldn’t be counted as a rich person. Then I began to plan to buy a car and start my own family. Several years later, I finally had my family of three. The increasing daily expenses, plus the car and mortgage loans, caused me to have greater financial commitments, and brought more and more pressure on me. So, my yearning for wealth grew rapidly. In addition, my wife thought that wealth could bring us security. Therefore, I had to exert myself more to make money. However, the pressures of both work and life made me clinically depressed, and so I could only take a break from work to stay at home, not wanting to face any person or thing. Despite this, my desire to make money didn’t weaken in the slightest. After a period of time, I bit the bullet and went back to work. Meanwhile, I started spending time and effort trying various means to earn money, studying and making all kinds of investments.

In November 2016, I joined an investment company. After much effort, I was quickly promoted to be a junior leader as well as a lecturer, I had my own team, and moreover, I received a high, stable salary. As my wallet became full of cash, I often took my family to eat nice food and play with nice things, and then posted the pictures we took on social media sites to show off. My relatives and friends began to cast looks of envy upon me, and often sought from me how to gain success. This made me feel that my status improved immediately and that I was respected and dignified. I thought, “Money really makes a difference!”

To have connections with more people, my company often arranged for me to attend lectures abroad where those I came into contact with were all billionaires or multimillionaires. Seeing that they all drove a nice car and wore name brands, I was consumed with envy and hoped to be as rich as them in the future, thinking that was true success. On top of that, during the lectures, we were inculcated with such thoughts as, “Money rules supreme” and “Being rich is the symbol of success.” Under the influence of these thoughts, my desire to pursue money became even stronger.

Feeling Pain Though Having Made Some Money

Through contacting with these rich people, gradually I found that most of what they talked about was their worries, such as marital betrayal, broken families, having no one to confide to, and so on, and that they attended some lectures on soul comforting in order to get rid of negative emotions and attain spiritual comfort. I was greatly shocked at this, thinking to myself, “They possess so much wealth, so by rights they should be happy and joyful. So why are they afflicted with so much pain and vexation? Could it be that material wealth cannot satisfy man’s spiritual needs?” At that time, I was constantly busy with my work, so I spent less and less time with my family. My daughter complained that I always went abroad for work, and my wife also complained about my not having enough time for her, which brought constant conflicts between the two of us. This made me feel upset and miserable: “Isn’t my working hard to make money for the sake of letting you live a better, abundant life? Why don’t you show any consideration for me?” In every quarrel, I would swallow up my anger and suppress my emotions. Sometimes, I felt so painful, and I would watch a movie alone and eat dessert to reduce pressure. Late at night when all was quiet, I would feel extremely empty and lonely. I often reflected: Why after all does man live this life? Why don’t I live happily but feel so miserable after having money? Yet no one could give me the answers.

Gaining a New Understanding of “Money Makes the World Go Round”

In September 2017, I was fortunate enough to accept God’s work of the last days. I watched a film of experience and testimony entitled Woe or Blessing, whose protagonist’s experience was very similar to mine. Because she came from a poor family, from an early age she was determined to make a lot of money. After she grew up, she began working in a medicine factory, then sold vegetables and fruits; after getting married, she started a restaurant business and later crossed the ocean to work abroad. In the end, she got ill through overwork and her health hit rock bottom. This touched me deeply. I came to feel that man’s life was the most important thing and that all the money in the world couldn’t buy health. Later, I saw the following passage of God’s words, “‘Money makes the world go round’ is the philosophy of Satan and it prevails among the whole of mankind, among every human society. You could say that it is a trend because it has been imparted to everyone and is now affixed in their heart. People went from not accepting this saying to growing used to it so that when they came into contact with real life, they gradually gave tacit approval to it, acknowledged its existence and finally, they gave it their own seal of approval. Isn’t this process that of Satan corrupting man? … So after Satan uses this trend to corrupt people, how is it manifested in them? Don’t you feel that you couldn’t survive in this world without any money, that even one day would just be impossible? People’s status is based on how much money they have as is their respectability. The backs of the poor are bent in shame, while the rich enjoy their high status. They stand tall and proud, speaking loudly and living arrogantly. What does this saying and trend bring to people? Don’t many people see getting money as being worth any cost? Don’t many people sacrifice their dignity and integrity in the pursuit of more money? Don’t many more people lose the opportunity to perform their duty and follow God for the sake of money? Isn’t this a loss for people? (Yes.) Isn’t Satan sinister to use this method and this saying to corrupt man to such a degree? Isn’t this a malicious trick?”

From God’s words, I understood that phrases such as “Money is first,” “Money isn’t everything, but without it, you can do nothing” and “Money makes the world go round” are all erroneous thinking and perspectives instilled in us by Satan and that its purpose is to make us pay any price in pursuit of riches, thus straying away from God and finally losing God’s salvation. I started to think of how the influence of such erroneous thinking and perspectives had made me believe money could change everything, so much so that I had been struggling hard for it: I began working in my youth suffering all kinds of pain and torment, even nearly had a car accident and was afflicted with depression at one time. Despite this, I still painstakingly studied how to start a business and make investments, hoping to possess more money some day and enjoy an excellent material life. After I got some money, I was still not content and as my desire grew ever greater, I longed to become a multimillionaire or billionaire. Due to spending all day on work, I even had no time to be with my family and completely became a slave to money. Finally, I had my wish granted when I received some money, but I wasn’t happy within, and instead I felt physically and mentally exhausted, empty and miserable; the peace in my family was also broken. Then I thought of those rich people who studied together with me. Although they led a brilliant and enviable life, marital betrayal and complexed interpersonal relationships brought them endless worries and pain. This reminded me of what Solomon, the richest king, said in the Bible, “I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and, behold, all is vanity and vexation of spirit” (Ecclesiastes 1:14). The facts were indeed as described. Money can’t bring us happiness but only emptiness and suffering.

I saw more of God’s words, “When one has no God, when one cannot see Him, when one cannot clearly recognize God’s sovereignty, every day is meaningless, worthless, miserable. Wherever one is, whatever one’s job is, one’s means of living and the pursuit of one’s goals bring one nothing but endless heartbreak and irrelievable suffering, such that one cannot bear to look back. Only when one accepts the Creator’s sovereignty, submits to His orchestrations and arrangements, and seeks true human life, will one gradually break free from all heartbreak and suffering, shake off all the emptiness of life.” From God’s words, I realized that the root cause of why I felt empty and miserable was that I lacked knowledge of how God rules, had no correct outlook on life, and blindly pursued wealth. Now I became aware that what I needed was not money but coming before God and receiving the truth from Him. Without God and understanding the truth, I would be unable to deal with my family, marriage, and complicated interpersonal relationships; no matter how much money I got, life would still be hollow and fraught with suffering. Coming to this realization, I was no longer willing to pursue wealth or material enjoyment, and all I wanted to do was believe earnestly in God, pursue the truth, obey God’s orchestrations and arrangements, and live out a meaningful life.

Ceasing Pursuing Money, Following God Easily

From then on, I actively attended gatherings, read God’s words, and also did all I could to perform my duty within the church. Gradually, I came to understand some truths and see that what the lecturers instilled in us was all Satan’s life philosophies, which would only cause me to belong to the world more and more and be farther away from God. However, due to the requirements of my work, I had to go to lectures to receive training as my boss assigned. Moreover, I had to go against my will in teaching my team Satan’s life philosophies, which I thought didn’t accord with God’s will. Besides, I was too busy to go to gatherings regularly, much less focus on performing my duty. All this made me feel very indebted to God, but I was unwilling to give up the steady, high-paying job. For this reason, I was extremely distressed and I had no idea what to do. Therefore, I talked with a sister about my condition.

Then she sent me a passage of God’s words, “If I were to now place some riches in front of you and ask you to choose freely, knowing that[a] I would not condemn you, then most would choose the riches and forsake the truth. The better among you would give up the riches and reluctantly choose the truth, while those in between would seize the riches in one hand and the truth in the other. In this way, would your true colors not be self-evident? When choosing between the truth and anything to which you are loyal, you will all make such a decision, and your attitude will remain the same. Is that not so? Are there not many among you who fluctuated between right and wrong? In contests between positive and negative, black and white, you are surely aware of the choices that you made between family and God, children and God, peace and disruption, riches and poverty, status and commonness, being supported and being cast aside, and so on. … Many years of dedication and effort has apparently brought Me only resignation and your despair of Me. Yet My hopes for you grow with each passing day, for My day has already been completely laid out before every one. However, you continue to seek that which belongs to the darkness and evil, and refuse to loosen your hold. As such, what will be your outcome?” After I finished reading God’s words, tears streamed down my face. I suddenly realized that God simply had no place in my heart because it had been occupied with money and material desires. I always gave priority to my marriage, career, family, and money rather than God. I was someone who simply did not love the truth. God’s work is nearing its end, and now is the crucial moment for pursuing the truth and performing duties. Yet, to live a lavish lifestyle, I still clung to money, unwilling to ever let go. I was so busy with work every day that I failed to have gatherings normally, much less fulfill my duty as a created being. If I continued believing in God like this, then I would be unable to obtain the truth or achieve salvation. Instead, I would be swallowed by Satan due to following its evil trends. I thought: “In the past when I had no God, I only knew to work hard all day for wealth, thus living in emptiness and misery without comfort or joy inside. Now, I have the good fortune to come to God’s family, enjoy the supply and watering of God’s words, and have the opportunity for salvation. I can’t let God down. I must seek the truth and become someone who is approved by God.” Afterward, I quit the high-paying job and simply handled negligible investments to make a living. Thus, I had more time to go to meetings and fulfill my duty.

Now, although my life isn’t so rich, I feel peaceful and steady in the deeps of my heart because when encountering difficulties and problems, by relying on God, seeking the truth and getting the provision of God’s words, I am able to resolve them easily. It’s the greatest blessing in my life to be able to hear God of the last days speak out and meet face-to-face with Him. I’m willing to cherish this blessing. In the following days, I will pursue the truth in earnest, walk the right way of life, and become someone who is approved by God. All glory and praise be to God!

Footnotes:

1. The original text does not contain the phrase “knowing that.”

#the last days #the Bible #the church

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the2travel · 7 years

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* World Travel Tips : The Revolutionary Street Art Project That Inspired Banksy And Empowered A City's Youth

Travel Tips -

John Nation just wanted to give teenagers in Bristol, southwest England, a safe place to spray-paint without fear of arrest and prosecution.

Little did the then 21-year-old youth worker know back in 1984 that his “Aerosol Art Project” at the Barton Hill Youth Center would go some way to shaping British and global street art over the coming years and decades.

It spawned an entire generation of influential and genre-defining artists ― including Banksy. But as Nation, now 54, told HuffPost in a wide-ranging interview, the initiative also almost ended up costing him his job, his reputation and his liberty.

Nation was just 18-years-old when, in 1981, he became an outreach worker at the youth center in his home neighborhood of Barton Hill. “We helped kids deal with the nitty gritty of life [...] providing sexual health awareness, talking about drugs, that kind of thing,” he told HuffPost. A trip to Amsterdam in 1982 sparked an interest in graffiti, which he saw adorning the Dutch capital’s streets. “I started reading whatever material I could.”

Coincidentally, some of the 14 to 19-year-olds attending the center were also becoming interested in the art form. Inspired by movies such as “Wild Style” and “Beat Street” and the painting of Bristol’s earliest-recognized graffiti artist 3D (a.k.a. Robert Del Naja from Massive Attack), Nation said they’d spend hours copying outlines of the work featured in the seminal book “Subway Art.”

When one teen returned from New York City with photographs of the graffiti he’d seen, Nation allowed the teen and his friends to paint the club’s front wall.

“Barton Hill was rough,” Nation said. “At that time the club was very territorial, seen as right wing, predominantly white and very hostile to outsiders.” Its exterior walls, he said, were mainly daubed with anti-authority slogans such as “No Police State in Barton Hill” or ones promoting the far-right movement, the National Front.

“These guys produced a piece that was so vibrant,” Nation said. “It helped break down some barriers. Lots of these guys listened to hip hop, reggae and black-inspired music. Lots of the artists they looked up to were black, hispanic and Puerto Rican, but they were in a predominantly white area. Being involved in graffiti opened their eyes and helped to lower their prejudices.”

I nspired by what the teens had produced, Nation sought permission from his employers at the now-defunct Avon County Council authority to set up the “Barton Hill Aerosol Art Project” — a place he envisioned would let the youngsters, some of whom were only a bit younger than him, to “express themselves freely and legally” on the center’s walls instead of tagging or painting unauthorized spots on public or private property which could lead to their arrest.

Cheo and Inkie were among the first generation of budding street artists to attend the center, which had the added appeal of being the only one in the city with an indoor skate ramp. Before long, the artists covered most of the building with their work.

“Once word got out that it was a safe environment to paint and look at books and photographs and watch films about graffiti, then people from across the city started coming,” Nation said. “Once you had that one group of people give it their seal of approval, others saw it was safe and followed suit.”

At its peak, more than 40 youngsters regularly attended the project. Graffiti writers from across the U.K. also visited, and it inspired other authorities from around the country to launch similar initiatives.

“It was a great atmosphere, very expressive, very creative,” Nation added. “There was never any bad vibes or competition, none of that element. It was all about being a crew and a togetherness and I still think that’s true to all the guys who still know each other and paint now.”

Not everyone was in favor of the project, however. Unbeknownst to Nation, from 1988 to 1989 the British Transport Police surveilled the center and several of its artists as part of a city-wide investigation into graffiti tagging and criminal behavior.

“There was never any bad vibes or competition, none of that element. It was all about being a crew and a togetherness and I still think that’s true to all the guys who still know each other and paint now.”

John Nation

Operation Anderson sought to profile graffiti artists suspected of criminal damage and culminated with a series of raids on properties across the region. Police arrested dozens of people, including Nation. Officers searched his home and the center. “Bearing in mind that I was running an aerosol art project, there was no way there wasn’t going to be any material at the center,” he said. “It was like an Aladdin’s Cave for them.”

Police seized a “massive stash of paint” Nation had procured from the project’s sponsors and his treasured 5,000-plus snaps of graffiti he’d either taken himself or been sent by writers from around the world.

Nation believes police thought the club was “some kind of ‘Axis of Evil’ that was the main meeting point for all of Bristol’s illegal graffiti writers and a place where other writers from across the country would come.”

“It wasn’t that at all though,” he said, although he acknowledges some of the artists were painting on unauthorized spots on their own.

As was revealed in the BBC documentary “Drawing The Line,” (above), police matched tags on the artwork in the club to tags on illegal works across the city.

They charged several artists with criminal damage. Nation himself was charged with suspicion of conspiracy to incite individuals to commit criminal damage.

“Their main case against me was that the photos and books I had, if shown to a young person of impressional age, would incite them to go out and commit criminal damage,” Nation said. “They also said I was covering up for the young people and I was duty bound to divulge information on them. But I didn’t assist them whatsoever. I answered ‘no comment’ to pretty much everything.”

Several artists were found guilty of criminal damage and received fines. Nation’s charge, however, was dropped on the day his trial was due to begin after prosecutors offered no evidence of incitement.

A post shared by John Nation (@johnnation) on Jun 1, 2017 at 8:53am PDT

Nation says he then consciously used the subsequent press coverage to promote his project’s work and to argue that without a place to legally paint, “the illegal culture of the art form just gets reinforced.”

Following the police raids, Nation says many of those involved in the city’s street art scene went “underground for a while.” “It was like they were regrouping,” he said. “Many of the guys arrested took a break, lessened their illegal activities, and some decided painting legally was the only way.”

Nation says the publicity did inspire, however, a new generation of artists to begin visiting the project ― with one of them being Banksy.

“As a young boy, he’d come to the center and watch people paint. He was heavily into hip hop culture, graffiti, and Barton Hill was where it was happening. Every weekend there was fresh work going up on the walls and people would exchange ideas,” Nation said.

“He says he called it his religious pilgrimage every weekend to go. Many of these guys had their own crazy, little dreams and he said what Barton Hill showed him was very powerful, that you could go on to follow those dreams.”

At that time, Nation says Banksy (who despite multiple attempts and theories has never been officially identified), wasn’t producing the political or social commentary pieces that he’s since become globally famous for.

As part of a crew with some slightly older teens, Nation says he was “into graffiti and letterforms and writing.” He also didn’t stand out “as one of the graffiti writers you’d call a ‘top boy,’” nor was he using his “Banksy” moniker either, says Nation. “The Banksy thing came later.”

Nation claims Banksy is “without doubt” the biggest contemporary artist in the world right now, but admits he didn’t foresee his rise to prominence during his early days of painting at the center. Instead, he believes Banksy truly began to make his mark when he changed his style and began using stencils.

“Not only could he paint quicker, he could paint more locations and produce more work. He started off with quite crude stencil work, like the rats, then he started progressing to more clean work, more sharper,” Nation said.

“These smaller stencils started appearing across the city and for me, it’s once he made that conscious decision to change the style of what he was painting and the content of what he was painting when he exploded,” he added.

Banksy himself admits in his book “Wall and Piece” that his switch in style came when aged 18 transport police chased him through a thorny bush after spotting him painting “LATE AGAIN” on the side of a train.

“The rest of my mates made it to the car and disappeared so I spent over an hour hidden under a dumper truck with engine oil leaking all over me,” he wrote. “As I lay there listening to the cops on the tracks I realized I had to cut my painting time in half or give up altogether. I was staring straight up at the stenciled plate on the bottom of a fuel tank when I realized I could just copy that style and make each letter three feet high.”

Nation said that change led Banksy to “strike an accord with first and foremost the Bristol public, and then the British public.” “Lots of people who wouldn’t be into street art could relate to the simplicity and the fun and the characters he was painting. As he’s become more mature, the images and message have become more hard-hitting — he’s a clever guy.”

A post shared by Banksy (@banksy) on May 7, 2017 at 6:40am PDT

Nation does question how Banksy creates some of his works, such as the “Brexit” piece (above) that he unveiled in Dover, southeast England, in May as a commentary on the U.K.’s referendum vote to leave the European Union.

“Yes he painted it, but he’s got to have a team of people that set up the scaffold and he must have approached the people who own the property before that,” Nation said. “You can’t just rock up and set up a scaffold on the side of someone’s property without there being no questions asked. It’s a huge wall. It’s massive.”

With so much history between Nation and Banksy, one may assume the pair remain close and in touch. When faced with the suggestion, however, Nation responded with a stony silence before changing the subject.

While the legacy of the Barton Hill Youth Center often focuses on Banksy, many of the center’s other alum have also gone on to enjoy hugely successful careers. Jody Thomas, who in April gave HuffPost a helping hand in unveiling its new logo (below), has painted and exhibited his signature photo-realistic style around the world:

But for him, it also all began at the center, which he first attended when he was just 15 years old after being encouraged by a school friend who’d described Nation to him as “outspoken, politically militant and not one to suffer fools.”

“It felt like I was being led to meet the leader of a despotic cult,” Thomas told HuffPost, adding that Nation “didn’t disappoint” when he finally met him.

“He immediately went through my school folder of work based around the comic art of 2,000 A.D. and classical painting and drawings,” he said. “I think he saw in me the opportunity to add a different artistic dimension to the club’s repertoire and left me to recreate on the walls of the club what I had on paper.”

“For me, John is the ‘Darwin’ of street art in the U.K. and gave me an opportunity to express the art that spoke to me all those years ago.”

Jody Thomas

Thomas credits Nation as being at “the forefront” of the street art movement at that time. “His energy and personality has garnered him an amount of respect amongst Bristolians on the level of any rock star or public figure,” he said. “For me, he is the ‘Darwin’ of street art in the U.K. and gave me a opportunity to express the art that spoke to me all those years ago.”

The admiration is mutual. Nation still remembers the day that Thomas first brought in his work which was “totally different” to what was being produced in the club at the time. “I thought to myself, ‘fucking hell, this is amazing. He’s 15 and painting like this?’ I thought, ‘this boy is going to go far,’” Nation said.

“At first he wasn’t accepted as much by the graffiti lads. Jody was into indie music and a lot of that music had dark imagery on its album sleeves,” he added. “He embraced that kind of artwork. He painted small pieces, then he painted these two black and white heads (below) and that was it. I have a lot of time for him. He didn’t stick to what everyone else was doing. He just wanted to be an artist and express his talents.”

Inkie, a.k.a. Tom Bingle, also emerged from the center. He’s since worked as a head of design at SEGA and hosted his own shows across the globe. Recently, he painted alongside Shepard Fairey, the artist behind the “Hope” poster that came to define former President Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign.

For Inkie, Nation’s project acted as a vital “central hub” for the city’s graffiti artists in the pre-internet era of the late ‘80s to mid-90s. “Without this center and John’s support of our artwork, Bristol would not have had the scene it maintains today,” he told HuffPost.

By 1991, however, Nation had become disillusioned with the restraints he felt the authority was putting on him and quit.

“ I was seen as being quite outspoken, left wing and a bit of a socialist,” he said. “But I’m proud of what I did back then. And the fact that people still talk about then and what I achieved for me is justification for what I did do.”

Nation went on to forge a successful career in promoting dance music events across the U.K. and the NASS action sports and music show in Somerset.

With the explosion in the popularity of street art, which he puts principally down to the rise of the internet and social media, he’s since come full circle ― and now gives regular tours of Bristol’s scene via the WhereTheWall tour.

“People from all over the world come, and no one tour is the same. Street art is here today, gone tomorrow. The art form is transient,” he said.

In April, Nation curated his first ever solo show, “Graffiti Nation,” at Bristol’s Upfest gallery, the home of Europe’s largest live street art festival.

He also worked with Inkie on the “See No Evil” art exhibition in 2011 and 2012, and remains a fierce advocate for spaces where artists can legally paint. He’s also set to feature in another BBC documentary, which will analyze the U.K. street art scene in the decades since Operation Anderson.

Nation’s pedigree, knowledge and influence of street art and the genres that umbrella term encompasses have seen him nicknamed the “Godfather” of the Bristol (and increasingly British) scene. But it’s a label that doesn’t sit well with him.

“I look back and I feel that all those years ago I was vilified and I could have possibly lost my job,” he said. “Then two years ago I’m being used as the face of Bristol tourism as someone who represents it as a progressive, cultural city. Who would have thought it?”

“I get called the ‘Godfather,’ but I’m not. I just had a faith and a belief in these young people when no one else would give them the time of day,” he added. “I’m just lucky enough that i’ve been involved in the graffiti scene and seen it emerge. Bristol is not what it is because of me, far from it. I’m just one cog in the wheel, just like Banksy and all the others.”

Check out John Nation’s Instagram, Facebook and the tour website for WhereTheWall.

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