Kriss Akabusi

An Olympic gold medal is the one prize that eluded Kriss Akabusi in an illustrious career. Yet as he reflects on a haul of Olympic silver and bronze, World, Commonwealth and European gold, not to mention breaking the British record four times, he has every reason to be satisfied. He has certainly come a long way from the children's home where he spent his childhood.

"I took up running when I was about 17 and made steady progress. I ran for Britain in the 400 metres, even gaining a silver medal in the 4x400 metres relay in the 1984 Olympics. However I realized that I was not fast enough to make it to the top in that event.

The turning point in my track and field career came in 1986. Realizing that I would not make it in the 400 metres, I switched events. I saw that while competition in the 400 metres flat was fierce, Britain had no 400 metres hurdlers. I switched events to the 400 metres hurdles.

The change of event coincided with another major change in my life. In 1986 when I travelled to the Commonwealth Games, I was thinking a lot about life. A few situations had gone on in my life that had stopped me in my tracks and made me think: What is life all about.

There was a Good News Bible in my room at the Commonwealth Games. It was good news for me because it was in simple English and I could actually understand it. When I opened that Bible, for the very first time I met someone there that I had never ever met before. His name was Jesus. Of course I had heard the name of Jesus before but only as a swear word, not in this context. I read the whole New Testament through in two weeks and that got me thinking about the claims that he made. Way truth life..life in all fullness

I was really excited about what I read and thought wouldn't it be nice if I could really live the kind of life this guy wants to offer me. But I had that niggling feeling that it could be like Father Christmas and the tooth fairy - not real. But it didn't give me any peace and for a whole year after reading that book I asked questions, I read books, I did research. I came to the conclusion that this Jesus, whom some called the Christ was a historical figure.

At the end of the year, I made a decision that yes there was a man called Jesus who had walked on this earth. Many things convinced me of this including the fact that our dating system is based on Jesus - BC and AD. The references to Jesus in contemporary Jewish and Roman writings all convinced me that he had really lived on earth.

After all this research and finding out about Jesus the historical figure, I was still left feeling "OK, great I would love to live by what you are saying but it is very very hard". Then one night I had a vision or a very vivid dream. I can remember that was on the water bank and I heard some words being read out of a book. I remember feeling compelled to go towards the voice and I remember jumping in the water and swimming towards the voice. It was very hard going. Like swimming up-hill. Then all of a sudden the current changed and it started taking me faster than I wanted to go. I was getting really, really scared and all of a sudden I heard the words "Come unto me weary.."

As I heard these words I great giant configuration of Jesus came out of the water and I headed straight for the figure and shouted "Jesus" at the top of my voice.

The problem was that I was sharing a room at the time and it's not cool to shout Jesus in the middle of the night. Then as I woke up I remembered the dream and had a real feeling of peace and tranquillity. Then I wrote down everything in a Filofax that was sitting by my bed. I went back to sleep and next morning when I woke up, the first thing I did was to look at the Filofax and sure enough there was the account of my dream. It had really happened. In that moment all my head knowledge about Jesus went into my heart. I was pumped up.

Later that morning I went down the track to train with Ed Moses, Roger Black, Daley Thompson etc. and I told them "Hey guys, I saw Jesus last night." They all thought I was crazy but I've been telling people ever since that I met Jesus.

BIBLE

I read the Bible every day because it is my way of understanding what God has to say about me as an individual and about men as a whole. It is my way of understanding what God has to say about himself. I just love reading the Bible and trying to apply its teaching to my life.