TRIGGER WARNING: This story contains mention of suicidal ideation that some may find distressing.
Before his 15th birthday, Gareth Thomas had nine close shaves with death.
Gareth’s first brush with death happened when he was just 18 months old.
His mum took him to Highclere Castle (where Downton Abbey was later filmed), close to where they lived in the UK.
“My mother was talking to some friends and suddenly realised I was not around,” he said.
Gareth at age one, in his backyard.
“She ran to the cloverleaf-shaped pond nearby and found me face down. She pulled me out; I was coughing and spluttering.
“How did she know where to find me? She says it was her mother’s intuition – but I don’t think so.”
When Gareth was seven, his mother’s friend was driving him home. The Ford Anglia stopped before turning right.
Suddenly, a large Mercedes slammed into the back of their car; its driver apologised for blacking out while coming down the hill.
“The rear window of the Anglia shattered and the flying glass missed all the children in the car,” Gareth said.
Everyone was shock. But miraculously, no one was injured, especially since there were no seatbelts in the car.
Around the same age, Gareth was climbing up rocks by the coastline with his mum.
Suddenly, his mother slipped and knocked into him.
Gareth (right), at age 2, with his brother and mother.
Gareth fell 5ft, and landed on a ledge just 2½ft wide.
“It’s not possible for someone to drop that distance, and not bounce off the narrow rock.
“Something stopped me from rolling onto the jagged rocks and potential death 20ft below.”
Gareth was nine when a friend was given a bow and arrow.
They went to the playground to test it out.
The feathers of the arrow brushed the inside of his thigh as the steel tip passed between his legs.
“We came up with the bright idea of my friend firing the arrow so that it would rest close to my feet.”
The first arrow missed.
But Gareth felt the feathers of the second arrow brush the inside of his left thigh as the steel tip passed between his legs.
“Half an inch higher and my life might have been cut short – or seriously changed,” he said with a falsetto to make his point.
Also when he was about nine, Gareth was playing a game at the swimming pool with his brother and a friend.
“I would throw a stone into the deep end, and my brother and his friend would competitively dive for it. The winner would give it back to me.”
On the tenth round, Gareth slipped and fell into the deep end of the pool. He couldn’t swim.
“The lifeguard was more interested in the local beauties than what was going on in the pool. Thankfully, my brother’s friend noticed me going down on the third time.”
One afternoon, Gareth tried to switch on the lamp on his desk. But it did not light up.
He reached behind the bookcase, feeling for the plug.
“It was partly out of its socket and my fingers touched the prongs.”
“It was as though an angel cushioned my fall.”
Electricity surged through his body.
“My body convulsed and I was thrown across the room,” he recalled.
“I landed 10ft away on my bed.”
Other than a racing heart, Gareth felt no pain.
He also missed hitting two sharp-cornered shelves above his bed.
“It was as though an angel cushioned my fall,” Gareth said. “I believe God intervened and protected me.”
When he was 13, Gareth used to cycle to school.
“One day, an articulated lorry overtook me just as I was entering the narrow, winding section of the road.
“The lorry crushed my bicycle. The side of the truck touched my chest. I thought I was going to die.”
“The lorry stopped and I thought I could pass him on the inside.”
But halfway along, Gareth realised he was wrong.
“So I jumped off my bike and pinned myself against the wall. The rear wheels of the lorry crushed the back wheels of my bicycle. The side of the articulated section touched my chest. I thought I was going to die.
“Just then, the lorry hit the side of a building and the articulated section bounced away from me.
“The police told me afterwards I was dumb for being too close to the lorry, and very lucky to be alive.”
At age 14, Gareth was about to cross a large junction on Oxford Street in London.
“I looked right, then I put one foot onto the road.
“I believe that God made sure the car didn’t hit me … but made sure that I knew He was there.”
“Something physically stopped me from moving any further. I felt something brush my left leg.”
He looked down. His trouser leg was wet with water from the side of a passing car. (It had rained that morning.)
“One step further and I would have been in hospital at least.
“I believe that God stopped me, and made sure that the car didn’t hit me. He also made sure that I knew He was there.”
“I had classic teenage angst,” confessed Gareth.
“My hormones were raging, my parents were arguing. I had lots of zits, no girlfriend, no real guy friend. My brother was leaving for university and I had no one else to talk to.”
His position in class was also slipping.
Feeling like a failure, he sat down to think about how he would end his life.
Gareth again heard the voice say very clearly, “Don’t do it! I have plans for you.”
“As I sat there, I heard a voice say to me, ‘Don’t do it!’”
Gareth thought it was his father. So he went to the landing and called out to him. There was no answer. He later discovered that no one was in the house.
Gareth sat down again. This process repeated itself.
“The voice sounded very clear, cool and calm, in contrast to how I was feeling,” he said.
When Gareth sat down for the third time, he hatched a plan to kill himself: In two days’ time, he would cycle to a busy junction that trucks sped through.
“I thought about cycling straight out in front of a large, speeding truck to end everything.”
High hedges by the junction meant that drivers would not see him until it was too late.
“I thought about cycling straight out in front of a large, speeding truck to end everything.”
Then Gareth again heard the voice say very clearly, “Don’t do it! I have plans for you.”
“The voice sounded clear and commanding – almost awe-inspiring – that I stopped planning my death,” Gareth said.
Later, Gareth would realise that he had heard the voice of God. It was the first time he was aware of God’s presence.
After that encounter, Gareth noticed his life changing.
“My position in the class improved. My parents stopped arguing. A new guy joined the school and became my very close friend for many years.”
Almost 10 years later, Gareth had another life-changing encounter.
Then 23, he was working for a car manufacturer when his colleagues invited him to a Billy Graham rally in Oxford.
Gareth wasn’t interested – until his colleagues mentioned going for beers afterwards.
At the end of the rally, those who wanted to talk with a counsellor were asked to remain seated.
To his friends’ surprise, Gareth was rooted to his seat, even when they reminded him about the beer.
“I walked home knowing that I am loved at a level that I cannot humanly get.”
A young volunteer named Brett approached Gareth, and later invited him for dinner at his college canteen.
There, they discussed the Christian faith. Brett gave Gareth a book, Who Moved the Stone?, by Frank Morison.
“It explored all the possibilities about what happened to Jesus’ body after his death on the cross, and showed me how they are not possible except for one.”
The book addressed Gareth’s intellectual issues. Gareth liked that Brett was affirming and gentle in answering his questions.
After a few dinners, Brett asked Gareth if he wanted to accept Jesus into his life.
Gareth did. So Brett led him through a prayer.
Gareth started dating Teresa Hii in 1977, when she was a student in England. The third-generation Christian would later become his partner in life and ministry.
“I cried and laughed at the same time,” said Gareth, whose felt a surge of emotion that he had never experienced before.
“I felt like I was floating on air as I walked home, knowing that I’m loved at a level I cannot humanly get.
“Jesus willingly endured whipping, crucifixion, betrayal, rejection, being lied to and more because He wants to be in an eternal relationship with us. Aren’t we loved?”
After coming to believe in Jesus, Gareth noticed he no longer felt anxious or fearful about anything – especially death.
“It sounds simplistic, but it’s true: I know where I’m going, so what’s the problem?” he said.
“When you know you have eternal life, everything else pales into insignificance.”
Gareth eventually moved to Singapore to marry his Sarawak-born girlfriend, Teresa Hii, in 1985.
As Gareth’s faith grew, he started to receive insights into other people’s lives that could have only come from God. In the faith, these divine revelations or Words of Knowledge (1 Corinthians 12:8) are to be shared with the people they are meant for – to show that God knows and loves them.
Gareth and Teresa’s engagement photo in 1984.
For example, Gareth once met a woman who didn’t feel loved by her mother who had passed on when she was only 11.
God showed Gareth an image of a cupboard with towels at the top of her stairs.
“On the third shelf, there’s a tin, and inside, you’ve got lots of photographs. Go and look at that picture of you and your mother,” he told the woman.
The picture was of her mum looking at her lovingly as they played together.
“The lady realised that her mum loved her. The guilt and shame left her.”
Gareth could not have possibly known about the photos.
Of the spiritual gift, Gareth said: “I can’t know these things unless God shows them to me. He’s not showing me for voyeurism.
“It’s because He wants to heal people physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. And He wants to help them become all He’s created them to be.”
As Gareth prayed for others, he also told God, “Lord, you’re giving me the ability to open people up. I also want to learn how to close them up and help heal their old wounds.”
God led Gareth to a Christian counselling course in Waverly, UK, and subsequently to a Masters in Christian Pastoral Counselling.
“If people walk out the door with hope, I have done my job.”
Today, Gareth helps people overcome emotional pain and improve relationships. His talks at Community of Praise Baptist Church provide practical advice based on a Christian perspective, backed by psychological findings.
Gareth and his wife Teresa, both 65, are also active in several ministries, including inner healing and counselling. Gareth’s gift of insight that comes from the Holy Spirit makes it so much easier because they get to the root of the emotional issue very quickly.
“If people walk out the door with hope, I have done my job,” he said.
“It’s not my ministry; it’s God’s ministry through us,” Gareth says of the counselling work he and Teresa do. Gareth also does consulting and coaches individuals and corporations. Photo by Gemma Koh.
Reflecting on the many times he almost died but didn’t, Gareth knows that God was present in every instance.
So why did God save him all those years ago?
“Because He had a plan,” said Gareth. “It really is that simple.”
This is an excerpt of an article that first appeared in Salt&Light.
Click here to join our Telegram family for more stories like Gareth’s.
This dim sum chef from China cheated death four times. What saved him?
Her teenaged daughter jumped 14 storeys in a suicide attempt
