Gotta have faith

Andrew Mathieson
ALLAN Toole had hit rock bottom by 1979.
By his own frank admission, he was nothing more than a bum.
“I was a drug addict and a criminal,” he bluntly confesses.
Allan sinks back into the chair in his Belmont home, contemplates his past for a brief moment, then softly chuckles in retrospection.
“I was dog poo on your shoe,” he adds.
“In fact, I was the type of person you wouldn’t trust as far as you could kick me.”
High on drugs, the 25yearold stole cars to pay for his fix.
But things changed on July 14 of that year.
Allan still vividly remembers the date when he achieved clarity.
“I started to see I was a part of this universe and there was more to life than dying,” he recalls.
That was the day God came into Allan’s life.
He had already dabbled in weird Indian cults and hippy communes in search of the truth.
Some 300 miles apart, Allan’s soontobewife Margie had also found faith – on the same day.
But neither knew of the other’s redemption.
Former drugdealing friends of theirs turned Margie around.
But she was still concerned what her rebellious boyfriend would think.
“She walks in the door 10 days later and I could see instantly she had met another man,” Allan reveals.
“I knew it was over – what we had was finished.”
Before Allan could get a word in, Margie told him she had changed her life and made a “commitment to the cross”.
He felt God’s presence straight away.
Allan, however, doesn’t like to preach as such.
“It’s not about getting the biggest Bible I’ve got – and I’ve got a whopper – and smack you over the head with it,” Allan explains.
“It’s about reflecting the love of God that you actually possess for yourself, not what you think others should have.”
Allan nowadays demonstrates his faith in more practical ways.
The 52yearold plumber instead builds wells for the Third World.
For more than 20 years, Allan had singledhandedly been running the Living Water Enterprises project out of both Asia and Africa.
To best demonstrate his message, Allan likes to borrow a quote from 12th Century Saint Francis of Assisi: Preach the Gospel at all times and if necessary use words.
“That typifies what we’re about,” Allan says.
“People say we’re all about words but words and faith is the same thing – they’re the one piece of string.”
Allan recalls many happy stories from impoverished locals.
Words aside, learning the basic science of linguistics has also helped break down the cultural barriers.
Allan can mimic basic aspects of most languages.
“You only need 100 words in any culture to do daily business,” he insists.
“I might go into a culture and only know 10 words and I can still communicate.”
Despite his faith, Allan is not immune to the dangers of foreign countrys.
He says there’s real risks.
“It all looks exciting and romantic but it’s bloody dangerous,” Allan admits.
“I’ve been sick many, many times before.
“I write a will every time I go.”