While leading a pastoral care session at MWS Christalite Methodist Home (CMH), a welfare home for the destitute, long-time volunteer Peter Maridas felt a prompting to speak about suicide—something he hadn’t originally planned. “I had prepared a sermon about faith, but that day, I felt the Holy Spirit urging me to talk about taking one’s life,” the 59-year-old recalled.
“I told the residents, ‘You have no right to take your own life.’ I explained that God created us in his image for a purpose. I shared my own story—how I married young, and after my first wife died of a heart attack, my world collapsed. I wanted to end my life. I even went up to the 31st storey of my flat, ready to jump. But something stopped me. And I told them, if I had ended my life, I wouldn’t be here speaking to you today.”
The next day, Peter learned that one of the residents present had been contemplating suicide. “He felt very down about the state of his life,” Peter shared. “But after hearing my story, he said, ‘If God can use Peter, he can also use me.’ He no longer wanted to take his life.”
Peter was deeply moved and greatly encouraged that God used his experience to reach someone in despair. “It made me realise there may be many others at the Home who are lonely or struggling,” he said. “I want to be here to bring light into their darkness.”
