Onward Christian (former) soldier

5:11pm Monday 21st July 2008

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From a man of war to a man of God – former paratrooper Jamie Kidd has turned his back on a troubled life and now travels the world sharing his Christian faith. The Gazette went to find our what changed his world around.

A large flatscreen television dominates the front room of Jamie and Amy Kidd’s house in Colchester.

When relatives gave the couple the baby equipment they had been saving for – their first child is due in October – Jamie and Amy decided to blow the money on a new TV.

“I’m an ordinary guy of 28 who likes having a beer with friends and I’ve got a big TV. I’m not a Bible basher in sandals,” declared Jamie.

“But possessions don’t make me happy, because you can get nice things but they get old and you want to replace them, and you’re still not happy.

“My faith has filled the emptiness I used to feel and restored my marriage. It is out of gratitude that I share the message.”

With unembarassed honesty, Jamie admits to having made “a lot of bad decisions in life” – leaving school without qualifications and getting into drugs and petty crime.

At 18 he joined 3rd Battalion, the Parachute Regiment after realising he had “to do something or I would end up dead from a drug overdose or in prison”.

“I was a young guy with a craving for adventure and just wanted to blow things up and shoot people,” Jamie said. “I thought the lifestyle was great – at weekends we would drink heavily, get into fights and visit prostitutes.

“I was really excited to go out to Iraq in 2003, and was so buzzed up by the fighting.

“But I did start to see the realities of war – people getting killed, the destruction and poverty it causes – and the excitement turned into fear.”

On his return to Colchester Garrison, Jamie got married, but admits that he “didn’t take that too seriously” and fell back into drinking and womanising.

It took two brushes with death to turn Jamie’s life towards God.

The first – “a wake-up call that I didn’t pay full attention to” – happened in Iraq.

“I was caught in an explosion and felt shrapnel really close to me, but I wasn’t injured,” he said. “I just got the feeling that someone was looking out for me”.

Then on a training exercise Jamie’s parachute malfunctioned.

“I remember standing at the back of the aeroplane, psyched up and gobbing off as usual, but I just felt something wasn’t right,” he said.

“I jumped, but there was a fault with the parachute and I had to dump it and rely on the reserve. I was falling for what seemed like an eternity, but it was probably only split seconds.

“At that moment of danger I called out to a God I had never paid attention to, and I believe that saved me and changed my life.”

The reserve parachute opened and Jamie made “the softest, most perfect landing ever”.

“It felt like God had answered and said he was looking after me,” he said. “I realised how fragile life was and it can taken from us at any moment.”

Once back in Colchester, Jamie went to a service at Kingsland Church in Lexden.

“I thought it was a bit wacky – people were dancing, singing and waving flags – but then the words that were spoken felt like they were aimed directly at me,” he said.

“I learned that we are all sinners and going to hell.

“I asked Jesus to come in to my life, forgive me for all my wrongs and change me, and now I do what I do.”

Jamie left the Army in 2006 and started working with Southend-based Avanti Ministries as a missionary.

“Even today my Para mates can’t get their heads around what I’ve done,” he said.

“I used to be one of the ringleaders for going out to get drunk or watching porn in the barracks, and then all of a sudden I stopped.

“They thought I was putting it on for Amy, that it was just a phase.”

Jamie is still in touch with the men he describes as “brothers”, and keeps a wary eye on news from Afghanistan.

“I still love them all, and I fear that one of them will come back in a coffin,” he said. “My friends know I’m here for them – I pray for them and they can talk to me about their problems.”

Jamie’s missionary work has taken him into prisons, orphanages and drug rehabilitation centres across Europe, as well as Singapore and Malaysia.

He’s going to Belgium at the end of the month, and then South Africa.

“Someone said if you had a cure for cancer it would be criminal not to share it, and that is what I feel about how my life has been changed,” he said.

“I’m talking to broken-hearted people whose lives are a mess or they’re depressed – that was me five years ago.”