Frozen Peas

Seven months after I came through my breakdown, Tom, who was the Church Elder in charge of our Youth Church, approached me and asked if I’d be prepared to tell my story. As one of the Youth Church leaders, I’d worked closely with Tom for three years, and I was good friends with him and his wife, Jill. They had seen me fall into depression, become suicidal, go through the three years of therapy, and then come out the other side; in fact, Jill accompanied Jenny and me to see Lu Sunderland, who prayed for my healing.

I asked Tom what he meant, and he explained that he’d been working on a project with John Ray, a Christian videographer who was building a library of videos about Christians who had survived difficult times, or were living with chronic illnesses like multiple sclerosis, and how God sustained and encouraged them in and through those times. Their stories were inspiring, and I felt privileged to be counted among them when I remembered how God had brought me through my depression and healed me. I told Tom I would be honored to tell my story, but reminded him that my family and I were immigrating to America in just two weeks! He said he wasn’t sure if they’d be able to arrange it so quickly, but he’d speak to John.

Tom called me back the next day and said, 'Linda, you're not going to believe this, but when I called John and told him about you, he said he'd been at a function for videographers a couple of days previously, and had met a woman who used to present programs on BBC Television in London. He asked her if she would work with him on a project, and she agreed - so he has a presenter, and can come over and film your part next week.'

They filmed an interview with me a few days before I left England, and then later filmed interviews with my therapist, Robin Royston, and Lu Sunderland, the wonderful Christian lady with a ministry of inner healing, who prayed for my healing. The resulting video was called ‘Frozen Peas’, because this was how I described what was happening to me to my family; we were watching television when an advertisement came on about frozen peas, saying that the peas were as fresh when they were thawed as they were the moment they were frozen. I told my family that this was what was happening with my mind, that as I recalled things and worked through them, they came back with the same intensity as when they had happened; like when you hear a song from a specific time in your life, you not only remember the time, but you feel the same emotions you had when you heard it.

The reaction to the video was amazing, and I not only received letters from people who were struggling with similar issues to me, saying that my story was helping them not to give up, but I also received letters from therapists, doctors and nurses, saying that the video helped them to understand and empathize more with some of the patients they were dealing with. The Glasgow Institute of Counseling also purchased many copies of the video to include in their teaching module.

Again, I find it incredible that events that devastated me and my family for a while, are now giving people insight and encouragement into how debilitating depression can be, and how we can sometimes continue to be affected by events that happened in our childhood, without even knowing it.