Episode 10 with Danny Easton

Elim MPower

In a special extended episode of ‘Discipleship For Busy Blokes’ we are in conversation with Danny Easton, one of the elders at Birmingham City Church.

After initially starting out in an apprenticeship in tool-making and then moving into Computer-Aided Design (CAD), Danny is now a car-seat designer for a company with automotive clients including Jaguar-Landrover and Nissan.

Danny describes a ‘step out of the boat’ season in his career when he had to deliver results for a new client rather quickly, and where he felt right out of his comfort zone. He spent a couple of weeks convinced he would get “found out” and stood down – but instead much to his surprise he was congratulated for the work he was producing.

Danny credits God with seeing him through, in response to some urgent prayer – and recommends we all seek help from God in prayer during pressure times; and that we should take our main cue in our workplaces from God, and not from what is going on around or above us.

Danny also shares about a very challenging time in his life when he got seriously injured in a motorbike accident on his way to a men’s weekend with church. He came off the bike and went a long way into a field, sustaining a broken collarbone, ribs, fibula, damage to his foot and also some bleeding on the brain, as a result of the impact which cracked the bike helmet.

Danny got flown into hospital in Coventry by air ambulance, and recalls coming round and first just seeing the ceiling and the lights, and then his family and pastor at his bedside. At first he was asking the same questions over and over again as a result of amnesia, but gradually things began to piece together. He is convinced that as a result of a whole lot of prayer from family, relatives, friends and churches all around the world (America, Philippines, Australia, Africa, Italy), the bleeds on his brain were not as severe as the neurosurgeon and his team at first feared they might be.

The medical team were amazed at the speed of his recovery while he was in hospital, so much so that he was discharged on the Sunday evening, 48 hours after the accident had occurred. Danny reports that shortly afterwards he also visited the pound where the bike was stored, and the owner of the pound was amazed to see Danny on his crutches, given the extensive damage to the bike, which was a write-off.

After he got home from hospital, Danny was off convalescing for three months and found himself having to confront his own vulnerability, and his confidence took a real knock. During this time off, however, he started to appreciate how much it really is God in charge in our lives – and the period of time after the accident became for him another form of having to "step out of the boat", in trusting God for restored confidence and full recovery.

Danny also describes a time when he kept on asking God what His plan for his life might be, especially during his daily commute on the M6 upon his return to work after the accident. After about 3 weeks of asking, he was really surprised to hear God say: “I’m not going to tell you!” When he asked God why that was the answer, he felt God say: “Because you’ll try and do it in your own strength and you’ll mess it up!” The next day God then said: “I want you to be in the place where you hear my voice and do what I tell you to do.” Danny says that he also suddenly realised that he was already walking in the middle of God’s plan for his life already, and that God was not far off as he had supposed.

He closes in prayer for all the guys listening in.