Bill Gilvear was a man you did not want to upset in the Glasgow of the 1940's. His father died when he was young and he became a member of one of the sattelite gangs that were on the fringe of the Glasgow gangland scene - one of the underclass of ill educated, unemployed young men looking for mischief. He usually went around armed with a variety of weapons designed to leave psychological and physical scars on the victim. It was best to be on Bill's better side if you wanted to stay in one piece.

Yet this unlikely character became a nurse in the Navy, was a missionary in Africa (obtaining medical qualifications in French and English) and worked from Scotland to help seamen involved in the Falklandss conflict. He is one of Scotland's best loved evangelists.

What caused this turnaround?

From the danger of one kind of conviction he became convicted instead of his need of forgiveness from a just, but loving, God - someone who knew all he had done in his life, would still demand that he held responsible for it, but who also provided a way for even the worst person to start again.

Read Bill's challenging story, it shows that God's idea of who is likely to become a Christian may be different from your own.