Eugene from Darra in Queensland joined DJ, Felicia and Robbo on Rise and Shine to share how, in 2022, he struggled to get through the toughest year of his life after a nasty divorce. Then, when his business collapsed under the management of his son, he was on the brink of suicide.
‘It was such a tough year. At the beginning of this year, my divorce was getting finalised. It was a terrible divorce,’ said Eugene.
Then, on the tail of finalising his divorce, Eugene’s son, who had joined his business a few years prior, told him the devastating news that they were going to have to put the business into liquidation as he had mismanaged the funds, and they were all gone.
‘It was just so, so hard. Then later on down the track, the bills started coming in, and unbeknown to me, he had kept two of the bank cards and took another $25,000 from me,’ said Eugene. ‘That put me into a deep hole. …That’s just the tip of the iceberg. There were so many things falling over. It was just really, really dark. So dark that it came to a place where it was very close for me to take my life.’
At the darkest point in his life, Vision was Eugene’s constant source of comfort that he could switch on at any time.
‘The announcers at Vision are just so good. You wake up in the morning, and there’s Karen Hunt, then Greg Laurie, then DJ and Felicia come on. I love The Story and Mandy Worby. They are just awesome,’ said Eugene. ‘The Story was one part of it that kept saying to me, “You can do this.” … I wake up in the morning and pray, and there are times when I’m praying, “God, where are you? I need you now. If you need to show up, you need to show up now.” Then I listen to people’s stories on The Story, and I think to myself, ‘What am I complaining about ?” I listen to these folks who have really got it tough. For me, it’s all good, really, at the end of the day. It’s tough, but not as tough as them.’
The inspirational stories Eugene heard on The Story helped him dig himself out of the hole. The times he questioned where God was, he later realised when he looked back that God had been there the whole time.
In one of Eugene’s darkest moments, the phone rang. It was someone from Vision’s Prayer team who asked if they could pray for him! Praise God for His goodness as He uses Vision to impact people’s lives. It’s so powerful when people appear at the right time!
Will you help people look to God daily by making a tax-deductible donation to keep Vision operating and spreading the Gospel to every corner of Australia?
Special announcement!
A generous Vision partner has offered to pay for copies of the new Plain English Version of the Bible, distributed through Bible League, to be given to support the work of Indigenous evangelists in Australia. Each person who donates, whether $10 or $10,000, will be putting a Bible into the hands of an Indigenous Australian.
Your donation to Vision enables that to happen all across Australia as we reach out to people with words of life and hope and even the lyrics of the songs we play.
We hope the Holy Spirit stirs you to support us by making your tax-deductible donation right now, or even go the extra mile and become a monthly giver.
Now is a great time to call in on 1800 316 316, at vision.org.au or in the free Vision Christian Media app. You’ll be helping people look to God daily as we believe and work together.
To listen to Eugene’s full interview, click the link below:
