{"id":909,"date":"2019-08-16T02:22:10","date_gmt":"2019-08-16T02:22:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stratfordmedical.com.au\/?p=909"},"modified":"2020-09-29T13:11:12","modified_gmt":"2020-09-29T03:11:12","slug":"daves-long-road-faith-finding-miracle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stratfordmedical.com.au\/uncategorized\/daves-long-road-faith-finding-miracle\/","title":{"rendered":"Dave’s long road to faith and finding a miracle"},"content":{"rendered":"

[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ admin_label=”section” _builder_version=”4.6.5″ custom_margin=”0px||||false|false” custom_padding=”0px||||false|false”][et_pb_row admin_label=”row” _builder_version=”4.6.5″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat” custom_margin=”0px||||false|false” custom_padding=”0px||||false|false”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”3.25″ custom_padding=”|||” custom_padding__hover=”|||”][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/stratfordmedical.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/dave.jpg” title_text=”dave” _builder_version=”4.6.5″ _module_preset=”default” custom_margin=”10px|||30px|false|false” custom_margin_tablet=”0px|||0px|false|false” custom_margin_phone=”” custom_margin_last_edited=”on|desktop” hover_enabled=”0″ custom_css_main_element=”float: right;||max-width: 500px;||” box_shadow_style=”preset1″ sticky_enabled=”0″][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” _builder_version=”4.6.5″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat” hover_enabled=”0″ sticky_enabled=”0″]Australians of all ages and backgrounds become homeless. In Cairns, more than 2000 people sleep on the streets every night, and across the country, that figure is more than 100,000. They are men, women and children from cities, country towns and suburbs we live in. And it\u2019s a problem that is mostly hidden.<\/em><\/p>\n

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For 52-year-old Dave, it\u2019s just a matter of faith.<\/p>\n

It was a fight over a gumball with another kid that changed the course of Dave\u2019s young life.<\/p>\n

At the age of 9, dressed up as a girl, he ran away from his promiscuous mother in Townsville and stowed away on a Greyhound bus heading for Darwin.<\/p>\n

A woman who found him under her bus seat delivered him to an uncle in Darwin – another alcoholic who never put him in school so he stole coke bottles and cashed them in to feed himself.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had 2 cent pieces and I was putting them in the gumball machine when one fell and this little Chinese boy came out of nowhere and stole it, so we started fighting. I was going to take it out of his mouth and eat it myself,\u201d Dave said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis old Chinese man broke up the fight. He took us home and put us in a boxing ring to fight it out.\u201d<\/p>\n

He fed him, showered him and gave him clean clothes before taking him back to his uncle \u2013 but seeing the squalor that he was living in \u2013 took him back home where Dave lived for 10 years.<\/p>\n

That man was \u201cUncle Tom\u201d, a Kung Fu master who taught the kids the martial art and introduced him to Confucianism.<\/p>\n

He left Darwin at 20 and returned to Townsville where he opened his own Martial Arts School.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s trained as a paramedic, loves philosophy, has a degree in sound engineering, traveled the country as the drummer in an Iron Maiden cover band and spent time at a mine in the Northern Territory where an explosion burst both his eardrums, making him virtually deaf for the next four years.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was depressed and suicidal after that,\u201d Dave said.<\/p>\n

By 2004, Dave was living alone in Cairns and it was finding a silver cross on the ground that he says changed his life.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a sign,\u201d Dave said. \u201cI went to church and talked to two pastors the next day.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Dave, that meeting was transformative \u2013 and healing. It was his own miracle.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe next day, I could hear the caravans backing up in the park. I could hear the birds.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dave is now a regular member of his church congregation and the fellowship he experiences has a powerful effect.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not homeless,\u201d Dave said. \u201cI come here to help.\u201d<\/p>\n

And help he does: everybody knows him and greets him with love. His friends know him as \u201cSteve Irwin\u201d because of his blond locks.<\/p>\n

He still suffers tinnitus \u2013 his ears still ring constantly following the explosion.<\/p>\n

But because tinnitus is a phantom and is hard to pin down, Dave has struggled to obtain National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) payments, but he hasn\u2019t given up.<\/p>\n

His laughter is infectious and it\u2019s clear he has a positive effect on those around him.<\/p>\n

When it comes to staying healthy, laughter is up there: it\u2019s priceless and free and for Dave, easy to use.<\/p>\n

Next time we see him; he\u2019s promised to show us his best dance moves.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s always a new pathway to follow,\u201d he said. \u201cSometimes you just need to pray.\u201d<\/p>\n

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