God Changed ‘Iceman’s’ Life… and He can Change Yours

God has always been in the business of changing people’s lives, in astonishing ways.

Below is a moving story of one life He radically changed.

‘Iceman’, tells the story of a military trained British soldier whose life had sunk to depressive lows and suicidal tendencies, despite having significant financial wealth and material possessions.
It is moving testimony that illustrates what lengths God will go to, to win his children back. And it demonstrates the power of a praying sister and a willing Christian to tell him about God.

This is the first chapter of Andrew Purchases’s book: Be The One, Who Wins The One, For The One

Chapter 1: The Ice Man

I met the Ice Man on the island of Saipan. It was hard to miss him. A very tall man built like a bodybuilder.

The locals came up to his chest, and they were brown, so he really did stand out but especially because he was the only other white person I’d seen on the whole island.

It was my second trip to Saipan, a beautiful island, close to Guam and part of the Marianas group of islands. It’s famous for a beautiful swimming grotto but far more famous for being a major battleground in the Pacific conflict in World War II.

There’s a very moving memorial honouring the fallen soldiers with the words to the effect of: ‘Better to light one candle than curse the darkness.’ That week I was speaking at a rally bringing the light of the gospel into the darkness. I passed the Ice Man in the Galleria Duty Shopping Centre, a place where the rich and famous shopped and I simply looked with longing.

He was obviously shopping, wearing the best and latest of the most expensive labels and looked very handsome. He was like an advertisement for Ralph Lauren. I couldn’t help myself and in a moment of jest I said, ‘Greetings, fellow white man.’

We both laughed and began to chat and soon decided to have a coffee. He was originally from the UK but was now based mostly in Southeast Asia. He had mainly worked in the British army and the UN peacekeeping forces and done many tours of duty. He was also a very wealthy man and delighted in showing me pictures of his many trophies, houses, boats, jet skis and Harley-Davidson.

In a burst of creative witnessing I decided to show him pictures of my trophies, pictures being the stories of people who were now believers in my then-current church. They included criminals, bikies, a world champion kick boxer, bouncers and even world-class engineers to name a few. They were amazing trophies, bad backgrounds but now doing great things for God and in the church, winning and serving people in the community and beyond.

The Ice Man went quiet for a while. Then after winning some sort of inner battle, he decided to open up about his life. Ice Man was in Saipan to smuggle two high quality Thai cooks into Japan for a friend who operated a restaurant in Tokyo.

His real story began when he joined the British Army as a young man. He had come from a poor family and had risen up the ranks. He was posted to Ireland nearly a dozen times in the midst of the ‘Troubles.’ In his first posting his best friend had been captured by the IRA and badly tortured. His head was delivered to the barracks in a box with his private parts in his mouth. Special forces ended up tracking down the perpetrators, he was witness to the devastating paybacks.

The things Ice Man saw and shared with me were so bad they kept me sleepless for several nights. They were dangerous and harrowing times and his many tours to Northern Ireland created significant tension and terror. He was later shipped out to the conflict in Bosnia working with the United Nations, yet again exposed to unspeakable tortures and cruelty in the ‘ethnic cleansing.’

This time it was not just soldiers but civilians, even children, and the UN were ‘protectors’ in word only. Again I was kept awake by the torture and injustice he shared. It was now about 3pm in the afternoon, and, as a guest preacher I always go to my room to pray and prepare for the evening meeting. However, due to the obvious ‘divine’ interruption or appointment I put my preparation on hold and trusted God to give me extra grace for the meeting, since Ice Man was really opening his heart, it was important to follow through.

He shared that, without the help of a handful of sleeping pills, these horrors kept him awake for nights at a time. In fact most nights were spent with a gun in his mouth, praying for strength to end his life.

What kept stopping him was a film featuring Robin Williams called What Dreams May Come. It dealt with life after death and in particular, hell. He didn’t want to risk going to hell by taking his own life. I asked him if he spoke to any other friends that had experienced the same events. He replied ‘no’— all of them had committed suicide. They’d been unable to deal with all they’d experienced. He was the last one alive.

At present, Ice Man was living in Southeast Asia, the head of a powerful drug ring, dealing pleasure drugs to the rich and famous. He had a greatly privileged life, numerous beautiful women, huge connections and a very clever network and operation. He was called the Ice Man for his cool nerve and disregard for life. In talking to the Ice Man, I was aware of an extra dimension of grace.

My words had divine life, attraction and insight, beyond what I normally sense when dealing with such witnessing situations. I was puzzled by this extra anointing. Finally, it dawned on me and I asked him if anyone was praying for him. He responded immediately, his sister had breast cancer two years previously, and became a Born-Again Christian. She had been completely healed, and was praying non-stop for her brother since that day. This explained what I was experiencing. It was the power of her heartfelt prayers for her lost brother.

As Ice Man shared this information with me, God cut in and gave me a picture or vision in my heart. I saw God looking down on the world, like a large desk globe. He says, ‘Who can I get to intersect, who will be an answer to his sister’s prayers?’ Suddenly God sees something and then leans in and exclaims, ‘Yes,’ and says, ‘Andrew Purchase is going to Saipan.’ It nearly brought me to tears. What was amazing to me is that God knew if I met him, I would talk to him, and if I talked to him, I’d witness to him and if he was open, I’d implement the ‘Baby on the Bin’ concept and God could answer his sister’s prayers.

This is trust. Now the basis of our salvation and our walk with God is our trusting Him. Sometimes the reverse is also true, it’s about God trusting us with His people and purposes. Thankfully, I had been trustworthy and done what God had anticipated I would do. By now, it was getting late, and I really needed to get ready. I asked him if he’d like to come along and he accepted my invitation.

It was an excellent meeting. The Ice Man sat at the back just trying to take it all in. It was very foreign to him. At the end of the meeting I went back to explain things to him, when a lady was brought to me with a horribly disfigured hand. I prayed with her and her hand completely unfolded and came back to normal in front of us.

The Ice Man went from Mr. Cool Cat to Mr. Jaw Drop. He wanted Jesus so we sat down and I introduced them.

The next couple of days, I did the rest of the meetings, spent time with the pastor and his family and built as much as I could into the Ice Man without overdosing him. We exchanged addresses. He went off to Japan with his Thai cooks, and I went to Guam and Palau to finish my series of meetings. Both series of meetings went very well. When I arrived back in Australia, the Ice Man had mailed me and sent a bunch of gifts. He was still very excited and hungry. I sent him a bunch of sermons and some key books to help him become established and to flourish. I invited him to a significant conference I was attending.

In a short period of time things began to take off, he saw nearly all his friends converted, bought them Bibles, and they became ‘fired up’ for the things of God, and he began conducting new believer’s studies with the materials I sent him. All his friends and connections were amazed that the ‘Ice Man’ had unfrozen, he was alive, transformed and radiating. He grew, and his study grew and grew so much that he wanted to buy a building and call it the ‘Andrew Purchase Church’ which I said was very complimentary but probably not a good idea.

He also phoned his sister and explained how he met me and what had happened, and that all of his friends were coming to Christ. He also gave her my phone number, and she phoned me and thanked me for being the answer to her prayers. It was all shaping up well, and I was looking forward to seeing him in a month at the conference, when all of a sudden, he totally disappeared, completely fell off the radar.

You can get Andrew’s book here Be The One -Andrew Purchase

The historical evidence for Jesus (video)