story

Mark Dyer

“Your past doesn’t have to be your future.”

What was it like growing up with congenital heart disease?

I was born with congenital heart disease, which is a horrible disease. It’s an invisible handicap inside your heart.

The conversation around me was that, well, Mark, you know, we don’t know how he’s going to really go in life. We suggest you take it easy on him. There’s not much hope really for him, other than sort of going to a library, reading books. He won’t be able to do sports, and he’ll be troubled with this issue for the rest of his life.

Alongside the first surgery as a child was very traumatic, and I felt like someone had broken into my heart and robbed my heart. And I felt quite depleted as a person.

My issue and my anxiety that the Lord was working on was about identity and about belonging, and they are fundamental issues that the Lord has worked on. And so I had to find my identity in Christ. I’ve had to go, well, what does Christ say about me?

And so surfing became an escape for me. I escaped to surfing because I wasn’t coping, and it was a mechanism I can go surfing and feel free from the restraints of the world that was seen to be pushing me into a corner that I wouldn’t amount to much.

Can you tell us about your experience of meeting Christ and how it led you to Christian Surfers?

This particular day, I knew the surf would be on, and so I left work in the morning, picked up my sister and some gear, and we went out to my local beach, Piha. And I sat out in the ocean expecting to get some really good surfing done.

However, when I was in the ocean, I experienced the left pains in my left arm started to come alive, and my chest started to… And then things seemed to deteriorate quite quickly then. I could feel myself being lightheaded, and all of a sudden I had pains in my left arm, so I couldn’t really paddle very well.

And so I looked around the surf to see if I could reach out to somebody, but there was no one there. But eventually I figured out a way, and I caught broken water which propelled me to the shore.

And so eventually getting back to my car, we started to drive back up Piha Hill, and then I was just blacking out, and I was left in the car pretty much to die with my sister and a friend.

And then I was confronted with death, and I could feel myself drifting towards it and wondering what would happen next. And then I found myself, as I went unconscious, I found my soul departing my body, and as I ascended to heaven, I found myself in a heavenly place where I was met with Christ.

And Christ came to me, and He revealed some things about my life. And they were really, really powerful. And He said to me, “The way you see you is not the way I view you.”

And I wanted to keep ascending to heaven, but His arm came outstretched, and I found myself back down in the hospital getting defibrillator and waking up, and all I could say was, just with shivers, “I’ve met with Christ. Something happened to me.”

And from then I asked the question, “What do I do with that? God, how can You use my life? I don’t know how to comprehend what I experienced, but use my life.”

And I persisted with that same prayer for three months, every day, and I wasn’t going to stop until something transpired.

And that was when I went up to a shop to get some milk. And as I was going to the shop, God’s voice told me to pick up a lady with a suitcase outside the shop, which was really difficult to do.

I picked her up, asked if she wanted a lift, she said yes. And during that ride where I dropped her off, she mentioned the word Christian Surfers to me in Australia.

And so driving back, that was the light bulb moment. And so that’s why I knew God had sent me back.

And so from there, I just went down that road, and I felt tailor made for that movement because it was sort of full of misfits, and I was a misfit, but I felt like I was the right peg in the right hole for that environment.

With my time as National Director, I did it for a decade, for 10 years. And there were certain things in the ministry that God wanted me to achieve. It was difficult. The church wasn’t that friendly, the surfers we were reaching weren’t that friendly either. So we were up against it on both sides.

But I think the strong call that God had on me enabled me to push through that, with courage and conviction, and sort of be tailor made for that particular time in history back then.

It was totally on the God beyond us, and the God beyond us always delivered. And so the God beyond us, He became the evangelist. And He spoke. All we did was lift up the Lord’s name, and He drew people unto us. And He did His work as He was hoping we would do.

I’ve always found that God works through us. He works beyond us, and He works in spite of us. And I’ve hung on to those three things, because then it’s not about you. And even with your failings, He works with you.

But I think the key thing is courage and conviction. I was so convicted about it, I didn’t care if no one joined. I was just going to do it on my own. That’s how sold out I was for what I believed in my heart God had called me back.

“The way you see you is not the way I view you.”

What would you like to encourage others with, especially those who are facing difficult circumstances?

So I’ve just gone through my fourth heart surgery. And so four times I’ve been cut open. This is when I was 6, 18, 52, and 62.

My last surgery, the surgeon said she wouldn’t have done it. I only had two years to live.

And so, but I came through that. I was wheeled into room one where it looked like I was going to die, and had conversations with family about funerals.

But I was just in that point of slipping into death, and I’m very familiar with that feeling. I heard the Holy Spirit say, “You haven’t finished your book.”

And so as soon as I heard those words, I knew it wasn’t my time. And I came back, and my blood pressure went from the low 30s back up. And many people thought it was a miracle. I don’t know how it was, but I’m here to tell the story. And I’m getting my book finished.

Your past doesn’t have to be your future. So speak positive of people, encourage people, enable them to reach their potential.