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TESTIMONY:

Healing Prayer “What about the fact that not everyone who receives prayer is healed?” The most honest answer is: by faith. I wish with all my heart that every person who asks for healing prayer would be instantly and completely restored. But it doesn’t always happen that way. We must live, serve, and pray under this mystery. God answers prayers in His own way. I wanted to physically walk, but I now realise God answered my prayer by enabling me to walk spiritually. You don’t receive things on a platter — you have to believe. As God is the Father of us all, He looks out for His children. Just as a child has to work to earn money or animals must work hard for food, this builds discipline — and discipline is needed to do God’s will. Prayer invites God into your life. John 15:13 says: “Greater love has no one than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” This verse shows us that God considers us His friends. For a friendship to grow there must be communication, and prayer is our way to communicate with God and let Him in — with faith. We need to pray and cannot blame God when things go wrong. In order to move forward we must have a non-quitting spirit. As I personally have been knocked down time and time again in life, I realize that with a non-quitting spirit I will not stay down — I will continue to get up. Just as a car helps someone reach their destination, may this testimony help someone on their path toward God. God joyfully uses an infinite variety of ways to bring health and well-being to His people. When ministering healing, always show compassion — just as Jesus was “filled with compassion” for people. Prayer is not optional — it is the one thing the gospel writers constantly tell us to do. The Accident When I was 16 years old, my life changed forever. I was beaten with an iron bar and left almost dead. I was taken to the Royal Adelaide Hospital and later transferred to the Hampstead Rehabilitation Centre. It was there that I had my first vision from God. At the time I was intellectually disabled, mentally broken, and far from Him. But in my vision I saw myself walking strong — better than I even walk today — and walking out of Hampstead, free. That vision stayed with me for years. From Hampstead I was sent to Regency Park. My mind was still troubled, but my hope stayed alive. I believed God would one day teach me to walk again. When I was at Regency park the physio suggested to try and walk around behind the wheelchair. I walked around like that for years because it felt comfortable and I brought my own wheelchair. I believe God wanted me to teach myself because I wasn’t going to be there, which was true. When I left Regency Park I had the understanding that it was all up to me because I didn’t know God at first which makes me happy because of this achievement I have accomplished and now, I know that I didn’t do this, God did. When I first went to Marion city church it was really hard for me to even stand up and walk because I had to use faith. I used to hang onto people to help me stand upright. God supplied me with Chris mills car and I am so happy he was obedient to the Holy Spirit. After the accident God showed me the doctors who came into my room. Before that everything was blurry and confusing. Early Struggles and Determination At Regency Park I once thought about climbing the 15-foot fence with one arm and one leg while carrying my wheelchair. That was the desperate state I was in. A bodybuilder I met there inspired me. He reminded me of myself — frustrated by not being able to do certain things. He also had an intellectual disability and was in a wheelchair. Looking back, I can see God was showing me how I had to fight. At first I didn’t know what I was doing and hurt myself badly, so I stopped for ten years. When I returned to the gym later, I worked more wisely and it paid off. This was me strengthening myself. It encouraged me as I was making a lot effort to get better and I began to recognize how my body and mind was improving. I found my shaking stopped. The harder I worked at the gym, the better I was getting, it was great rehabilitation for me, and hence I fell in love with the gym! Not long after, I met a guy named Ricky. Ricky punched me trying to assert dominance. Years went by but I always felt I needed to reconcile with him. Eventually I went to Focus, a place that taught us to be more independent, and saw Ricky again. I intended to talk it out, but I was overcome with emotion and hit him back. I believe the enemy had a strong hold over my life at the time because I genuinely wanted to catch up as friends. In another situation I found myself punching another guy in a wheelchair. Looking back, my intellectual disability was out of control. It is so easy to partake in destructive actions toward yourself or others, but I am amazed how God has put me back on track. When I think about my past I am frustrated that I hurt people and sometimes get down on myself. But at least now, instead of acting in violence, I want to help people and bring smiles to their faces. I was beginning to see God’s glory in my progress, and I began to find my place in Him. It brought all the glory to God as my body grew stronger and I was able to carry out tasks for Him. Before all this, I wanted to die. But then I met a Christian man named Peter, who told me about the love of God. His words touched me deeply. Peter took me to a small church to meet a man named Greg. Greg then took me to Aldinga Beach. It was a long drive and he barely had any petrol, but I prayed to God we would make it. I was then baptized. Due to my intellectual disability I don’t remember much, but I remember feeling loved, valued, and wanted. I had new brothers in my life and, most importantly, I allowed God into my life. People don’t seem to know what they have until they lose it. I slowed down on drinking as I felt strong conviction. I drank to escape the world, but then I knew God was my escape. I used to take dangerous walks with no walker or support, clinging from street post to street post — just as I was clinging onto my faith during those walks. God’s Work in My Mind and Body Over time I noticed God rearranging my thoughts. I could collect my ideas, have coherent conversations, remember things, read my Bible, walk more steadily, and look forward to the day when I could walk properly. I remember walking by someone and having a nice chat with a woman. Later in the conversation I asked her if she would like a job. Then I asked the people in the building and didn’t even realize it was a radio station. The next day the woman was working there as a secretary. I still struggled with an intellectual disability and didn’t know what was going on, but now I knew it was the Holy Spirit at work. This was a sign of the works God was going to do through me. I started feeling better in my body. I don’t know what I am going to do with myself, but I’m going to keep looking up to God and see where He takes me. I have seen God help me in situations that would seem unbelievable because of my disability. I know God has kept me drug- and drink-free and dependent on Him. People seemed to be rubbing me the wrong way but really God was smoothing my rough edges. Sometimes I need to think before I speak and this is why I get misunderstood a lot, but God helps me relate to people and all the glory goes to Him. I believe for my complete miracle. When it happens, people will see my independence and know it was God. I want my testimony to shine His light so that more people will come to Jesus and glorify Him. I know it will happen — I just need to walk into it. Ephesians 6:12 “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” Protection and Miracles God has protected me many times. Once in Broken Hill we went yabbying. As we were leaving I was about to get into my sister’s car, but she told me to ride with other friends instead. I didn’t even know them. I didn’t see that the end of the hill had a steep slant. I had to hold on for dear life for about five minutes before I got up. Not long after, we saw her car overturned with my niece hanging out of the window. If I had been in that car, someone — maybe I — might have died. Nobody even went to the hospital. God protected everyone. Another time, my brother’s son was badly beaten in jail. Most of his body was shattered with many bones sticking out. It took a long time for the doctors to treat him. I told him about Jesus, but his heart was hard. I still pray for him. I knew I had to talk to him about Jesus because I had gone through a similar situation. God makes people go through hard situations so it creates empathy and compassion toward others going through the same troubles, so they don’t feel alone and their voices are heard. At Hampstead, a physio suggested I walk behind my wheelchair. I did this for years, teaching myself because I knew I wouldn’t be in care forever. Looking back, I see that God was behind that achievement. When I first went to Marion City Church, it was hard to even stand and walk — but I used faith. God provided a car through Chris Mills, who was obedient to the Holy Spirit. Chris picked me up every morning and dropped me off for ten years straight, or possibly even longer. Close Calls One day in Rundle Mall, a man invited me to his house. I had never met him before. Twice he left to get his “friends,” and I felt led to leave immediately. Later I realized God had protected me. At Koorong Bookshop, the Holy Spirit literally stopped me from stepping into traffic. I saw my spirit walking ahead of me, but my body stayed still — seconds before a car came through. Another time on South Road I didn’t see the truck coming. A truck’s brakes screamed loudly as it stopped just short of hitting me. In Perth, God showed me the beauty of His creation — even in the gold at the Perth Mint, reminding me of the streets of gold in heaven. The coin was covered in real gold. I was amazed and later gave it to my pastor, which I found honorable. I’m telling you this because you never know when you will draw your last breath. Trepidation I once went to the beach with an acquaintance named Andy on a sail boat, intoxicated with a cask of wine. I went off the back like a diver, thinking I would be fine, I could swim... Little did I know I was out like a light! I believe God saved my life that day with what I believe was 2 angels, lifting me up a long way from the water to the jetty when I was unconscious. When I was on that jetty coming back to reality I realized I had to get Andy out of my life. Actually, all people who where a bad influence. When I first met this guy him and his mother where dope addicts. It was a miracle in my life is that God has always been working on my behalf even when I wasn’t a Christian and wasn’t aware of it. Now I look back I can see all the times that God has helped me Ever since I was beaten with that iron bar god has had his arms around me and protected me. Deliverance from Danger Once I was on a sailboat, drunk with a cask of wine. I went off the back like a diver and drowned. I believe two angels lifted me to safety because I was unconscious and woke up in hospital. God has been working for me even when I didn’t know Him. Ever since I was beaten, He has had His arms around me. Ephesians 1:4 — “For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love.” There were times I wanted to end my life — once swimming far out to sea, another time standing on a balcony ready to jump. But God kept me here. Now I know His love, and I know the love of my brothers and sisters in Christ. Psalm 121:7-8 “The Lord will keep you from all harm — he will watch over your life; the Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.” Seeds Planted in Childhood When I was about five, a Christian family took me in. They cared for me, took me on holidays, and showed me God’s creation. I can still remember putting 20 cents in the offering plate. Looking back, it was God working through them to discipline me and set me on the right path. Before I became a Christian I used to take cash to buy candy or drinks. The mum eventually caught on and the son found out and punched me. Still, after all this they had me over and took me to church. That’s the grace and love God can do in people’s lives. Years later, seeing a van like theirs reminded me of the joy they gave me and gave me hope. While I was at Hampstead Rehabilitation Centre, seeing the exact same van was one of the signs God showed me. Serving God I have been serving God by making cards and books with various prayers to hand out to people, inspiring them to follow the word. I bless them as they walk past. I watch sermons online to gain knowledge and wisdom for pastors. I go deep into prayer and communication with God. I also play Christian card games that broaden my understanding. I buy scripture cards and Christian book marks to give out, trying to be a positive light in a dark world. I would love for everyone that reads this to be inspired and come to know Jesus Christ. Guided by Grace It is like we are just doing what we feel guided to do, as long we remember to put God first. We need to keep God first in everything we do, this way we cannot go wrong in anything that falls before our eyes. When we put God first and remain in the spirit of God everything falls into place. Walking in his promise Walking in his promise is like walking on water, when we reach out to catch our balance, the water holds us up acting as support. Just by saying his name, Jesus, he can help you out in any situation or difficulty even ones to hard to understand. When we have Jesus we truly have something the world cannot comprehend. A New Life in Christ Before I was saved, my life was falling apart. I know that without Christ I would be in a far worse state today. In my home people were stealing from me and freeloading. Items on my walls were taken down. I helped family in financial situations but they still treated me coldly and kept expecting more. They showed no compassion for what I was going through. Even though people have hurt me, I still genuinely love them and forgive them. I pray to the Lord for their salvation and hope they can change. I was mentally ill all the time and physically unwell, which made things difficult. My mind was far less coherent and I was unable to think properly. People took advantage of me in that state. This made me yearn to die. Now I have independence — ever since I came out of Regency Park. I started doing tasks by myself, including showering and cooking. All I want is to walk normally and serve God with all my heart. I sacrificed gym time to get this testimony on paper. It is proof of God’s healing power in my life. Final Word God bless you all. I pray this testimony encourages every reader as much as it encourages me. Every time I read it, it brings life to my spirit, soul, and body. I have done my best to put down what the Holy Spirit led me to share, so others can understand what He has done in my life. “Len, ask God to give you something to do today — someone to talk to today. Believe that He will open up a purpose and plan for your life.” — Judy Laird and Len Reid I wanted to die. When people feel the same as me, God can help you, as God helped me. If you want to work somewhere you gotta stick with it and persevere. It’s the same with life. This world makes you think you are weak when you are battling depression and suicidal thoughts. But God welcomes the brokenhearted into His arms. He doesn’t judge but loves. It’s not weak to be down — it’s only weak to stay down. There were many times I fell but God helped me get back up. If you are pushed to the limit, don’t let it overtake you. You can overcome it even when you think you are at your limit — you can always keep pushing. The enemy wants to put fear and doubt. 2 Timothy 2:7 “For God gave us not a spirit of fear but of power, love, and self-control.” I am still here because of the grace of the Lord. I never had it in me to kill myself. I could talk the talk but not walk the walk — which was a good thing in many ways because of my mental disability. This is what it’s like with most families — they don’t care about each other. But now I am in the family of God, which is much freer. Do your own things and make up your own mind with God, putting Him first in life. The more I think about this, the more things I can pick up. This testimony took around 15 hours to write. Bye for now. Love you all. God bless in Jesus’ name. Amen!

TESTIMONY VERIFICATION STATUS: Unverified

TESTIFIER:

Leonard Reid

PASTOR:

Barry & Janet

LOCATION:

Australia

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Rights related to automated decision making

You have rights to avoid being subject to decisions based solely on automated processing (including profiling) which has a significant effect on you. We do not carry out any such processing.

Right to data portability

You have the right to request a copy of certain personal data to have it transferred to another organisation in certain circumstances.

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You also have the right to make a complaint direct to the appropriate privacy body such as your State’s Attorney General.

Why we collect and use personal data

We collect personal data to help us to process your requests, keep in touch with you and to help us to interact with you in the most effective way.

Examples of why we process your personal data include:

To keep you updated on our work and the impact of your support;
To make sure you know about events that you can participate in as a
supporter;
To invite you to participate in campaigns;
To send you fundraising appeals;
To support you as a volunteer;
To process donations or other payments, and verify financial transactions to protect you from fraud;
To process Aid donations and Aid Declarations with the tax authorities;
To process a legacy or gift that you leave in your will;
To provide services, products or information you have requested;
To check with you on how you want us to contact you, and record these preferences;
To keep notes of conversations that you have with our team, as a reference if you want to revisit the conversation later;
To notify you of changes to our policies when these affect you;
To ensure that content from our site is presented in the most effective way for you and your computer;
If we need to do so to comply with a law, process or regulatory requirement;
If we need to do so to comply with a law, process or regulatory requirement;
To process a job application you may make with us.
to allow you to participate in interactive features of our websites when you choose to do so;
to provide customer support;
to provide and maintain our website
to gather analysis or valuable information so that we can improve our website;
to monitor the usage of our website;
to detect, prevent and address technical issue;
to fulfil any other purpose for which you provide it;
to carry out our obligations and enforce our rights arising from any contracts entered into between you and us;
to provide you with notices about your account and/or subscription, including expiration and renewal notices, email-instructions, etc.;
to provide you with news and general information about our website;
in any other way we may describe when you provide the information;
for any other purpose with your consent.

The information that we collect

The personal data that we collect about you will be based on how you interact with us, but we collect the following information from many of our supporters:

Your name;
Your postal and email addresses;
Your telephone number or numbers;
Details of any correspondence that we have had with you. For example, if you call our team, they may make a note of the conversation, in case you need anything else on that matter;
How you would like to hear from us, and when you told us this;
Details of any donations that you have made to us;
Your date of birth;
Any fundraising appeals that you may have responded to;
Events that you have taken part in or enquired about.

There is also other information that we may collect and hold in specific circumstances. For example:

Your bank account details if you set up a direct debit with us;
Health information that you give us if you are participating in an event, to help us to ensure your safety;
Campaigning actions that you have taken on our behalf;
If you are a volunteer or part of our local organiser campaigner network and have told us that you have a specific area of interest to receive training on;
Our telephone system lists the numbers that have recently called or been dialled, but we do not link these to any supporter records;
Information to support our work with high-net-worth individuals, to understand their philanthropic interests, and complete any necessary due diligence.

Sensitive data

Some personal data is legally considered to be sensitive, and so is subject to additional safeguards – in data protection law this is known as” special category” data. Data on the following matters is classed in this way:

Race;
Ethnic origin;
Political opinions;
Religion or philosophical beliefs;
Trade union membership;
Genetics;
Biometrics (where this is used for identification purposes;
Health;
An individual’s sex life; or
Sexual orientation

Similar protections apply to personal data relating to criminal convictions and offences.

We will only collect or use this type of data if there is a specific reason for doing so. We will always explain this reason to you when we ask for the data and will usually ask for your explicit consent to use it. We wouldn’t ask for consent if it is information that you have clearly made public, for example, your religion if you are working with us because you represent a faith group such as our church.

Age is not legally considered as a special category of data, but we will always treat it sensitively.

How and when we collect information about you

There are a number of ways that we collect information; most often this will be directly from you, for example, if you fill out a form on our website, or directly with one of our team. Whenever we ask for information from you we will explain why we are asking for it (including by reference to this policy), and you will always be given a choice about how we communicate with you.

In some very specific circumstances, we will gather data from publicly available sources. We may use data from third parties to keep our records up to date or to enhance the information that we hold. Sometimes you will also provide data to third parties who then pass it to us with your permission. For example, you may be raising money on fundraising platforms, or you may have signed up to one of our campaigns through a 3rd party website.

We do not buy lists of data to use for our marketing purposes or share data with other charities for them to use in their marketing purposes.

Anonymous information: cookies

Like most websites, our site uses cookies; small data files that are downloaded when you use a website, to make the site easier to use. The information that is gathered is totally anonymous to us, but it helps us to see how people use our site, so that we can provide a better user experience.

Technical data that we collect automatically, including cookies and similar technologies

We use cookies and similar tracking technologies to track the activity on our website. Cookies are files with a small amount of data which may include an anonymous unique identifier.

Cookies are sent to your browser from a website and stored on your device. Other tracking technologies are also used such as beacons, tags and scripts to collect and track information and to improve and analyze our website.

We will automatically collect, store, and use the following categories of data when you browse and search our site:

technical information, for example, the type of device (and its unique device identifier) you use to access our site, the Internet protocol (IP) address used to connect your device to the Internet, browser type and version, time zone setting, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system, mobile network information and platform; and

information about your visit to our site including the full Uniform Resource Locators (URL), clickstream to, through and from the website (including date and time), pages you viewed, page response times, download errors, length of visits to certain pages, page interaction information (such as scrolling, clicks, and mouse-overs), and methods used to browse away from the page.

Most web browsers allow some control of most cookies through the browser settings. To find out more about cookies, including how to see what cookies have been set and how to manage and delete them please visit https://www.allaboutcookies.org/.

Our legal basis for processing your information

We will always make sure that we consider why we are processing your personal

data and identify our legal basis for doing so. Often this will be because you have given us your consent. We may also process your data where we are furthering our legitimate aims and have assessed that the processing is not likely to be too intrusive, or to unduly infringe on your rights and freedoms. In legal terms, this is called the “legitimate interests” basis.

In some cases, we have a legal or statutory duty to process information, and we will always comply with any legal requirement.

We may also process your personal data where it is necessary to carry out the terms of a contract which we have with you (or when we are in the process of forming that contract with you).

Marketing communications

We will make it easy for you to tell us if you would like to receive “marketing” communications from us and hear more about our work, and the ways in which you would like to receive this information (post, email, SMS and phone). In every communication, we will always make it clear how you can tell us if you choose not to receive further marketing communications, either at all, on certain topics or by certain methods.

If you tell us that you do not want to receive marketing communications, we will remove you from our list and will then not send you any further marketing materials.

Processing your data on the basis of your consent:

There are a number of circumstances where we only process your data on the basis of your consent. Examples of this are:

To send you marketing by email.
To send you marketing by SMS (text message).
To send you direct messages through social media.
To process health information that you give us if you are participating in an event or travelling overseas.

When you give your consent for us to contact you, we do not treat this as valid indefinitely. However, we understand that our supporters want to continue to hear from us whilst they have an active relationship with us, and for a period afterwards.

Here are some examples of what we mean by an active relationship:

If you make a donation or sponsorship payment to us, including regular monthly gifts or sponsorship donations
If you participate in an event on our behalf (for example a prayer meeting)
If you tell us that you have left us a gift in your Will
If you take a campaigns action for us, such as signing a petition

We will consider your consent to be valid whilst you take these actions, and then for 24 months afterwards, to enable us to keep you up to date with our work and to offer you other ways you might choose to support us. At the end of this time period then we will get in touch with you to re-confirm that you are happy to continue to hear from us.

You can withdraw your consent at any time. If you wish to do so, or have any questions on this, please do just get in touch with our team at any time and they’ll be happy to help.

The Legitimate Interests basis

We have a duty to promote the Gospel of Jesus Christ: to promote ourselves and our work; to responsibly raise as much money as possible to further our charitable aims; to update our supporters and the general public on our progress; and to operate in an effective way. We always pursue these interests in a respectful manner, with our purpose and supporters at the heart of what we do.

We might further our legitimate interests in the following ways:

To communicate with you about marketing and fundraising materials or products:

To respond to requests for information, such as where you have asked for an information pack.
To send you mail relating to activity that we think you may be interested in (unless you have told us you do not want this). We will always consider how much mail you receive from us, and what the topic is, to ensure that it is appropriate.
To fulfil gift requests if you have ordered either for yourself or to send them to a gift recipient.
To use social media so that you see our adverts on your newsfeed.

To ensure that we understand our supporters and so can contact them in a way that is relevant for them, and to make sure that we are using our marketing budgets effectively:

To segment and analyse our data that we hold so that we can understand who our supporters are and contact them about specific activity.
To manage our everyday business needs
To work with third party suppliers, where we can make use of their expertise in a specialist field, or where they can provide services at a more cost-effective rate than we could manage internally.
To update our database records to keep them accurate, for example, to amend an address where we receive returned mail.
To contact former job applicants who have been placed in our Talent Bank.

You have the right to object to us processing your data on the grounds of our legitimate interests. If you would like us to stop using your data on this basis, please do get in touch with our Team. You may also see a ‘please do not contact me by post’ box on our communications where we are using the legitimate interest basis, and you can also tick this to ask us to stop sending these.

Administrative messages

There are some administrative messages that we legally must share with you, which are not affected by how you have told us you would like us to contact you for marketing purposes.

Examples of these include:

Confirming subscription to a newsletter;
Confirming the details of any direct debit that you set up with us, including your bank account and payment details; and
Confirming where you have made an Aid Declaration orally, so that we can give you the information on the tax implications of this.

How we work with third parties in processing personal data

We sometimes work with third parties. It’s important that you understand the circumstances where this might happen, and who we work with.

We never sell or swap your details with any other organisation for their marketing purposes.

These are some examples of how we work with third parties:

Analytics and other third-party tools. We employ third-party tools to monitor and analyze the use of our website, and to automate certain processes related to the development and operation of our website.
For payments. We use third parties for payment, analytics, and other business services. Such providers will collect identifying information about the devices that connect to their services. They use this information to operate and improve the services they provide to us, including for fraud detection.
Where we work with other offices, subsidiaries or affiliates.
Where we sign a contract with a third-party supplier to carry out services for us. These contracts will always hold a supplier to our own high standards of data protection, to ensure that they treat your information with the same care as we do.
Where you register to take part in an event, and we have to provide your details to the event organiser to secure your place.
Where a company sends us data because you have given permission for them to share it.
Where we use companies who can help us to enhance the information that we hold about you.
Where we might use your phone number or email address to communicate with you on social media. This won’t be through direct, personal messages, but updates about our work and stories that we think you might be interested in, which might appear in the form of content on your newsfeed.
Where we legally have to share information. For example, if you make an Aid declaration to enable us to claim Aid on donations that you make, we have to share your name and address with US tax authorities so that they can audit our claim.

External websites

Our website contains links to and from various third-party sites. If you follow a link to any of these external sites, please note that these sites have their own privacy policies and that we do not accept any responsibility or liability for these policies. Please check these policies before you submit any personal data to these third-party sites.

We may use companies to provide services and process your personal data on our behalf, where they have a specific expertise or can offer the most cost-effective solution for us. Some of the activities that third-party companies carry out for us are:

Packing and delivering postal mail;
Making telephone calls to our supporters;
Signing up new supporters for us in door to door, street or private site campaigns;
Sending emails;
Processing credit card payments;

Whenever we work with a company in this way, we will always have a contract with them, to be certain that they treat your data with the same level of care and respect as we do. We will only send them the data that they need to carry out their specific service, and they are required to delete it or return it to us once they have completed this. Your data will only ever be passed to them for the services that they carry out on our behalf, it is never shared for their marketing purposes.

Event organisers

Some events require us to pass your personal information to the event organisers to secure your place. We will always make this clear to you at the point of your registration, so you understand the information that we will transfer, and who will receive it.

Third Parties who send us data

Some third-party organisations collect data on our behalf, and share it with us, in accordance with their policies and procedures for data protection compliance. Some of these organisations are Data Management companies, which we use to ensure that data you have provided us with is up to date. We do not use this to add new contact data; so if we already have your address, we may update this, but if we do not have your telephone number we will not use one of these companies to find and record it.

Whenever you give your data to any organisation, you should always make yourself aware of their Data Protection and Privacy Policies.

Companies who provide us with additional information

Understanding our supporters helps us to provide them with a really personalised experience and makes sure that we use our marketing budgets in the most efficient way. We may collect the following additional information about our supporters:

Information on the size and composition of your household
Information about your interests and hobbies
The age band that you fall into.

Social media

Using social media is a great way for us to update you on our work, and let you know the difference your support is making. As an example, when we upload a file to Facebook which is ‘locally hashed’; a highly secure encryption method. This file is used to find our supporters on Facebook and Instagram by matching email or phone number data to Facebook and Instagram accounts. In addition to this, we may use your data to create ‘lookalike’ audiences on Facebook and Instagram. This means that Facebook and Instagram will match interests, behaviour and demographics to create a new audience which closely matches our existing supporters. Using this method is the most efficient way for us to reach more people who are likely to take an interest in our work.

Where we have a legal requirement

We will always share data where we have a legal requirement to do so. Examples of this include providing audit information to the US tax authorities for our Aid claims or if we are required to do so by law enforcement officials. If we were to merge with another charity or restructure, we may also share your personal details with other entities involved in the merger/restructure for that purpose.

How long we keep your data for

We want to make sure that we have up to date records for as long as you are actively supporting us, so for as long as you take actions on our behalf or to engage with us, such as participate in our campaigns, donate to us or correspond with us. Once you are no longer an active supporter, we will keep your data for a set period of time, which we calculate depending on the information that you originally provided, and why you gave it to us. At the end of this time period, we will remove any personal details from our records of you, to ensure that any information is entirely anonymous.

In general, we will keep records of financial donors for at least seven years, to meet our requirements for any Aid audit from US tax authorities. If we have asked for sensitive personal data specific to an event, we will dispose of this data within a month after the event.

You can find more detailed information on how long we keep your data for, and other timescales that might apply below.

In most cases we will keep records for seven years after you last make a donation to us. This ensures that we keep the information we need for any financial audit (including Aid audits).

The seven-year time period applies to most people, but you should be aware of the exceptions, which we will communicate as applicable.

What happens at the end of this time period?

At the end of this time period, we will remove your personal details from our records, to ensure that they are entirely anonymous. We keep records on how our supporters have interacted with us, but not of who those supporters are.

Your right to be forgotten

You have a right to be forgotten, which means that you can ask us to delete your personal details before the end of the time limits we’ve listed in the table above. You should know that there are some circumstances where we may need to keep your details, for example, in order to comply with a legal obligation. If this situation occurs then we will explain and discuss these circumstances with you.

If you would like to discuss or exercise this right, please do get in touch with our Team.

How we keep your information secure

We take the care of your data very seriously and we use a combination of organisational and technological security measures to protect your personal information to the highest possible standards. This includes the use of secure servers, firewalls, virus & malware protection, secure socket layer (SSL) encryption and secure file transfer protocol for our work with third parties. We follow payment card industry (PCI) security compliance guidelines when processing credit card payments.

Access to all data is protected by complex passwords, including letters, numbers and characters: in some cases more than one method of authentication is used. We make sure that only staff who need to access your personal data can do so. Any member of our staff who has access to your personal data is given training to make sure that they understand the importance of keeping your information safe and secure at all times.

Whilst we take all of the measures that we’ve outlined above, unfortunately, the transmission of information using the internet is not completely secure. Although we will do our best to protect your personal data sent to us this way, we cannot guarantee the security of data transmitted to our site.

In the extremely unlikely event that we experience a data breach, our Data Protection Officer would immediately work with our Information Security Officer and the relevant State Attorney General if necessary.

Where we keep your information and when it might be transferred outside of the US

We are aware that countries other than the US have differing standards of data privacy. Much of our data is kept within our systems in the US, but there are a number of exceptions that you should be aware of: If you are a sponsor or volunteer, your name and address will be added to our international database. This can be accessed by an international team (including those from affiliates) in other parts of the world.

Your data may also leave the US if you travel with us, for example by signing up to one of our missionary trips. This will only be information specifically related to your trip, for example to book your travel, or to arrange your visit to one of our sites with our overseas colleagues.

Some countries (but not every country in which we work) have been determined by the US to have “adequate” standards of data protection compliance.

Transfer of Personal Data Outside of the European Economic Area (“EEA”) and International Users:

We are headquartered in the United States. Your Personal Data may be accessed by us or transferred to us in the United States or to our affiliates, partners, merchants, or service providers who are located worldwide. If you are visiting our Site from outside the United States, be aware that your information may be transferred to, stored, and processed in the Country where our servers are located, and our central dataset is operated. Any transfer of Personal Data from the EEA to the U.S. or any other country will utilize one or more of the approved data transfer mechanisms which may include Privacy Shield, Model Contractual Clauses or Binding Corporate Rules. By using our Service, you consent to any transfer of this information.

How we use your information if you apply for a role

We collect information from anyone who applies to work or volunteer. We only use this information for our recruitment or employment purposes and it is entirely separate to our supporter data. As an applicant or employee, you are entitled to the same rights as our supporters, and these are outlined in our Rights section.

Applicants

When you apply to work or volunteer we will ask for information about you and your work history to understand how your skills and past experience matches the requirements of a role.

There are two circumstances where we might disclose details outside of our organisation as we process your application:

1. We will ask for details of referees, and we will contact them to verify the information that you have given us – when we contact them, we will share your name and the role that you have applied for. We contact referees on the basis of our legitimate interests as an organisation to understand applicants and their suitability for the roles they apply for.

2. Some roles also require us to obtain a disclosure from a disclosure & barring (or equivalent) service. This will be clearly marked in the advertisement, and so we will not give you further notice before we apply for this disclosure.

All candidates applying to work or to volunteer will automatically have their application details saved and retained on our secure recruitment portal and in our Talent Bank for 7 years. We use our Talent Bank to identify candidates who were unsuccessful in their application, but who we feel may have an interest in and suitability for another role.

If you would like for us to remove your personal details from our system at any time before that, please let us know.

You should know that we always keep anonymous statistical information about applicants to develop our recruitment processes and for equality and diversity monitoring, but this does not contain any information that could be used to identify individual job applicants.

Employees

If you begin employment with us, we will put together a staff file, which will contain your information. We keep this information in this file secure and will only use it for matters that apply directly to your employment with us.

We provide all of our employees with an internal privacy notice, which explains exactly how we process their data as an employee, including how we use their personal data in case of emergency, and how long we retain all of this information for.

Changes to this Policy

This policy was last updated on November 6, 2023.

From time to time, we may make changes to this Policy and you will always be able to see here when it was last updated. If we make significant changes, such as in how or why we process your personal data, we may also publicise these changes on our website or may contact you directly with more information.

Please do revisit this policy each time you consider giving your personal data to www.ourtestimony.org.

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TESTIMONY:

TESTIMONY VERIFICATION STATUS: Unverified

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See What God Has Done For Others

TESTIMONY:

TESTIMONY VERIFICATION STATUS: Unverified

TESTIFIER:

Leonard Reid

PASTOR:

Barry & Janet

LOCATION:

Australia

Comments (0)

Get testimonies from others sent to your inbox!

Get a FREE when you subscribe!

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