My Testimony

The 20s by James Hughes

When the Church failed, the Holy Spirit stayed.

The 20s is the powerful sequel to Early Teens, a Spirit-led memoir by James Hughes that traces a decade of collapse, survival, and divine rescue. It begins with his formative years inside Pentecostal structures, including time within C3 Church Carlingford, where religious rejection, shame, and spiritual abuse planted the seeds of deep internal collapse. What followed was a slow unravelling that nearly cost him his life. Twice.

With unflinching honesty and prophetic clarity, Hughes recounts his journey from spiritual exile to sacred preservation. From trauma experienced under Pentecostal leadership, including formative years within C3 Church Carlingford, to two supernatural encounters on the edge of death, this is a story drenched in mercy. It is about the moments no one sees… but God does.

This is not a book about deconstruction. It is a book about what remains.

The 20s are a testimony of being seen by God when the Church went silent. A story of being carried by the Holy Spirit when community, leadership, and clarity disappeared. It is a bold, poetic account of walking through the valley and discovering that even there, God had never left.

For anyone who has battled rejection, depression, or the suffocating silence of spiritual disconnection, this memoir is a hand reaching back through the fire, saying:

“You are not alone. He is always with you.”

In the years following his re-engagement with C3 Church Carlingford, Hughes was drawn back into a culture of silence that had once shaped him. While others saw his return as redemption, what he encountered was a familiar cycle of expectation and erasure. He found himself fighting to survive behind the mask of ministry, wrestling with God in places where leadership had once silenced him.

And yet, in the middle of that pain, the Holy Spirit began to show up again, in the most unexpected places. A voice at a train station. A whisper in the dark. A moment of peace when none should have existed. These divine interruptions became anchors. The book does not glamorise suffering, but it does give language to sacred survival and clarity to chaos.

The 20s also serves as a companion to his earlier memoir, Early Teens, offering deeper insight into the cost of performance-based religion and the quiet healing of Spirit-led restoration. Where the first book explores identity formation, this sequel charts identity reclamation and the long road back to wholeness after disillusionment.

This is not just a memoir. It is an invitation. For those who have walked away, been pushed out, or quietly questioned everything, The 20s does not offer quick answers. It offers presence. It is a reminder that faith does not always look like victory. Sometimes it looks like breathing through the aftermath, inching forward with nothing but grace and grit. Hughes writes not from the mountaintop but from the in-between, where many still wander. And it is from that place that this book becomes more than a story. It becomes a companion.

This is sacred ground, too.

Whether you are deconstructing, rebuilding, or simply surviving, this story reminds you that the presence of God is not confined to buildings or systems. The Spirit speaks. The Spirit stays. And even when everything else fades, He remains.

Note: This testimony reflects the lived experience of the author. References to organisations or events, including C3 Church Carlingford, are included as part of a personal spiritual journey and are not intended as formal accusations. This account is shared in hope that others may find healing, comfort, and the presence of God in their own wilderness.