Unpicking the truth behind the world’s greatest life stories…

The real life stories website is about real people. Each one has an inspiring and exciting life story to share. Some of the stories may sound relatively ordinary, others quite dramatic, but in every case it was as if a light were switched on in the darkness. The light led to a complete change in direction and a more fulfilled life for the individual. 

There are some very recognisable names and faces – celebrities, sportsmen, musicians etc, and there are also many ordinary people living ordinary lives out of the media spotlight. All of these people have discovered that there is a God who loves them. In many cases this discovery has come at a time of crisis, but sometimes it has just happened when life seemed to be pretty normal. In every case, these people have realised that God loves us as individuals and cares about our unique circumstances. 

We do hope that you will find these inspirational stories helpful. 

Real Life Stories online is non-denominational and our foundation of faith and belief is the Nicene Creed.

Our Vision

The vision of reallifestories.org is simply to share the great news of Jesus Christ with the world. 

Editorial

Ralph Burden, Managing Editor                                                 email: ralph@reallifestories.org
Charles Gardner, Writer                                                             email: charles@reallifestories.org

Technical

Chris Sims, Web Developer                                                        

Our Legacy

Launched in 2013, the Real Life Stories website follows the legacy of Real Life magazine, a full-colour magazine started by Ralph Burden and Ian Buck* and published between 2006 and 2008 by Ian’s company Christian Life Resources (CLR). CLR distributed the magazine in the UK and parts of Europe. Publishing many thousands of glossy magazines and then giving them out free was a very expensive business and CLR was an unfortunate victim of the economic crisis of 2008 to 2010. However, the initial disappointment has been eclipsed by a new and bigger vision.

Shortly after the closure of CLR, Ralph and Ian were discussing a way to restart the magazine. Having written mainly for magazines, Ralph was initially thinking of a physical publication, but Ian used websites to promote business products and he was suddenly inspired to say, “What about making Real Life Stories a website?” Of course! It made perfect sense in our increasingly digital world. 

Our original vision was to work towards getting a magazine into every UK home twice a year. That was a big vision and would have required a budget of many millions of pounds to reach the 21 million households in the UK at the time. Real Life magazine was delivered to many thousands of homes, but limited resources meant that we could not reach millions of homes. There are now over 28 million households in the United Kingdom. However, the web format however has made this goal realisable and with the increase in internet usage reallifestories.org is now available to 98% of the UK population of 69 million people. 

World Vision

Since switching to a web format in 2013, Real Life Stories has been accessed by millions of people across the world. 5.25 billion people (61.7% of the world’s population) now have internet access and are able to view reallifestories.org. It seems that our initial vision was too small. The UK was a good start, but God’s plan for Real Life Stories was always that it should be for the world.*

In 2015 we literally became a global operation with web hosting based in the UK and editorial management based the opposite side of the world in New Zealand. 

The progress of reallifestories.org has far outgrown our early expectations largely due to the growth of the world wide web. With lower financial requirements, reallifestories.org soon had more readers every month than the costly printed magazine was able to reach during a whole year less than a decade before. The European vision became a global vision. 

Please share the news of this website so that more people can be made aware of the good news that God loves them. You don’t need to be a bold, confident evangelist. Sharing a weblink is a simple way that anyone can share God’s love. 

Ian Buck

*Sadly, our dear friend Ian died of cancer in 2023 and is now in heaven with his Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Physically he is no longer with us, but his legacy endures. Life on earth is short, eternity is forever. If Ian could speak to us now, he would say something along the lines of, “Life goes by in a flash, so choose carefully. Choose the path you will follow. Turn to Jesus while you can and live your life for him.“

photos:

1. CLR magazine and radio staff 2008; L to R: Ralph, Simon, Ian, Lance, Angie.  

2 & 3: Copies of Real Life Magazine and articles

* “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.” (John 3:16-18) NIV