01/09/2026
Grateful to feature in Septembers issue of Good News! 😃😃🙏🙏
We’ve probably all used the expression ‘it’s on the cards’, but how many of us stop to think of its origins?
It’s just a way of saying that something is very likely to happen, but the actual phrase is rooted in fortune-telling, referring to the belief that future events are revealed through tarot cards. Such cards are spiritually dangerous and should never be used.
But Tom and Karen Stevens, of Ruddington near Nottingham, are using cards for a positive outcome. They run a Christian coaching cards business, based on their ‘trump card’ of the Bible.
What looks like a simple deck of playing cards actually contains cards with challenging questions, alongside a relevant extract from the Bible.
They are not meant as a ‘lucky dip’ with random answers to any everyday problem; instead they are meant to inspire people to think more about God and Christianity.
For example, you might be asked ‘what’s the worst decision you’ve ever made?’ before being given scriptural references about good decision-making.
Last year, they renamed the business Second Touch, rooted in a passage in Mark* (one of four accounts in the Bible of Jesus’ life on earth), where Jesus heals a blind man in stages... only after the second touch is his vision fully restored.
Tom himself had been going through some personal struggles during 2021 and was on antidepressants, finding it hard to get out of bed. But an invite to church from a friend suddenly gave him the motivation he needed to get up and out.
While he wasn’t healed immediately, and even went through another dark period, he recalls a moment in a car park where he ‘felt God reach for [him]’ after he got a text message from his friend thanking him for going to church.
Tom concludes: “As I continue to press into my faith and serving in church, I haven’t had any time off for poor mental health since. That’s a miracle.”
Since then, he’s been building this card business with his wife, Karen.
“The questions [on the cards] prompt honesty, and the scripture reassures us with further insight.”
And, while rooted in faith, they are designed so that anyone can engage with them.
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