|
Whilst I have been a Christian for just over 10 years and worshipping at St Mary’s most of that time, my contact with St Mary’s goes back over 30 years when I first started being taken along to services by my parents in my baby buggy when I was but 6 months old!
Until my mid-teens I attended church regularly with my parents and this certainly set the foundation for my faith now. However, whilst I enjoyed going to church, particularly to the youth groups that were organised by the church, and I liked all the people (whilst they were Christians they were still fun people to be with!), I cannot say that during that time I was a Christian. From mid-teens onwards I began to lose interest in going along as I was more interested in getting my head stuck into my A level studies - this continued until I went to University. It was at University that things began slotting into place. Being away from home for the first time can be daunting – very quickly you have to deal with everyday life such as washing and cooking, as well as dealing with your new-found freedom at the young age of 18. The college I went to had a strong Christian Union and those in the years above were very supportive to the first years with quiet guidance on how to adjust to life away from home for the first time. I met some great people at the Christian Union and periodically went to one of the student churches with them. I really enjoyed going and I particularly enjoyed the music – I am a musician and the music spoke to me. There was a great mix of traditional and also modern material that I had never heard and was attracted to. During this time I was thinking more and more about what being a Christian meant and I was beginning to understand what Jesus had done for me on the cross. I finally made my commitment in my second year at university at a Billy Graham gathering in Wembley. I’d seen these gatherings on television and people going forward to the front to make their commitment to God and had always thought that I could NEVER do that! Well, I did. I remember that the words Billy Graham used just spoke to me and then we sang “Thine be the Glory” – the music moved me and the sound of the whole stadium singing just blew me away and the next thing there I was, at the front, committing my life to God. I have never looked back since that day. Being a Christian is not always easy and it does not make the problems of life disappear. However it is comforting and strengthening to know that God is with you at all times and understands, that when you go the wrong way you’re forgiven, and that we have been promised an eternal, wonderful life with God in heaven. Published in Purley Parish News, November 2000 |
