Dear All
This is what I've written as my testimony:-
• I have been so fortunate to be born into my family, with the most wonderful parents I could have asked for. They raised my sisters and I as a Christian family, and we went to Church every Sunday, and we joined Sandon Road Baptist Church when I was about 10.
• At the age of 18 I went off to University, and I wouldn’t say I forgot about God deliberately, I just didn’t think about Him. At the fresher’s fayre I walked past the Christian Union stand and signed up with the women’s rugby team instead. And that was the start of a distance I created between myself and God. When I came back to Stafford I guess time had passed and I wasn’t bothered about going to Church. I still had faith, but wasn’t prepared to act on it and had got lazy. I became a wedding and Christmas church-goer and I thought that was enough.
• However, God hadn’t forgotten me. He was there beside me through all these years. When I was 21 I’d passed my driving test, and I went to a friend’s birthday party in Lancashire. I drove myself up the M6 and although I got off at the wrong exit to Liverpool, I got back on the right track and made it there. But when I was on my way home a storm broke out and I somehow made my way onto the outside lane, in pouring rain, with black clouds and spray from all the other traffic. I was terrified, and in tears because I was so scared which didn’t help my visibility. I cried out to God to help me, and no sooner had the words been spoken, then the sky was blue, the road dry and the sun shining. And the weather was fine all the rest of the way home. This to me was not a co-incidence, it was a God-incidence. But it still took a bit more for me to change.
• Then last year around this time I went along to see Rachel, Anna and Lennie’s baptism as my friend Kathy was going along and wanted some company and the service struck a chord with me. I’d always intended to return to Church but in my own time, and I realised that wasn’t quite good enough. So I came along to the Alpha course last September.
• One week I’d been home to have lunch with Mum, and we were chatting about some of my pedantic questions and heading back to work I felt quite overcome and into my head came the memory of that day at the fresher’s fayre at Uni, and I felt so much in that one moment, remorse and sorrow at the un-conscious decision to go my own way, which caused tears and a feeling of forgiveness too. It was like a giant nudge in my side to actually stop being so silly. So that next Sunday I came back to church and everyone was so welcoming, and I’ve been coming every week that I can. Then on the 7th November I went to see Elaine in my lunch break, and gave my life to Jesus. I followed on from the Alpha course with the Freedom in Christ course and it’s led me to be standing here with you today. About a month ago in the service Elaine asked if anyone was interested in baptism, and at that word, I felt nudged again, so here I am.
• I know the spirit is working in me, and making me more than I ever thought possible. A couple of years ago I wouldn’t have been able to play the piano in front of anybody, and now I play and sing at the front and I enjoy it! I’m looking forward now to see where it leads as it’s all in His hands!
Songs – In Christ Alone – Stuart Townsend, Happy Day – Tim Hughes
Forgot to say thank you to everyone for their kind words and encouragement. It's much appreciated,
Thank you
Calluna
