Wiveliscombe Evangelical Congregational Church

I was very fortunate to be born into a loving family with Christian parents, and was taken to church every week from a young age. I was confirmed in the Church of England at the age of 12 and, at the time, really believed the promises and statements I made. However, by my early 20s I had rather drifted away from Christianity and no longer went to church, except occasionally to keep my mother happy! I was always rather a goody-goody and thought that God would be pleased enough with that!

But then, when I was 23, my best friend had a baby girl and asked me to be her Godmother. I suddenly wondered what I was letting myself in for and bought a booklet about baptism of both adults and children, and the responsibilities of a Godparent. At around the same time I met Raoul, my husband-to-be. He was a Christian and attended an independent church – it seemed very ‘way-out’ to me, but such lovely, sincere, friendly people attended it and had been so helpful to Raoul in a practical way. I bought yet another book, on the basics of Christianity, by Michael Green.

Reading both books made me re-consider where I was with God myself and I realised that it was all true, that God had sent his precious son into our terrible, selfish world, to die just for me, and that only his death was good enough for God to forgive me all my own petty wrong-doings, selfish attitudes and so on. Suddenly, being a goody-goody wasn’t enough! I realised that I truly believed, and really was a Christian, that God had given us a ‘spirit’-version of himself here on earth, the Holy Spirit, to help us – I gladly became a Godmother and meant every promise I made at the Christening.

I also married Raoul and as we’ve moved around the country, we’ve attended a variety of churches which worshipped God in different styles. We’ve been through some difficult times and major upheavals, but looking back, God has been with me all the way and I can see that I’ve grown closer to God through these times. I used to wish that I’d become a Christian in some dramatic, awe-inspiring, sudden conversion but now I realise that it’s just as valid to experience a gradual realisation or dawning of the truth!

I find it very helpful to read the Bible, in a modern version, together with some Bible-reading notes written especially for busy women – it’s amazing how God speaks through the Bible, into our difficulties and problems today. Sometimes the words simply leap off the page and can be very encouraging and comforting. I still wrestle with questions about why such awful things happen here on earth, but trust that God has a much broader overview than we can understand and that his ‘master plan’ will triumph in the end, despite all the evil we humans do to each other and the planet. I marvel at nature and the environment – surely too incredibly complex and beautiful to be simply the result of an accidental Big Bang! I know that there must be a master creator behind it all! Going to church helps too – the people there feel like extra members of our family. Of course no church is perfect, but then I guess that no family is perfect either, but we all encourage and help each other.

Now I understand the hymns I found rather dreary as a youngster, but these days there are lots of other newer Christian songs too and often I hear God speaking to me through them. Best of all, I know that whatever terrible things might happen here on earth, when I die I’ll be with God, at peace, in an eternal home better than anything we can image here on earth.