I believe God lead me there…

I wasn’t brought up in a Christian home, but I remember my Mum teaching me to kneel by my bed and pray when I was quite small and I believed that Jesus was real and he loved me. My best friend and her family were regular churchgoers and asked me when I was about 13 if I would like to go to church with them. I was confirmed in the church a little later. However, with hindsight I did not have a personal faith with Jesus, and this was never talked about in sermons. Most of the pulpit teaching was taken from the Old Testament.

Once I married, I stopped going to church for a number of years. However, after moving to Hedge End, I did occasionally attend the local Anglican church and I was keen for my children to have the opportunity to receive Christian teaching so they attended Sunday School there each week. When my eldest daughter was 7, she badly wanted to join the Brownies but they had no vacancies. My husband worked with someone who was a Christian and he suggested that my daughter might like to join the Girls Brigade at a nearby Baptist church instead. She joined and loved it. On Parade Sundays, I would be seen going to the Anglican church to drop my younger daughter off for Sunday School and then travelling to Thornhill Baptist Church to drop my older daughter off for Parade.

One month, I thought I would actually go into the Baptist church with my 2-year-old son to see what Baptists do! I believe God lead me there, as I was absolutely riveted to my seat as the preacher spoke. I felt that he was talking directly to me and this warm glow was flowing through me as I was challenged. Some months later I became a helper in Girls Brigade and I received even more teaching alongside the girls!

It was the following year, after a Girls Brigade weekend camp, that I came home knowing in my heart that Jesus had died for my sins. A few weeks later, I gave my heart to Jesus and asked to be baptised.

God has been with me all my life even though I didn’t always know it at times. He has helped me through some very sad and difficult times and used many people at TBC to help and support me. My faith has grown stronger, but I still have a lot to learn.