Our Story…

So, how did we become Christians?

I had grown up in a Christian home, with my parents being Methodist, but I had never become a Christian, not really knowing whether God was real or not and, if He was, not knowing if He wanted anything to do with me.

If He was real, I would see Him when I died, I was not aware that He wanted any interaction with me.

My Dad was an RE teacher, and when I was about 10, he took one of his classes on a trip around all the temples and places of worship for different religions in Leicester and I went with him. Leicester is a very multi-cultural city and I’ve always had friends from every religion and background.

My Dad took us to the Sikh temple, the Jain temple, the Mosque and a Hindu temple…

When we went into the Hindu temple it was laid out in a square, with lots of candles and lights, with flowers and food offerings to the different gods, who each had their own area.

When I saw the animal gods, monkeys, elephants and tigers, I did not know that Jesus was God, but I knew that God was not an animal, and only Jesus had the authenticity to be a viable candidate.

I stopped going to church at about the age of 15 and did not really think any more about it.

David’s mum had been a Christian, but did not go to church, but, when asked to write a story about their best friend at primary school, David wrote about God, but had wandered away by his teenage years.

I met Dave when I was 18, in January 1987 and we moved in together when I was 19 and we got married when I was 23, in 1991 after splitting up for a week.

About two years before we became Christians, we spent Christmas at my Mum and Dad’s house and some people from the Jesus Army came and spent it with us, playing a few games and Bible quizzes arranged by my mum, which we thought a bit strange, as we were not religious.

The following summer, the people from the church invited us to a barbecue at the church and we met them again and Bruce asked if he could pray for us.

We accepted, but we didn’t believe anything. We had been to the church once before and heard them speaking in tongues, but didn’t think anything of it.

Later that year we got married, in August and they came to our engagement party, which was two nights before we got married.

Later, when we became Christians, a guy from the church, called Bruce, told us that he had prayed at the barbecue and God had told him that he would meet a couple that he would pray for and that they would join the church.

We were that couple!

Saved By Grace

In December 1993, 2 years later, our marriage hit the rocks and I decided to leave. I was making the same mistakes as before we got married and decided that to separate was the only answer.

We had got together when I was quite young and found myself distracted by any attention from other men, sometimes when it was not reciprocated.

I did not know how not to stop myself from making the same mistakes and it seemed inevitable and best to make a clean break. I still loved Dave, but did not know how to change my nature.

So, at Christmas 1993 we went to Dave’s village of Cowbit as usual, to spend Christmas with his mum. When we visited his local Turkish restaurant, where he had been going for years, the lady commented on how well-suited we were as a couple.

Our song from Dirty Dancing came on the radio and I asked Dave why he never danced with me like that, he replied saying I was too fat! Foot firmly in mouth, he realised immediately that he had made a mistake. We drove back to Leicester that night in silence.

For the next couple of nights Dave talked to God, and shouted and swore at Him.

“I got married in your f’ing church, I got married in your name, do something about it!”

God replied and told Dave to go and see my sister, Sarah and she would sort things out. Dave did not like the idea of church as he thought all Christians were hypocrites. He thought this was strange advice, “She’s going to think I’m crazy,” he thought, but go to see her he did.

“Well,” she said, “I sometimes think God’s crazy, the things he asks me to do, but I’ll go and see her.”

Dave stayed with our sister’s husband, Maurice, who offered Dave a drink, which he refused.

Sarah came to our house to see me and for some reason I asked her about sin, if God would forgive me for doing something I knew was wrong, but didn’t feel I had a choice?

She said that I shouldn’t do it and so we sat on my sofa at home and prayed to God, who up to that point I didn’t know if he existed. At this point I thought, “What have I got to lose, surely God can’t make any more of a mess of things than I am?”

That prayer changed everything. One moment I did not know if God was real and the next, I knew He was there, He was real and that the God my parents had told me about was true. I did a complete 360-degree turn!

One moment I did not know where I was going in life and had no sense of direction, which had been a major part of my problem. We had met in 18 plus and had a great time partying and drinking, like a lot of young people.

We got married and bought a house and decorated it completely in the 2 years after we got married, but then, we didn’t want children, so I didn’t know our next step.

We didn’t want to go back to partying, we had done that, but were we just going to stay like this and become pensioners?! There had to be more to life than this! And there was! There is!

I knew from that point if I just followed God, He would be my direction and He still is!

My sister rang Dave and told him, “You can come back now.” He came back and told me, “For another thing, we’re going to go to church.” To which I agreed.

Now Dave’s idea of going to church was just once a week, to sort me out!

Even though we were back together I still wanted to shake things up a bit and we even started going on a course for kayaking and I wanted to go to a New Year’s Eve party on my own, but Dave said, “We’re going to have a proper marriage or not at all.”

In the New Year we started going to church, after 3 weeks we stopped going to the kayaking course because church was more exciting.

I fell head over heels in love with God and with the church, it literally was like falling in love! I wanted to be there 24/7!

Dave soon found himself jealously saying to God, “I brought her to church, now you’re taking her away from me!” to which God replied, “You said you got married in my church, married in my name, who’s the hypocrite now? Get on with it!”

Got A Salvation Story You’d Like To Share?

Let us know in this week’s Community Chat below #SalvationStories