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	I suppose it was hard for me to take Christianity seriously because I’d been brought up a Christian. My mum had taken me to church and we’d gone to Sunday School and learned all the stories but they were just stories, they were just like the ones I’d read at home in adventure books or fairy tales from school. They weren’t anything different and they certainly weren’t anything that mattered to my life. As soon as I got to uni I didn’t have any need to go to church anymore so I didn’t. I tried once but I didn’t get on with it so I didn’t try again. Even in second year when I lived in a whole house of Christians I still didn’t feel the need. They went off on Sunday morning and I saw that as a good chance to get a good lie-in and a long shower. But they all had something that I didn’t. They went to the uni’s Christian Union and they had a whole load of friends and they’d go our for parties and they’d always be smiling and being happy all the time and I suppose I felt I’d missed out – so I decided to do something about it. One of my housemates went to a more traditional-style church, a bit more like what I had at home, and they had a service where they could bring friends along, so she took me along to that. And during the service they were promoting this course, Christianity Explored. And it sounded pretty informal and really relaxed and there was free food, so I decided to go along. I didn’t have any expectations of what it would be like, but it turned out really well. We were all put into different tables so we got to know the same people over the weeks, and make friends, and got lots of food, and we’d go over bits of the Bible each week, going through Mark so it was following Jesus’ life and ministry. And it just gave you an opportunity to ask questions to listen to explanations of things, and they didn’t ram it down your throat and they didn’t judge you for not knowing things, and it gave me an opportunity to think, which I think is all I needed. After the course had finished I figured that I knew enough to make a decision – I didn’t need to know anymore. We’d gone through the whole of Mark and it kind of outlined the whole of Jesus’ life and his ministry and I think that was all I needed to know. Over Christmas when it stopped I was thinking about Easter, which seemed really weird and I just sat down on Christmas night and prayed to God and asked him for forgiveness because I realised that he had died in my place – that I rightly should have been on that cross but that he sent his one and only son to die for me. I honestly don’t know what took me so long. After I decided to be a Christian I carried on going to courses in the same church and got to know people a bit there and started going to Sunday services and once I’d finished my third year and was leaving that church I knew that I’d made the right decision – I was really confident in what I knew and how Christ had already been working in me. I feel him more than ever now and his love is just absolutely amazing.

I suppose it was hard for me to take Christianity seriously because I’d been brought up a Christian. My mum had taken me to church and we’d gone to Sunday School and learned all the stories but they were just stories, they were just like the ones I’d read at home in adventure books or fairy tales from school. They weren’t anything different and they certainly weren’t anything that mattered to my life.

As soon as I got to uni I didn’t have any need to go to church anymore so I didn’t. I tried once but I didn’t get on with it so I didn’t try again. Even in second year when I lived in a whole house of Christians I still didn’t feel the need. They went off on Sunday morning and I saw that as a good chance to get a good lie-in and a long shower.

But they all had something that I didn’t. They went to the uni’s Christian Union and they had a whole load of friends and they’d go our for parties and they’d always be smiling and being happy all the time and I suppose I felt I’d missed out – so I decided to do something about it.

One of my housemates went to a more traditional-style church, a bit more like what I had at home, and they had a service where they could bring friends along, so she took me along to that. And during the service they were promoting this course, Christianity Explored. And it sounded pretty informal and really relaxed and there was free food, so I decided to go along.

I didn’t have any expectations of what it would be like, but it turned out really well. We were all put into different tables so we got to know the same people over the weeks, and make friends, and got lots of food, and we’d go over bits of the Bible each week, going through Mark so it was following Jesus’ life and ministry. And it just gave you an opportunity to ask questions to listen to explanations of things, and they didn’t ram it down your throat and they didn’t judge you for not knowing things, and it gave me an opportunity to think, which I think is all I needed.

After the course had finished I figured that I knew enough to make a decision – I didn’t need to know anymore. We’d gone through the whole of Mark and it kind of outlined the whole of Jesus’ life and his ministry and I think that was all I needed to know.

Over Christmas when it stopped I was thinking about Easter, which seemed really weird and I just sat down on Christmas night and prayed to God and asked him for forgiveness because I realised that he had died in my place – that I rightly should have been on that cross but that he sent his one and only son to die for me. I honestly don’t know what took me so long.

After I decided to be a Christian I carried on going to courses in the same church and got to know people a bit there and started going to Sunday services and once I’d finished my third year and was leaving that church I knew that I’d made the right decision – I was really confident in what I knew and how Christ had already been working in me. I feel him more than ever now and his love is just absolutely amazing.