A change of tack for today and tomorrow, as I relate the story of Andy, a friend of mine. I have written it down with Andy speaking in the first person.
I was brought up as a Roman Catholic - Mum was Catholic, but Dad didn't believe. One day when crossing the car park on the way to church, I decided I was old enough to make my own decisions, and I rejected Christianity. I suppose I was about eleven or twelve. I thought science explained it all, but nevertheless I knew the Bible stories.
A friend of mine, Stuart, took me along to a Luis Palau meeting as part of Mission to London when I was in the sixth form. I remember sitting through the worship, and being unmoved by what was said. On the way home I felt I could counter every argument that was put to me. My friends prayed for me afterwards, which I think I was a bit angry about! Looking back on it though, I think this was perhaps when God started doing something in my life.
My interest in science led me to take Physics and Chemistry 'A' Levels, followed by a degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering at UMIST in Manchester. It was at my hall of residence that God started "reeling me in", to use a fishing metaphor. Although there was an average number of Christians in the hall, in my particular block fifteen out of twenty students were Christians. I was surrounded by them! I got to know their good and bad points, and was invited to some Christian Union meetings. One significant point was a sermon tape that was lent to me, of the five hundred witnesses to Jesus rising from the dead that is recorded in 1 Corinthians. It lodged in my brain, and made me think that maybe there was something in Christianity.
A week before I became a Christian a few events came together. I bought a Bible – I thought I should give it a try as you are meant to read at University! Then, the Christian Union were having a mission starting on the Monday, and the Friday before I went to play a game of squash with a friend. He gave me his testimony of how he found God at a Pathfinder Camp, and how people were praying earnestly in tongues. Hearing about praying in tongues was the proof I needed to believe. I didn't tell my friend, but it raised my squash game and I nearly beat him! Funnily enough, he turned a bit nasty then, which I think was the Devil trying to get back at me, but I was able to push that aside. It got to the Monday, and I sat down at the meal table with my friends in the hall. Normally the non-Christians used to bate the Christians, and my turn came but I didn't join in. My friends wondered why, and I said that I had become a Christian, which gave everyone a bit of a shock!
My faith grew through attending church and Christian Union, and this was the first watershed in my life…
As told to Jon Seaton
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