When I was a child I never went to church but my parents tried to bring me up in a Christian way. When I was about 8 my family and I started coming to Life where we found a home and continued going. I always thought when I was young that church was just a place to meet your friends, sing a few songs and look at a story from the bible.
Along side going to Life I started going to Crusaders a Christian club that met on Tuesday evenings. Once a year Crusaders run a camp in the summer for all Crusaders groups across the South of England called Spree. When I was about 11 I went to my second spree with my Crusader group. At one of the evening meetings they were covering becoming a Christian, I made my commitment to God then and there.
Since becoming a Christian, I always felt that God would show me the right time to be baptised. As a Christian my life had its ups and downs till about 2002 where I had a scare. In the summer of 2002 whilst messing about in the park with some Christian friends I came off a swing knocking myself unconscious and giving myself a brain injury. This point in my life shocked me because I could have died. During this difficult time I am thankful to God for his protection over me and thankful that my friends were there to look after me. After recovering from this injury I maintained my belief that God would show me the right time for baptism. During the FLYers Mission trip to Romania in 2004 God was really laying baptism on my heart and I couldn't stop thinking about it. By the end of the week I thought ok God I know that you want me to be baptised due to what you have shown me during the week but I will hold off my decision till after the Soul Survivor Youth Event the week after. God had other plans though. During the week we had been running through the fruits of the spirit looking at one a day. On the train journey back to Budapest, Hungary to get our flight home we moved on to the last fruit of the spirit Kindness. During this fruit two verses were read out from Ephesians 4 v4-5 (Youth), which read "There is one body and one spirit, and God called you to have one hope. There is one Lord, One Faith and one baptism" These two verses spoke to me on a very personal level and made me rethink about my decision to wait until after Soul Survivor to make my decision. I made my mind up then and there on that train that I wanted to be baptised. I was finally baptised on my 18th birthday on the 7th of November 2004. I'm now happy with Jesus as my lord and Saviour and I hope that with him I will have long years of joy and happiness.