Kate
This Stepping Up story comes from Kate, who worships at Hull Minster.
My name is Kate, I live in East Hull and worship at Hull Minster. I also serve at St Philip’s Marfleet, supporting mission in the community, in particular Little Lights toddler group and family worship.
My faith journey started when I was a student, during the 1980’s and a very scary time politically. The cold war with Russia was at its height and the threat of a nuclear war seemed imminent. I joined CND, the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and attended demonstrations including a ‘March across the Sky’ setting off fireworks at a local hill on Halloween, it was my final year at University and we smoked a joint after the event. This affected my perception of reality giving me psychosis where I thought I was involved in a battle of good and evil, I was on the side of good!
When I tried to tell others what was happening , they didn’t understand and I was taken to see a psychiatrist which lead to me leaving university while my mental health improved. I was very depressed feeling a failure, feeling that my life was over! I started to do some voluntary work and began to improve to such an extent that I returned to university in Loughborough to complete my course.
A first year student in my halls of residence said she was a Christian, and invited me to see Graeme Kendrick, a Christian singer who was playing at the Union building. After the concert I asked if she wanted to meet him, it turned out it was me that wanted to talk to him! I told him a bit about my experiences and told me about C.S. Lewis who described prior to his conversion, that the Hounds of Heaven were after him, Graeme said he thought those hounds were after me!
A few weeks later I was invited to see a film in the Town Hall, called The Cross and the Switchblade. It was about a young guy called Nicky Cruz who grew up in New York in the gang culture of the ‘50’s. This true story showed how a young preacher from the countryside talked to these gang members, who were basically fighting each other with knives and guns, and Nicky Cruz gave his life to Christ becoming a born again Christian. This really spoke to me, how the young preacher had left his home in the country to go to New York, to be met with hostility and hate but had ‘practiced what he preached’.
After the film there was an opportunity to go to the front to ‘give your life to Christ’. This was scary but I felt a voice say ‘why don’t you go’..? and after seeing a younger person go forward I thought ‘if they’re not scared then neither am I’. I wasn’t sure what I was doing but went forward and after praying with an older lady she advised me to get a bible and spend 7 min’s reading it a day. I’d tried reading the bible before but it seemed to ‘go in one eye and out the other’, however this time was very different! The words came alive to me in a new and different way and when I went to the gospels reading about Jesus was like being part of his intimate group of friends.
I’ve been through many things since that time during which God has been faithful to me and now I find I’m starting a new path with him as part of the Mustard Seed programme. I’m enjoying this new start and looking forward to what He has for me in the future.