Louise

Louise worships at Emmanuel Church, Bridlington and joined Stepping Up in January 2022

I just started to going to St Barnabas church at the age of 5 and I attended Sunday School til the age of 10. At 11, I moved to St Paul’s youth group, later moving parishes and attending St Paul’s til my early 30s, all near Tamworth where I’m from. I moved to Cornwall but unfortunately couldn’t attend church as there wasn’t one in the village where I lived. In 2010 I moved back to Tamworth, got together with Ash (we were already friends), we got married in November 2011 and have been together ever since.

Compared to where I was in 2019/2020, when life was difficult, it was make or break, being at an all-time low back then – comparing where I am now, so much has changed and is still changing.

Ash and I moved to Bridlington in July 2020 – we have friends who moved here, and we liked it. We soon found a home at Emmanuel Church.

I am so proud of myself. When back then, I was losing all faith and hope in everything, and now I fought back and am still fighting back, stronger than ever before, to be back on top where I should be.

One thing has remained even in those difficult times – even though it was hard at times, God is always the centre, even if it didn’t seem like it at the time. Now I know for sure that God always has been and still is at the centre of everything. I can’t go far wrong – I know that God had me and has me all time, and thank you Lord for that. ‘God’s got me’ is one of my sure sayings, I believe it.

I just want to say thank you to Alpha at Emmanuel and Stepping Up for helping me and guiding me along the way – it’s definitely an eye-opener and life-changer in my journey of faith. No more hiding under a bushel for me!

Thank you most of all to God. And Thank you to friends and leaders at Emmanuel Church, to my church back in Tamworth, to our Stepping Up group, to my amazing hubby Ash – I couldn’t have got through without you guys – thank you all for believing in me. I know I am a child of God.

Lu is part of the music group at Emmanuel, and is Stepping Up to learn more challenging music and to read the lesson in church. She’s also part of the team to  support the Alpha course running at Emmanuel.