Nicky

Nicky worships at St. Mark’s Church, Bridlington and joined Stepping Up in April 2023.

My name is Nicky Heaps and I came to Bridlington some 6 years ago from Leeds, I left to run away from the home I was born and brought up in, to leave a situation that had driven me into an addiction of drink and drugs.

I lived in a flat opposite St. Marks church on West hill, I started to notice people coming and going from the building during the week, and found out that St Marks were providing cooked food and it was free. What I found was a warm welcome that wasn’t threatening or challenging, the people were friendly, welcoming, kind, had compassion and spoke to me in an accepting way. I eventually became curious as to why they were like this all the time I was there, not only to me but to every stranger, every outsider? And the food was good and free!!   

In hindsight, I now know that they were being good Samaritans to people like me, who were broken and hurting and needing to know the freedom that Jesus brings. 

Their ways helped me see that there might be a different way to that which I had grown to live with, and I wanted some of that way, when you have never really known the way of kindness and compassion, the taste of it is so sweet. 

I attended St. Mark’s so often I became almost part of the furniture, so much that I was invited to become part of the team at Christ Church operating the food bank, that invitation was for me like winning a gold medal, just for being accepted. I also knew that I needed to change my habits, and with God’s help and good people at Christ Church I made the journey into faith and into freedom from substitute gods, into belonging to the one true God and Jesus Christ my Saviour who bought me back from the darkness into his marvellous light. 

At the beginning of Stepping up I was quite anxious about my ability to cope with the academic side of the course and meeting new people. Would they judge me, were they cleverer than me, had they been Christians for a long time, would they know all the answers? But I was also very excited to have been actually asked to be part of a Christian Course for my church and what it might do for me.  All new territory for me, a completely new learning process for me, but I managed and completed the course. 

By completing the course, God showed me that “yes“ I can achieve things, I learnt the value of God’s word through the bible and through people, I found a sense of self-worth and self-awareness.  Also that there might just be something that God might have in store for me, for me Nicky Heaps, a former escapee from Leeds. 

I have found the course to be of great help to me in my faith journey and of exploring any potential challenge that God might be raising up in me for the future, serving him and his people.  It has been a growing time and who would have thought that me Nicky Heaps would have the will, the courage to actually pray for Liz publicly out loud at the end of the course!

I would personally recommend the course to anyone, if they want to grow in faith based ability and see if God is actually calling them to something beyond their current situation and abilities.

To read Nicky’s story in full click here.