Sam

Sam, who lives in Hull, shares her story and what she is discovering through Stepping Up.

My name is Samantha and I am married with 3 children aged nine, seven and five, we also have two pet rabbits and a dog, all important members of our family! My husband works on cruise ships doing the TV and Internet connections. We live on Bilton Grange in Hull, where I go to St Philip’s Church. I got into church through my oldest daughter. She had begged me to go for ages, but each time I would say no. Paul my husband rang the vicar for me as I was too nervous to ring myself. The vicar seemed nice on the phone so me and my daughter went to church. On the day we went there was a baptism. I was so scared I just wanted to go home. The only reason I stayed was through my daughter. It was okay but very busy. The next week I decided to give church another go, and I loved it, I felt very at ease and I felt that somehow I had found God. Everyone at church was so lovely and welcoming.

I have learned so much about my faith but I have so much more I can learn. I want to learn more and I thought the more I come to church the more I will learn and the more I will listen to God. Since coming to church I have found myself asking more questions and my confidence has grown. Since coming to church I’ve come to realise I am worth something. God helped me realise that.

At the moment I go to help out at the food bank at St Philip’s each Friday. Before the Covid lockdown I had started to help out at ‘Open Mondays’ a weekly event at the church, mainly for older people where we would share lunch, play games, and talk together, with parties for Christmas and special occasions. I also helped with the monthly activities for children and families at church, learning bible stories and activities, I used to love this.

I am very quiet, I always have been. Through Stepping Up what I hope to gain is more confidence. I hope to learn more about my faith and about the bible and where I am at with my journey with God. I want to have more confidence in myself that I can do this. I know I can learn and I want to grab every opportunity to learn as much as I can. I hope that in the future I could be more involved in the church and in the community. Maybe doing tea mornings for the adults and teaching children in the community more about the bible and what God did for us.