I was born in a wonderful loving Spanish family, with a Catholic mum and a, at the time, atheist dad who came to know the Lord 16 years ago.
At 3 month’s old I was baptised in the local Catholic Church, because that’s just what you do… . My sister and I went to a Catholic school for our primary and secondary education, because it was a very good school… .
We went to Church on special occasions and I did my 1st Communion at 9 years’ old, which was a very expensive party. Again, because that’s just what you do in Spain.At 16 years’ old, it was time for my Confirmation sacrament, where teenagers confirm their faith in the presence of the town’s bishop. I was asked to come to catechism class every week for this, and I was one of the very few who refused. I didn’t understand why they had to force me to do something I didn’t want to do.
After my A level’s exams I left my little town to go to university in Madrid, I knew there was a God and I knew about Jesus, because of my education and the Christian values I had been raised with, so I thought I was good to go.
On my second year of university I came to University of Surrey for a year with an Erasmus scholarship, and I met my amazing husband, Olu. Coming from completely different backgrounds including race, language, culture and faith (he being a Baptist and me being a Catholic) and completely in love as we were (and are), it became clear that God had put us together.
Olu taught me what being a Christian was all about, bought me a Bible and started taking me with him to a Baptist church in Guildford. After that year, I had to go back to university in Spain for two years to finish my degree, then I moved back to the UK and worked in different towns, which meant Olu and I had a difficult 6 year long distance relationship. I couldn’t understand why we couldn’t just live together! God was clearly working on me through Olu.
God was clearly working on me through Olu.
Finally, Olu proposed at the end of 2011 and, since we were marrying in a Catholic church in Spain, I had to do the Confirmation sacrament I had refused to do at 16 and find a Catholic church in the UK to get ready for it. I found a church across the road from my office in Keynsham, Bristol, and it was actually good! I was growing in faith, I was sharing it with others, and when I received the Confirmation sacrament, I could really feel the Holy Spirit in me.
However, I still wasn’t sure what it really meant to accept Jesus as your Lord and Saviour; in fact, I remember asking myself, what sin was God saving us from? What is it that we did wrong? And other similar questions. There was obviously still lots to learn.
Olu and I finally got married, moved to Cheltenham in 2013 and started coming regularly to Cambray, where I was continuing growing as a Christian. It was thanks to our Cambray family, the services, the worship songs, the Mum’s Bible Study and the prayers that I got closer to God’s word during the last few years and started answering many of the questions I had.
I can say I accepted Jesus as my Lord and Saviour in 2015, and I don’t want to ever go back.
I can say I accepted Jesus as my Lord and Saviour in 2015, and I don’t want to ever go back. I am eternally grateful for all He’s done for me and my family, for my journey as a Christian, which doesn’t stop here, and, most of all, for dying in that cross for us, taking our sins away so that we can be saved and seated with Him and our Father in Heaven.
Today, I’m overjoyed to share these good news with you, which I couldn’t share 36 years ago when I was baptised as a baby. Today, I want to leave my old sinful life behind and start a new life with the Lord and for the Lord, because I love Him.
Your response?
If you want to think more about what Christmas should mean, and how to trust in Jesus, we have two resources that might help. The first is a ‘help yourself’ resource called The Four Points. On this website you can listen to four short videos which tell you more about how to come to know Jesus as your saviour. The second is a course you can join – Hope Explored.