Helen's story is a simple one. But it's also a reminder of the power of inviting communities, the importance of process and the impact of seeker-orientated services :

I was baptised as a baby and confirmed when I was twelve. I always went to church with my parents (a traditional Anglican service) and I used to sing in the choir. The church was made up of mainly older people. I would say that I always believed in God but thought it was a lot of theory. I didn’t know how it was relevant and thought that God was rather stern, fierce and finger pointing.

About a year and a half ago I was invited by my sister-in-law, Julia, to a pub lunch and walk organised by a group from her church.

After that I went to the church quite a few times and was recognised by people from the pub lunch, which made church a lot less intimidating. I guess it was a gradual process over a number of months. Lines from worship songs kept registering in my head, I was becoming less hard hearted and found myself getting tearful at times, being more compassionate, more self aware.

Nine months after that pub lunch I went to a guest service titled ‘Desperately Seeking Joy’, where Philip Jinadu was preaching. Every song that was sung really spoke to me and I was crying in the worship. The preach was great and at the end I repeated the prayer to give my life to Jesus, to choose to walk with him and live my life His way.

Lots of tissues later, Julia noticed something was going on and I went forward for prayer. I prayed with someone and I thought “I’m mad not to ask you into my life, you’re amazing!” I was desperately seeking joy, and that night I found it! I asked God for a tiny bit, but He gave me loads back. I don’t always find it easy where I work, so to have God’s awesome presence with me is what I so desperately needed.

I was a bit nervous about sharing my faith with my friends, but I’ve already had some real encouragements. I have a long time friend who knew I went to church as a child. We were hanging out and I managed to tell her the whole story. I told her it’s all about a relationship with God, you don’t need to struggle on in life. I was thinking : ‘crumbs, this is the moment – this is really important!!’

She was really receptive and not critical at all. It turns out that she met other Christian friends at University and had actually looked our church up on Facebook. She already knew all about it! I feel very confident now about sharing my faith, and I’m still absolutely full of joy.