I have always been very conscious of God. My Father, a Quaker, would pray with us at bedtime and I remember going into his room in the morning and finding him keeling by his bedside. Confirmed at the age of 14, out of duty not conviction, I began teaching in Sunday School. Feeling that I was only a step ahead of these 11 and 12 year olds, I started searching for the reality of God.
God given litany
Shortly after that a group of friends formed a youth group although we did not have a leader as such. We met on Saturday evenings to read, talk and pray. However, the Holy Spirit was not much talked about and I had never heard of people being healed.
One Saturday we were working on a youth service that our vicar had encouraged us to put together and we were struggling to write a new litany for it. We were praying for direction when all of a sudden I just felt able to sit and write. I know now that the Holy Spirit inspired it though I didn't understand that at the time and only looking back can I say that this was when I became Spirit filled. The problem in the sixties and certainly in the Anglican Church was that I was not challenged or taught to grow in my faith and so I lost it.
At 21 I moved to London, into a flat which was just across the road from a church with a cracked bell which rang for four services every Sunday morning. I could not stay in bed and ignore it. I used to go, clad in jeans and t-shirt, unheard of in the sixties, when you dressed for church particularly as the majority of the congregation were West Indian and dressed immaculately. However they were totally accepting.
I met my husband, Stephen, when I was 22 and 18 months later we married and moved to Bracknell where for a time we lodged with my Aunt, a wonderful committed Christian, who encouraged us to attend church with her and occasionally we even went! Eventually we moved, with Stephen's job, to near Winchester, my home town, where God ensured our neighbours were committed Christians. They used to take us to their home group despite the fact that Stephen and I posed difficult questions. They lovingly answered them and encouraged us to grow in our faith. Occasionally we would go to church but God was still not important in our lives. We moved on to Kent and again God gave us people committed to bringing us to the truth of who He is.
In the end God lost patience with us and threw us out to Hamburg. This was a real wilderness experience. We did not understand the language or the culture. Our children, Kate, Giles and Ed were seven, five and nearly three when we went. During our first year there, a Christian friend died of cancer. We had seen her at Christmas shortly before she died when she knew she was dying but had total peace about it. I knew then that I wanted what she had so I said to Stephen, 'I want to go to church'. That was the start of our journey back to faith and Christianity.
The journey back
We started to go the Church of St Thomas à Becket, the Anglican Church in Hamburg. It had an enormous sense of community, which was, I think, what really drew us. We became family for each other.
We knew that we needed to study so we asked the Vicar to start a home group. He was not enthusiastic so, because we knew that we were being disobedient to God if we did not, we started one ourselves. There were four of us, all brand new Christians and there was no one to teach or lead us. We had the Bible and could only read it, question it, and pray. We existed like that for a year until a couple, who were mature Christians joined the church and the group, and taught and encouraged us.
More of the Holy Spirit
It was there we heard more about the Holy Sprit and learnt to accept his gifts. One day I was desperate and had run out of words in which to pray so asked God for the gift of tongues. I heard him say 'Ask Lyn' the mature lady in the group. So she prayed for me and I spoke in tongues for the first time.
In 1988 we came back to England and to Reading. Once again our next-door neighbours were Christians and they suggested we should go to Greyfriars Church. We went. but we did not like it! We had come from a high Anglican Church with Communion every Sunday and sung liturgy to Greyfriars who had communion once a month and no sung liturgy! But God has a purpose and kept us there until His purpose was outworked.
In 1995 I was working as a salesman and heard God say: 'If you can sell worthless bits of computer equipment, you can sell the Gospel'. At that time there was a mission in Reading called Thames Valley Alive and Jeff Whattley, our curate, was heading up the central Reading team and encouraged me to get involved. Suddenly I found myself being trained for door to door evangelism, the last thing I ever wanted. I loved it and in time joined the parish visiting team and developed a heart for the parish.
In September of that year, Jonathan Wilmot became the new vicar of Greyfriars and invited me to become his PA, a role I fulfilled for the next six and half years. One day, in his post was an invitation to a meeting held at St Paul's URC, a church in the heart of our parish. It had been built 100 years earlier in a thriving community but now had an aging congregation. Eventually the decision was made to close the church and sell the land. Praying for the parish during a quiet day I heard God say 'You do it'. So I phoned my husband to suggest we bought and redeveloped the site.
This is now New Hope. A building to put a centre in the community; five houses, let at low rents, to help young Christians get onto the property ladder, and a plant from Greyfriars. Still very much in its infancy, a group meet to pray for the area and to do a survey of the locality to find out the needs. An after school club has started and it is hoped other community activities will start very shortly to fulfil the vision to have a place where people can meet and where they can hear about the love of Jesus through such things as Alpha. Until the needs of people are met and they have sense of belonging we cannot expect them to believe.
Reading's core of prayer
Reading is an amazing town with prayer at its core. Some 40 pastors meet weekly to pray. This is the fruit. A girl dreamed about a man called Steve who went to 'Friar' church. She woke up and remembered it but didn't know what to do. The Reading Chronicle wrote a testimony about a guy called Steve who went on an Alpha course in prison. The girl, reading the article, felt she had to meet Steve so went to Greyfriars, which the article mentioned, and although Steve wasn't there, met with some other staff members. They prayed with her. She bought a Bible and is coming on Alpha because she is sure God is speaking to her.
And now...
God continues to speak to us today. So having opened New Hope I am taking six months out to rest and to hear from Him and what He wants me to do with the next phase of my life.
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