‘I came from a small village church, but the start they gave me was immense’: the YFC National Ministries Director looks back to her roots

I’ve grown up through church and my amazing parents have always been passionate followers of Jesus, both in very different ways. My mum is a brilliant businesswoman and I remember every time I had a problem as a teenager her first response would be to say, “let’s pray about it.” I learnt a lot from that simple act about what it meant for Jesus to be so close to my heart that He is my first response in anything. I’m 37 now and this is still a lesson I carry, come back to daily.

I was brought up with my dad staying at home, which was unusual at the time. I noticed that he talked to everyone; people who walked past the end of the drive, parents at school, people at the post office, and if they would speak with him long enough, he’d invite them to church. I saw that modelled and assumed that’s just what people did, so that’s what I started to do too.

We lived in a village and our church was very small, which I now see as a such a gift. I was there until I was 18, and sometimes there could be twelve people in the congregation, whilst other seasons there could be 35. When I started secondary school there was me and two other children in the church, so my mum started a Sunday school, whilst my dad rounded up a few other unsuspecting adults and started a youth group on a Friday night. I had no idea at the time what that would have cost such a small church, but what the church was prepared to pour into our lives changed my future. The church created a space, so we set to work inviting our friends and before we all knew it the youth group was thriving.