Jemima, a student at UEA, found herself exploring her own beliefs and faith whilst at university. After meeting Lucy, a course mate who is a Christian, she had no idea her time at university would be the start of her new walk with Jesus.
"I didn’t come to Uni a Christian; I grew up in a Christian family but had never shown much interest as I associated Christianity with long sermons and conservative views of today’s society.
Going to Uni I expected my degree, sport, and nights out to form my identity, little did I know that I would discover a whole new perspective to life by finding my identity in Jesus.
This change began when I met a lovely course mate called Lucy, we became close and isolated together when we contracted Covid on placement. During this, I started to ask questions about Lucy’s faith, who I knew was a Christian, as I was curious. We watched Alpha videos together and despite this being a time of stress and upheaval, I began to associate these activities with restfulness and peace.
When we returned to Uni in lockdown, I had the opportunity to explore faith further by taking part in ‘Chrisitianity Explored’, where I started to ask more questions and gained confidence to discuss the bible.
Following lockdown, I attended a Church, which completely turned what I thought I knew about Sunday services on its head. After listening to worship music and an engaging talk, I felt more connected to what I had been questioning since the start of Uni.
"I found a wonderful community who welcomed me, and it formed the foundation for supporting me through the stresses of the third year of my degree."
After another challenging placement, Lucy sat down with me and asked ‘so what’s stopping you from becoming a Chrisitian?’ and to my surprise I answered ‘nothing!’. From that moment on I knew I was on a journey to build my relationship with God.
A highlight following this was the Christian Union weekend away, where I met loads of other young Christians! After a particularly encouraging evening of worship, I started to become aware of the Holy Spirit’s unwavering presence and this sparked an interest in getting to know God more.
Later that year, my faith was hugely challenged when I went on placement in an intensive care unit in Newcastle, a city very far away from Uni and home. I didn’t make time to connect with God and suffered from the upset of seeing very sick patients and the absence of friends and family. I felt abandoned by God and questioned if becoming a Christian had been the right decision. In retrospect, I look back and see God’s amazing healing in many patients who were close to death and how God grew me through this time.
Returning to Uni, I felt drawn to join a new Church, I thought of it as almost a last attempt to rescue my faith in Jesus. Here, I found a wonderful community who welcomed me, and it formed the foundation for supporting me through the stresses of the third year of my degree. I had a powerful experience early on in my time at the Church where I had the feeling of being met by the Holy Spirit when asking for a sign. Since this moment, my faith has moved from strength to strength, and I can’t wait what the future brings for my relationship with God.
My growth to faith has shown me that despite there being challenges in the future, I need to give all control to God and trust him!
