My first blog post! Faith at University.

I began university in September 2017, just under a month after my Auntie Sharon lost her battle with cancer. I moved into my accommodation just over a week after her funeral. I moved to a new city, away from my family and friends, and there begun the best three years of my life so far. Admittedly, it started off a little rocky. I struggled to come to terms with the loss of an Auntie who was only 47 years old. I was in a weird position where I was excited to meet new people and become more independent, but I also missed the support system I had at home and struggled when I knew my family were gathering and I couldn’t be there. I decided I would try to go home as little as possible so that I could really throw myself into Uni life. The fact that I can look back on this time positively, rather than remembering a sad and scary time, is down to God’s love, protection, and guidance.

Looking back on my three years at University it is so obvious how God has guided me, protected me, and placed certain people in my life who have also guided me and supported me. I was placed with great flat mates, I made some great friends on my course, and my first term went pretty smooth sailing, but I didn’t realise that this was down to God at the time because I was so angry with him about Auntie Sharon. I ended my first term without really settling into a church, so I came back in January eager to find a church in which I could begin to fix my faith and that I could call home. St. Nic’s was on my bus route into uni and I would drive past it at least twice a day, so I decided one Sunday that I would give it a go. This ended up being the best decision I could’ve made. I sat very nervously at the back and left pretty much as soon as the service ended so I didn’t have to talk to anyone, then at the bus stop I got talking to Hannah. I had met Hannah during ‘Church search’ in term one and hadn’t seen her since, but it turns out she was also attending St. Nic’s. This, the fact that the church felt very much like my home church, and many other events and ‘coincidences’ lead me to realise that St. Nic’s is where God wanted me.

I became a part of a very welcoming student community, made some great friends, I was given a mentor, a ‘home-from-home’, became part of a ‘St. Nic’s community’, and joined a core group. I was made to feel like a real part of the church family, despite the possibility of leaving once I finished my degree. I would go home for the holidays and have the same support and love in my home church and I finally began to see how present God had been in my life. Since then, my faith and my confidence in my faith has grown massively. If you’d have told me before I started University that I would be leading 7am student prayer sessions, or making art work about faith on a course where this wasn’t considered ‘normal’, or talking to people about my faith and inviting them to church, I would’ve laughed at you and said ‘No way, that doesn’t sound like me at all’.

I am now starting a Primary PGCE at The University of Nottingham this month and I can confidently say that this is what I believe God is calling me to do at this stage in my life. I am starting the course very differently to how I started my undergrad. I am starting with a very strong sense of God’s presence in my day to day life and a confidence that I can lean on his strength when things get tough. I am so thankful for God. For the way he has worked in me over the past three years, the people he has placed in my life, for where I have ended up, and I can’t wait to see how he will continue to work in me over the next year.

If you would like to find out more about church, faith or my story, feel free to drop me a message!

Photo: St. Nic's students at the church weekend away, 2020.