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Amanda's Story

Amanda discovered there’s more to life than a tick-box approach when a friend from work invited her on the Alpha Course

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Courses exploring Christianity | 2:45

Amanda's Story

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Amanda discovered there’s more to life than a tick-box approach when a friend from work invited her on the Alpha Course

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00:00

I thought I could solve everything myself.

00:03

If I ticked all the boxes,

00:04

if I did everything that I was supposed to do.

00:07

My name is Amanda, and this is my story.

00:10

I married young.

00:12

I separated when I was young as well.

00:15

I was a single parent.

00:17

And I spent a lot of my time

00:19

being very focused on what I needed to do.

00:21

Because I'd had a very controlled life

00:23

prior to being a Christian,

00:25

I think this eventually takes its toll on you.

00:28

My health deteriorated

00:29

and I needed a lot of professional support.

00:32

And at that time, I just started to have a sense

00:36

that there was something bigger.

00:38

Life isn't about the tick-box approach.

00:41

Some people may say it was a breakdown.

00:42

I call it my awakening.

00:44

I worked for an organisation 10 years ago

00:47

and had a very good friend there

00:49

who shared her faith with me.

00:50

It wasn't what she was saying.

00:52

It was how she was saying it,

00:54

and how she was actually living that out.

00:56

And I just started to question my life, I guess.

01:00

I'd walked past Stirling Baptist Church one day

01:04

and saw the advert for Alpha

01:08

and I remember my friend discussing it with me.

01:10

And something inside me just started to stir,

01:13

so I called my friend,

01:14

asked her to put the wheels in motion.

01:16

She supported me with my child

01:18

whilst I was going to the Alpha,

01:22

and over those 10 weeks, 10-week process,

01:26

I just became more aware - who Jesus is, who God is -

01:31

and I wanted to know more.

01:33

You knock on the door and He will answer.

01:36

Yeah, I knocked on the door and He answered,

01:38

but He was always standing there.

01:41

It was me just standing on the other side,

01:44

not taking any notice.

01:46

Since becoming a Christian, my life is so different.

01:51

Friends and colleagues might not see

01:53

anything changed outwardly,

01:55

but inwardly, I feel completely different.

01:58

I think a lot of the time our worthiness

02:02

is based on our status in society.

02:06

What I believe is that true faith

02:09

and true life comes from stripping all of that away.

02:12

That's what having a faith does.

02:15

It takes you away from this insular

02:18

behaviour or society

02:21

and just opens up the opportunities

02:24

to experience life and to share that with other people.

02:27

You want everybody to have the experience

02:29

of what this gives you in life.

02:31

I wouldn't change this for the world

02:33

and I really wish I'd listened 20, 30 years ago.

April 2019
From
Evangelical Alliance
Topics
Courses exploring Christianity

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