Alison's Story

I was clearly always meant to be a Nurse :)

For the first 18 years of my life if anyone asked me if I believed in God, my response would have been a firm no. I had no ‘religious’ upbringing having only attended a church a few times in my life. What I knew about ‘Christianity’ I had been taught at school and to be honest I thought it was a lot of rubbish and that the bible contradicted itself.

In 2002, at 18 years old, I left my home town of Watford and went to Cardiff, to university; it was here I met and became friends with Miriam, a Christian. We had several discussions about being a Christian but my thinking really was, well that’s nice for her if that is what she wants. I did attend church a couple of times with Miriam and I remember the pastor talking about the fact that Jesus Christ died on the cross for our sins. Learning this made me realise what it really was that Christians believed. This was that God created a perfect world but then sin entered the world and tainted it. Human sin is now unfortunately very much part of human culture, but it only has one result and that is condemnation to hell, we do not know what hell will be like because its horror is unimaginable. The only answer to this is to be saved, and this was done as Jesus Christ died on the cross, he sacrificed himself for our sins. Knowing this got me thinking but I was still happy with the way my life was going and felt I did not need Christ in my life.

 In December 2005, Miriam became really ill and was in hospital for a month with which turned out to be viral meningitis and encephalitis. Throughout this period Miriam was inundated with people from all over the world saying that they were praying for her and her family. Their faith in God gave them such strength and support that I myself lacked. The whole episode made me think a lot more about God and I even went to church on my own.

Thankfully Miriam did get better and when she was well enough I started attending Emmanuel Baptist Church, Gabalfa, with Miriam and also reading the Bible for myself. I thought the Bible would be hard to read but I know that God helped me to understand and reading it answered a lot of questions I had. It was clear that all my previous understanding of being a Christian was totally wrong and that I now had the understandings of the true foundations of the Christian faith. Even though I knew these foundations it took me a little while to put my trust in God because I was scared of being different to all my family and friends.

Though one morning I woke up and what scared me most was the fact that I could die that day and that I wouldn’t have made things right with God. There and then I confessed my sins to God and I was forgiven, I was reconciled with God and I immediately knew that I had done the right thing, I had formed a relationship with God that would last forever.

I was baptised a few months after conversion and a member of Emmanual Baptist church. Since then I have become an active member of the church congregation, assisting with youth work in the church, outreach work and general servitude within the church.

I have now been a Christian for 7 years and I am continuing to grow in faith. Things are not always easy and I still make mistakes and do things wrong because I am not perfect, but I have the assurance that God loves me and will forgive me. God has definitely challenged me in the past six years and made me grow as a person, I lacked a lot of confidence in myself but through God I am given the strength to do things I never thought possible, for example going to Cameroon, Africa, by myself to carry out some medical missionary work.


In Cameroon with local children from the village (2010)

In 2012 I completed a second degree in Nursing. My training took me to Finland for three months where God truly blessed my time there as I met my now husband Miska at the church I attended there. I have felt early on in my Christian life that God has not necessarily planned for me to live out the rest of my life in my home country of the United Kingdom. I feel God has been preparing me for a life abroad and it was not until God brought me together with Miska and had laid it on his heart to become a pastor in his own country that I knew this would God willing be Finland. I look forward to a life of servitude to God in Finland, knowing that it will not always be easy but with God at the head of our family, we will be doing it in His almighty power and strength and not our own.


In Finland with Miska (2012)