Bikes, Baby and Bible

It all started for us two and a half years ago with the birth of our son, Jesse. Prior to this we definitely were not Christians. Paul was part of a motorcycle club called "The Bastard Brothers" of which he was the President. We lived hard and partied hard. Our lives consisted of partying, drinking, getting stoned, riding, and then waiting for the following weekend so we could do it all again.

Then I became pregnant with Jesse and we started to look at ourselves a little and thought 'we may have to calm down a bit when the baby is born' - we had no idea just how much our lives were going to change.

Jesse was born on a warm, spring evening. He was the smallest Bastard Brother and by far the cutest! He had soon been to a few of their parties and looked the part in his tiny, black Harley Davidson jersey and leather vest. Several months later we decided we should get him christened as we felt that is what you're supposed to do - good excuse for a party afterwards anyway!

So I looked up the Yellow Pages and decided to give the Anglicans a go. We thought they were probably the most sane out of them all and Paul had been baptised an Anglican as an infant. I made the call and spoke to a woman called Indrea Alexander. She was the vicar and suggested we attend three sessions in preparation for baptism. We went along and she was just lovely. She was kind to us and we felt at home around her. She baptised Jesse and a few weeks later invited us to an Alpha dinner. She was so nice that we didn't want to say "no" so we decided to go along - a couple of hours wouldn't hurt us and we didn't get invited many places for dinner! As it turned out we were both really sick that night with stomach upsets and couldn't make it. Indrea then suggested we come to the Alpha course.

We went along and just got so engrossed in the video talks, right from the first week. Nicky Gumbel was 'normal,' he wore normal clothes, and had a sense of humour. He really did draw us in and we wanted to know more and more. I had never picked up a Bible until then and went out and bought one by week three of the course. We had so many questions and were eager to hear more.

By now we were really questioning our lives and knew we had to make a clean break or forget about our Christianity. We made the break - had a big clean out of friends and have never looked back. Paul still rides his bike, but as a leisure activity only. Unfortunately I don't ride any longer as we had a serious accident and my leg now has rods and pins holding it together.

We have lost a lot of friends but have been blessed tenfold with wonderful new ones - good, genuine people who we really look up to.

Life is now very different. We have since had a daughter, Bianca. Paul is on the church ministry team, he has run several Alpha courses, and takes the Youth Group. I help with a group for mums with young children. We also have a Bible study group meeting in our home once a week.

We are still learning as we go and have so much more to learn, and to give, and now know the true meaning of life. Now the only parties here are birthday parties for the children. Our upstairs bar is now a place of worship where we host our weekly house group meetings.