I ran out of years of objections...

I followed our daughter to Alpha. She became a Christian during form two and is now 23 years of age. I used to warn her "watch these church peopleÉ don't get too involved... they have all got hidden agendas..." I always used to tell to her keep an open mind. We would have many discussions, which she called arguments, about religion and Christianity. Slowly I accepted that there was something valid in her commitment to the faith.

Out of the blue someone from the local Baptist church mentioned that they were about to run an Alpha course. It sounded interesting and our daughter attended it. I didn't know what the catch was, but at the end of the course there was a dinner. Being good parents we went along to support our daughter. They showed a video called 'Christianity: Boring, Untrue and Irrelevant?' and I was right into that because I thought this described Christianity exactly: boring, untrue and irrelevant, but without the question mark! As Nicky Gumbel talked about people who had everything but nothing, this idea rang true for me. While we didn't really talk about the Dinner, we had a nice night out, a good meal and met some new people.

A couple of weeks later I said to my wife, "I think I would like to do the Alpha course". She said she had been thinking of doing it too but didn't want to ask me in case I would be against it. We attended the Alpha course and I expressed many years of objections and arguments that I thought were relevant. Slowly I ran out of questions and objections. If I brought up something off the wall, no-one jumped down my throat.

At the weekend when the group leaders prayed for me, I committed my life to Jesus. The weekend was truly the turning point for me.

I have been involved in four Alpha courses now. It is amazing to see people come to Alpha as I did, to sit with them, pray with them and see them change as it goes on. To be part of this is what makes life worth living.