Catherine Walker
I grew up just outside of Winsford and was taken to Christ Church Wharton since I was a baby! Growing up, I always believed that there was a God and would have said I was a Christian because I went to Junior Church for years and liked going to church.
When I was about fourteen I started to think more about what being a Christian means and on a summer camp in South Wales where there were some Christian talks I heard the speaker saying very clearly that being a Christian is not just about being a ‘good’ or ‘bad’ person but about the fact that God sent Jesus to save people. That shook me up a bit but the more I thought about what Jesus had done to save people and how this shows God’s love, the more I realised that I had to accept what Jesus had done.
I don’t know if that’s the moment I became a Christian but it’s definitely the moment I understood it and started to think about how being a Christian would change my friendships and also my hopes for the future. Up until then I’d been quite shy but I found I had more confidence to do things I never would have imagined I could do, from talking about being a Christian with people around me to thinking about going to other countries to do that.
I’d always liked languages at school and been interested in travelling so when the opportunity arose, I took a gap year before university and went to Chile to volunteer in a primary school run by a church out there. I helped with the English teaching and worked as the equivalent of a classroom assistant. What left the greatest impact on me however was living with the girls who went to the school and having the opportunity to get to know them and their culture.
After a couple of months some of the older ones said they would like to read the bible together. It was great to see them understanding for themselves what I had understood just a few years before – that God more than anything wants people to accept what Jesus has done for them so that they can become part of God’s family.
I spent a year in Chile in total and since then between university studies have worked with young people in Brazil, Central America and the UK. My long term goal is to be involved in working for a Christian charity that works with young people in Latin America. I am currently living in London studying a course in Latin American Development and getting work experience in the charity sector to help me to achieve this goal. But I know that whether I achieve this goal or not, nothing will change the fact that I am a Christian saved only by Jesus and what he has done for me.