Steve came to Coventry as a student. This is his story....
So there I was, living away from home for the first time, alone amongst ten thousand strangers. I'd been looking forward to it for ages, but that first night I suddenly wasn't so sure.
Good food
The next day was a Sunday and my first visit to Lower Ford Street Baptist Church. Only a small congregation, but I soon had my first taste of the warm and friendly welcome which I found was a trademark of these people. As the weeks passed, I grew more and more appreciative of the fact that the welcome was not just words. I would crawl into church each week, malnourished after a week of self-cooked student food. At night I would waddle back to my room, fattened up once more to face the coming week.
More importantly, I was fed spiritually too, on a balanced diet of preaching, praise and helpful conversation with wise Christians who were genuinely interested in me. I was in an artificial environment at university, where nearly everyone was a student and about my age. It made a refreshing change to be with a mixture of people of all ages, and from various walks of life, for a day each week.
Work and play
Each week, that is, apart from the visits home to see my parents, get my washing done and see my girlfriend. Liz and I got a bit fed up with all this separation, so we got married after my first year. I can recommend being a kept man, but, like most good things, it had to come to an end. My course was over, and I had to start doing a bit of work. Should we stay in Coventry or move on? The answer was clear; we both felt part of the church and that we were in the place God wanted us to be. The clarity of the answer, however, soon became clouded when nobody would give me a job. Were we just being inflexible? Why was God making it difficult when we were staying here for His benefit! Of course, we should have been trusting instead of moaning. In time it became clear that I should start my own business. The years since have proved, as always, that God's plan is best.
Family struggles
Five years later our third child was born, yet it was a vastly different experience from the first two. Heidi has Down's syndrome, and during her first four months her life was in the balance countless times as she struggled with a hole in her heart, pneumonia, leukaemia, kidney failure. During those traumatic months, and to this day, our loving church family really put their lives where their mouths were as they supported us on a wave of practical and prayer support.
Fifteen years on
It's now fifteen years since I came to Lower Ford Street, fourteen for Liz. Time has moved on, the church is evolving. Many of those first friends are still here, yet there are a lot more now. It's an exciting time as we see God at work amongst us. Yet there is still so much need in the city around us, we seem barely to scratch the surface. It's still the place God wants us to be.
