Laura

Who I am

I’m a student at Portsmouth University, studying Latin American Studies.
I’m on my year abroad at the moment, working for the church in Uruguay. I married Ricky at St Luke’s Church in Southsea in September, 2002. I can read anything and once I get stuck into a book I generally can’t stop until I’ve finished. We started geocaching last year which has been great for seeing some beautiful parts of the country we never would have found otherwise, as well as being a challenge.

My Family

My parents run a residential care home in Devon.
I have 2 brothers, Richard who works for GKN Westland in Yeovil and Gregory who is working as a security guard in Gloucester. I also have a sister, Lucy who lives with my parents and Snudge.

My Life

We’ve moved around a bit as a family, I spent all my primary school years in Rutland, the golden age! We moved to Malta when I was 11, where we spent the next 2 years, not the best years of my life but probably very character building. Then we moved to Somerset and it was quite difficult to adjust to English life again, particularly secondary school, but again, character building.

I went through a very tough time at school
and had become very negative in my attitude towards life and especially towards my family.
At one point I was in hospital with food poisoning, I’d been quite depressed and was at my lowest. I couldn’t see the point of living and I don’t think I wanted to get better. My mum had been going to a Baptist Church a few months and she put my situation on
their prayer chain. Her pastor who I’d never met before, came to see me, and this had a really
strange effect on me. I just found it incredible that a guy I’d never met before cared
about me. This seemed to give me the boost I needed, I was soon put on solid foods again
and was able to leave the next day.

A couple of months later my mum asked me to go to Church to see my sister in a play.
Although skeptical at first, I really enjoyed the service and found myself going back again
and again. I saw something in the Christians that I really needed. During a Youth Apha course
I found out what that was. I discovered that Jesus was more than a fairy story. He is the
one God, who died so that I could have a relationship with him. I accepted this and it changed my life and my priorities. I was no longer living for myself but for God.

I decided to get baptised as a symbol of what God had done for me, and it was a great
opportunity to share my new faith with my family and friends who didn’t yet know him. My
dad who was initially hostile to my decision started asking questions and we used to
have discussions about Christianity and God long into the night. This helped me to
grow in my faith and as I looked into my dad’s questions, I became more and more sure of what I believed in.

My dad became good friends with the Pastor and through his discussions with him and through
an Alpha course that he’d done he turned to Jesus. He and my mum were baptised together. It’s been
incredible to see what God has done and is doing in my family.

Ecuador

I decided to take a year out before I went to university. I wanted to use this time for God, and ended up in Ecuador, with a missionary organisation, Latin Link. I worked in a centre for children with disabilities called Camp Hope. It was an incredible
time, but was also very hard emotionally, physically, and spiritually at times. Through this, I learnt a lot
about myself and God. Ecuador is a stunningly beautiful country but is deep in poverty.
It was devastating seeing so many children begging on the streets, people with no hope
for a better life. The Christians out there were a real inspiration for me, being so
open and confident in their faith, and so generous with the little that most of them had.
I learnt a lot from the group I went with and the missionaries I met. It was a life changing
experience.

Where I’ve been