I was born in North London and I grew up in a Kurdish/Turkish community to a family of non-Christians. My family identify as Alevi Muslims – which is a sect of Islam that has more lenient practices but even so, I couldn’t really say that my parents are particularly religious. Faith and culture are so very intertwined and I was quite unsure about God until I found Christ in my second year of university. I had been dipping my toes into new-age spirituality-like practices, but in my heart, it didn’t feel real at all. It felt ingenuine and left me just as lost as I was before.

I met a friend who shared the gospel with me. Extraordinarily, we met online playing a video game called Overwatch. We would often message outside of gaming and the blessing of online messaging is the ability to say whatever you wanted. If I said something embarrassing, I would easily be able to disappear and pretend it never happened! This meant that we would often have deep or vulnerable conversations in which he brought up faith and asked of my beliefs, which gave him an opportunity to share his faith. While most of it went over my head because it was new to me, I couldn’t fathom God’s unconditional love for us.

I needed to know more. Over the next week, it felt like everything I was thinking of led me to Jesus and the conversation we had whilst gaming. I couldn’t shake off this strong nudge to visit a church as the ‘next step’ in learning more and almost exactly a week after, my friend took a trip down to London and we visited Globe together.

My first experience at Globe is honestly a large part of my testimony. Everyone was very friendly and welcoming, with people taking initiative to sit next to me as they noticed a new face. That week, we read out the whole of Galatians and the sermon was about being free from the shackles of sin. After speaking, Jonty then invited those who accept Jesus to free them from their sin to come up and take from the communion table and entrust themselves to Jesus.

Now… I have a tendency to dive head first into the deep end of things and struggle my way out but I can comfortably say that I do not regret doing so this time as I went up for communion that day. While I know that my knowledge and understanding of the gospel was not fully developed that first Sunday, the church congregation’s kindness and this gut wrenching feeling that I had finally found what I was looking for was more than enough for me to commit my life to Christ. I began to regularly attend Globe and their student Bible studies. I eventually got baptised 6 months later.

I told my family about my faith a few months after and my parents did not take well. They were offended I had made this decision without their consent. They insisted it was not our culture to be Christians and were very suspicious of my commitment to Church. They were quick to express their disappointment but I am glad that they do not restrict me in any way in terms of attending Church or living out my faith. Being a witness to them is something that I overthink a lot. I want to do or say the right things, behave like a ‘good Christian’ but ultimately, just having the confidence to stand firm and not hide my faith when I’m with them is such a powerful way that God to be a witness of Christ to them.

To this day, I do struggle a lot with not having a Christian family. There have been times where I have cried my heart out, longing to have a family that understood me and would love me like Christ. But I know that God is good and He does not forsake us in our struggles. He has blessed me with a kind and compassionate church family that shows me Jesus! Praise be to Him for all he has done in my life!