Welcome everyone to the sister stories podcast.
This podcast is aimed at marbling at God's sovereignty in each of our lives as women, and that's encouraging 1 another via our stories.
My name is Sophie, and today I am joined by Daisy.
Hello? Welcome.
So first of all, Daisy, can you tell us a little bit about who you are? Yeah.
So I'm Daisy.
I work for Christianity Explored Ministries which is a charity that create courses for churches to run.
I'm married to Nathan.
We got married last August.
So will be my free year in a few weeks, which is exciting.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Lovely.
Great.
And, so obviously, we're going to be talking a little bit about, how you came to know the lord Jesus Christ.
But what I would like to start with is, your family background, what your childhood was like, how you grew up.
So you can tell us about that? Yeah.
Sure.
So I grew up with, a mom and a dad that got divorced when I was a baby.
They were separated my whole life.
My mum and my dad are both now remarried, but my mom got remarried when I was little.
So I grew up with quite supportive family around me.
It was they obviously were challenging times with my mom and my dad not really getting on and seeing my friends at school have, you know, a mom and a dad that were together, and that was always strange.
But yeah, it was a really nice childhood.
It was quite tough at times.
My brother when I was in year 6, and he was in year 10 got diagnosed of cancer.
So that was quite a tough thing for us all to go through.
But actually it's made us a lot closer and he, thankfully, survived and is is a policeman now and, you know, getting married next year, so that's great.
But, yeah, as a family, we were really close still are, but my family aren't Christians.
So we we did go to church a little bit I went to a Sunday school every week, and my mom went to church and helped out in the toddler group, but yeah, I think it was more of a safe place for us to go on a Sunday morning and have a good community.
My mom I think was quite lonely, not with she had us when we were really when she was really young, so not many of her friends had other children had children, and so it was nice for her to meet other moms and stuff.
Wow.
Okay.
So I'm wondering that context with a you heard about god or what your perception of god was when you were little, especially? Well, we went to quite a what I think, what I thought was quite a boring, church.
So I don't think I was ever really interested in the stories.
It was, you know, very We just listen to them, say all the things they said every week, and it was I've spent Sundays with my dad.
So I was watching the clock church ready to go, and my dad would pick me up when we would go to see him.
So when I was little, I'd I had no interest, really.
And we went up until I got into high school.
So we I went to a Christian high school, and we had to have a sign signature from the vicar in our local area to say that we could go.
So it was, yep, that's fine.
We've got the got the signature.
I'm not coming now.
And my mum went a little bit after that, but then she she stopped going there as well.
So yeah.
Okay.
Well, that's really interesting.
So not really any insight into the gospel or anything like that? No.
And my interestingly, my my mum is quite into I don't really know how to, I would say sort of new age spirituality.
So when when we were kids, we went camping to places where we would buy fairy statues and, my mom was a little bit of a hippie kind of character.
So we had this sort of gospel.
We, like, heard these, like, gospel messages and and, like, stories of Jesus, but then we also had this side of it where mum was very spiritual and would talk about how the universe has sent her a sign.
And so I think for us, there was it was a bit confusing.
And I don't think I ever really thought about it that deeply.
I knew that I had a loving family in for me.
That was enough when I was a kid.
Yeah.
I think for a lot of us, we don't really seek deep, I mean, as as needed, isn't either.
Yeah.
Okay.
That's really interesting.
And so obviously, you're far you're not really at home anymore.
You you're married and you're in Cornerstone.
So, can you tell us a little bit about the years after your childhood, maybe university, and where where you got something to do afterwards? Yeah.
Absolutely.
So in 6th form, I started dating a boy who was a Christian, and I had a couple of my best friends were Christians And so I was starting to hear more about church, and we kind of went to a few church evenings where they did like a worship night or they would hang out at the beach because we live near the seaside.
And I would go along to a few of those things, and I always thought these people are all just so friendly and close, and I really wanted some of that.
And then I moved away to university away from all my family, the boy I was dating, and I felt so lonely.
I'd I'd spent my whole life with my family.
I've never really been away for more than probably 2 weeks.
So it was so overwhelming.
It sort of felt like I was stepping off a cliff into life and finally on my own.
So I decided to go to go and find a church, and I just literally googled churches in Kingston.
Cornerstone was the top 1.
Obviously.
Yeah.
So I came came over came to to Cornerstone.
And it was amazing, really.
I was so welcomed by people on my first day, and I just I remember as the weeks passed, I didn't I think the 1st whole of my 1st year I was homesick, but, yeah, every week I would think okay, I I'm looking forward to just to have to get to Sunday and then I can go back to church and see people.
And I don't really think at that point, my interest or I didn't think my interest was in hearing the gospel.
It was the people.
I want it to be near the people, but every week I would come and hear these incredible stories.
And I think slowly I just started really and paying attention, and there would be people around me that had their own bibles and were making notes.
And so I thought, okay, I'll do that as well.
And as I was doing that, I was just amazed by what I was hearing, and a lot of people in Cornerstone like the students were obviously involved in the Christian union as well.
So I would go along to there.
And then you had these Christians that were really passionate about sharing the gospel with their friends and It just I just kept seeing people who really took it so seriously, and I've never seen that before.
And I was just amazed and wanted to keep finding out more and more.
So, yeah, throughout university, I just got really stuck in at church.
I went to Belarus in the summer between my 1st 2nd year, with some of our church family.
And that for me was amazing because we were just telling people about Jesus who had never heard it.
And I think that for me was quite a significant moment because I I really wanted to take seriously after that, I thought this isn't a joke anymore.
And I eventually broke up with the boy that we were, that I was dating before.
And again, that was a moment of, am I just going to do am I just doing this because he's a or am I actually doing this to me? So it was all those, like, small things that happened in life that made me eventually be like, oh, No.
I'm a Christian.
I I want to, you know, Jesus is incredible and is so amazing.
The things he says and so current like, to what I was dealing with at uni and stuff that I thought, okay, I really actually want to follow him.
Wow.
That's really interesting how it feels that the relationships you had with people around you is what influenced you Yeah.
In in looking to Christ essentially.
I wonder what whether you perceived a difference between what your mom was going for in the spiritual things that she was pursuing and what you heard at church and whether that made a difference as well.
Yeah.
I think for there was a a time where I found it really difficult.
Some of the things I heard at church compared to what my mom was saying Mom just sort of chose the things that she liked, and it, you know, and then at churches, this is what Jesus says.
And even if we don't understand, we follow him and We obviously want to learn more, but we, yeah, we sort of accept his words and we have to wrestle with them.
Whereas mum would just ever anything she wanted to think she thought, and it didn't really matter.
And I think that was the big difference.
And it was, you know, talking about the universe, there was not somebody I could talk to and call father and have a relationship with it was just sort of how she felt.
Whereas, yeah, Jesus was it was much more relational, which I think was 1 of the big differences.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's interesting because I guess if you're just being spiritual, you just take what you prefer in the message, whereas if you're having an actual relationship with people, it it will be hard.
Yeah.
And with god in particular, it's not it's not easy to follow him.
But, yeah, there's it makes a whole difference because you're in relationship with an actual person.
Yeah.
Oh, that's great.
That's amazing.
I wonder what, what your perception was as well as well getting stuck into church compared to having maybe a quite fairly divided family, at least from what you've been saying.
And for whether something drew you to church as well.
In that way, you said you were quite homesick as well.
Yeah.
Can you explore that a bit a bit more? Well, it is just like family, isn't it? You I just I think I got to know people really well in my 1st year.
And so I had these people, like, that were like older brothers and older sisters and some like moms and I'm just really great friends as well that I made.
And for me, that was incredible, like a real church family, and we all because of the fact that we all love Jesus.
We're all together and and we're called family.
And it's it I remember once somebody saying that actually in other walks of life, would we ever be friends or family? But because of Jesus, we I'm like, can call the most random person brother that I would never, like, encounter in my normal life, or life away from Christianity.
And so I think that was 1 of the amazing things.
And I I know that actually that was a bit of a struggle for my mom, especially when I would leave, I'd go to visit at the weekend and leave on a Saturday night to come back for church, because I think she felt like I cared more about that, but it would so that was actually quite a hard balance to strike of not just forgetting about my actual, like, my blood family and just yeah.
Yeah.
That's funny.
I was going to ask you how your family reacted, actually.
What about your dad's? What was his perception? Yeah.
Your faith in? Oh, it's interesting because we don't have a very sort of emotional relationship, so we don't really tend to talk It's like that classic British thing.
We don't really talk about our people.
Worries.
It's it's exist elsewhere as well.
But I do I I had a conversation with him once, and he said, you know, it was amazing to see how I I was so miserable in my 1st year of team, and they my dad would drive up after work or from Dorset to London 2 hour drive just to have dinner with me because I was really sad.
And they all said, you know, it is so obvious that church had a massive difference in you feeling settled and better.
So I think he he noticed that there was a difference.
And now I'm married, and that, like, the reason I'm married at, you know, 23 is because of like, that's what I think is the best, like, the most godly thing for us to do for our relationship.
And and so I think it's all those little things they've definitely noticed that it's not just a a phase.
Yeah.
Definitely.
Yeah.
So how long have you been a Christian for then? So sorry.
I'm trying to no.
That's okay.
I would say about so I got baptized, on, I think, June 11th I think, which So this year? No.
Of of 2017.
Okay.
Yeah.
So maybe 4 years, if if that if we count that as the time, I think it probably was in that summer that I made a proper commitment so 4 or 5 years.
I don't know.
I'm not very good at maths.
Because I had 2 years left of uni, and then I've been graduated for 2 years.
So that makes sense.
Yeah.
Okay.
And you talked about Belarus, but, in that experience of, of being with other Christians and and seeing their their want of hearing about Christ.
I wonder whether there was a specific sermon for you where you felt really so you were saying that you were taking notes and so on.
Is there a moment where you think you really stopped and thought? Actually, I need to really take seriously.
You you did mention that a little bit, but Yeah.
Yeah.
That's a really good question.
I mean, I think I think I was really amazed by all the stories of Jesus, especially when so when I first came to Cornerstone or a couple of months in, we started going through Luke Luke's gospel.
And I'd heard them so much as a kid, you know, like in Sunday school, we talked about them, and I knew these sort of stories, but it felt like this was a completely different Jesus or a completely like, it just I saw them in such a new way So I think going through the gospel that closely as a whole was amazing for me to see what Jesus actually really is like and I also think Romans, we went through Romans in the morning service for quite a while.
And you had like okay, here's Jesus in the evening service.
This is what he's like.
And then this is why it's amazing in Romans.
And so I think those that combination, I know that's not like a specific passage, but those 2 together, I think, really solidified me in in my faith.
Yeah.
That's great.
I mean, they're both the the stories and nothing that makes perfect sense, and it's funny how often you sit in the morning service and then you hear the evening service and you always think they go everything goes cheaper, opposite, like unity of scripture.
And it all resonates with each other, really.
Yeah.
Most of the time of it.
Yeah.
Right.
Lovely.
That's that's just amazing.
I wonder how your family is perceiving these these things now and whether maybe things have changed after you got married or after they just saw you getting more settled into church, or did they visit church as well? Or my mom has visited a couple of times.
And my grandparents came to my baptism, but apart from that, no.
I think it's actually got harder.
Yeah, I think my mom has got further into, just the world's view of everything and my my dad's side of the family, like, my grandparents are very liberal in their thinking.
And I've actually think as I've grown more into my faith.
I know it sounds silly, but I found it more challenging to to know how to speak to them about it.
And I think that is the blessing of being married to Nathan because he is a lot less shy to talk about things.
For me, I have that.
I don't wanna upset my family.
I love them.
I respect them.
And he obviously does that is loves and respects them to you, but it is just very different.
So he is willing to talk more about those things.
I'm very grateful to the lord for, like, giving me a husband that is willing to have those conversations when I'm not.
I think it's harder with family anyway, whatever circumstances.
And I think I think that's right.
Sometimes having someone from the Yeah.
Relatively outside, obviously, coming in and having a different upbringing and a different view of things can really help.
Yeah.
Oh, great.
Yeah.
And that's how you complete each other as well.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
In that sense, obviously.
If he does all the talking.
You just observe.
No.
Obviously not.
Right.
Lovely.
I think if we can move on forward a tiny bit because it's not that far away, obviously, in time.
But, obviously, we've had a very strange year and actually almost 2 years, to be honest.
And I wonder how what the challenges were for you, maybe as a newly married couple as well, what you found difficult this year.
Maybe this yeah.
Yeah.
I think it a definite challenge was the we're newly married, where we don't have any other people that we can see any other couples that we can see in person.
Yeah.
Now it's amazing because we can have people around and go to people's houses.
But at the time, it was it was quite difficult.
And you can obviously have zoom calls, but it's not the same.
And just those little conversations you can have after church.
But, Oh, yeah.
I mean, that was just a whole.
I feel like we've already been married for about 40 years because we just had to deal with all of our problems there and then because you can't leave the house or go to go to work outside, which is a blessing in some ways.
But other challenges, I think, just church being in church in person just encourages you so much.
And I think having those conversations after church about the sermon and, talking over dinner about things and just those encouraging conversations.
Is just not the same on zoom and even sitting and watching church at home on the sofa, you know, you're sort of drifting off.
You're distracted by everything else that you need you wanna do, even though we had so much time at home, I'd still wanna think about doing the laundry and things.
So I I think all of all of that was really hard.
So I'm so grateful that we can be back in church.
It's it's so good.
Yeah.
I'm sure we've all learned how dependent on face to face contact you were actually.
Yeah.
And yeah, I guess if you could draw some lessons from that, what would you what would you say? Yeah.
Well, I think I think God has definitely taught me about my priorities, you know, when everything is stripped back, what are you left with? Okay.
Well, God.
Exactly.
And actually, that's so helpful because it I and I hope that as we sort of life starts picking up, I remember the thing, like, okay, it's actually so important for me to sit down and read my bible every day and to pray.
And it's so easy to just forget that now that things are busy, and it's the excuse of, well, you know, we didn't we haven't been able to do this, but I've noticed a difference in my sort of spiritual health as things have got busy, and I've not been prioritizing that in the same way.
So yeah, I definitely think the knowledge that God is the top most priority, not work or marriage or friends, even though they're all all are very important.
Yeah.
Yeah.
For sure.
And finally, if you had any advice, maybe on students or on younger Christians, I guess you might feel like a fairly young computer yourself, but I'm sure, you know, there's always some insights there.
Anything you you would say to them.
I think, yeah, students, especially, but, I mean, any new Christian is to just throw yourself into church.
I think 1 of the most important things to me was that I built really good relationships with people at church like older women and older men as well that, you know, we could talk to I could talk to you about things.
And, yeah, I think you when you're questioning and you're challenged by things, really good to have a good, relationship with people where you can ask questions and not be embarrassed or afraid and that really helped me sort of move along in my faith.
So I think, yeah, throw yourself into church into listening to sermons at church and to them talk to people and and get to know people really well.
That would be.
Yeah.
Great.
Thank you so much.
That's okay.
Thanks for having me.
Yeah.
Thank you for for sharing your story with us.
So that's all for this episode.
Everyone, got joined us again next time.
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