I want to write one text in English because of the importance of England in my life. For some reason I got to know Jesus while staying in the UK. It’s 10 years ago now, when I packed my bags and took a plane to London Heathrow. From there I sorted out my way to the Paddington railway station and from there by train to Newton Abbot, Devon. There was a college called Seale-Hayne, which was the faculty of agriculture, food and land use of the University of Plymouth. I went there to be an exchange student for a year.At the beginning I felt very lonely. It hasn’t ever been easy for me to make contacts. A shy girl with foreign language living among people who had just moved away under the caring eye of their mothers and wanted just party and get drunk (I was logding with 1st year students) didn’t feel exactly the best possible start for me. I cried on the phone a couple of times when my mother called and wondered how I can manage the year.
However, God was good to me, even though I didn’t know Jesus that time. I got some friends, particularly two Englishmen became very important for my mental survival. Also other foreigners there became dear, a Maldivian, a Malaysian, a Chinese, a Spanish, a Korean. However that didn’t fulfill my emptiness. From my childhood I’ve believed in God’s existence and actually considered myself a christian. However, when alone far from home I was thinking more about God. I saw an ad about students’ Christian Union on the campus. I went there, met some nice people and thought I was a believer like them.
One person at the Christian union was a very friendly young man. For an unknown reason he started fancying me. He’s parents were believers, but he himself was a bit confused about his faith. He would’ve wanted to start going out with me, but I felt very unsure. On the other hand I liked him and thought he was a really good person, on the other hand I didn’t have peace in my heart and I couldn’t say I loved him. I was acting like an idiot because I couldn’t be clear and my feelings for him went straight and fort. He was a friend to me, he took me to some nice places and a couple of times to church meetings which was really nice as the campus was a bit isolated and without a car it was very difficult to get anywhere. We also had a trip to Cornwall which was actually very bad one because of the confusion between us. He was dear to me and in the same time I was ashamed of him. Not a very good combination.
This friend of mine wasn’t a student but had graduated the year before and was working in a research project on the campus at that time. He was searching for an other job and a change came to his life by getting a position as a trainee for EU in Brussels. At February he moved there. I felt sad about his leaving and we kept on writing every now and then. I wanted to see him in Brussels and at the end of the April I went to visit him there. The holiday in Belgium was a nightmare. Actually he hadn’t even wanted me to go there and by this time he had made his decision that this Finn wasn’t a very good company for him after all. Surely he was also being nice to me, but also made it clear that there wasn’t going to be any future for us. I felt deeply rejected and remember sitting alone in the Jubelpark in Brussels and crying my eyes out. (Looked like a monster the next day having gone to bed after such heavy crying).
At this friend's home in Brussels I remember reading a postcard his mother had sent him. There was something like: “Jesus is taking care of you”. I remember wondering how anyone can talk about Jesus just like that. When I left Brussels to go back to the UK after that “horrible rejection” he gave me something to read on the way back. From Brussels to London I had a very bad feeling and felt this is the end of my time in the UK and I want to go back to Finland. In the Eurotunnel between France and England I was writing my diary and explaining the desperate situation to a French girl sitting next to me.
However I didn’t catch the first flight to Helsinki but the journey proceeded back to Devon. On the way from London to Newton Abbot I took the book which had been given to me and started reading it. It was the first Christian book I had ever read (and I had considered myself a christian..) There must have been something about Jesus in that book because before Exeter I had made a promise that next I would get to know to Jesus before any other man. I was amazed by the joy this decision gave me. I hadn’t expected anything to happen, it was just a thought to later start reading about Jesus more carefully from the Bible. But already when waiting at Exeter station because of changing trains I felt I had a new live in front of me. Some of my opinions had suddenly changed, for example about premarital sex. When arriving at Newton Abbot I could see trees blossoming in such a beautiful color although on the same morning I hadn’t seen any good reason for living.
I was eager to read more about Jesus and on my way to the campus I went to a Christian bookstore in Newton Abbot, prayed that God would guide me to choose the right books for the situation and then bought some (or at least one, can’t remember the number). I went to the campus just in a huge need to start reading more. My mother called and I had the urge to say that something had changed in my life but I couldn’t and I was also worried that if this is just a feeling that will fade away during the night. However, in my room I opened the new book and from there I could read that Jesus had died for my sins. It was a wonderful news that I didn’t have to try to be a good girl in order to go to heaven, but I could be the way I was and that Jesus had done everything. I can’t remember what I prayed that night but I guess it was something like a statement of my hope to want to keep this faith to Jesus I had been given. The next morning was different from others: the “feeling” hadn’t gone away, I had such a peace in my heart I hadn’t had ever before and I knew that Jesus was in my life. Now I could say without a doubt I was a Christian. I also felt that I was given a capability to love and felt also that if my friend from Brussels had been there I would’ve been able to love him too. But I didn’t want to interfere with his life anymore and I wanted to get better to know to Jesus before any other man as I had promised.
I haven’t heard from this young Englishman since, but I am grateful for God guiding me to Jesus by using him. Who knows if God sometimes guides things so that I suddenly meet him somewhere. Then I get a change to apologize my bad behavior towards him. Now I can bless him and I also believe God’s been good to him too.
This is the greatest thing that happened in the UK. Surely other things happened too, but nothing can be compared to being born again and having Jesus as my Lord and the source of life. When I came to Finland I had the best souvenier anyone can ever have, faith to Jesus and new peace in my heart.
I have no idea why this had to happen to me in England. Equally well it could have happened to me in a train between Pori and Helsinki. Equally well anybody can pray Jesus to become his Savior just anywhere. Equally well He wants to wash away everybody else’s sins by his blood than what He did to me. This is just my story, everybody has their own personal story and each one is so precious.
(I can’t remember cooking eggs and bacon any time in the UK. But baked beans I had many times!)
