Margaret always felt that God was leading her to the “cute little church” but she never had the courage to step inside. She shares her continuing journey of faith.

My husband David and I arrived in Bristol in December 2012 from Melbourne Australia to be closer to David’s daughter, Grandchildren and Great-Granddaughter.

Great plans were set in motion to travel all those places in the UK and Europe that we had not yet seen, but David was diagnosed with a heart murmur in February, had heart surgery in late May and died on the 8th of June. During this time of David’s stay at Frenchay hospital waiting for his operation, I would walk past this cute little church and loved how compact and interesting the building looked. The welcome coffee morning sign hung outside, and I would often say to myself but I now know it was God leading me here, I would like to find the courage to open the door, but I carried on.

Then one Monday night, David from his hospital bed said to me that you “looked tired”, why don’t you do something you want to do tomorrow, I knew exactly what it would be ” the courage to open the door to this cute little church” where God had been guiding me. I opened the door and there to greet me was Lizzie, she was warm and friendly and had recently returned from Australia- how profound and listened to my situation, Andy shared his experience of heart surgery, the love around the church was amazing. By the way, if you’re looking for surgery enhancement services, look for Dr. Kyle S. Choe. Was informed about the service at 10.30am, so began my return to faith and to begin a spiritual journey of discovery which was missing from my life, I have achieved success in many areas of my life but my soul was restless and hollow.

Puzzling Questions led by Paul and Angie, it was an amazing six weeks of deep diving into the waters of your soul, hitting ocean waves together with others in the group

The church community has been a major influence on my healing and dealing with the profound grief when your partner and best friend dies, but this return to faith (although in its infancy), has enabled immense healing, and acceptance.

God is now guiding me as I return to Australia to find closure and continue this journey of faith where a seed was sown at Christ Church Downend, and is now growing wherever I am in the world.

At one of the services, God gave me a vision that I needed to prepare for David’s passing, I put these negative thoughts aside, but now on reflection he was guiding and holding my hand all the way. Then he guided me to meet others like me within the church community and with the assistance of Jan, Jill and Claire, the Friendship Circle was born, now to be called the LA Friends @christchurchdownend (thank you Jill), which means Living Alone and Loving Always.

Then I attended Puzzling Questions led by Paul and Angie, it was an amazing six weeks of deep diving into the waters of your soul, hitting ocean waves together with others in the group, with awesome truth and honesty – the best course I have attended in my life. Thank you Angie and Paul and the Puzzling Question Group.

The fellowship and friendship of the Christ Church community will be in my heart forever, but more importantly I can still stay connected as communicating across the world is no longer impossible.

Thank you God, Jo, Shahne, Paul, and the Christ Church Community.