STORY SO FAR
Hello!
My name is Laura and I am so happy to welcome you to the Hope Hour site. In order to see where we are going, it is often helpful to see where we have come from...
The start of the Covid pandemic brought many challenges and difficult times for everyone. Alongside this, it was also a time for new perspectives and priorities. I went from a busy schedule to what seemed like endless time at home. God's provision to me during this time was so faithful. It was the first time that I had truly had to lean on Him for my "daily bread". It brought me to a deeper place of trust. I was able to spend more time in prayer and able to spend hours reading my Bible.
One day, I was doing just this and felt a nudge from God to start sharing my faith with my family and friends more. Before I knew it, I had filled a page with ideas of how to go about this and what to talk about. Over the course of the next year or so, I began inviting friends to come to meals with the pre-discussed intention of discussing my faith. I am so grateful to them for listening, sharing in turn, and giving me space to express myself in this way.
Since then, I have been reflecting on these experiences and what I learnt from them. One of the main lessons was that my faith was most relatable when I shared the story of how I felt God was working in my life at that point in time.
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Therefore, in 2024 I embarked on trying to tell 52 different stories of God moving in people's lives. You can find them all on the blog page.
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I feel like I have learnt a lot along the journey about how to share faith. There's a page if you want to find out the "Heart and Intentions" behind this. I am also excited to be releasing examples of these conversations, along with my friend, Charlotte soon.
A little about me... I grew up attending church but only truly met Jesus in my early 20s, although I would have called myself Christian before this. I have a Diploma in Theology, Ministry and Mission from Church Mission Society (accredited by Durham University). I am a proud film/TV nerd and I enjoy shamelessly belting out songs from Musicals. I also love dogs, though I have never owned one, and generally being out in nature. For me, nothing quite beats the peaceful serenity of being near water (seas, lakes, even fountains - I'll take it in any form).
Thank you for joining me for the ride.
*Please visit the Church Mission Society page on Pioneering if you'd like to learn a little more on what this is all about. Their training has been instrumental in developing a posture of "listening first".
Read a CMS interview with me on Faith and Friendship.
Check Gratitude magazine, who have also published one of my stories from Hope Hour.