Who are we? (Part 2)

Hey guys! A few weeks ago Andrew posted his testimony and mentioned that I'll be doing mine soon - so here I am! If you haven't read Andrew's yet but you'd like to, you can find it here.

So, Hello! My name's Hannah. I'm seventeen and this is my story.

I was raised by a non-Christian family. This meant that the only information that I got about God was the prayers I did in assembly and from my Grandfather. When I was about four, I went to my first Church. Even though my Mother had been baptised, she'd lost faith and had never encouraged me to go to Church. I loved every minute of it. I loved singing songs about "some guy" called Jesus, and sitting on massive comfy sofas in Sunday school to hear stories about Jesus. I wanted to go back, so I did. I went to Church for about a year when my family received some devastating news. 

My Nanny had primary liver cancer and secondary bowel cancer. She wasn't going to get through it.

Through the time of her having cancer, she started coming to Church. She became a Christian and even started to read me stories from the Bible. On January 19th 2002, I was rushed down to my Grandparents house and waited upstairs while the grownups mourned. That night I prayed my first prayer to myself; Please, don't let her die.

I think it was after I'd learned what had happened, and after I realised that my prayer didn't 'come true', I started to blame God for things. Something wrong? Gods fault. Friends not talking to me? Gods fault. I did this all through primary school and most of secondary. Not a great start, eh?

When I was 13, I got into a pretty rubbish relationship and was stuck in it for just over a year. That year was one of the hardest years of my entire life, and my partner just didn't understand what I was going through and why. After a year we said enough was enough and broke up. I thought that this was God sending me a sign, that things were going to get better, but they didn't.

Skip forward six months - I'm sitting in school hating everyone and everything. My parents have just got a divorce. Dad's moved in with his new girlfriend. I have more homework than there are hours in the day and everywhere I turn, people are coping with stuff I'm not.

It's fair to say that life at this point was pretty rubbish. However, it was at this point I met my lovely boyfriend  & best friend Andrew. Andrew and I used to hang out all the time and talk about everything. For once in my life, I felt like I was being myself with someone I could trust. One day, Andrew invited me to his baptism.

"I've been to one of those things before. It's (and I quote) the thing where they hold you under the water and bring you up really fast!"

*face palm* I know, I was an idiot. anyway, Andrew got baptised and he was stupidly happy. And I mean like, over the top sunshine and rainbows, all the time. So naturally I asked him why he was so happy, and he started telling me about God.

At first I was all "great I've managed to get mixed in with a mentalist Christian like you see in films". However, what he was saying made sense. It was like something in my brain was plugged back in and finally I could see what I needed. I needed God! And so one day after school, Andrew came down to the cricket field with me, and I became a Christian.

However, after two weeks I started to feel like I'd been cheated. I wasn't happy, I still had problems and things definitely weren't getting any easier. I'd been to Andrew's youth group, cried, run out and hadn't gone again. Being Christian was not as easy as people made it out to be. I looked at other Christians and was jealous of their relationship with God. Why didn't I have that? I prayed about it for a year. Then something happened.

In the December of 2012, Andrew asked me to go to this festival called Soul Survivor. "Why not?" I told myself, and so I found myself going to that same Youth I had cried in and going away to spend a week with them on a field. I'll be honest with you, I'd painted a picture of me standing in a field, in the rain, crying, surrounded my thousands of insane people.

Instead, I found myself standing in a MASSIVE tent, listening to songs about the same guy I'd heard stories about as a kid, laughing until my ribs hurt and meeting with God and the Spirit - and it was freaking awesome!!!!!

I'd never experienced anything like it in my whole life. I cried and laughed, and laughed with crying in between. I'd met people and made awesome friends and had THE BEST MILKSHAKE ON THE PLANET. And that was just day 1.

On day 1, all my prayers from over a year were answered. The speaker Mike Pilavachi asked those who weren't Christian to get up and be saved. I watched hundreds of people get up and feel God's grace. Then Mike said something that changed my life forever. "If you're unsure, confused, feel you have no relationship with God - get up". Before I could even finish my blink, I had grabbed Andrew, blubbed something about being saved and dragged him to the front.

I was saved in front of TEN THOUSAND PEOPLE.

Having social anxiety and just general anxiety, THAT WAS THE WORST THING I COULD HAVE EVER DONE EVER IN MY LIFE.

But it wasn't the worst - it was THE BEST!! I felt like I was happy. For once in my life i was being taught that it's not just the awesome good people who get Jesus - its the depressed and the hurt. It was damaged beyond repair people who get him too! And I'm one of them!!

I spent the rest of the week getting healed by Gods presence, and realising that I was never on my own. It was an amazing experience, and if you ever get the chance to go to Soul Survivor - GO.

After Soul Survivor, I started taking Christian Union seriously. This was about teaching young people that God is for everyone not just the people who are raised in the Church.

I absolutely love running Christian union, and I hope you guys enjoy coming.

Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed! If you've got any questions for us - you can reach us at christianunion.blog@gmail.com

Speak soon! : D

~ Cats and pizza (Hannah)

Even sinners love people.

Luke 6:32-35.

'If you love only the people who love you, why should you recieve a blessing? Even sinners love those who love them!'
And if you do good only to those who do good to you, why should you recieve a blessing? Even sinners do that!'
And if you only lend to those whom you hope to get it back, why should you recieve a blessing? Even sinners lend to sinners, to get back the same amount!'

I was reading my bible the other day and these few verses really jumped out at me. As I read these verses I asked myslef;
'What makes me different from sinners?'
The music I listen to?
The clothes I wear?
Weather or not I put a nativity scene up as part of my Christmas decorations?

What I feel Jesus is trying to get across in this verse is that as Christians, on the surface at least, we are no different from sinners.
Are you nice to the people who are nice to you?
So are sinners.
Do you love the people who love you?
So do sinners.
Do you give back what you owe to people, and expect people to give back what they owe you?
So do sinners.

As Christians we need to stand out from others. We need to be friends with the friendless and helpers to the helpless. It's important that we remember that before w were saved we were sinners too. Just because we are Christians doesn't make us better than people who aren't, It means we have a saviour who is holy enough to forgive us.

What do you that sets you apart from sinners?

If you have any questions please feel free to email us at christianunion.blog@gmail.com.

Who are we? (Part 1)

You guys may be unaware that Christ and You Christian Union is run by two people. In this blog post I'll be talking about how I became a Christian and what my life was like before I came to know God. When a Christian does this, it's called a testimony.

Testimony time!


I am very blessed to have Christian parents who are heavily involved in the work that goes on the Church. The first time I ever went to Church was when I was 8 days old. Ever since then I have gone to church every Sunday (once in the morning, then sunday school in the afternoon and once again in the evening). Even though I was brought up in the Church every day when I went to school I was surrounded by people who were not Christians and some who literally resented the idea of God for one reason or another.
Looking back I can see that my peers were probably the biggest reason for me putting off becoming a Christian.
When I think back to the time I spent in Church growing up it's filled not with listening to amazing sermons, powerful worship and dynamic fellowship. Instead it's filled with trying to get to the next level on the super Mario game I was playing on my game boy advance. I literally spent the first 13 maybe 14 years of my life playing on my game boy rather than actually listening to the preacher. *facepalm*
When I think about it I don't know what's worse, going to church and considering yourself a Christian but all the time your there you just play video games or not going to church at all. I suppose my
upbringing in the Church did help a lot with me becoming a Christian, but it upsets me that I missed 14 years of two sermons a week and I'll never get a chance to learn from them again.

Anyway, when I was in year 10 of school (aged 14 years old) a friend of mine started up a Christian Union in my school. I went along, not because I wanted to learn more about Jesus, but because I wanted to be a good friend (and I had nothing else to do on a Wednesday lunchtime). One of the only talks I remember her doing was a talk on the rapture. We we're shown a video of a cartoon version of the rapture happening and one person who thought they were a Christian got left behind on earth. This literally scared me. I didn't want to be like the person in the video who thought they were Christian and was left behind because they were living a lie.
Skip forward a few months and nothing had changed, it's not like I was a bad person, I just didn't want to be a Christian.
In the same year all this was happening I got invited to go to a local night of worship for the youth of
the local area. Reluctantly I went.
I can't remember what the talk was that night, nor can I remember what songs we sang for worship.
But I can remember in that little Church I became a Christian, and my life hasn't been the same since.
About 2 years ago I started leading worship on the piano in the Church I've gone to since I was 8 days old and as of earlier this year I play the piano, guitar and sing every sunday in Church. I love leading worship and I hope to do it until I get to old to stand up on my own.
Last year I got baptized in water and it was the most surreal experience of my life, made even better by getting to invite people to church who wouldn't have gone to church other wise.

As of last year my friend Hannah and I started Christian Union in our school and since then we have 9-10 regulars and 4 people have become Christians (which is awesome!!!!).
I know I speak for Hannah and I when I say we love doing Christian Union and we both want to continue to do Christian Union once we've left school.

That's it! (So far anyway).

If you have any questions feel free to email us at christianunion.blog@gmail.com.

Andrew :)