Testimonies

By Paul Horrocks

University Life

I was asked to write something about being a Christian but I have chosen not to write a testimony of how I became a believer in the Lord but instead I'm going to write about my experience as a Christian at University. First of all, however, I will give you a brief description of who I am.
My name is Paul Matthew Horrocks and I was born in the fantastic year of 1986 in the town of Dunfermline. Moved to Carronshore near Falkirk when I was about five and have spent most my life there. I joined Falkirk Free Church with my parents when the building was built in Carron and I became a church member in 2004. I went to Larbert High School from 1998 to 2004 and then I started at Strathclyde University to study MSci Forensic and Analytical Chemistry. On that note I will begin to describe my experience.

First Year

I stayed at home for my first two years and travelled in to university each day. I look back now and I am glad that I stayed at home as I can safely say that I was too immature to leave home and acted like a complete idiot at times!
So I began first year as a non-believer and I really didn't know what to do. I emailed the Christian Union (CU) to see what was happening there and to please my parents that I put a bit of effort in with God and things. A reply came and I was invited to a small group for first years on a Monday night and told where to meet them. I laugh at myself when I think back to that first evening, we were told to meet at the halls of residence and so I found a bench at a safe distance from the meeting spot and watched the first year Christians gather. It took me all the courage in the world to go over and speak to them as at the time I wasn't great at meeting new people but when I did they were very welcoming. One of the girls in the small group, Katie, was on the same course as me (which is one of God's amazing blessings) but me being very shy at the time of first meeting her, I inadvertently ignored her. She told me a while after that time that she thought I was one of the rudest people she had met for ignoring her but now I have the pleasure of being one of her Ushers at her wedding! Anyway I digress. I went to the small group for a few weeks and could see that the people there had something different about them, something amazing that they had in their lives that I didn't. It was great seeing young Christians on a regular basis, I hadn't experienced this before as, at the time, Falkirk Free Church had a lack of young people within its walls. I started praying to God about small group and about life and in October of the year 2004 I gave my life to the Lord. I would love to say life has been bliss since then and that being Christian has been easy but I would be lying. As I heard somewhere recently, "Following Jesus, simple but not easy" and I can testify to this.
I was on cloud nine for about a week or something after giving my life to the Lord but I came down to earth with a loud thud! I tried to get involved with the CU during my first year but travelling in each day I felt out the loop because the Christians that stayed on campus got to know each other very well and, being quite shy, I found it hard to get to know them and to get to know any of the people at the CU. So I gave up going but continued to go to the small group where I learned a lot about God and I got to know a few people. I found it hard to give myself completely to the Lord because at home I still found I acted the same sort of way with my friends from School and even today I find myself slipping into bad habits. I'm so thankful for the Lord's patience with me and his forgiveness. As I was doing a science degree, there was never anything short of a good debate available mostly the classic creation vs evolution debate. I remember sitting before a lecture arguing with a couple of my mates and I can picture my temper starting to boil but thankfully the lecturer appear. Katie was sitting next to me after this debate and said to me "we will win in the end", that brought a smile to my face. I seemed to devour books about God in my first year and after I had read a book I would think that I was ready for a good debate with someone, I was shutdown so many times but hopefully these experiences have helped me to control my temper and the volume of my voice (it turned into a shouting match at times, not the best way to witness). First year brought many challenges with it and I was finding it hard to adjust to the style of teaching so at the end of the year I found myself struggling with the work. I remember coming to the conclusion at the end of year exams, if I failed I would quit university, but thanks to the Lord I passed and so continued onto second year.

Second Year

My second year went kind of similar to my first. I joined another small group in which I got to know some more people and again learned more about God and the Bible. I again attempted to get involved with CU but with unfortunately the same result. Maybe the Lord was helping me to cope with living a Christian life without being surrounded by fellow believers all the time and this experience was put to good use in my fourth year which I will come onto later. There isn't much else I can say about this year other than that I passed my exams and moved onto third year.

Third Year

I have to say this year was one of my favourites at uni, it brought with it many challenges but also a lot of good experiences. The first major thing was that I moved into a flat on the south side of Glasgow at the Kingston Bridge that I shared with a mate from school (we are still mates so we survived living with each other). Moving out made me leave the comfort zone of home and helped me to rely on and deepen my relationship with the Lord. I helped out with the CU fresher's week that year where the CU puts on events to get to know the first years and so this helped me to get involved with the CU. I really enjoyed getting involved with CU and the events that were put on throughout the year. CU met on a Thursday evening where there was either an evangelistical event like a pub quiz with a talk in the middle to bring the good news to non-believers or there was a teaching event where there was a speaker. All these experiences helped me to again mature in my faith. The small group I was involved with in my third year was a fantastic experience where we had great discussions about bible passages. I think I enjoyed it even more because I didn't feel so immature in my faith and could join in the discussions without feeling too stupid. I thank the Lord for giving me that boldness.
The next major event that happened in my life that year was that I met a girl named Emma. We met in fresher's week and started going out after the CU weekend away in November. I had never been out with a Christian girl before and so this was a huge learning experience where I made mistakes but the Lord used Emma to help me give my full life to him. Emma is a strong Christian with a deep faith and through her the Lord strengthened my faith. I read the Bible more and my prayer life became much deeper. So third year was amazing and maybe life became too comfortable as the saying goes "God Comforts the Disturbed and Disturbs the Comfortable" because then my fourth year happened.

Fourth Year

For my fourth year I was on placement in a town called Montrose on the east coast of Scotland between Dundee and Aberdeen. I worked for a company called GlaxoSmithKline where I was doing Analytical Chemistry. Montrose is a very quiet town with a distinct lack of Christians especially that are around my age. For the first couple of months I really disliked being there and couldn't wait to leave. I stayed in a flat with a guy from my course who was a great laugh and we had a few good conversations about God so that was one highlight to the hard year. It was hard being away from all my Christian friends and of course it was hard being away from Emma. I wasn't good at telling people I was a Christian at work and only a few people knew by the end of the year. It seemed to get tougher each day to talk about being a Christian and so I know now that one of the first things you should do in a new working environment is to openly talk about your faith. So the first six months dragged by and I was pretty unhappy, I was annoyed that I wasn't being a true witness about my faith and things with Emma were going from bad to worst. In the January of my placement the inevitable happened, Emma and I broke up. It's always tough breaking up with someone but in the week after the breakup I felt the Lord's comfort and peace he provides and it was amazing. I thank the Lord for the things I learned from the relationship.
The placement continued and my faith was like a rollercoaster, at times I was totally for God but at times I felt like turning my back on him but the Lord never let me and kept bringing his peace to me. Around April/May things started to change, the Free Church began in Montrose every third week and I met some good people there whom invited me to lunch a couple of times and invited my flatmate and I to dinner one night. Don't get me wrong, I was still very happy to leave Montose in June but these friendly faces helped me through the last couple of months, the Lord blesses us in many ways. I learned many things from my fourth year, the Lord is always with us wherever we are and we have to see his glory and live for in whatever circumstance we are in. I now don't take for granted having Christian brothers and sisters around but I also enjoy the time of being alone with the Lord.

So I have now moved into my new flat at Kelvinbridge in the west-end of Glasgow and I am awaiting to start my fifth and final year at University, I can only wait with eagerness to see what the Lord has in store for the up-coming year.
What advice can I give to students who come to university from Christian homes or become Christians at during their time at University? Our greatest need is to grow together with other Christians and to put our lives under the influences that God uses to produce growth in Christian character.

Thank you for taking the time to read this.

In Christ

Paul Horrocks
August 2008

For more up-to-date information see Paul's prayer letters from London