david’s story

David, great to see you! Could you start by telling us a little bit about yourself?



Yeah, so I’m forty three years of age, I’ve been working in insolvency since I left sixth form in my teens (what I class as the undertakers world of finance) and I’m dealing with a lot of businesses that have failed and a lot of people who are struggling.

It’s hard to live in that tension of being there to provide a service whilst also wanting to help people who are facing genuinely difficult situations. My main goal is to help people though and that’s always driven me. 



And what about your family?

I’ve been married to my wife Fran for fourteen years now, we’ve got two kids; Hugo and Summer who are seven and three.





What was life like for you growing up? Did faith play a part?

To be honest with you, no. I didn’t realise until recently that my grandad and my mum were churchgoers. During the war my grandad had to stay with his aunt and they were churchgoers so he would go with them, other than that there was no faith running through my family at all. There was definitely a sense of values like treating others as you’d like to be treated but religion never really came into it. 

Throughout my life I would find myself getting annoyed at little things and it would build up and often spill out into anger and frustration, I did psychology at university and was always trying to find an answer as to why I would get so frustrated and angry, but even with all that knowledge I was never able to control it or deal with it.

I’ve only really started to be in control of my own emotions since following Jesus, I don’t spill that anger out or get frustrated in the same ways I used to. I can’t explain that, there’s no way of explaining it, because the person I was just couldn’t do that.

I also got bullied growing up and felt like I was always chasing acceptance, I often felt lost. I was loved by my family but I was always chasing something to fill that void. 



I’ve only really started to be in control of my own emotions since following Jesus


How did you come to faith?

For me, I came to watch a Christmas nativity that my wife Fran had to bully me into attending! I’m not antisocial but it just wasn’t me and I’m a very private person. So going to that was already a big deal for me and then she plonked me on the front row of the church and wandered off with the kids somewhere else!

It was quite overwhelming for me to say the least. Going from someone who wasn’t expecting to be there to then having the whole congregation around me dancing and singing and going through the nativity I think I started to understand a bit more of why my wife Fran was coming. There was a clear connection between everybody and people had this love for each other, that was the first thing that made me think there might be more to all this.

I don’t know why but before I left the service, something in the back of my head compelled me to write a prayer on a card and hand it to the vicar. I don’t understand why I did that, because at that point I had no faith whatsoever, something just compelled me to step out and it connected me in some way. 



Anyway… I didn’t have any intention of doing anything more than attending that nativity but then I got invited to Alpha on the way out of the service and put the flyer in my back pocket. (It took me a while to realise it was a course, I thought it was some sort of Christian band…)



Despite me going to the nativity service, things in mine and Fran’s marriage weren’t easy at that point. She was growing in her new found faith in Jesus and finding peace in it and I was still this angry, belligerent person, angry at life and it was spilling out at her and the kids. 



So even at the time that I did Alpha in January 2024, I knew things really weren’t going well and just went on the basis that Fran wanted me to go. 



I knew I needed to ask Jesus into my life and everything began to change.



So what happened? 



Week one of Alpha was really informative and I actually really enjoyed the whole session. Everyone was lovely and the food was great! I love history and loved hearing about the context of the bible and that really opened my eyes and made me think that there may be something in this and so I kept coming back!


Around week two or three I felt myself becoming more and more open to God. And then some of the team prayed for me and I had this massive realisation that God was real and all those things I had heard suddenly clicked. 

I knew I needed to ask Jesus into my life and everything began to change.


So what difference is Jesus making in your life? 


He’s changed me - I used to be so materialistic and now I want to give things away. Even the most daunting things ahead of me just don’t worry me in the same way any more.

We’ve started to have dinner as a whole family and we sit together and eat all together. God is touching every area of my life and changing it for the better.

Fran actually said to me the other day that if I hadn’t gone to Alpha and met with Jesus she was sure that we wouldn’t still be together today. I was becoming someone that she didn’t recognise from when we first met. 






What would you say to someone reading this who isn’t a Christian and doesn’t have faith?

Don’t dismiss anything because that’s what I did. Give it a chance and see what happens, I had no interest in faith and Jesus met me, you will find a better life than you could ever have imagined without Him.