Hello! I’m Susanna, and I’ve just started as the new OCC apprentice, a role which some wonderful people such as Sam S. and Jo M. have done previously.
You may or may not know me; I’ve technically been part of the church since 2008, but I’ve been away at university for the past 4 years - at Manchester Metropolitan studying French and Business. OCC feels like a familiar old home and an exciting new one at the same time, which is fun!
To those who have known me longer, I want to thank you for your kindness and love throughout my life, OCC has been such a big part of my life and my walk with Christ. My love for this church was one of the main reasons I moved back to Oxford after uni, which says a lot!
I’m very blessed to have parents that brought us up in the knowledge of God, so have always known Him to some degree, but would say that I came to better understand the Gospel and slowly began to put God on the throne in my life when I was around 17/18 years old.
Since then, I had the privilege of serving the Christian Union at university, and I was part of wonderful churches in Manchester and in France during my year abroad, which all taught me more about God and life with Him.
A small testimony about one way I’ve encountered God in my life: Mental health was a really big part of my journey with God, and having struggled with depression since my early teen years, it was probably one of the things that initially pushed me to seek Him. By His astounding grace, over the past 2 years I’ve been the healthiest I’ve been in a long time, and wouldn’t even call myself depressed. Hallelujah! At times I’ve been healed and then fallen back into depression, and I then felt confused about why God would heal me if it wasn’t permanent.
Then one day the Holy Spirit, in all gentleness, put the story of Jonah and the plant in my mind (Jonah 4:6-9), which humbled me and reminded me that every blessing I have is from the Lord. I hope that whatever my circumstances, the Lord’s goodness will be my song for the rest of my life.
So now that you know me a little bit better, what will I be doing at OCC? I will be part of the student team, and as we step into evangelism as a church, I’ll be involved in whatever that looks like as we get into a rhythm of doing that more! I’ll also be a School of the Spirit participant, which I’m very excited for.
I’m looking forward to getting to know you all better and I’m very thankful for this opportunity to learn from and serve you as OCC. :)
