Archive for month: October, 2021

I’m Lana, and I was thirteen when I first started coming to Redefine, the Christian youth group run by Llandudno Youth for Christ. I can say with full honesty that I only came because of the offer of free food, and I didn’t for one moment think I’d keep going. I was a very shy young person (to be honest I still am) and the thought of joining a group of people who already knew each other, and were learning to explore their faith, was very daunting.

Being blunt, the church that I grew up in was not the kind of place for a young person to find God. I was one of about four young people there, and the services were definitely not tailored towards keeping a child entertained. It was therefore eye opening when I discovered a group of young people who were all interested in knowing God, and weren’t all about sixty years old! Little did I know that I would find myself in Redefine until I was nearly twenty, becoming a young leader when I was sixteen, and being a full leader during my gap year before university. What stemmed from me finding a community of Christians in Youth for Christ, grew to me having a family of people I could rely on and find comfort in.

Currently in my life I’m living in Cardiff, in my second year of my degree in English Literature and Journalism. I’ve always loved reading and whilst doing my a-levels in school, I discovered a passion for English. I love learning about why writers write, and I’m fascinated about how a book has the ability to tell you a lot about the world that we live in, giving us an insight into the culture that is hidden through hundreds of years of writing. Pairing English with Journalism, I get to learn all about how we perceive the world, and how the world is shown to us through the eye of the media. This can actually be a little overwhelming if you think too much into it, but it’s very interesting on the whole, and very eye opening.

What will I do with my degree once I’m done though? Well, I don’t know the answer to that. I get asked the question “what do you plan on doing with your degree” very often (at least once a week) and I can honestly say that I have no idea what my plan is.

I had a lot of solid visions of what I wanted to grow up to be when I was younger; from the ages of about seven to nine I wanted to be a singer, a short-lived dream when I discovered I could barely hold a tune. Then for most of my early secondary school years I thought I wanted to be a vet, a dream that grew from a love of animals but that fell short when I realised I absolutely could not handle the blood and guts of such a career. What I’m getting at is that I used to have such a clear picture of how I wanted my life to pan out, and yet now my picture of the future couldn’t be blurrier.

However, one thing I do know is that God has a plan for me and that knowing him I can trust that somehow, somewhere, I will find my footing in this world. I can honestly say that I don’t think I would still be a Christian if I hadn’t had Youth for Christ, who gave me a loving and supportive group of Christians around me during the years I needed it.

I may not know what my future holds, but I do know God will be with me every step of the way, and that’s all I need to know right now.