Stories of us: Aileen

Hi, I'm Aileen. I work in the city at an insurance company. I became a Christian during Covid last year. I grew up in a Jewish and atheist household, with a mother from communist China and so there wasn't really any talk about faith or religion of any sort.

At University I met Sophie. She was the first person I’d met who went to church and she was telling me about it. And I was just so curious. It was just a completely foreign concept. Why would you spend your Sunday mornings going to church when you could be brunching with friends or nursing a hangover? But then I came to see how faith really shapes a life. And I just wanted to know more.

When Sophie offered to read the Bible with me, I thought to myself, this is a little bit strange. Do I even know if I can trust this document? But we started the journey of reading a bit every day and going through all of the questions that I had. The biggest thing was the idea of needing a saviour. That just didn't resonate with me at all. I thought, "I have a good life... Why would I need saving? From what? And for what?"

I started coming to City Bible Forum events when I started working in the city. Sophie invited me along to 'City Legal' even though I'm not a lawyer. The format of the talk was really interesting to me. I started going before I became a Christian and something just kept drawing me back.

I now attend Vine Church where I was confronted with just how serious the consequence of sin is, but God sent his son Jesus to die for me so that I would be cleansed and be free to have a relationship with Him, and have eternal life. Since coming to know Jesus, it just feels like a massive weight has been lifted off my shoulders. I don't need to try and be perfect anymore because I've accepted that I'm never going to be perfect. But that's okay.