Ben's story

Real People; Real Stories

Ben's Story

I’m Ben I’m 19 and I got baptised because I want to live for God.

The reason I did this was that Jesus, who claimed to be Gods son, got baptised and talked about its importance a fair bit. And as a follower of Jesus, I want to do what he did and what he tells me to do. Interestingly, one of the last things he said to his disciples before being whisked off was:

“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit” – Matthew 28:19

And considering this was the last sentence in the first book of the New Testament I thought I should pay particular attention to it and take the plunge.

How does this transpire in my life?

When I was 7 I prayed the prayer. But Mark 16:15 says that’s not enough (homework for you).
Before I went to Uni I knew I should get baptised, I didn’t know why, but the other youth In the church were doing it and it seemed like a good idea. But that’s not how I roll, I needed to understand it for myself and make sure that I was confident that what I believed was what ‘I’ believed and not what someone else told me to believe. At the time I’d not really read the bible very much, so It felt wrong to pretend I was a follower when my life didn’t reflect the public statement I would have made.

Then I went to Uni. And kept going to Church. And joined the CU. Inside, I knew that I believed and wanted to know more. Outside, I lived my life as a Christian but never told anyone – I was trying to fit in. But fitting in wasn’t something that Jesus said to do.

I think the first person outside of CU to know I was a Christian was one of my flatmates in November (2011), and the only reason I told him was because I was going on a CU weekend away and had to explain why I’d be out of the flat so long. I realised I might be questioned about it and so, in an attempt to mitigate the risk of conversation I waited until a few minutes before I was leaving to get the coach. However my plan was foiled because as I walked to my flatmates room that morning, I heard multiple voices – he had friends round! At that point I realised the game was up, I was going to have to tell everyone. So I did. I went in and told them all, only to discover that nobody cared.

From that point on I realised that this seemed to be a common theme with faith at University – Nobody seems to care about faith.

Over my time during the rest of the academic year I had a good few conversations about faith, all be it usually with drunken flatmates.

Anyway to fast forward, I was asked to be CU president at some point in February 2012 and since then I have had to share my faith. I even managed to try my luck at handing out a Lukes Gospel or two last term to some of my mates. Of course they didn’t take it, nobody reads books at my university; it’s all about iplayer and computer games - I’m in a campus full of IT students.

Anyway, that’s my life. I got baptised because Jesus said to, and I’m trying to live my life in a way that reflects what I believe.

The clip you’re about to watch is from a river in Groudle Glen back home on the Isle of Man. It’ just outside of Onchan, for those of you who know your Irish Sea Islands.

So yes anyway thank you for your prayers, and yes it was very cold.