I’m a fairly positive person. I’m trying to make the best of the situation and am keeping busy. But one of the hardest things is not seeing my mum. The hard thing was that she had planned a big party for her 80th birthday. That went by the board....

We run a nationwide floristry business, Bunches, that was set up by my in-laws 31 years ago. I came as a temp 24 years ago, stayed and married their daughter. There’s nothing that connects with people like flowers. From joy to celebration, and grie...

I’m in the Army. At the end of my tour of duty, I came to Ghana to see my family. I was full of lots of vigour and joy. I was due to fly back on 3 April. Then the pandemic came and I couldn’t return. The next available flight is in July. I got wo...

I’m 91. So, in theory, I’ve been shielding. I go for walks, keeping well away from everybody. Occasionally, I knock on people’s doors and stand behind the hedge and talk to people. I use a lot of Zoom to pray for people. I do quite a lot of pho...

I own an estate agents’, and have been furloughed. I know people are struggling, but for me and my family it’s been positive. I have been able to spend a lot of time with my kids. I don’t work regular hours normally and when I’m at home, my h...

I manage the Glo bookshop in Motherwell. It’s an independent Christian bookshop and part of a wider mission organisation. Before lockdown, bookshops had been struggling anyway. Because we own the building, we were insulated from some of the trial...

During the pandemic, I have been reading the Bible each day with my nephew over the phone. He lives on his own and is a key worker, so I knew this would be a challenging time for him. We started at the beginning, in Genesis, and now we are on Joshua....

I studied medicine at Oxford. It was awesome. I rowed and coxed, edited the medical school gazette and was on the student committee. I had a great group of friends. We went out and drank a lot, and basically, I got more and more fuelled by my own amb...

‘When I was 16, a friend of mine told me that he had become a Christian. We grew up in church together, so I thought he already was. I thought, “Why does he need to become a Christian?” The following week our pastor started a series on Ephesian...

‘Psalm 93 has been particularly helpful to me. I was in Nigeria in 2013 and my brother, who is diabetic, fell into a coma. We didn’t know he was diabetic. He collapsed at home. He was paralysed, like he’d had a stroke. We took him to hospital. ...

‘My wife had three miscarriages before our first little boy arrived. In the aftermath of the third miscarriage, she got pregnant. I was anxious about the pregnancy not going to plan. I was hyper-sensitive, hyper-alert. I couldn’t envisage a futur...

'My husband and I were married for 50 years. I met him at a Catholic Club. He came in and I thought, ‘Isn’t he nice?’ I didn’t go for a few weeks, and then there was a play, so I went to that. I was in the front row and he came and sat n...

‘I was 34 and divorced. I’d been in and out of relationships and I was getting tired of it. One evening I sat in my apartment and watched the sun go down and the shade come into the room. I thought, “This can’t be my life”. I grabbed the ca...

‘I hit a big low last November. Having earned a good salary as a teacher, I found myself on universal credit with just £404 per month. It was very difficult. How do I live on that? I went into a dark pit. One day I went to the beach. I decided tha...

‘When I first became a Christian, everything was very hard, trying to change. I still had the urge to drink and take drugs. But I found that if I read Luke 15, the story of the Good Shepherd, that would make the urge go away. I felt I was that one ...

I was born in Seattle, and met my husband when I was on holiday. We had a long-distance relationship for nine months and then married. My eldest daughter turned 13 a few days ago and when I was in hospital with her the day after she was born I wander...

‘During the lockdown, I felt quite alone as I had been used to being at work in a secondary school with people around me to talk to. I'd also been used to having my mum to stay for two or three days each week to help me to look after my two ad...

‘In April 2018 God gave me Psalm 37.3–4, “Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture. Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.” I shared this with a friend who said, “How exc...

‘My father was from a very strong Buddhist family but my mother was from a Christian family, so I learned about Jesus through her. When I was about 10, we left Sri Lanka for Zambia and my grandmother came to visit us. I was with the wrong crowd at ...

‘A verse that's meant a lot to me recently is Matthew 5.14, “You are the light of the world.” In July 2021 we were on holiday in Yorkshire – my husband, my son and daughter and my son's friend. My son, who's 18, became really p...