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Andy Billinghay – my God story

Posted by Ali Billinghay on 24 Jul, 2019

Hi, I’m Andy Billinghay. I’m 42 and live in Haywards Heath with my wife Ally and our four children after relocating from South East London just over 3 years ago.

I’m a Private Banker and have worked in Finance since I was 18, in my free time I enjoy watching and occasionally playing Cricket as well as supporting Chelsea FC. I also do a lot of running around for my kids who generally need lifts to and from various social events!

I grew up in Burgess Hill with my parent’s and brother and sister, going to Church and the Youth clubs run at my parent’s Church.

My Mum and Dad are Christians and used to tell us Bible stories and encourage us to believe in Jesus being the Son of God and the need to repent of our sins as we were Sinners who needed a Saviour.

I didn’t mind going along to Church until I reached my middle teens, but I didn’t have a personal relationship with Jesus and my interests lay more in playing Football and Cricket.

It came to the point where I was being asked to play games on a Sunday at the same time that Church took place and so I decided to stop going to Church and commit to Sunday league football as well as playing football on a Saturday and Cricket.

As the years went by I thought I was happy, I had lots of friends, a good job and girlfriends – life was going well.

I was 26 when began to feel that even with so much going on, my life felt like something was missing.

Without being aware of this my sister invited me to an Alpha course at her Church, which I accepted to stop her asking.

I went to all of the sessions and when it ended I felt that what I had been told was true. It brought back all of the teaching our parents had given us as children and what I had learnt in Sunday School.

At the same time ‘The Passion of The Christ’ was being shown in Cinema’s and my parents invited me to watch it with them. To visualise what Christ had gone through on the Cross made me realise that I needed to repent of my sinful nature and put my trust in him.

With this in mind, continuing to live my life for myself without giving any time to God made me feel guilty. I realised that I needed to make some big changes.

I started attending Church and reading my bible as well as praying on a regular basis.

This enabled me to understand more about Christianity and what God wants from us and how he wants us to live our lives.

Since I became a Christian, I met my wife Ally and we married in 2007.

With her also being a Christian we are raising our children with the same beliefs we were taught and want our children to live by.

We have been provided for in times of trouble when I lost my job for example when she was pregnant with our middle daughter and he gives us strength to deal with the struggles we face on a daily basis with my wife’s health and our children’s additional social and educational needs.

God has taught us we need to trust him in all areas of our lives.

It’s also been difficult losing some friendships due to the fact that some people find it hard to believe I have changed so much but with a Church family there is no end of support and love.

I will always try to use the opportunities God gives me to let others know what he has done for me and is doing for me.

I’ve been asked the question ‘What do I most enjoy about Christ Church?’ and I would say it’s the variety of activities to attend and get involved with where we can serve God and the local community.