When I first started, I was absolutely traumatised at the thought of going out and sharing my faith with anybody. I'd never done anything like that. My name's Sue and this is my story. Peterborough city chaplaincy meets every Friday. We go out into the Peterborough square, where everybody's bustling around - people are shopping, having their lunch-breaks - and we just demonstrate Jesus' love to people. Quite often we'll do give-aways, we do things like free hugs, we'll sit on a bench with a sign saying "I'll listen". All sorts of different things which give people the opportunity, for us to enter into a conversation with people and hopefully them to share a little bit about themselves and we get the opportunity to offer to pray for people. I think one of the things when I first started, I'd never done anything like that. If somebody had told me four years ago that I would be doing the sort of things I am now, I would laugh.<div>I only became a Christian ten years ago but never done anything out on the streets, I'd never prayed in public, let along prayed for somebody in public. Prayer is a major part of what we do out on the square. So often when we're talking to people, normal chit-chat conversation very quickly for some reason people will start saying: "I don't know why I'm sharing this with you but..." and they'll start sharing some trouble that's on their hearts or a family problem or something they're concerned about, and you just listen, you're not looking to say anything, they just want somebody to listen. And the wonderful thing from that, is then they've given you this wonderful invitation almost, to say, "well may I pray for you about those things?"0 One of the most amazing things I had happen to me, we'd obviously been out, been giving away copies of the New Testament, and didn't think anything of it at all. And then two years later, completely out of the blue, I get a text from a lady called Amy and she said to me in this text:0 "Hi my name's Amy, I met you out on the square two years ago, I was having some health problems at the time and you prayed for me and I just wanted you to know you gave me a copy of the New Testament and I've now come to the Lord, I've found Jesus. My life is transformed."0 And I can just remember getting that text, tears coming into my eyes because for me I just felt liberated that actually it didn't matter that I'd never seen this happen. This happened because God wanted it to happen. Each time somebody comes across our path and we have that opportunity of just speaking God's word into that moment, just showing them God's compassion. It's a privilege and we can all do it. You know, some people are overt and some people are quite introvert. I'm actually quite introvert in those things, but now it just feels a natural part of me being a Christian. Somehow it's opened my heart to the promptings of the Holy Spirit, and that's a wonderful thing to have. </div>
