Susie Leafe
1. How did you become a Christian?
A friend at secondary school invited me to a Christian Union meeting. It was a cold, damp day – and anything seemed better than hanging out in the playground. One thing led to another, and I made a commitment to follow Jesus at a Luis Palau event at Wimbledon Theatre. It’s not been a smooth path since then – but God has always been faithful.
2. What lessons have you learnt since that you would want to pass on to a younger Christian version of yourself?
I fear my younger Christian self might have more to teach me. It is so easy to get caught up in doing stuff (some of which might be good) as you get older and lose one’s first love for God and for His people.
3. How would you describe your prayer life?
Hanging on by a thread – in so many ways. Recently, I have been really helped by Let us Pray, a simplified form of daily prayer, based on the Book of Common Prayer, which our church has produced. Someone once said that liturgy is like clothes that are too big for you – not always comfortable, sometimes we trip over – but as I read the prayers and Bible passages, I find myself growing in my understanding and dependence on God. The fact that it I can access it on PrayerMate is even better!
4. Which two or three Christian books apart from the Bible have most influenced your faith?
I still go back to David Needham’s Close to His Majesty, which helped me grasp how big God was. Later, John Piper’s Future Grace and more recently Carl Trueman’s Rise and Triumph [of the Modern Self ] and Diane Langberg’s Redeeming Power have all had a significant impact on me.
5. Who or what have been your biggest Christian influences?
I am grateful for so many people that God has used to keep me and teach me. In particular, Alan and Christine Sanders, who led the Salcombe SU summer camp, where I learned to serve and to teach the Bible – they were patient, gracious and trusted us all to God and, of course, Dan, my husband, who has loved, challenged and encouraged me for more than half my life.
6. What are the main challenges you believe Christians face today?
Fearing God and not man. I fear that in the past we have offered the world little more than a ‘Christian’ gloss on middle-class values – to survive in the future I think we will need to better understand our own powerlessness, dig deeper into the truth of God’s word, and become more dependent on the Lord Almighty. We could learn so much from our brothers and sisters in the Global South, if only we’d listen.
7. What encourages and discourages you?
I’m encouraged each week by the church family at Anchor Anglican Church, Fowey. The honesty, integrity and messiness of our family life never fails to remind me of how good and gracious God is. It always makes me smile when I’m nearly knocked over at the end of the service by a seven-year-old begging to take doughnuts to the ferrymen, and it gives me hope that the next generation are learning that serving others can be a joy.
I’m discouraged that our constituency has too often mistaken orthodoxy for holiness and teaching people for loving them.
8. What makes you laugh?
Life. The absurd. Milton Jones.
9. What would you want to say to the wider evangelical world?
God’s grace is sufficient.
10. Which Biblical person do you most look forward to meeting in glory and why?
Martha, because she was a woman who Jesus loved enough to rebuke, she was one of the first to acknowledge Jesus as the Messiah and she learned to serve, and it would be great to share a meal with her.
