When his girlfriend invited him to Alpha, Heine, 21, had his answer ready: he had just joined a football team and training sessions were on the same evenings as the Alpha course.
It was the perfect excuse – one that meant he wouldn’t have to engage with something he didn’t believe in or understand. But that excuse evaporated at his very first training session.
“My knee dislocated and I tore my cruciate ligament,” he says. Just like that, football was no longer an option that autumn, but Alpha was.
Not interested in spirituality
Heine had grown up in a non-religious home and had never been interested in spirituality.
“My life was perfect – everything was going well, and nothing was missing,” he says. He only knew a few Christians at school and admits he and his friends “thought they were foolish to believe in God.”
That began to change after he met his girlfriend, Nathania, a Christian, at a high school graduation party. When they later moved to Bergen, she joined a church and started attending Alpha. As her faith grew, certain aspects of their relationship changed – not always easy for Heine but he respected her decisions.
Dragged along
“I was dragged along at first,” he admits of his initial Alpha sessions, arriving on crutches. Yet as the weeks went by, he realised he was finding the conversations interesting and relevant. By the end of the course, he was convinced, intellectually, that there was a Creator. But faith still felt distant.
Then one night, after months of questions and an argument with Nathania, who had been trying to get him to read the Bible, he prayed, “God, if you exist, can you reveal yourself to me? I can’t give my life to you without knowing that you are real.”
He awoke the next morning feeling completely different. “Suddenly I understood that everything is true and that Jesus is real. I started singing the only worship song I knew!” he laughs.
Passion for God
“A fire began to grow in me – a passion for God,” he explains. What once felt like a perfect life started to look different. Parties, alcohol and old habits were gradually replaced with prayer, reading the Bible and being part of a church community.
“What’s ironic is that all the things I liked best are what I’ve stopped doing, and yet I’ve gained a better life,” he reflects. “One thing I’ve noticed is the love and compassion I now have for people around me, especially those I don’t know.”
What’s ironic is that all the things I liked best are what I’ve stopped doing, and yet I’ve gained a better life.
Not everyone understands the change.
“In church, I’ve been warmly welcomed and have had many good conversations and received advice from older people,” Heine says. “But among family and friends, I’ve found they are not as supportive. That’s hard but I have to stand firm in my faith and in what I believe is true,” he says simply.
Today, Heine is studying at Bergen Bible School, wanting to grow further in his faith.
