Voice 27: Pippa Lupton, One Programme Participant (OPP), Brighouse

I’m Pippa, I’m 21 and taking a year out from studying for my maths degree to work as an OPP for the Methodist Church and am based at a Church in Brighouse.

In the middle of a busy life there isn’t much time for praying, and I find that if you’re stuck in the same busy environment all the time your mind is never going to be in the right place, there’s never going to be time to pray, reflect or have a conversation with God. There will always be something that at the time seems more imperative.

I’m currently working at a church in Brighouse and working for the church can surprisingly give you even less time for personal prayer as Sunday mornings can also be working mornings, and I can often spend the service looking after young children who aren’t quite at the age of sitting down quietly and saying a prayer together, after the service there are people to talk to and meetings to arrange.

That’s why it’s brilliant that I live so close to beautiful places like this, it’s just a 10-minute drive from home and sitting on top of the rocks, or in the car if it’s raining, and looking out at such an awesome creation can be just the right place for listening to and having a conversation with God and if you’re stuck at where to start then just starting with giving thanks for everything you’re looking at. Everything you can see when you look out is part of God’s creation, it’s all been there for an extremely long time and I’m sure hundreds of people have stood where I stand and looked in awe at the incredible views, maybe given thanks to a God that they might not have faith in, or asked themselves the question was this all really just an accidental creation?

God is with us everywhere we go, and in everything we do, however when I’m stood on the top of these rocks reflecting on everything that’s happened, everywhere I’ve been and all the conversations I’ve had, I feel that in those moments I am closest to God.