Meet Becky
I am Becky Hill and I am married to Matt one of the Pastors. We share a passion to see every person become all that they were intended to be by their Creator. We love to help people know that they are loved by God as the REAL them. But to help others to be more real themselves, we know that we need to be increasingly open, honest and authentic about our own lives - the good and the hard. So here is some of my story...
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I am exceedingly grateful to have been brought up going to church. I mainly grew up in East Sussex and always went to church with my family. I learnt about God at kids church, youth church and had a great time at summer youth camps meeting other Christian young people.
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However, it wasn’t until my Sheffield university days that I truly encountered God more through His Holy Spirit. God drew me into a deeper revelation of who He really is in 1998 when I was baptised in the Holy Spirit. It was at that time that my hunger for God and experience of His unconditional love dramatically increased. It was not long after this that our Heavenly Father brought Matt and I together and we were married straight after we graduated in the year 2000.
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We have been heavily involved in serving in local churches and leading and pastoring others ever since. We had two girls in Sheffield/ Rotherham and then we moved to Leicester in 2008 to serve at Life Church.
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However, our wonderful life took a very challenging turn in January 2015. The first week of the year I was helping a friend with my painting skills and I ended up falling off the ladder and crashing to the floor, hitting my head and spine - hard! After an initial misdiagnosis of post concussion syndrome. I was finally admitted to hospital 8 weeks later, whilst pretty much bed bound, feeling constantly dizzy and unable to cope with light or sound, or to function much upright. It was then I was finally correctly diagnosed with a spinal CSF leak.
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To cut a long story short, I have spent the last nine years struggling with debilitating neurological symptoms. I cannot begin to describe how hard these past years have been – especially the first five years of this illness. In the early years I would spend months at a time almost fully bedbound and other times upright more. But I have never felt fully well over these past 9 years. Overnight, I went from being a very healthy, fit, able, very busy, motivated and stable person to being very broken, weak, extremely unwell, exhausted and at times unable to cope.
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I have faced some very dark times on my journey when I had no idea what God was doing or where He was in it all. I have had to wrestle with my faith to a deeper level. At times I felt angry and betrayed by God. But most of the time I knew that God was the only thing that would get me through. As my life has been radically stripped back, I have actually seen how desperately I need more of His unconditional love, undeserved grace and to experience more of His beautiful presence.
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It is only His love and revealing that love to others that keeps me going. I am so thankful that God has always made a way for me and sent us so many precious, wonderful family, friends and medical professionals to help us through the relentless storm. Our local Life Church family are an incredible support in so many ways.
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Currently there is no 'happy ending' to my challenging life story... In Autumn 2019 my specialist NHS Spinal CSF leak team saw evidence of my leak in my neck/ upper thoracic spine. In the summer of 2020 I was then diagnosed with the even more unusual condition of arachnoiditis (inflammation in the spinal canal) which is a bit like chronic meningitis. The relentless journey of feeling unwell never seems to end. I have been through an endless cycle of much better times, followed by multiple relapses where things get worse again which can be immensely exhausting. And yet the miracle for me is that through the new diagnosis we have a more effective treatment plan which has stopped me getting worse for now and much improved my daily symptoms so I am able to do more than I used to – although still very limited.
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My journey has at times felt impossible. Sometimes I have felt like I couldn't go on. And yet, it has actually also beautifully led me to experience a much deeper ‘spiritual awakening’ where I have again and again come to experience our God of love and grace so much more profoundly and beautifully. I know that He is the one who reaches out to us and loves us in the midst of our weaknesses and suffering. I am so very thankful that He brings us His peace that surpasses our human understanding - even in the midst of the raging storm.
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He is truly my everything! I cannot imagine my life not knowing our beautiful Jesus Christ or experiencing the beauty of His presence through the Holy Spirit. I am not sure I could have made it this far without His never-ending unfathomable love that has flowed to me through so many vessels of His love.