One lunchtime in the early 2000s a colleague of mine, who had a nose for the tastiest lunch spots, suggested we go to a place called Wesley Owen. I’d never heard of it. Jackie, who wasn’t a Christian herself, mentioned, “oh it’s downstairs in a Christian bookshop, you don’t mind do you?”

I groaned inwardly, worrying already about running the gauntlet of smiling staff members waving tracts at me as I scurried past muttering “I’m only here for the cafe.”

What I actually found when I arrived at Wesley Owen was relaxed staff members who cheerfully greeted us as we walked past, a decent latte and the best tuna melt in town.

I soon became a cafe regular. I had trained to do one thing—law—and was at a loss as to how to escape a toxic environment and find a job in a different industry. Walking down the steps to the cafe felt like I was entering a safe space; a sanctuary away from the deadlines and drama in my office around the corner.

There was one staff member in particular who helped me make the transition to Christian with a capital C. As I paid for my tuna melt and latte one day we got talking. She saw I was clutching a secular novel I’d been reading and gently suggested I try some Christian novelists they had such as Ted Dekker, Karen Kingsbury and Francine Rivers.

She was also curious whether I went to a local church. When I mentioned being an elder at the Unitarian Church nearby she didn’t react in horror or judge me in anyway. But, as I was packing my bag she simply added, “sometimes a liberal Christian church can be a bit too liberal”.

Initially her comment made me angry. I thought it rude and inappropriate but, being British, I smiled politely as I pocketed my change and left the cafe, vowing never to return, no matter how good the tuna melt.

But her comment circled round and round my head during the weeks to come. It sparked a lot of questioning and reading and thinking. I realized that I couldn’t continue to serve in a church where Jesus was not front and centre. I left the Unitarian Church and started my tentative journey back to Jesus.

Without the tasty tuna melt, the relaxed hospitality of the bookshop, and the pointed comment of that staff member I would not be writing this. They all worked together to steer me back onto the right path, the one that leads to Jesus. And I certainly wouldn’t have written a book for Christians struggling with tinnitus. I thank Jesus every day for using Wesley Owen and its staff team to bring me home.

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Lisa has lived with tinnitus since 2005 when she suddenly lost her hearing in one ear and gained tinnitus in its place. Using her lived experience of overcoming her struggles with tinnitus, she coaches others who feel as lost, frustrated, and depressed as she did early in her tinnitus journey.

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