I was born in Manchester, England into a Christian home, the second of five children. My parents were, and still are, in assembly fellowship. I had the privilege of being taken to meetings — including Sunday School — from an early age and I learnt my need of salvation whilst still very young. I distinctly remember the night when only six years of age I asked my dad what I needed to do to get salvation. That night I received the Lord Jesus as my Saviour.
At 13 I realised the necessity of obedience to the Lord in baptism and thereafter was received into assembly fellowship at the Cheetham Gospel Hall in Manchester which was to be my spiritual home for the next 18 years. There I learned the importance of getting involved in all the activities of the local assembly including the Sunday School, open-air work and door-to-door visitation. I well remember the first gospel meeting I was asked to share. My brother David and I, together with another young man, shared the meeting. Looking back to that occasion I remember being very nervous but a start has to be made somewhere and I would encourage young men to give themselves to the gospel early on in their Christian lives.
My parents were always hospitable and we regularly had the privilege of having many of the Lord’s servants staying in our home. Many of them encouraged my brothers and me to study the Scriptures for ourselves and to get involved in gospel outreach.
In my late teens I benefited tremendously from weekly Bible Studies led by Norman Mellish who was at that time in the Wythenshawe assembly in South Manchester. In these studies we, as young men, were positively encouraged to contribute and gradually convictions about Divine truth, in particular the truth of the local assembly, were formed. We look back with deep gratitude to brethren like Norman who were prepared to give of their time to help us in spiritual things. He was also, at that time, having tent meetings each summer in the Manchester area and he encouraged us to get involved in that work.
One of the preachers who came to the Cheetham assembly for meetings was Phil Harding, who has had, and continues to have a major spiritual impact on my life. That was how I first met his eldest daughter Christine who, in the goodness of the Lord, was to become my wife. Christine and I began to attend the Bible Readings at the Bicester assembly in Oxfordshire, England. It was there that many brethren had an influence on our lives but noteably our beloved brother, the late Robert McPheat to whom we owe a great debt, and whom we miss greatly. Even though he was very busy with the Bible Readings and the Gospel Meetings he took an interest in the young people and was willing to answer questions and to give advice on matters of importance to us at that time. Some of us even sought him out early in the morning and he was always available. The wise counsel he gave was used of God to help us to continue on in the Christian pathway. It was during those years that we also began to help evangelists in Scotland during some of our holidays from work, especially John Campbell and Jack Hay and in later years Robert Revie. These brethren taught us, by example, how to reach precious souls and how to teach children the Word of God. The things we learnt then we are still using daily in the Lord’s work here in Botswana.
Christine and I were married in 1977 and the Lord blessed us with three children, Andrew, Beth and Philip. In the goodness of the Lord each got saved as the years went by and all three are now in assembly fellowship. They have been, and still are, a tremendous help in our work for the Lord here in Botswana (though Andrew and Beth are currently in England for university studies).
In the early 80’s the Lord began to speak to us about missionary work and we began to invite missionaries into our home, arranging meetings for them in the locality and writing to a number of them personally. One day we received a letter from a brother whose interest in missionary work is second to none. He had been in our home a few days earlier and in our conversation together we had mentioned that we felt we were at a crossroads in our lives. He wrote wondering if maybe the Lord was calling us to serve Him overseas. From that day on that thought never left my mind although it was years before we actually stepped forth in faith.
During this period I was working as a surveyor and I began to be increasingly aware of the need to devote more of my time to gospel work. I therefore asked my boss to allow me to work four days a week for a 20% reduction in salary. He refused because we were too busy. Within a week, while attending a professional conference, I met a Christian architect who was a partner in a Manchester firm (where the partners were all believers) and who was looking for someone to join their surveying department. Just that very morning one of their surveyors had handed in his notice. I mentioned to him about the possibility of a four-day week and on hearing the reason why I wanted this, he immediately arranged an interview and I was offered the job. This was really of the Lord and the job proved to be very flexible. The firm was very kind and I learnt a great deal there. The extra day each week enabled us to commence children’s meetings in our home and gave extra time for visitation work in which I was joined by Andrew Renshaw of the Wythenshawe assembly who later married my sister Alison (now serving the Lord in Brazil). We also had the joy of holding series of children’s meetings in the assembly.
In 1986 the Lord led us to move to South Manchester and we were warmly received into fellowship in the local assembly at Wythenshawe. The Lord began to show us that He wanted us to serve Him in a full-time capacity and made that clear in a variety of ways. One of the unforgettable experiences at that time was the day we attended the annual conference at the assembly at Blackpool, England. The Lord exercised one of the preachers to speak about Barnabas and the call to full-time service. Both Christine and I left that conference without any doubt that the Lord wanted us to serve Him in a full-time capacity. I felt convinced that He wanted us to serve Him overseas but we knew that it was important for us both to be sure of this before taking such an important step. Christine was not sure about overseas service at that time, so we continued to wait upon the Lord and we proved that waiting time is not wasted time as things were learnt during that period that have been invaluable.
The Lord used numerous Scriptures to speak to us and to guide us and once we were both clear that He wanted us to serve Him overseas we then asked Him to bring the country of His choice before us. Over a period of months during 1990/91 the Lord continually brought the land of Botswana before us — a country we knew little about at that time. We began to find out as much as we could about the country. It became unmistakeably clear that Botswana was the place of the Lord’s choice for us. The next step was speaking to our elders whose prayer support and wise counsel have always been greatly appreciated. They gave us the right hand of fellowship and made our exercise known to the assembly. At the same time we wrote to the Lord’s servants in Botswana telling them of our exercise.
At that time Andrew, Beth and Philip were 12, 10 and 7 respectively and we were concerned about their schooling in Botswana. A visit there in 1991 helped to convince us that home-schooling was what the Lord wanted us to do. We knew that this would be a major commitment on Christine’s part but through it we have been able to keep them with us and they have opened doors in the service of the Lord which have been very encouraging. The elders of Wythenshawe invited the brethren at Cheetham (now Prestwich) to join with our commendation which they were happy to do. We were commended to the grace of God for the work of the Lord in October 1991 on the same day as my sister and brother-in-law Alison and Andrew Renshaw. We left for Botswana in January 1992. We began language study with Jim Legge who very kindly also arranged for Andrew, Beth and Philip to have lessons and we are very grateful for the time he spent with us and his patience too! We continued working in Serowe until October 1999 when we moved to begin a new work in the village of Palapye where we now live.
The prayers of the Lord’s people for our blessing and preservation would be valued greatly.