I was born in North Wales, UK, although I spent all my growing-up years in a town called Stafford. My parents brought me up in a loving Christian home and I cannot remember a time when I haven’t prayed and read my Bible daily. However, it was at the age of seven at a Sunday school meeting that I understood for the first time that I had sinned. My sin separated me from God, but He had sent His Son Jesus to live a perfect life and to die to take the punishment I deserved for the sins I had done. All I had to do was to confess those sins to God and accept the free gift of forgiveness that He was offering to me because of Christ’s sacrifice. I remember praying, asking Jesus to come into my life, to forgive my sins and I gave my life to Him.

Call to mission:

At the age of fourteen I went on a summer Bible camp for a week. There was an OMF missionary at the Bible camp who spent some time every day explaining what she did and getting us interested in overseas missions. One day she was talking to me and asked me what I wanted to do in the future. I didn’t really know so she challenged me to pray and allow God to decide my future ‘even if it meant becoming a missionary’! 

Over the following two years that challenge kept coming back to me and when I was 16 I made a deliberate commitment to God, to give Him 100% of my life, to go where he wanted me to go, to do what He wanted me to do, whatever the cost, even if that meant becoming a missionary.

Preparation for mission:

I went to university and completed a degree in Pharmaceutical and Medicinal Chemistry and went on to do a year of teacher training prior to getting a teaching job in Northampton. Many difficult things happened during that time, including being diagnosed as having ME (chronic fatigue syndrome) and the sudden death of my father, but my desire to serve God never wavered. 

I had been teaching for over a year when I felt the time was right to explore the option of missionary service. I applied to OMF and was accepted to go to Japan to teach in a school for missionary children there.

First term in Japan:

So in March of 1995 I flew to Singapore and six weeks later arrived in Japan! For the first fifteen months I spent most of my time in language school, coming to grips with Japanese. Then in summer 1996 I move down to Tokyo and started teaching. After three years of teaching I returned to the UK for a period of ‘Home Assignment’. During that time I went back to Bible College for a year because I had seen the great spiritual needs in Japan and wanted to be more involved in reaching out to the Japanese. During that time also I started earnestly praying about a partner to work with in Japan.

Marriage:

Single life on the mission field is not easy, no matter how many good friends you may have, people are always moving on to new ministries and there is little stability. When I arrived back in Japan in 2001 I met Benoit who had been working with OMF for 18 months at that stage. God’s answer to my prayers for a partner!

We were married in July 2002 and were involved in a Japanese church for a year while Benoit continued his language study. In February of 2004 we moved to Saitama prefecture to our present house where we are involved in ministry with Saitama International Church. Our first child, Eloise, was born in May 2004 and our next child is due in March 2006.