Profiles

I was born in Nottingham in 1963 and brought up in a beautiful farming village about ten miles outside Nottingham. I had a very happy childhood and enjoyed the countryside and living next to a farm.

I was brought up to go to the village Church of England church. I thought being christened and confirmed and going to church meant I was a Christian. Although I went to church regularly I did not understand that Jesus came to earth, to die and pay the price for my sins and that I could only become a Christian by totally trusting Jesus and not trying to be good enough to go to heaven.

I left school in 1979 and went to college to do A levels. On my first day, I met some Christians who took me to the Christian Union. Over the next couple of months, God worked in my heart and mind and I gradually began to understand that I was a sinner and that Jesus is the only Saviour. By December, I had become a Christian.

I then went to college in Yorkshire to do a Creative Arts degree and met Kim (still my closest friend 24 years later!), who introduced me to the doctrines of grace and took me along to an evangelical church in Leeds. I was baptised at Tinshill Free Church, Leeds, shortly before graduating in 1984.

I then moved to Kent to work with autistic children in Gravesend. I became a member of Waterford House Evangelical Church in Strood and remained there for 16 years.

Eventually God led me into social work and I have worked for Social Services for nearly 20 years. I have done a variety of jobs: child protection; adoption; fostering; and, more recently, as a service standards manager for children in care. If I had known then what I know now about social work, I can't imagine I would have been brave enough (or mad enough) to go into it! God has faithfully looked after me, though, even in some difficult situations.

About 11 years ago, I had a very long illness and had to have about 15 months off work. Although this was a difficult time, God used it to shape me and make me think about what was important.

I began to pray that God would give me an opportunity to use my singleness to do someething for him that I couldn't do if I was married with my own family.

The answer came in the shape of a delightful red headed little boy with Down's Syndrome. In 2000, I took a career break and moved to Folkestone to live with a Christian family to look after Sam. His mum has multiple sclerosis and finds it hard to keep up with Sam, who is a joy, but exhausting at times!

It was during my career break that I happened to mention to a certain Pam Porter that I had some spare time - and before I knew it I was the Kent secretary for GBWA!!

After two-and-a-half years, I returned to work part-time and bought a flat in Folkestone. I still have Sam three afternoons a week and see him as a very precious gift from God. He is a source of much joy and laughter.

I am a member of Union Chapel at Bethersden where I am involved with the children and young people's work and help to organise the annual Kent Women's Day Conference that was started a couple of years ago.

I have no idea what the future holds, but God has never let me go despite the ups and downs of the last 25 years, and my hope is in his faithfulness and love.

Subsequent to writing this profile, Vicki Gardner was elected chairman of GBWA at a Council meeting in March 2007.

Beth shares the job of GBWA Secretary with Catherine Shirtcliffe.

I am a member of Abbey Baptist Church and have been for a number of years.

I was born in Devon, but my dad’s work took us to numerous towns, ending up in Southport where I spent most of my secondary schooling. I wasn’t an academic and got average grades in exams.

I became a Christian at the age of 11 after attending a holiday Bible club and was baptised at the age of 13. I was brought up to go to church and did so three times on a Sunday. I am the middle one of six children. My mother was a Christian as I was growing up, but not my dad. They got divorced years later.

As a teenager I did voluntary work among children with learning difficulties. I wanted to be a residential social worker, but since the course was full I had to take a succession of low paid jobs and never quite got back into studying.

I married Graham who is now the executive officer of United Beach Missions. We have three children. David who is out in East Asia with Grace Baptist Mission is married to Ivy. They met at Leeds University.

Steve is at Liverpool University at the moment and completes his degree this year. Sarah is taking her ASs and hopes to do nursing at Liverpool University this September.

After marrying I did several jobs, from child minder and nursery worker to cook - all trying to balance the family finances while looking after three children and a husband. Just like all busy mums!

I applied for a night shift at a local Christian care home - a lovely place to work, and one day while taking my children to school I had a major car accident and had to give up the job I loved. After a few years an elderly lady asked me to help her. When she got to the point that she couldn’t cope at home any longer, I suggested that she try a week or two in the care home. While visiting her there I was offered the job of care team leader. I was shocked to be asked and had to pray about it, wondering if my back would be up to it. After prayer I was convinced it was the right thing to do. After three years I was asked to take over the acting management post which I did and am very much enjoying the position, in Pilgrim Homes at Framland in Wantage, with 22 elderly residents and almost 50 full and part-time staff.

Here there are challenges every day whether from residents, their families or the staff. Managing a care home you have to be well organised and a good people person; there is so much paperwork nowadays and yet you still need to be approachable for the staff and residents.

I spend what spare time I have doing beach missions in the summer, and I organise the catering for the reunion each year. I take part in the monthly open air that our church runs in Abingdon.

I love to cook for dinner parties, I play the piano, guitar and love to sing. I read when I have a few spare minutes and have taken up walking as a hobby recently.

At the care home there are many problems - I pray about these problems and ask the Lord to help me and he has never let me down. Caring for the sick and dying is not really a glamorous job, but I see my work as serving God just as much as serving the elderly people. I try to serve him to the best of my ability and he helps me to share and show his love to the residents. I want them to have the best quality care that I can give and, with God’s help, I trust this happens.

Catherine shares the job of GBWA Secretary with Beth Kneale. I live in Colchester with my husband Peter and three children and am a member of Prettygate Baptist Church where my husband is the pastor. I became a Christian as a teenager. Having been brought up in a Christian home in Hemel Hempstead, I realised at the age of 15 that I couldn't rely on my parents' faith any more and that I needed Jesus to forgive me and become Lord of my life. Since then the Lord has led me to many different places, including Nottingham where I trained as a radiographer, Leicester where we spent the first three years of our married life, then back to Hemel Hempstead for 14 years where all our children were born, and also where I trained as an ultrasonographer, and now to Colchester. The Lord led us to Colchester two and a half years ago, by his provision and timing making it very clear that he wanted us to settle and work here. My life is very busy with church, family and work. I have a job as a sonographer at Colchester General Hospital, which, again, God provided at just the right time about ten months after we moved. It is a demanding, though rewarding job, where I have the opportunity to meet many different people, with different needs. I thank the Lord for the opportunity to serve as the conference secretary for GBWA alongside Beth, and it's our prayer that he will bless all those who come to minister and be ministered to at the conferences.

Anne Ninnis is our Minute Secretary and the wife of the pastor at Prittlewell, Southend.

I was born in Southport, Merseyside, in 1954. I had a happy childhood and school life and was a regular attender at Princes Street (now Grace Baptist Chapel).

For several years I was the only child in an older congregation, but then at last several other families came along and Sunday School was started and in due course a Young Peoples Fellowship - I also went to the Good News Camp. Although I was aware of the need for salvation it only became of real importance to me as a teenager when a teacher at school asked our RE class: ‘Who goes to church? - stand up!’ Then she asked, ‘Why do you go to church?’ At this point I came to realise that I was attending church out of habit and began to seek after God, as a sinner who needed to be saved; I was also conscious of the need for God’s guidance in life as I had to decide where to train as a nurse.

My prayers were answered during a service when a verse was mentioned - ‘I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go’ (Psalm 32.8) - and I knew a joy and peace I had never experienced before, that the Lord was now in my life and would lead me.

In 1972, I went to London to train at University College Hospital for three years. I also started to attend Westminster Chapel, where, in God’s providence, I met my future husband - we were married there in 1974.

After 18 months living in a bedsit in Streatham Hill, we moved to a rented house in Norbury - this was a great provision for us. My first pregnancy ended in a stillbirth in 1976 and, though this was a tough time, God helped us through and provided support for us. The following year we had the joy of having David and then Sarah in 1979.

Around this time the Lord spoke to us separately in the same service about Roger's desire to go into the ministry and so began a real test of faith. In 1980 we set off for the South Wales Bible College in Bury where we were to share a house with a family we did not know, as well as get by without a grant! A number of people kindly sponsored us and gave us gifts - we decided that we would only let our needs be made known in prayer to God and can honestly say the Lord provided in amazing ways and we were never without food or rent money.

In 1983, at the conclusion of the college course, we were planning to stay in Cardiff, but, sadly, my dad had a heart attack and died suddenly. This left mum, who had terminal cancer, at home alone, so we moved back to Southport to help care for her for the last few months of her illness. The church at Southport offered Roger a role as assistant to the pastor, which provided him with the opportunity to learn alongside Pastor Day which proved to be an invaluable help to Roger.

In 1986 Roger was asked to pastor the church at Prittlewell, Southend. There was a congregation of seven retired people, who made us very welcome and who we came to love as our Christian family. Over the years, people have come and gone, but, in God’s goodness, the fellowship has grown.

I am involved in church life and also work as a Bank HCA at the local hospital; and this year [2007] have had two sessions as an in-patient and have been well looked after! I am thankful to God for the support and care of the church, family and friends. These recent events have made me test and prove the reality of the words, ‘My grace is sufficient for you for my strength is made perfect in weakness’.

I'm the East Midlands Secretary for GBWA and I also distribute Sharing magazine.

I was born in 1940 towards the end of the war, so I don't remember life during the war years. My childhood was happy, not particularly wealthy - my faher served abroad in Egypt during the war. It wasn't a Christian home, but I was always sent to Sunday School. At the age of about 11, I attended a Billy Graham crusade and the Lord spoke to me and I was converted and, later on, baptised.

After leaving school and commencing work, the ways of the world crept in. I began a friendship with a non-Christian lad whom I eventually married and we made our home in Potton.

In the office I worked with Ethel Pibworth, a Christian who attended Potton Baptist Church, and she 'nagged' me until I gave in and began to attend church with her, later becoming a member. There I was richly blessed with good biblical teaching and soon I accepted that I had done wrong in marrying Alan. So what could I do to put things right? Our Bible studies with Chris Seekings turned to 1 Corinthians and 7.13 spoke to me: 'If a woman has a husband who is not a believer and he is willing to live with her, she must not divorce him'. So, having admittted and confessed my sin, I committed the situation to the Lord. Ethel and I then set aside special times to pray specifically for Alan's conversion.

In the midst of all this I became pregnant. Sadly, at five months my baby died and I had to give birth to a lifeless baby. Many questions arose in my mind - was this God's discipline? Maybe; but always remembering:

Though I cannot his goings see,
Nor all his footsteps find,
Too wise to be mistaken he,
Too good to be unkind.

Several other problems beset us: an operation to remove a cyst; three more minor miscarriages. Then nothing. After having several tests, we were told there was no medical reason for not conceiving. I was virtually resigned to a childless marriage.

Then Ethel and I had a moment of madness - 'Let's go horseriding!' Which we did. Not quite up to the standard of 'Only fools on horses'. Shortly after our second ride, I fell pregnant! Nine months later, Karen was born - but I still couldn't do things properly and she was a breach birth, which in those days meant she had to go into intensive care for a few days. Other mums in the ward felt sorry for me, that I could not 'bond' with my baby. Was I upset? No way! I had waited ten years for this - so what were a few more days?

I had to stay in hospital for several days and imagine my delight on being told that Alan had slipped into Sunday morning service the day after the birth.

Then just 18 months after Karen, our son Jonathan was born. That was over 30 years ago now and I can truly say that the Lord has been faithful to us in all things, even when we have often failed him.

I would like to report that life has been a bed of roses and we all lived happily ever after - but, no, there have been many ups and downs for us over the years, both in our church life and our family life ... but that's another story!

Romans 8.28 is a favourite verse of mine and many times have I had to cling hard to the promise, 'And we know that all things work toegether for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to his purpose'.

Yes, ALL things do work together for our good, but only if we fulfil the condition to that promise ... it's to those who love God. He must have the pre-eminence in every department of our life, in order that we can claim the promise... How is it with you?

Gill Kilpatrick used to be the secretary of the London Central district, but had moved out of London and no one else seemed available to take on the role and there had been no activities in this district for a few years. At the time, my husband was Central District Secretary for Association of Grace Baptist Churches and thought it would tie in well together. I didn't want the role to be left empty and was willing to take it on if no one else was. I have not done much since taking on the role because of having a baby, but hope to get stuck into it more now.

I was born in Nigeria, where my parents were missionaries, and lived there with my two sisters until I was seven years old. We came back to the UK and lived in Enfield for a couple of years until my father (Graham Trice) was called to be pastor of Tollington Park Baptist Church in North London. And I guess this is fairly much where I called 'home' for most of my life.

Growing up in a Christian home, I had always been taught about the Lord, but never seemed to figure out just how to make it a personal faith. I thank the Lord for all the teaching I received from my parents, Sunday School teachers and others who played a spiritual part in my life. It was after a week of attending the Carey Family Conference, and then a very 'to the point' sermon on the weekend when I was 15, that the Lord really spoke to my heart and made me aware of my need to ask for forgiveness and make a personal commitment to him.

When I was 18, I took a 'gap year' with Africa Inland Mission in Tanzania, where I helped with home schooling some missionary children. This was a year of great heart searching, growing and total reliance on God.

When I came back I attended the Roehampton Institute, where I did a degree in Health Studies, although I probably spent more time being involved in the Christian Union than studying. It was during this time that I met my husband Chris, who was a student at Queen Mary and Westfield and also involved in the Christian Union. In the summer of 2000, once I had graduated, we got married at Derby Road Baptist Church in Watford, where Chris was an apprentice doing the Cornhill training course.

After a year in Watford we were called to the work at Highbury Baptist Church to work with Geoff and Christine Gobbett. During the first year there I also worked with the Universities and Colleges Christian Fellowship (UCCF) on their 'Relay' programme, supporting Christians at university. During this time I became pregnant with our first son Joshua (six in 2009). We now have two other children, Reuben (four in 2009) and Rebekah (one in June 2009).

After spending four years with the work at Highbury, we came to St. Johns Wood Baptist Church (West London), where Chris was made pastor. We have been here nearly four years now and the time seems to have flown by. We continue to seek God's guidance in how best we can serve him and his people here.

I love cooking and anything creative, read the odd book or two, but best of all probably just enjoy spending time with other people and being useful if I can be, and love those break-through moments when God teaches you something new.