b.1970, married (to Matt), 3 children, part-time nurse.
Jen was born and raised on the Wirral, in a strongly Christian family. Her father was an Elder in their church, which was of the Brethren tradition, albeit not of its strict variety. Four of her uncles were likewise church Elders around Merseyside. Their 40-year involvement in a choir that did the rounds of churches in the region made the family well known in Christian circles. Throughout her childhood and teenage years, Jen was used to meeting people who knew who her family were.
She was six when she announced to her dad that she wanted to become a Christian. They prayed together, that the Lord helps her to make the wish come true. At age 13, she re-committed herself to serve and obey the Lord at a Christian youth camp. She was baptised soon after that.
As a teenager, she attended two churches on Sundays: her parents' church in the morning and another one in the evening, which had more people of her age and a lot of nice lads. After the evening service, she went to youthful gatherings hosted by a couple from the church. Saturday nights were spent in Gordon Hall in Liverpool, the venue where Christian youth went out.
When she was 18, she left home to do a nurse-traning course in Manchester. On her arrival she found that rooms in her hall of residence were allocated to new students in accordance with the starting letter of their surname. Nevertheless, minutes after dropping her bags in her room, it came to light that she had more in common with her new neighbours than a similar position in the alphabetical order. The girl next door came to introduce herself and then the girl opposite, and it turned out that, of all the people on the course, these were the Christians. The three of them formed a lasting friendship, sharing a house even after their graduation, when they worked in Manchester as qualified nurses and midwives.
Not all the people Jen came into contact with were Christians. The majority of her colleagues and patients weren't, but that caused no difficulty, she enjoyed her work. Her Uncle Geoff from Cheadle wasn't, but she enjoyed the times he sent a taxi for her and took her out to a good restaurant. He smoked and liked a drink, in addition to which he had the touching habit of saving for her all the church and evangelical leaflets that ever came through his letter box or got given to him in the street, although it was he who needed to try out the advertised events. In addition, Jen was partial to clubbing on a weekend, a pastime in which only one of her two Christian neighbour-friends would ever join her. The other one made a point of staying up until the two revellers got back home.
Jen met her husband-to-be on an Oak Hall Holiday favoured by single Christians. Matt was camping there, and he was nice. They were just friends for two years, before they started to go out, by which time Jen knew that they would get married. There was a north-south divide to be bridged by their marriage, because Matt was from Reading and, at this time, a student in Brighton. She was 25 and he was 24 when they married. They lived on the Wirral, worked in Manchester and had a lot of involvement in Jen's parents' church. But living there did not come naturally to Matt. Besides, both of them were getting a bit bored with their jobs and both of them had an itch to travel before starting a family. Jen answered an advert for a midwifery job in Perth, Western Australia, and got it after an interview in Manchester.
In Perth, Matt and Jen joined a church to which they were introduced by a couple known to some people in YCC, where Jen's brother was. Contrary to the idea they had entertained, that they might join a large church and just receive from it for a while, the church they joined was smaller than any Jen had known, with just 30 or 40 people. Its services were simple, not particularly evangelical or happy clappy, but its fellowship was steeped in faith and love. It was an achieving church with a great vision, commitment and energy. Getting involved in it was a transformative experience. In the year they spent in Perth, Jen grew as a Christian more than in any other period in her life. She came to regard it as her home church and continued to do so long after returning to UK.
After their year in Perth, they travelled in Australia and New Zealand, then came back to the Wirral. The next move had to be wherever there was a job for Matt, for Jen could get nursing or midwifery work anywhere. They moved to Newbury. Soon after arrival, Jen walked into town with a determination to make contact with the first church she would come across, whatever the denomination. It was the Baptist Church. Jim was its Pastor at the time and there were many people with whom Jen and Matt became friends. They settled well in Newbury and God blessed them with two children, a boy and a girl. That's when they realised they needed a larger house, but there was none in the area that they could afford. They had known York through visits to Jen's brother who had been living here since his student days. Jen was sorry to leave some close friends behind in Newbury, but God told her and Matt to move to York.
While staying in a rented house and looking for one to buy, Jen and Matt tried Crossroads Church, because her brother was in YCC and she was afraid they "might get up his nose" if they joined his church. In Crossroads they made friends with a couple who knew of a house for sale next door but one from them. (That this was the right house was only confirmed by the fact that the vendors were Christians.) They moved in just in time to face a major test that came their way.
Both of Jen's children had been born early and not without complications. As a midwife, Jen knew the kind of things that could go wrong. In the twentieth week of her third pregnancy, during a wakeful night, God told her that she would die in labour. In the thirty-second week, a healthy baby girl was born to her but Jen had to undergo an emergency operation. It turned out to be two emergency operations. In total about 20 units of blood had to be transfused and, for about 20 hours, her breathing had to be done for her by a ventilation machine. When she woke up, her brother was at her bedside. Matt came later, both of them and others had been coming and going during the 15 hours she had been unconscious. It would be some time before she learnt what Matt had been told outside the operating theatre: that she was probably not going to pull through. Later she also learned of the global chain of prayer that her Christian friends initiated for her through their church networks. For a while, she was occupied by the question of what kind of special work God wanted her to do in return for saving her life.
There was plenty of testing work to do on Jen's return home. Her boy was three and her girl was not really walking yet. Her new baby was kept in hospital for another month, but Jen had to make sure of getting to her every day to feed her. For weeks ahead, a kettle was the limit of what she was allowed to lift; and she was not allowed to drive. She was so weak that walking to her friend and neighbour next door but one was a physically exhausting expedition. The bridge separating her part of the village from the rest seemed an insurmountable barrier, with its up-and-down slope.
Family, friends and church rallied around. Four sisters-in-law took turns to help, although only one of them lived in York. Jen's parents came from the Wirral, to stay in a borrowed flat and eventually to live nearby. Jen's friend and neighbour from next door but one was a constant help. Their friendship became so close that when Jen had an attack of pain and panic one night at 4 am, her friend woke up in her house, with a need to investigate if all was well at Jen's. The church set up a rota of cooked-meal delivery for every evening of the first five weeks. Later Matt took several weeks off work. Surrounded by a dense and extensive network of Christian family and friends, who both prayed and lent a hand, her children got cared for and all the necessary housework got done. Jen inevitably had to do a lot of phoning to organise things, and sometimes she felt a guilty mother, as she always seemed to be palming her children off to others. But she has come back to full health and strength.
Jen works two days a week as a nurse in a local GP practice. In addition, she is regularly involved in church activities for children, both in YCC and locally in her village, together with women from the Methodist Church there. She feels blessed by living where she does, surrounded by Christian family and friends. She hopes that God will continue to provide for that, notwithstanding the notorious employment insecurity in the IT field, where Matt works.
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