We both come from very different backgrounds. I [Gina] was born into a Catholic family and have always practised my faith. I can recall having a relationship with Jesus from the age of seven. For my part [Geoff] I became a Christian and was accepted into the Catholic Church at the age of eighteen. But that’s another story.
We met on a blind date when we were fifteen, became engaged at eighteen and married at twenty. These statistics could be a recipe for disaster but by the grace of God we will celebrate our thirty nine years of marriage later this year and rejoice in having four daughters and two granddaughters.
If we were to describe our faith journey in the early days of married life we would say that we were dutiful Catholics. We met all the observances, our children went to Catholic Schools and we supported parish activities and undertook different roles within the school and parish life.
About twenty nine years ago, and prompted, we are sure, by the Holy Spirit we left the three girls that we had then with grandparents and attended a Marriage Encounter Weekend in Oxford. That’s when it first happened. We both experienced for the first time the truth that God loved us. Not just as one of many but Gina and Geoff personally. It was a ‘heart’ experience not just a ‘head’ understanding. On that weekend and over the following days and weeks we also knew that He was calling us to work within His Church as the Sacramental couple that we were. We often describe this as our first ‘conversion experience’. We soon found out that saying two small words ‘Yes Lord’ should not be done lightly as He will take us at our word. Lots happened in the following years as we worked within the Church in the area of marriage and Family Life.
Ten years later, and now with four daughters, we went on a Life in the Spirit Seminar. This was our second conversion experience. We asked for, and received, a deeper outpouring of the Holy Spirit in our lives. As a result we fell more in love with God and knew at an even deeper level that He loved us. We experienced a release of the spiritual gifts in our lives that was electric. We had a new hunger to know God and serve God. We could not get enough teaching on Scripture. We had an insatiable desire to worship and praise Him. Sadly we found it hard to meet these needs within the Catholic Church and were on the verge of leaving and joining a House Church. The Lord had other plans. During a time of prayer we heard him ask us to “rethink, stay and help put His heart back into His Catholic Church”. This has been our vision and our mission as a couple since that moment.
Saying ‘yes’ to this call has not always been easy and no doubt we have made mistakes but we have always tried to stay faithful to that call. It has, without doubt, led us to where we are now. In full time Christian ministry as Directors of the Catholic Bible School based near Chichester on the South coast of England.
What have we learnt? Well, if you say ‘Yes Lord’ he will accept that ‘yes’ but also He will guide you and lead you. He will also equip you to do what he wants you to do. Is it an easy road to take? – often not! Would we have it any other way? – if we are honest, it’s the only way.