Paul and Jackie
Paul and Jackie live in Watford and have been married for 22 years. Paul works for a pharmaceutical company as a Commercial Development Manager, and Jackie works for Herts County Council as an admin. assistant. Paul met Jackie in a young people’s group in a local Methodist Church and later proposed to her on top of the Eiffel Tower. They have two children, Daniel at Portsmouth University and Hannah, a sixth former at Parmiter’s School.

A friend I had known since childhood, but had not seen for a number of years, was at the same University. One day he felt compelled to walk four miles across town just to tell me that ‘God was moving in my life’. Soon after, I had my own personal encounter with Jesus. For three nights I was really restless and couldn’t sleep. It was as if He was asking me ‘What are you going to do about me?’ I’d heard the stories, been to all the meetings, so I knew about Him, but still I didn’t know Him. On that third night I acknowledged in my heart that He was real and gave him permission to reveal more of who He was to me. I slept well that night. That is when my Christian journey started. Over the following months I came to a deeper personal understanding of who He really is, and made a public confession and declaration of my faith.

Since then, I have consistently found God to be faithful. Trusting my life to Him has given me a sense of peace, purpose and provision.

I am a keen musician and songwriter. At university, I had dreams of becoming a famous musician, but God has turned this focus to committing my musical abilities to writing songs for Him. I wrote a children’s musical for the millennium, which was performed as a Christmas production in several hundred primary schools in this country and several abroad. I love to write songs and my prayer is that God would use these to touch people’s hearts.

As teenagers, my sister and I walked into a local Methodist church and asked to join the youth group. I also joined a singing group at the church, which helped to keep me from going astray during my teens. We even made a record! It was not until I was 15, when I went to a Selwyn Hughes meeting in Brighton that I really began to understand what Jesus has done for me. I responded to the message, went forward to receive Jesus as my Lord and Saviour and have never looked back! I was baptised at 21 and was also filled with the Holy Spirit around this time, which was a significant experience that has affected my life positively ever since.

I met and married Paul when I was 23 and we had Daniel and Hannah a few years later. Family life jogged along for a while. I knew in my head that my Heavenly Father loved me, but it was not something I had any personal experience of. In 1996, I went to a conference in Toronto called ‘The Father Loves You’. I had a real revelation of the Father heart of God and His love for me. He showed me how delighted He is with me because I am His child and that His approval is not dependent on anything I do. This has proved to be so releasing!

In the Gospel of John chapter 21:15-17, Jesus asked His disciple Peter if he loved Him and then asked him to care for His sheep. This Scripture is very important to me because it is my heart to take care of people, which is why Paul and I are Homegroup leaders. I also love to worship and desire to help people worship God whatever is going on in their lives, because it is all about Him and not about us and our circumstances.