I graduated from medical school in 1989 and worked for two years in hospitals in Southport, Rotherham, Scunthorpe and Wolverhampton before taking a six month break doing children’s ministry with Roger Carswell, an itinerant evangelist, and part of the "Association of Evangelists." At the end of this time I met Rachel and not long after that went on to Belfast Bible College. Rachel and I were married at the end of my first year and we returned to Belfast together where we spent the first year of our married life as students at the Bible college.
It was during this time that we applied to SIM (Serving In Mission). While heavily involved in children’s work at Bible college, God began to open me up to the idea of leaving full time medicine to concentrate on ministry to children. I was already producing visualised Bible verses and other resources to fill a gap I had seen even in the UK. These were made more widely available through “Tell the Children”.
On our graduation from Belfast Bible College Rachel and I returned to England where we were involved in running the children’s club in a new church plant with Rachel’s parents in Morley, Leeds. I continued some locum medical work, mainly to keep us funded, but felt more and more the call to leave medicine behind. We were accepted by SIM and commenced Resource Development Ministry, leaving for Peru in July 1996. We have been there since, working to produce culturally appropriate Bible teaching materials for children and train those who will work with them.
Steve’s Story
I was born in Peru to medical missionary parents working with the then “Evangelical Union of South America" (EUSA) in Urcos, a small village near Cusco, in the Andes mountains of southern Peru.
I returned to England with my family for educational reasons when I was ten and went on to finish high school and study medicine at Sheffield University. I had always wanted to return to Peru and in 1987 spent three months working in Arequipa for my medical elective. It was during this time that God clearly confirmed to me that my desire to return to Peru was not simply wanting to return to where I had spent a very happy childhood, but rather a call to a lifetime’s work and ministry. However, it was to be a long road! I would not see Peru for a further nine years.
