When I arrived at Westminster Hospital to begin my nursing studies in 1963, I met Celia Goshawk (later Nicholson) who was three years senior to me. Celia invited me to join a Bible study in the nurses’ residence where I was living. I had asked Jesus into my life as a result of my father’s death from leukaemia when I was 11, but I lacked assurance and the confidence to share my faith with others.

Grasping the vision

I was impressed by Celia’s knowledge of the Bible and the way she was able to use Scripture to encourage me and others. On one occasion she left a note on my door with Jeremiah 33:3: ‘Call unto Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you know not’ (NKJV). I particularly remember this because 333 was our hospital emergency number for when a patient on the ward had a cardiac arrest! It also impressed me that someone would be able to quote a verse from the Old Testament to help me grow spiritually. That really motivated me to want to know the Bible for myself.

I saw Celia helping other nurses and admired the way she could encourage them in their faith. It was through this friendship that I was drawn into a wider group of nurses, who were active in the London Navigator ministry. It was a thriving community in which I gained a deeper heart to follow the Lord.

I also learned practical skills to grow in my relationship with God and to help others, and I caught a vision to see my life as a significant part of Jesus’ great commission to make disciples of all nations. I witnessed many of my contemporaries going as missionaries to other countries to carry forward this disciple-making ministry around the world.

Living it out

After training as a midwife in Southampton and spending a year in Loughborough doing Connect (Navigator internship), I moved back to Westminster Hospital as a clinical tutor. I wanted to use all that I had learned in order to help a new generation of nursing students, as I had been helped. 

God wonderfully honoured my desire and in the next two years I had the privilege of coming alongside a number of nurses, several of whom I am still in touch with today.

I remember on one occasion when only one nurse turned up to a Bible study discussion I had planned. Initially I was disappointed and thought of cancelling the study. But because I was alone with this one girl, I was able to draw out more deeply what she was thinking and feeling and that evening she gave her life to Jesus. It was a wonderful lesson about the power of one-to-one, and the dignity and value of every person. These lessons shaped the way I have invested in others over all the years since.

God’s grace rippling out to more and more lives

During those two years, I was invited to live with Roger and Dottie Anderson, American missionaries who were at that time the leaders of the UK Navigator work. Dottie became a very important mentor to me. She walked with me through those next few years and stayed in touch to encourage and support me through the ups and downs of the next 40 years, until I had the privilege of speaking at her funeral.

Over the years, as I’ve kept up with some of these nurses I had the privilege of helping, I’ve had the joy of seeing God at work through them, in all sorts of ways and in many different places. God’s amazing grace rippling out to touch more and more lives with his love.

As I reflect back on those early years and the life-altering impact of the friendship of Celia and Dottie, I am reminded of 1 Samuel 23:16: ‘Saul’s son Jonathan went to David at Horesh and helped him find strength in God’ (NIV). As Amy Carmichael says about this verse, ‘God make us all His Jonathans.’