About Penny Carey - Missions Leader

I grew up in Salisbury, Wiltshire in the South of England and was the 'baby' of four children. I played rough and tumble with my brothers and in winter impressed the neighbourhood older children by being fearless on a small toboggon speeding down the hill at the end of our road.

My brothers and I went to 'Happy Hour Club' on a Tuesday evening at the Gospel Hall. It was great fun with singing, Bible stories, competitions and prizes. They told us to 'ask Jesus to forgive your sins' and 'ask Jesus into your heart'. I did pray like that more than once but did not feel any different so concluded I may not have done it right. However looking back I think God understood and came into my life. I had a big desire to be useful to God – I think that came from God.

But by the time I was about 10 I had strong feelings of resentment against my mother – whatever I did was not good enough – if I laid the table but forgot the serving spoons it was all wrong. I got a school prize in the first year of Grammar school – in the second year she demanded to know why I did not get any prize!

As an adult I told my friend Heather about my mother and how I felt her treatment had made me a perfectionist and given me a dread of failure and not being good enough. Heather said 'Well you know what you should do' – then I realised she meant I should forgive my mum. I did not want to – she did not deserve it – but by the end of our prayer time together I told God I did forgive her. What a relief! I went to the shops and realised how interesting people are – it helped me to appreciate people. And because I had forgiven her the effects started to reduce.

My friend Hilary and I organised a 'Christian Union' at the girls' school. We invited speakers – the biggest audience came when we had a meeting on 'boy girl relationships'.

Everyone assumed I would go to University – I felt like not going just to show them. It seemed so difficult to know what to do but I prayed that God would guide me. I had reached my ceiling at maths so knew that would be too difficult. A new teacher had been an engineer before and suggested engineering. After three years at Exeter University and another course based at Lancaster University I started work as a civil engineer. It took years to learn – not helped cos I was shy of asking for help. But now I am working as a structural engineer and feel it is my ideal job since every project is different and I am doing things I love – applied maths, maps, organising, drawings and calculations

After a few years I was made redundant from my first design job for a big consultant. I felt rejected and a failure. While I was unemployed I realised that 'God has something for you to do even if employers don't' – there were a lot of voluntary things to do and people who needed a friend. In time I got a better job with a smaller firm – the boss there realised I needed some more training and sent me on some HNC modules at Bolton Institute. Actually that was of more practical use in my design job than the University degree.

I have often suffered from low confidence and fear of failure – maybe something to do with my mum's influence again. One evening at church they had an opportunity to go for prayer. The preacher diagnosed my problem as 'timidity' and prayed for me to be free of it. It worked – my confidence immediately increased. I still sometimes notice I have become timid or I am scared of some confrontation but i know what to do and I pray 'Timidity get out in Jesus' name' - it works every time.

Also if I get illogical fears in the night I have found that quoting Bible verses like 'The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear?' releases me from fear – I suppose it is telling the truth when the fears were all lies. And using the name of Jesus – he is stronger than all our troubles.

One Sunday morning our Pastor Geoff Williams was making prophesies over people. When he came to my husband Chris and I he said we would be a blessing to foreigners. I had already worked with a few people from overseas and tried to make them welcome and organised a prayer meeting for World concerns so I was pleased to have the confirmation that it was my thing.

In 1995 we heard that the UK Free Methodists were organising a two week trip to a Bible college in India. Chris and I both wanted to try it – we felt that even if it was awful it would only be two weeks and we could cope. Anyway the first morning we woke up in India we heard shouting outside – it was the bullocks pulling the concrete mixer to some bungalows to cast the concrete roofs – then we knew we were going to be OK.

Actually we loved it and got invited for three months to assist with the campus buildings. I prayed whether to ask for a sabbatical from my job or to resign and look for a new job when we returned. Several times I saw Bible verses that said 'the yoke will be removed from your shoulders and the yoke will be broken'. It was like a two way conversation with God – I concluded I should leave that job since if the 'yoke' is broken you can't put it back on. In the three months in India Chris worked with the tradesmen – they are called 'mistry' - and I surveyed buildings for maintenance requirements and helped with design and long term planning. It was dificult to get things done with the heat, the language barrier and poor materials – I felt I had done only one months work in three months – you see so much that needs doing and want to change everything. In contrast the college Director said we had done a year's work in three months!

After we returned to UK I got another job fairly soon in Leyland and later one in Preston. Guess what – when the Preston office closed I asked to transfer to one of the offices in India – the answer was yes – it was a dream come true. We went to one of the meetings of Asian Christians in Preston – one of the men prophesied that we would be a blessing to Indian people and people of many nations. We lived in India 2006 to 2007 and then that placement finished and I got another in Abu Dhabi until 2009. We loved India – the people are so friendly and the attitude so laid back - but we didn't like living in Abu Dhabi – it has no countryside, only desert, and the weather is too hot to even go for an evening walk for four summer months – who wants to live indoors? We were part of the local church each time and made friends with lots of people from other nations – I hope we were a blessing to them like those two prophesies said. We helped with the Alpha course in Abu Dhabi. We still keep in touch with friends all over the world – that is exciting.

It was weird returning to our own country – I felt like I did not belong for the first 18 months. Our church welcomes a lot of the Chinese students – so again Chris and I are making friends with people from other nations.