John Barnard [grimsby@scfs.org]
My interest in the sea and ships has been ever present. As a child we lived by the sea at Harwich and I spent many hours watching the ships birth at the busy ports of Harwich and Felixstowe. This love took me into the Royal Navy, and I served for 14 years as a submariner, I saw the world and lived very much to please myself.
It was not until I left the Royal Navy and was married with a very young family, that I came to know the Lord Jesus Christ as my saviour. Following a road to Damascus experience I felt that I couldn't sit on the fence and do nothing about my faith. So I felt God wonderfully calling me into this work, and once again I was back amongst the ships and the sea. This time though I was able to share the gospel with the seamen that I met and that was a dream come true.
Tanya my wife is my helper and a part of the ministry, in fact she is much more, she is a gift from God, and so are our children. We have three boys and one girl, only the youngest, Joseph who is 15, still lives with us.
The ports of Grimsby and Immingham are located on the River Humber on the east coast of the UK. Looking at statistics, I believe that Immingham is about the biggest port in England, it has many jetty's covering a number of miles, bringing in and taking out vastly different cargos, from crude oil to cars. However, it's the seamen that are important and they come from every part of the world, often poor by our standards, and lonely, and of course far from home.
There is the need; there is the unique mission field of the Seaman's Christian Friends Society. Christian work in whatever field is never easy. There seems to be a cost, but the blessings out way any heartache as we see seamen come to know the Lord Jesus as their Saviour, and others encouraged like those from Myanmar.
We need your prayers, please pray for our family, especially our eldest son Jason, who suffers from muscular dystrophy and our daughter Christy who is far from the Lord, and for the continuing support and finances to come in.
All this we leave in Gods hands, and we thank you for being part of this, His work, bless you.
John, Tanya and family.