Joyce’s story

Hi Joyce! Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?

I’m retired, married to Roger, I’ve got three grown up children and four grandchildren and I live in Wilford village. I used to be a nurse before I retired.


What were some of the best and worst parts of that job?

Working as a Marie Curie nurse was my final role in nursing, I had done cardiology and eye training and various other things but the last ten years of my working life were as a Marie Curie nurse. It was the most satisfying job I’ve ever had but also it was reaching people at the deepest level, often of difficulty and pain.

Tell us a bit about your childhood, did you grow up around church and faith?

I’m an only child and both my parents never went to church. My mum was one of twelve and her family were Catholic but I don’t think it was much a personal faith for her. I do remember that if there was a storm and thunder or lightning, she’d go under the stairs and count her rosary. (*Joyce chuckles*)

But despite this my parents did send me to Sunday school and I do remember that. But that was all, I never went to church, I went off and did my nurse training and got married and had children and all of that stuff but God wasn’t in my thinking at all.

So what changed?

Well we lived abroad in Trinidad and it was a sort of hedonistic lifestyle with lots going on. But one day I remember sitting down and thinking that there has to be more to life than this but this thought didn’t seem to come from me. So I think it was from this point that God started to draw me and started to come into my thinking.

one day I remember sitting down and thinking that there has to be more to life than this

I remember having this dream about something around that time that actually ended up happening and that seemed so strange and so the questions of whether there was a God or something bigger than me started coming up even more.

But all it did was make me decide that I was going to change my life. So when we came back I started sending our children to Sunday school and I even became a Samaritan for a couple of years. But it didn’t have any particular belief to it, it was all part of me just pulling myself up by my boot-straps and led me to sit in church for three years but not really get any of it.

What happened next?

Well, there was some women’s groups at the church which I joined and I had this book put in my hand which was called ‘Beyond Ourselves’ by a woman called Catherine Marshall. And there was this one chapter that talked about asking Jesus into your life and into your heart and asking him to take over your life a hundred percent. I hadn’t clicked that at all, so I just prayed that in my kitchen and my life changed within a week.


Tell us a little about that, you say your life changed within a week, what did that look like!?

Well I could suddenly read the bible whereas I couldn’t read it before. I couldn’t stop reading it now and I was asking questions all time and wanting to know more. I think I just encountered God quite dramatically but things also were difficult because I had this new found faith that wasn’t shared by everyone in my life.



How many years have you been following Jesus now?
Forty this year!

When you think about the last forty years of your life with Jesus, what difference has He made?

Gosh that’s a big question isn’t it!? It’s a complete difference because everything becomes real. The light comes on and things begin to make sense, there’s a new way of living that you didn’t know before that you do now. And there’s a freedom because that sets you free to be this person that you should be, not following a clone of somebody else or what somebody else thinks. 

You become a new person, you have a new identity and in that you don’t have to worry, you can know peace and contentment. It doesn’t mean you don’t have problems or difficulties but you can face them because Jesus is with you, right by your side.

What would you say to someone who’s reading this now and is thinking about exploring faith in Jesus and/or coming to church. What would you say to them?


Give your life to Jesus. He’s the Father, He’s a brother, He’s your friend, He’s your answer, He’s your strength, He’s your peace in difficulty and you have somebody to walk with because you’re never alone, even if you are alone you’re not alone.