Greetings! My name is Paul Ashby, and I live with my wife, Carmel, in Derby, UK.  We also have four children, and they are all independent.  We both made a total commitment to the Lord when we were teenagers and before we knew of each other, so God is our first priority, and our family is our primary responsibility.  Carmel is now a Nurse Practitioner; and where possible, we work together in whatever God calls us to do.  God has guided me through five distinct phases of work and ministry.

1 - Engineer:  In 1974 I graduated from Imperial College London in Physics, and designed medical radiographic equipment.  After a career which included producing the first Doppler ultrasound imaging equipment manufactured in the UK, I responded to God’s call to offer for the ministry of the Methodist Church, and was trained at Bristol. 

2 - Missionary and Physics Teacher:  After training I went with my family to Zimbabwe, as chaplain to Thekwane High School and Head of Physics. Unfortunately, we were caught up in Zimbabwe’s troubles, and in 1985, gunmen martyred our headmaster and his wife, Luke and Jean Khumalo, and shot other staff.  We were grateful to escape with our lives.

3 - Church Minister:  On return to the UK I was appointed minister to Methodist churches in Highworth and Shrivenham (near Swindon), where I learned much from the people there.  People came to faith and we experienced growth in many areas of church life, so that both churches were rebuilt to serve growing congregations and a developing work with both young and old.

4 - Bible College Tutor:  In 1993 I was appointed to Cliff College in Derbyshire as Old Testament Tutor.  It was a privilege to be at the pastoral and academic centre of College life, eventually as Senior Tutor.  As well as teaching Old Testament and Hebrew, I also taught new students how to study the Scriptures, and developed the College’s teaching in Pastoral Studies, Prayer Ministry and Counselling.

5 - Illness, God’s call, and healing?  I left Cliff College because of ongoing unresolved back trouble.  After much surgery, my spine is now pinned together at the base, and morphine is fed into my spinal column to relieve chronic pain. I have also had heart problems, and had a triple heart by-pass operation in 2004.  Nevertheless, the Lord has used all this to give me the time to create a web site ministry that would have been impossible had I continued in my previous work. In recent years I have had periods of relief from pain, but I continue to battle with it, and some days are better than others. However, I am blessed with wonderful prayer support, and each day is a blessing!  The Lord gives me strength to write, and this is my ‘devotion’ to Him.  Thanks be to God!

‘All things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose’   (Romans 8:28)

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