find out about the Prayer and Bible days held on the first Saturday of each month, in Derby, UK
links to pages about the vision behind the site and the author
links to pages describing the Christian faith, and explaining how to use the site
links to pages with helpful resources
ways of contacting the author, including email contact, a guestbook, and a survey

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.  Paul & Carmel Ashby

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)

the vision behind this site, and a brief statement of faith
view the site plan, which has links to every page on the site
use the guestbook to share your experiences with other users
make contact with the author, give testimony or report any problems
a brief site survey, which gives the author helpful statistics about the site is used

 

find out more about the Christian faith, about Jesus, God and the Church.
choose from a list of daily devotions, to do on line or download
advice about get the best from this site

Read about the author

go to home page

 

a list of Bible studies being planned for the future and other items of interest
links to each of the five dictionaries
various resources including information, article downloads, a desktop icon, and much more.
a discipleship programme to use with this site, for individual or group use.
links for all the devotion downloads currently available.
a dictionary explaining words used in the Bible either not in common use today, or having special meaning in the Bible
a dictionary identifying many of places named in the Bible
a dictionary describing the many people found within the Bible
a small dictionary explaining some of the key events mentioned in the Bible
a dictionary of the books of the Bible explaining their content and place within God's Word