I can picture the classroom now. We had just had a talk on vocations to the priesthood and religious life, and at the end we were given a form to express our interest in finding out more. I remember I ticked the box which indicated I was slightly interested. Two years later I left home to move to a religious community in the north of England as an aspirant. My first weekend there was a life weekend. We had a retreat given by a priest on the power of the Love of God, and it blew me away. I had never heard anything like it before. I realised that although I had grown up in a committed catholic family, I knew about God, but I didn’t know him personally in a personal relationship. I remember a young Brother asking me if I wanted to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit, and I said “Yes”. He prayed for me and I experienced God touching me and it felt like an electric sensation going though me. I look back at that experience as life-changing and as real today as it was then.

I stayed for two more years with the Brothers but I realised it was not my calling. I looked at the priesthood, but I recognised that I was called to marriage. After completing my training as a nurse in the UK, I remember an encounter with a Catholic Doctor from Malta, who had a healing ministry. He was visiting friends of mine, and he called me to one side while I was visiting with them, and said that God wanted to disciple me, and that he would take me somewhere for that to happen. Six months later, I found myself in Ireland, in training with a Lay Missionary organisation called Youth With A Mission. The centre in Dublin was geared towards training Catholics as missionary disciples, and it was there that I met my wife, Kathy. Our time with Youth With A Mission took us to Africa to help pioneer a Catholic School of Evangelisation and on our return to lead a team giving school retreats and parish missions in Ireland and the UK. I went back into nursing to support our family, but involvement in Evangelisation has continued, helping groups network together for evangelisation in Ireland and Europe. Since we have retired, Kathy and I continue our apostolate, reaching out to pilgrims on the Portuguese Camino and training a new generation of missionary disciples in Spain with a ministry called Kerygma Teams.

Tim Nichols