geboren am April 24 1956 auf → Grenada einer kleinen vulkanisch karbik insel
etwas nördlich des Äquators und in der Nähe ihres berühmteren Nachbarn Trinidad.
Die insel ist nur 21 Kilometer lange und 12 Kilometer breite und ist einer von vielen erloschenen Vulkanen in der Karibik.
Mt st Catherine ist die hohestest punct mit 870m oder 2850 ft.
The island (also called Spice Island) is incredibly fertile and boast some of the nicest beaches in the Carribean.
it produces some of the finest Nutmegs worldwide
Our parents, Curtis and Ismay (Nee Noel) Nimblette, like many people from the Carribean, emigrated to the UK in the late 1950's.
Brittain at that time needed more workers in its post world war econnomy and had invited its colonies to come and work in "the mother country".
We -my older brother Ian - and I, later joined them there where we first set eyes on our sister Debbie.
Unfotunately not very long after arriving in England our father died of hypertension. I never knew him, he died when I was 6 years old.
☔ New Home in England
Life quickly took shape in the form of school, school uniforms, classes, football, scouts.. . I Left primary school at 11 years old for the "big jump" to secondary school and looming "O" and "A" level eaxms
Which would determine future employment prospects and earnings. I dreaded the thouhgt, with my poor memory for detail, I was never good at exams.
I ended up in the local secondary school in the average level stream with my peers from mostly working class parents. Secondary schools then streamed
pupils into three groups by exam grades however (as I was about to find out) the higher achievers tended to come from richer families
and had parents who were tearchers, university lectures, accountants etc
One day, totally out of the blue, our form teacher told me to go to another class, the class of the higher academic achievers. I was really surprised, I had
never counted myself as being any different to my peers academically at all
Shortly after "the move" a new schoolmate invited me to his after-school club run by a group of Christian. Though we were brought up attending church,
these
Christians said that you can know Christ in a personal way if you ask him into your life, something I'd never heard before. But, surely Jesus was just a
another religious figure who lived thousands of year ago
how can you know him personally and that on top of whether he was who he said he was and whether he lived at all?
After a while out of curiosity I asked Jesus to come into my life - not expecting anything to actually happen and while I liked these Christian.
✟ New Life in Christ
Some days afterward while walking through a park on my way home, my entire body was filled up with the love, light, peace and joy. It stopped me dead in my tracks,
The flowers, trees, everything around me, all seemed to be have taken on more brilliant colours, as if they too were feeling the same thing that
was
happenning to me, as if they too were rejoicing with new life and praising their creator along with me.
I knew immediatly it was Jesus Christ.
I had been born again by the Holy spirit of God. A new creation. A child of God
This was the long pomised gift of God Jesus had spoken about and was made possible by his death and resurrection,
so that everyone - and all of creation - can now be reconciled to God and to know Him personally
All my doubts about Christ and his message had evapourated instantly. I knew my life had changed forever.
I had become a desciple of Christ, just like Jesus' first desciples - and I like them - I too had a message to share with the world:
The good news of salvatiion through Jesus Christ, the saviour of the world
✟ new faith, New family
So what now?
I had a whole new family with whom I enthusiastically attended church. We met regularly to read and talk about Christianity
I began to read the Bible, eager to learn more about what Christ had said and done while on earth, and what it meant for mankind
and us personally 2000 years later. How do we let others know about God's plan for his own creation, when will Jesus return...
Was the Bible inerrant - meaning without errors or not. If it is divinely delivered are we to believe the Earth was created in 6 literal day?
We attended Christian events like Greenbelt where hundreds of young people gathered annually to celebrate Christ, hear what Christian throughout
the world were experiencing.
Meanwhile I was comming to the end of my school days. What should I study, I was good in sciences and would like to have gone to University but
being a
very poor student I knew I couldn't go..ironically..
✟ New challenges
I left school and trained as a Geology technician in London University where I worked for a number of years.
These were challenging times for me. Most of the people around me were aggressively anti-Christian. Geologic evidence had
done away with any need for a devine creation of any flavour. Life had evolved on Earth from simple cells to ever complexer forms of life.
The evidence was all recorded in geologic history. During that time plate techtonics had recently been confirmed which further enhanced the
understanding of Earth history.
There are Christians who accept the theory of evolution with caveats. I eventually formulated my own understanding of Creation v Science by
allowing that Genesis is a story of creation written for pre-scientific peoples. God though had
created a universe with built-in condition
that inevitably produce life. This is indeed what we see in the rocks. All life is indeed star dust afterall, as the song says.
Meanwhile I was becoming increasingly aware that my time as a technician was coming to an end. But what to do? I didn't know. The decision
was forced on me as the college was abolished in government austerity cuts! I took the opportunity to enroll on a 2 year course at London Bible
college which was great. Near the end of my studies an event occured that changed the entire course of my life.
✟ Marching orders
One morning, shortly before the end of my studies, I work up and immediately knew that I had to read John 4 - the story of the woman at the well.
I at first tried to shake it off while I couldn't think of any reason I should re-read a story I knew quite well. But the pressure to read it remained absolutely constant.
I sat down and read the whole chapter and for some reason Jesus' words (v38) stood out:
"I sent you to reap that for which you have not laboured;others have laboured, and you have entered into that labour"
I set off as usual for college with heart full of wonder - there had to be a reason why I was so powerfully directed to read that chapter.
This particular college day began with the student and staff gathering to listen to an invited outside speaker - normally a church pastor or vicar.
He bagan, to my utter amazment, with these words,
"I had prepared to speak on something else but on my way here the lord told me I should speak
from John chapter 4." There was no room for misunderstanding what this meant for me. God was calling me into his service as a labourer.
Some days later I was praying in my room but kept thinking about a ship. Unexpectedly a friend entered my room and immediately said, "Brian,
"
the first thing I thought of when I came in is a ship." Operation Mobilisation (OM) is a Christian missionary movement which had two ships taking
the message of Christ around the world, staying for weeks at a time at major ports, sending out teams into the cities and villages, and inviting people on board.
In order to join the ships' ministry a two week orientation course is required to assess suitability for the work. For me this meant going to Germany.
worship and prayer, lectures, activities of one sort or another, fun and games. People from all parts of the world. There I met someone who was
to become my wife years later.
At the very end of the orientation, I learned (what I should already have know) that the flight to and from the ship would cost £2000 and needed
to be paid within 2 weeks.I was pennyless. I wasn't going to the ships. The ground beneath my feet dissapeared.
I couldn't believe that at the very last everything would fall apart. Had I misheard what the Lord was saying to me?
I was sad, distressed, disappointed, angry, dissillsioned..Later that day I found somewhere I could pray alone and began, almost in tears,
to accuse God for the failure. Why had he led me this far only to let me down now. However after only a short while I sensed
God's presence right there with me and HE was laughing - I'm not exaggerating - and I was suddenly filled with joy and I too began to laugh
All my fear just dissapeared. He said in the end "I'll show you who is boss"
Everyone left for their homes and churches to prepare for joining the ship in two weeks time.
I continued to feel an incredible sense of peace as I reached my front door back in London. Amost immediatly I turned the key in the lock, my mother said a letter had arrived
for me. It was sitting on the shelf next to the door. I opened it there and then. The letter was from the local council with a cheque for £2100 which owed to me from a grand for my studies
at London Bible college. Incredibly, I was on my way to join the Doulos.
✟ Ships
The ship with a crew of 300 people of a dozen or more nationalities was like a mini village. Bakers, engineers, welders, bookshop, doctord, nurses and officers -
- the officers being the captain and other trained seamen.
The new recruits met the ship in Douala, Cameroon in West Africa. I was assiged to work as a deck hand which included steerage while at sea, docking and undocking
the ship and keeping the ship looking ship shape which involved a lot of painting - sea water and steel means a lot of rust.
The ship itself was a meuseum piece, built in early 1900's it had already had several name changes down the years. It was aquired in the early '70 and renamed 'Doulos'.
which is the Greek word for 'servant'.
We headed South on our 2 year journey arriving at port after port first along West, south and East Africa, then accross to India arriving in Mumbai (Bombay).
Again, heading south along West coast of India to SriLanka. Then North, up the east coast of India. Then we crossed over to Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand
and the Phillipines and finally to Hong Kong were I and those who joined the ship with me in Camaroon, flew home.
Genada
capital city - stGeorges
early days
Ian & Brian with ties for the photos
early days in Yemen
Mum and dad
