I was born in St. Lucia, West Indies. I was brought up by a single parent - my mother who was Catholic. She always brought me to church, so from my childhood I believed that God existed. My father was a seaman and every time I met him, I was intrigued by his tales of experiences at sea. As I grew older, I wanted to follow in his footsteps and become a seaman.
By the age of 16 I left school and went to sea. I worked as a deck boy on a fruit ship being the youngest crew member on board. I began drinking, smoking and sinking deeper in sin.
One Sunday morning in June 1975, in Cork, Ireland, a SCFS Port missionary (Walter Burrell) visited the ship and invited me to a Gospel meeting. I went to the Gospel meeting and heard the preaching but I did not respond. After the meeting he took me to his house for tea. There he opened his Bible and read John 3:16 ‘For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.’ He explained the verse to me, and I realised that as a guilty sinner God loves me and gave his Son Jesus Christ for me. I received Jesus Christ into my life as my personal Saviour.
About a year after my conversion I felt the call of God to Christian service, I left the ship and got involved with a local church and in 1996 I began working full time service with the church. I am also involved in an International Ministry to seafarers with SCFS (Seafarers' Christian Friend Society) visiting ships distributing Bibles, tracts, and witnessing to the crew.