After a nursing career, I was living in Deal in Kent, and got my first copy of PROPHECY TODAY magazine in about 1986 I think, I then started going up to London to help out in the office of that magazine at Naismith House, 175 Tower Bridge Road. I did that until I met and married my husband, Rev Robert Blackwood, but at that time because of my lack of relatives, I felt that Clifford and Monica treated me like a Mum and Dad. They didn't know it then, but for me it was the healing of an "orphan spirit", and I can't thank them enough for that, also that the Lord led me there as a volunteer worker. The only reason I was in Deal for 2 years was because I had discovered one of my mother's brothers lived there, and it was a long, lost family connection, I stayed in Deal until he died, then moved on again. I don't think I would ever have found and married my husband if I hadn't been there, as I met him through a missionary, Dr Lysbeth Duncan who was writing something for the magazine I think. She wanted a house sitter while she was in Ethiopia, so I went up to Scotland to take care of her house and it was while I was there that I met my husband, who gave me lifts to church. I don't think I would have been married if it hadn't been for that little volunteering job as I needed that healing "with some Mum and Dad figures" before I could cope with it. It's a long story but that's the gist of it. I also thank God for "The Children's Society” who helped me in my training as a nurse while in their care. They even employed me until I was old enough to start my nursing. It was a lovely children's home in Herefordshire. I now have a very large family of in-laws who are wonderful, and all because I worked with Cliff and Monica.
Joan Blackwood