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I was born in a small town in Ontario, Canada called New Germany, and was baptised into the Catholic church. My parents were in their forties, so I came as a surprise.

My mother suffered from schizophrenia, and this drove my father to drink. As you can imagine, my early years were unhappy. But this unhappiness found relief through the glimpses of light and truth that I perceived in the church — whether at Christmas or Easter, through stories of the saints, or at my little grotto with its flowers, candles and statues. I had a few relatives who were “religious” — one was a nun and another was a Carmelite brother. But they lived far away in the United States.

At the age of 11, I left home and moved next door with a native North American Indian family of the gypsy variety. Within weeks we were on the road. Their daughter Violet was my age, and we became notorious shoplifters, which garnered much praise from the family.

By age 12, I was in and out of custody, and in and out of foster homes. Seven foster homes to be precise — some of them bad, and some of them terrible. I was becoming infamous in the foster system. Finally, the authorities put me in hostel with a bunch of hippies and U.S. draft dodgers. Within a week I was a methamphetamine addict; a “speed freak”. I was 15.

Soon the hostel closed and I was again fostered out, this time to a lady named Lynne and her family. Lynne had been visiting the hostel, bringing food and looking for hungry souls to feed. She saw value in me. Her and her husband, who was the chief surgeon at Toronto General Hospital, were from New Zealand.

In time, Lynne led me to the Lord. This cost her dearly in lost sleep as she sat with me through my withdrawals. Lynne didn’t belong to a church, which meant I was somewhat left to find my own way spiritually. To me, churches were boring. They offered me tea and cookies, but I was an activist. Alas, I ended up on the “Left” side of politics, even working for a group called Zero Population Growth.

When I was 18, having left Lynne’s, I discovered that I was pregnant. I had a choice before me: was I for life, or for zero population growth? My Catholic foundation kicked in. I knew that life is sacred, period.

After some time of prayer for direction, God led me to a Jesus People commune. This group was very missionary-minded, and before long we heeded the command to “go into all the world”. My American husband and I moved to a mission centre in New Zealand. By 1973, we were serving in Kings Cross, Sydney. And by 1975, we were officially Aussies. Many events followed this, which included the breakdown of our marriage.

Fast forward to 1982, and my Australian husband Pete and I moved to the Philippines. Between us, we had seven children by this time. Pete and I were involved in producing a children’s Christian television show called The Luvvetts, which involved puppets, music and Bible stories. It was broadcast during Manila prime time and had over 7 million viewers each week.

Not long after this, Pete’s health began failing after a cancer diagnosis. The mission had strong views about blood transfusions, and the Christian doctors we saw encouraged us to “trust God”. I took Pete back to Australia and then returned to be with our children in the Philippines. We were expecting a miracle, but it wasn’t to be. Pete passed away shortly thereafter.

When the coup attempt happened in 1989, we left the Philippines and returned to Australia. We saw ourselves as an army, despite the mission discouraging close family bonds. There are some sad stories surrounding this. There were both positives and negatives to the Christian commune movement of the 1970s and 80s.

Some of the people we worked with in Manila now work for Revelation Media. Their animated version of The Pilgrim’s Progress (2019) reminded me of our days working in the Philippines. (If you haven’t seen this film, please do — it is very good). If Pete was still alive, we would still be there. As it happens, the musical director and score writer for that film was a close friend whom Pete led to the Lord.

My children are grown now and prodigals all. God has begun a good work in them. God has told me that if I put Him and His Kingdom first, He will give me the desires of my heart — which for me is the salvation of my children. God has their numbers, and His timing is perfect.

I keep myself busy by campaigning for Jesus. In addition to my involvement with the Canberra Declaration, I serve with the Australian Christian Lobby, 40 Days for Life, Cherish Life, and other groups. As you can tell, activism is in my bloodstream, and there’s no one more worthy of my activism than Jesus.