In 1994, I had the immense joy of marrying Audrey. We had been friends throughout our teenage years, and this friendship developed into love, nurtured by our mutual devotion to the Lord and His people. Audrey’s father was the first person to share the Gospel with our family, which had a transformative impact on us, and I was saved as a boy of nine attending Sunday School. Audrey became a Christian at the age of eight, and she also attended the same Sunday School. As a young couple, we barely knew what trials were. Life was vibrant, filled with boundless energy and many happy adventures. The early years of our marriage were also spent serving God and His people. It was our joy to try to reach children for Christ and to help with the youth work in Perth. Yet, in 1996, our lives changed dramatically. Just as we received the exciting news that Audrey was pregnant, her health took a terrible turn for the worse. Her lungs began to collapse, leaving her fighting for every breath. This became the pattern over the next five months as we entered a period of deep and painful uncertainty, followed by a devastating diagnosis. The doctor telephoned to communicate the results: Audrey had a rare and incurable lung disease called Lymphangioleiomyomatosis (LAM). We searched for light in the darkness, but the doctor’s words sadly brought little hope to our sorrow. The life expectancy for those with this disease was approximately five years. A single phone call had changed our lives forever.
To stabilize Audrey’s condition and help her lungs remain inflated, she underwent urgent surgery. The procedure required anaesthesia, but tragically, recovery from the anaesthetic induced premature labor. In the theatre recovery ward, Anna Joy Ferguson was born. For the next eight days, we experienced the deepest lows and the highest highs, but on the eighth day, our only child, Anna, left our hands for Eternal and stronger arms. We remembered the words of King David, who, having endured a similar experience, said in 2 Samuel 12:23, “I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me.”
We left the hospital with broken hearts, no baby, and Audrey still desperately ill. It brought us to the lowest point in our lives; yet God had not abandoned us! As we passed through a prolonged period of grief, we struggled to lift our spirits; but then a remarkable invitation came. A servant of the Lord, Arthur Pollard, who had both officiated at our wedding and conducted Anna’s funeral, stood with us in our grief. He invited Audrey and me to come as leaders to a Christian camp that he organized. We were the most unlikely leaders, suffering grief and bereft of our own child, yet it was exactly what God provided for us. Within minutes of arriving at camp, we were able to tell a young boy of the Savior’s love and His wonderful grace. For the next 20 years, we were privileged to help run camp work and, despite our limitations, great blessing was seen over the years. God gave us the abundant provision of thousands of “children,” a much larger family than we could ever have expected.
Treatments for Audrey’s progressive disease, however, were unsuccessful, and her breathing continued to deteriorate. By 2008, her only hope for survival was a lung transplant. This treatment with extremely high risks, is considered only when life expectancy is less than a year. The nearest transplant centre was in the north of England, at least three hours’ drive away. Audrey was placed on the transplant waiting list, patiently hoping for a suitable organ to become available. Once again, we found ourselves on an emotional rollercoaster, frequently spending late nights driving the long hours to the hospital, only to be sent home for various reasons. After eight false alarms, Audrey was finally matched with a suitable lung. I remember the excitement as the transplant went ahead, and the peace that came from the Lord, never allowing myself to consider that this could be the last time I saw Audrey alive.
When the surgery was completed, instead of the good news of success, the clinical team were deeply concerned for Audrey. The transplanted lung had failed to function, and the harsh reality was that she was within hours of death. Professor Dark, a world-renowned surgeon, gave one final examination – but he offered little hope. By this time, a small team of praying Christians had arrived at the hospital. Our friend Jim McMaster, well known as a prayer warrior, was on his knees in earnest prayer when the surgeon approached after surgery. Respectfully, he waited for Jim to finish praying, then stated, “Your prayers have been answered. Remarkably, Audrey’s new lung has started to work.” The new lung had suffered a reperfusion injury, and normally patients with this condition did not survive. God had intervened, and this marked the beginning of an amazing road to recovery.
Returning home had once seemed a distant hope, but after 25 days in intensive care and a further three weeks in the high dependency unit, Audrey was finally home. The following months were devoted to rebuilding her strength and adapting to life with a transplanted lung. Throughout those days of recovery, Audrey experienced a profound sense of God’s help, and her weakness caused her to depend even more on the strength of the Lord.
With Audrey’s strength returning and a renewed sense that the Lord had preserved her for a reason, we were able to resume serving the Lord, even returning to run the camp and help with other youth activities. New opportunities also began to open up for us, including sharing the story of the transplant and telling others about the miraculous events that occurred when God’s people prayed. We have often observed that God’s plans are not always exactly as we wish, but they are precisely what we need. Our God keeps the planets in orbit and our breath in His hand; He knows exactly which plans are right for us. It is inevitable that we will all pass through storms in life; these are unavoidable, and they often arrive uninvited. We need a sure and certain foundation to protect us when everything is uncertain around us. The Lord Jesus is described as a “rock” (1 Cor. 10:4); He is also called the “foundation” (1 Cor. 3:11). Christianity is not a theoretical activity for those who live in a rarefied, cloistered environment; it is the greatest bedrock upon which we can build our lives. Ordinary people can live extraordinary lives, with the Lord as our rock.
Transplants offer no guarantees, and although Audrey has been blessed with an additional 17 years and has led a remarkably active life, she is now experiencing reduced breath and energy and requires full-time oxygen. This has curtailed some activities, yet she has managed to continue certain tasks from home. In Scotland, we are privileged to conduct Christian assemblies in schools as part of the approved curriculum. Audrey undertakes all the secretarial duties for this work and has arranged over one hundred school visits in this academic year, enabling thousands of children to hear biblical truth that they might not encounter elsewhere. In 2026, she hopes to expand this work further by inviting the children to a Bible exhibition in the Gospel Hall.
In 2011, we wrote a short book entitled “Kept, Safely Kept” to document the experiences we had encountered throughout our lives. A few copies may still be available from Christian bookshops, but we hope to reprint it in 2026. By sharing our story, we hope it will encourage you, reminding you that God hears and answers our prayers, that He is faithful, and that He walks with us through every circumstance of life.