| Canada to Kenya |
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How one couple’s tragic early lives have led them to a ministry of hope  A Canadian couple who’ve “been there and worn the t-shirt” have sold all their Western possessions to live in Africa to steer youngsters away from drink, drugs and promiscuity. Greg and Renee Plunkett didn’t even have a guaranteed home when they left for Kenya in March with the vision of setting up a youth centre and coffee house for some of the world’s most deprived people. But they went with the backing of their church in British Columbia and the full support of many Christians here in the UK. It’s a fresh start they could never have imagined themselves making a few years ago, when they were each living deeply troubled lives. Vancouver-born Greg, 54, experienced a life of crime and sordid living after an unstable upbringing. “My dad died when I was just nine and my mum became an alcoholic. I was the youngest of five children and didn’t really have a male figure to look up to,” he recalls. Greg was sexually abused by a male relative for about two years during his formative years. Consequently he was regularly getting drunk as a young teen and soon progressed to smoking pot, then chemicals, progressing to hallucinogenics and LSD. By 15, Greg was a ‘professional’ shop-lifter, fulfilling orders from schoolmates. In a drunken state, he proposed to his first wife after just two weeks and entered a loveless marriage when just 20. He said: “We both came from dysfunctional families and it was a recipe for disaster. By the time we had two children, I was cheating on her and we only agreed not to divorce so the kids wouldn’t be brought up by a single mother.” Greg’s double life continued until he was 37 when his thoughts desperately turned to God after being arrested for drug possession. “I always knew there was a God but didn’t know how to find him and I wondered if he could help me. I’d met a pastor about four years previously who told me about salvation, but I simply thought that God was supposed to solve all my problems. “This time I fell on my knees before God and told him I needed him to fix it. Changes started to happen in my life. That night it felt like the burden of all my perversions started to lift off me and I was able to resist for the first time.” Sadly his marriage did not survive. But for six years now he’s been married to Renee, whose personal life also hit rock bottom. She came from an equally dysfunctional background and was abused by her father and three uncles from an early age. “Even when my mum caught my dad in the act she never talked about it,” she says. After receiving another beating from her father she ran off with an unstable man when she was only 19. The couple eventually married with two of their three children already born, but when Renee caught her drug and alcohol-addicted husband watching pornography with their son the relationship ended. Following separation Renee believes she heard God telling her to visit an address which turned out to be a new church, where she met the pastor’s wife who greeted her with the words “I’ve been waiting for you!” Renee gave her life to Christ that day and was soon employed by the church in administration. It was there that she met Greg. So just days after celebrating their sixth wedding anniversary, they jetted off to start an uncertain future in Kisumu, firmly believing God would guide the way. Renee, who celebrated her 45th birthday just days into the new venture, admits: “I resisted the permanent move long after Greg knew we would be going. But one day last February I woke up knowing God had spoken to me and I said I was ready.” Practical training As well as running the youth centre, they will also be hosting people on the mission field to expose them to things they wouldn’t normally encounter in the west. Greg said: “It is during this practical training that the Lord will often reveal gifts and abilities they weren’t even aware they had. We have testimonies from pastors who said how much these people have been affected and changed and how they contribute so much more in the church body after their experience in Africa.” And Greg and Renee’s own experience of deprivation and abuse has given them a deep understanding of what the Kenyan young people they’ll be working with might be facing. Thanks to the transforming love of God, they can be used to save others from what they suffered. |
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