David Webster - Reader

Born of missionary parents in Kenya, I grew up on a remote, forest-clad mountain, Marsabit, in the deserts of the north. It was at boarding school in Nairobi, at the age of 12, that my faith came alive, and I first felt God's presence, and His claim on my life.

At medical school in London (St Thomas's) I met my wife-to-be, Rosemary, a physiotherapy student. After marriage, house jobs, and some theological training, we went out in 1967 to north-east Uganda as medical missionaries. For 6 years I ran a remote, one-doctor bush hospital, at Amudat in Karamoja District.

Those were the Amin years. They were difficult, sometimes frightening, often exhausting, but immensely fulfilling. Three years followed, working for the Kenya Government as the M.O.H. in the vast Marsabit District of northern Kenya - the place of my childhood. During our 9 years in east Africa our 4 children were born.

In 1976 we returned to England, to General Practice in Upton-upon-Severn. I have served as a Reader at Great Malvern Priory - and did a 7 year stint as Church Warden. Being a Reader, and having the privilege of preaching God's Word, is one of my greatest joys - as well as the privilege, as a G.P., of being alongside people at their times of greatest need. It is my faith in Christ which I have found to give purpose to life, to give meaning to existence, to bring colour to a drab world, to give hope when so much seems bleak.

David Webster