“Mum’s words stayed with me in a vivid way,” says Janie. “ I believed them absolutely. Tendon transplants for polio victims were still being pioneered. I wasn’t surprised when my transplant was a success because I knew Jesus had helped me!

“Mum’s words were my first real touches of God. It was also in hospital, making friends with children from different backgrounds, that God gave me a vision of equality.

“I was born into a comfortably-off Army family. We had a gardener, governess, cook and cleaner and my father’s batman acted as chauffeur. There was no ostentation about our wealth. We were trained ‘if you want something you must earn it’. But the money and privilege were there, all the same.”

The 60s were impressionable years for Janie. Her father worked as a military attaché in Washington at the time of Martin Luther King’s peace marches and President Kennedy’s assassination. Janie saw racism and grim poverty at first hand. One day she was turned off a ‘black bus’ by an angry driver – and realised that racism makes both sides equal in their hatred!

“Deep inside I longed for social justice and equality. I found my answer soon after I returned to England in 1972 to work as a teacher in London. I’d joined an upper-class bible study group and one evening, soon after we’d all received the baptism in the Holy Spirit, we studied the second and fourth chapter of Acts and all realised together - That’s it - true equality!

“The revelation of ‘all things in common’ split our group. Four of us committed ourselves together and ended up living in the Fisherfolk’s Coventry community.

Two years later, aged 27, I found my way to the Jesus Fellowship, which was just starting ‘common purse’ community.” Community was an astonishing step for someone as conformist as Janie but she found it a ‘great, self-discerning, discipleship learning curve’.

“Since my baptism in the Spirit I’d been longing to get rid of my money. So it was an enormous relief. Giving in my car was a big thing - it started off as ‘Janie’s car’, soon became ‘the green car’ and ended up crunched, when a young brother was doing driving practice and missed the corner. That was the moment when I realised ‘well, no, it’s not ‘mine’, anyway’. “In finding brotherhood and life in the church I was able, in 1976, aged 30, to embrace the gift of celibacy with joy.”

More changes came when ME forced Janie to give up work, after 17 years of teaching. The ten years of sickness that followed were a time of breaking - but also of deep healing as Janie realized she was accepted by ‘being’ not by ‘doing’. As she felt stronger, she took over the running of the largest Jesus Fellowship house - the catering venue for many large church events.

“As I look back over nearly thirty years in community, I can see how God has always forced me out of the shadows, where I would naturally like to be. I’ve never looked for new adventures - God just pushes me into them!

“I thank God for the freedom I have now. I wouldn’t give up the treasures of personal poverty and simplicity for anything! Money can give you power to rule, control and dominate others. But when you’ve given away all personal wealth, you find yourself being able to identify with all people and their needs”.

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