Gordon and Jenny Martin lost both their children to a rare disease before they were three. Yet, though neither would say they had special qualities to weather such storms, their story emerges as a remarkable testimony to the comforting power of God.

Gordon as a student in the 60s, had found himself asking what life was all about when his parents separated. An encounter with some Christians on the streets of Worthing proved life-changing.

"As I chatted with one of them a voice in my head suddenly said 'I want you'." Gordon found faith and became part of a group of young Christians. It was here that he met Jenny and they married in 1976 and moved to Horsham.

"I'd trained to be an occupational therapist" says Jenny. "But my sheltered childhood totally unprepared me for the realities of work in a psychiatric hospital." Jenny had had a breakdown which left her prone to depression.

In 1979, an old friend of Gordon's, Roger, came to visit. He told Gordon he'd found "this little group of Christians - the Jesus Fellowship - living together in a Christian community near Coventry".

"We went to see for ourselves" says Gordon. "I lapped it up and Jenny loved it from the start, too. But Roger's challenge to 'come and join' scared me. There was too much to lose - the home we were just setting up, my job. I decided we weren't ready yet."

By their second visit, their first baby was on the way; in 1980 Stevie was born.

"We thought we had a normal, healthy little boy - perhaps a bit slow developing but nothing obviously wrong," explains Jenny. "In 1982, just days before I was due to give birth to our second child, I woke in the night, hearing Stevie make a sobbing sound. He was having a massive, prolonged series of fits. A few hours later, while Stevie was in hospital with doctors trying to puzzle out what was the matter, I went into labour and our daughter Rachel was born."

Earlier that year, Jenny had read Power in Praise by Merlin Carothers, a Christian book which recommended praising God in all circumstances.

"It grabbed me that people were praising God for awful things and how He transformed the people and those awful things in the process. We made an agreement to learn to praise God for every trial."

That discipline rescued them now. As Gordon sat in hospital with Stevie, he felt able to give him to God. Back home, Jenny wrote a prayer: "God - it's all in Your hands." That prayer was their anchor over the next three months, as Stevie's condition deteriorated.

"Stevie was a gentle, sensitive, little boy," says Gordon. "We hoped the whole while for his healing. When we prayed for him he'd repeat 'Jesus is Lord' after us. At some stage in his illness, I realised Stevie could no longer see. His condition worsened and in January 1983 he died. The post-mortem revealed Alpers Syndrome. We were told it was so rare only eight cases were recorded and it wasn't likely to affect other children we might have - information that, sadly, later research disproved."

"After Stevie died," says Jenny, "I felt living in Christian community was how I'd get healed of chronic depression. I'd always been desperately shy and lonely deep inside. I didn't easily make friends. I felt community would be my answer. But I wanted to wait till Gordon was ready."

Meanwhile, Gordon was sensing God telling him, "Go and see Roger". Roger and others from the Jesus Fellowship had been coming to Horsham regularly to support them.

"I was that bit more hungry now," says Gordon, "so when Roger suggested 'Why don't you come and join us?' I was in tears, realising God was still holding His offer open. We started visiting the community in earnest, cementing relationships. We were wisely advised not to rush straight into community, so we planned to move into our own house nearby."

On their last visit before moving, the unthinkable happened - Rachel in the cot beside them started to have fits and the whole horrific process began a second time.

"It was a huge blow - but we were carried through," says Jenny. "It blew me away that hundreds in the community were supporting us with prayer, daily visits, loving messages - and flapjack! In the middle of it all, Gordon had to pack up our Horsham home, finish his job and move to Coventry. We yo-yo'd between hospital and home for five months.

"Rachel was a happy, welcoming little person - beaming at everyone she met. But she knew her need. If we said 'prayer' she'd immediately say 'Head! Head!' meaning we should lay hands on her for healing."

"One Sunday, as I held up a toy, I realised - just like Stevie's last months - she couldn't see. Her last weeks she spent more or less asleep. In the early hours of St Patrick's Day, 17 March 1985, she died."

After Rachel's death, Gordon and Jenny describe the "mix of things" they went through.

"At first I descended into self-pity," says Jenny. "A visitor innocently asked if we had children. I answered sharply 'Well, I did have.' They were terribly upset, devastated that unwittingly she'd touched such a raw nerve. Later, after I'd put it right, we struck up quite a friendship. I learnt the hard way that self-pity is never an option, however justified it seems."

"Yes, we grieved terribly for our children," says Gordon. "But it was our faith to see God in it all. We'd just moved to be involved with the community; we were both starting to realise that God had a much bigger purpose than we'd first reckoned. We refused to blame God. Instead, we said to Him: 'You've chosen to take these little ones to Yourself early. Nothing in Your purposes is wasted or lost. You've given us this pain and grief to carry but what are You going to do with it?

"Life is often hard and God wants to be alongside us in it all. Father God knew the pain of deliberately sending His Son to die for us. Jenny and I, through our own loss, got to know something of that pain. We did lots of crying together and came through to do lots of laughing, determined not to look inward at ourselves but to look outward and see a bigger picture."

Gordon and Jenny now began to explore that "bigger picture": they moved into community in 1986, later moving to a larger house in Coventry. There they have been "mum and dad" for the last 15 years to a household of around 20 people - and a constant stream of visitors.

"Life has so much going for us here, "says Jenny. "We'd otherwise have lived very small, isolated lives together, especially after the death of our children. I'd have been rigid and strict, not able to think on my feet and adjust accordingly. Instead, we're involved with so many people! Community has mellowed me and - most of the time! - I love it. Losing Stevie and Rachel has given us, not exactly a specific ministry, but vulnerability before God and sensitivity to reach out to other families when they're in trouble."

"When our children died, finding God was difficult," says Gordon. "There was no escaping it, but we were in it together and the church was in it with us. I've learned how to praise God through hard times and I've known real victory over difficulties that would have crushed me otherwise.

"I believe God's shaped our lives through it all."