‘I wouldn’t be able to do what I do if I was married and had children’

I was an only child, born in Corbridge in Northumberland. My mother was a nurse and my father in the navy. I would say we were a fairly working-class family.

We settled in Portsmouth, where eventually my parents had a small hotel. My father died when I was 20 of cancer, so my mother was a widow for longer than she was married. As a child I used to be sent off to Sunday school and I went to church, but there was no talk of Jesus. 

I went to a polytechnic in Sheffield and did a home economics diploma. I joined the army in 1975 at the end of my diploma, going in as an officer, a second lieutenant.

Accepting Jesus

I joined the Women’s Army Corps for three years but then converted to a longer regular commission. I became a Christian after eight years in the army when I was posted to Germany. It was through a man called Ian Durie and his wife Janie. He was a major at the time, and I think they prayed for me for 18 months while I worked with him.

He was such a professional guy and I really respected him, but he was also kind. I was posted from Germany over to Bovington, and within about a month of me arriving at my new job, this twelve-page letter arrived in the post from Ian with the message of the gospel, filled with scripture and a commitment prayer at the end of it. 

As I read, I just knew it was the truth and immediately prayed the prayer of commitment. I was 29.

I understood fasting is something we should all be doing, as Jesus said in Matthew 6:16: “When you fast” not if you fast

My heart was changed at that point, and I wanted to be a missionary straight away. I wrote to Tearfund; I must have written to a dozen organisations, but they all said they felt the army was a massive mission field and I should stay in. I knew they were right.

The impact of finding faith

While I was still in the army, I started listening to teaching tapes from Ellel Ministries about inner healing as described in Isaiah 61: preaching the good news and binding up the broken-hearted, setting the captives free and releasing the prisoners from the darkness. As I listened I believe God was putting desire in my heart to be involved in a ministry healing the broken-hearted. 

In 1997 I went to visit the revival happening in Pensacola, Florida. It was a place of repentance and the Holy Spirit was there. I read a book on fasting and was convicted, so prayed: “Lord, I want to do this.”

I started on a one-day fast, and then I did a weekend fast. God spoke to me powerfully during that weekend. I understood fasting is something we should all be doing, as Jesus said in Matthew 6:16: “When you fast” not if you fast. In Mark 9:29 Jesus explained to his disciples why they did not see deliverance: “This kind can come out by nothing but prayer and fasting” (NKJV). 

I said: “Oh, Lord, this is serious.” During my last five years in the army I got up to five days of a water fast, and I prayed that the Lord would help me to do a 40-day fast. 

Life beyond the army

In 2002, 18 years after becoming a Christian, I left the army, having achieved the rank of lieutenant colonel. I enrolled on a course with Ellel Ministries, and that is when I did my first 40-day fast.

It was out of that fast that Flame International was born in 2003. The aim was to send short-term ministry teams to post-conflict areas to see people set free from the trauma of conflict. We would also equip and resource Christians for ministry in this area. 

I thought, initially, we were going to go purely to minister to women. The first place we went to was Sierra Leone, where we put on a conference for women. I spoke about forgiveness and judgement, and how the latter can form a bitter root in us (Hebrews 12:15). You know you cannot forgive someone whenever someone mentions that person and you have a very negative reaction (eg thinking when they are praised: “You do not know her!”) Six chaplains came up to me afterwards and asked: “Why are the men not having this teaching? The men need this teaching.” We felt that was God speaking to us. 

they all said they felt the army was a massive mission field and I should stay in 

I continue to teach that we are made in God’s image. In 1 Thessalonians 5:23, it says: “May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” We are spirit, soul and body. Three in one. We find that when we minister to people’s spirit and soul, their body often gets healed too. 

I’ve just come back from Armenia where there was a genocide 100 years ago and an ongoing war with Turkey and Azerbaijan. We were ministering to pastors, and there was an elderly man who said he had spoken badly about the president of Turkey. He indicated that when he heard the teaching on bitter roots and judgments, he realised that he didn’t like the president of Turkey very much. He said: “As I repented and forgave him, the pain in my arms was healed.”

Remaining single

I’ve never been married. I lived in an officer’s mess for many years then had a married quarter, but I was still on my own. I now live in Camberley, but I have a lodger, so I do have somebody that stays with me.

Up until I was 34, I was desperate to be married. I just so wanted a husband to love me and care for me and be the answer to all my prayers and dreams. When I was 34 I was having quite a nice life out in Brunei working on loan service for the Brunei Armed Forces. I prayed: “Lord, I really want a husband. If you don’t want me to have one, you’ll have to change the desire of my heart.” I suppose it took a year, but he took the desire away, and from that point I was free.

I used to go into a room and look around and think: who’s eligible here? “Not many”, I would often say! So, God taking away the desire was freedom rather than shackles. By the time I was 35, I knew that I didn’t need a husband.  

Have I been tempted? Yes, but all I would say is that Jesus is my saviour. He’s my bridegroom. I have intimacy with Jesus. I wouldn’t be able to do what I do if I was married and had children. 

Lessons learned

One of my life lessons is that I think God uses people who are obedient to him. If God tells me to do something, I just do it. Do I struggle? Of course. Do I rebel? Of course. Do I get on with it eventually? Mostly I do. Yes. 

In some ways, that process has been helped by being in the army, because when you’re in the army, you have to do as you’re told. 

My life lessons from Flame International are that we always go in love. Whenever we go on mission the primary aim has to be love. The other thing is we only go by invitation. We have only been once or twice without invitation, and it doesn’t work.  

I think humility is, again, a life lesson for me. I’ve learned that if we’re humble, God does extraordinary things. It’s not us doing it, it’s God. 

Because of what we teach about – forgiveness and bitter roots – I’m constantly having to forgive people! You get challenged on what you teach. It’s all a process of sanctification. 

Flame International

The charity was founded in 2003 by Lt Col Jan Ransom and six other trustees, most with military backgrounds, who had a passion and a united vision to reach out with God’s love both to the armed forces and also to those affected by war, poverty and injustice. A prophetic word at that time indicated that the ministry would spread like flames, going out throughout the world, communicating the light of God and the power of the Holy Spirit. 

Find out more at flameinternational.org