I never cease to be thankful for the opportunities I get to take school assemblies. Last week I decided to talk about some of my ‘heroes’, people I admire because of their courage, their achievements and of course their faith.

It got me thinking that it would be worth mentioning a few of them in this column too in the hope that they will inspire and challenge you. Some are alive and some are not, some I have met personally, others I haven’t, but they’ve all had a lasting impact on my life.

I’ll begin with Ladislav, a Baptist pastor who found himself ministering in the middle of a battlefield when the former Yugoslavia disintegrated in the early 1990’s. Ladislav could have left the town he was living in and, given the horrors of the conflict that erupted around him, that would have been very understandable. But he chose to stay, and at great personal risk too, because he was determined to show God’s love to people from all sides of the ethnic divide. I find he’s a real encouragement when life gets a bit tough!

I never met Brother Andrew, but I first learned of his work when I read ‘God’s Smuggler’. Andrew, who died a few years ago, was a Dutch Christian missionary. He was the founder of ‘Open Doors’ and well known for smuggling Bibles and Christian literature into communist countries. The work of ‘Open Doors’ continues to help Christians in over 70 countries in ways that vary from supplying Bibles, providing emergency relief and raising awareness of global persecution. This amazing man has shown me that I can trust God when He calls me to do His work.

Joni Earekson Tada was paralysed from the neck down following a diving accident but has gone on to learn to paint with a brush between her teeth, written books, recorded several musical albums and is an advocate for people with disabilities. Joni is as true inspiration because she shows us that God can help us to do things that go way beyond our limited expectations and apparent abilities.

Betty is a perpetual challenge too. Betty is no longer alive, but I can’t think of Betty without recalling the day some younger Christians told her that in their opinion the Bible approved of gay sex. That came as a bit of a shock to her because like me she believed the opposite. But she was more than happy to discuss the issue with them because she was convinced that we should love people even if we totally disagree with them. She was right. The world would be a much happier place if we learned to disagree lovingly.

I am so grateful for these heroes of mine not least because they have taught me that Thomas Morell was right when he said, ‘The first great gift we can bestow on others is a good example.”