When Denise Nichols OAM was young, she never imagined the life she would lead. Leaving school at 15, marrying an Anglican minister at 20 and having four sons and one daughter are not the usual prerequisites for a veteran humanitarian worker or international peace builder. But since her teenage years, the path Denise chose has often been unexpected.
‘My parents nearly died of surprise when I married a clergyman,’ she quips.
According to Denise, her parents weren’t churchgoers, but they sent her to a Baptist Sunday school as a youngster, where the seeds of her faith were planted. Later, she attended an Anglican youth group, and by 17 had begun ‘engaging in a personal faith journey’, so marrying an energetic, intelligent minister seemed a natural fit.
Twelve years later, it appeared that Denise had slipped comfortably into a traditional role – mother to four boys, and a supportive minister’s wife. But something was stirring, deep down.
‘There was a fire within me that needed to be satisfied. I wanted to get the education I had missed out on and to learn to think critically. I just had to find a way,’ she reflects.
WELFARE STUDIES
At 29 she began part-time evening classes for a Certificate in Welfare Studies. That certificate became the grounds on which, at 37, she applied for entry to La Trobe University.
When some questioned why a mother of five, with her daughter only two years of age, needed to study at university, Denise’s response was simple. ‘Why not? Why should having five children stop me?’
‘I was given a “provisional place” at La Trobe University, until I proved myself,’ she recalls, proud of achieving First Class Honours, and being offered a PhD place at Victoria University some years later.
If study was her launch pad, her subsequent work was the rocket that propelled her into a new orbit.
Initially, Denise began full-time work at St Anthony’s in the western suburbs of Melbourne.
Through her work, Denise found an authentic way of living her faith.
‘It’s important to me to live my faith out in the community – being immersed and involved,’ she says.
That involvement grew when, at 46 years of age, Denise and her husband Alan visited Thailand.
Witnessing the work of Sr Joan Healy, who was working with Jesuit Refugee Services (JRS) in the refugee camps on the Thai-Cambodian border, Denise was struck by the significance of the work and the suffering of the people. (They had somehow managed to survive the horrors of Pol Pot’s regime.)
‘Meeting the refugees as human beings, not reading about them in a newspaper’, had a profound effect on her.
CALL TO WORK
For four days, Denise and Alan travelled to the camps each morning, returning each evening. On the last day, walking out of the camp along a dusty road, Denise turned to her husband and announced, ‘I don’t know what a call is, but I know this is what I want to do. This is where I want to work.’
She had never experienced anything with this sort of certainty before. ‘I was deeply conscious of a feeling we might call the Holy Spirit.’
But how could they work in Thailand? They had a family of young adults and a teenager at home. They couldn’t just pack up and leave.
‘We concluded it would not ever be possible. Instead, we committed to fundraising back home to support JRS projects in the camps.’
Nine months later, they received a phone call from the Director of JRS. It was an invitation for Denise to work in Thailand as coordinator of JRS’s work among refugees from Burma (now Myanmar) and young political asylum seekers from the 1988 uprising against the military.
‘By then our circumstances had changed. One son had moved to Canberra, one was getting married, one was finishing university, and the other was taking a gap year. Suddenly, we only had our teenage daughter at home.’
EXTRAORDINARY OPPORTUNITY
Once again Denise dared ask, ‘Why not? Why not take this extraordinary opportunity?’
Soon, Denise, Alan (who took leave from the Anglican Church) and their 13-year-old daughter were in Thailand. It was transformational. They stayed two years.
Returning to Australia Denise joined Oxfam, becoming Head of Emergencies.
Reflecting on her journey, Denise says, ‘After an assignment was completed, I often had a phone call or email inviting me to take up another path. This invitation was never expected, but it was exciting to see God’s hand in it.’
As if scripted, Denise answered a phone call from Oxfam Great Britain. Another invitation.
Within days she was deployed to Kosovo in the aftermath of the conflict, working on peace building and recovery with women and people with a disability.
Denise might have seen out her three-month contract in Kosovo had she not received news of her husband’s cancer diagnosis and impending surgery. With the support of the Oxfam team, she returned immediately. Fortunately, Alan recovered completely. He also retired early from full-time work.
As for Denise, invitations have kept coming, and her commitment to being out in the world – from Vietnam and Mongolia to the Pacific – being involved and at the service of others, remains strong.
In 2010, she was awarded an Order of Australia, for services to humanitarian aid, particularly through programs assisting women and children.
She also contributes to the Initiative for Peace Building at Melbourne University, and is on the board of Library For All, an innovative Save The Children Australia project supporting global literacy.
UNFOLDING FAITH
Reflecting on her life she says, ‘I’m not the same person who embraced faith in my early life. Just like in life with my degree and work, my faith has continued to unfold. I now have a deeper understanding of self, how the spirit works, and what God wants for my life – that’s been to fulfil my own potential.’
While Denise remains open and responsive to the Spirit that stirs within her, what happens next in her life is likely to be unexpected.
