Shona Jayne Martin grew up on a dairy farm in New Zealand. Childhood games in the hay shed, under the fronds of the great pine forrest, and along the banks of the farm river both spurred and nurtured her imagination for creating stories. The family of six attended the local village church, and the children went to school everyday on the rickety old school bus.
In the 1980s charismatic revival swept through New Zealand and Youth For Christ ministries impacted the teenager's life. Shona joined a team of young people to visit the Philippines in late 1988. In February of 1990, she married one of her fellow teammates, Bob Barnard.
Bob and Shona went to Bible college in Tasmania, Australia in the following years to prepare for missionary service. In August of 1995, Bob and Shona were sent out from New Zealand with their two-year-old daughter, to work amongst Mexico’s underprivileged children.
Today Bob and Shona are pastors of a growing church in the heart of Mexico City’s Iztapalapa. Shona homeschooled their two children for many years and now teaches English literature, grammar and reading at a local school for missionary kids.
Shona has used her creative writing skills in producing dynamic children’s clubs, outreach programmes and weekly study materials. Shira: The Name History Forgot is Shona’s first work of fiction.
