Maureen Hamblin

Hometown: Muranga, Kenya; Tallaght, South Dublin, Ireland
Degree: Masters of Divinity, Track 2

By: Samantha Angeles

Serving God in Ireland was always her destiny. “I can see how every circumstance led me to where I am today,” said Maureen Hamblin, president of the Women's Clergy Network, full-time Seminary student, wife, mother and future pastor. “I was born in Kenya with an Irish name, ended up in Ireland as an 11 year old girl, and many years later God gave me an Irish man because He knew that He had called me to preach the everlasting gospel to the people of Ireland. I am humbled to be a part of their discovering and knowing Him.”

Born to a beautiful, soft-spoken single mom in Nakuru, Kenya, Maureen was named after the kind Irish nun that helped her mom deliver.  She spent her early childhood with her Catholic grandparents in Muranga while her mom lived in Nairobi, working to make a living for them.

“My grandparents almost disowned my mom and aunt when they became Adventist,” she remembers.  “But one Friday night, God told my grandmother in a dream that the Adventist church was the right church, and showed her where one was. She had never seen that church before, and it was not close to her home. But the next day, she took her family and went to the place she’d been shown in the dream, and it was there!” Maureen exclaimed.  “Everyone on the homestead became an Adventist because my auntie would not give up.”

At the age of 11, on the way to that same Adventist church, Maureen’s life changed forever. By this time, her mother had moved to Ireland with her new husband to pursue a better life, while Maureen, who had no desire to ever leave Kenya, stayed behind with her grandparents to finish primary school. During church that morning, Maureen responded to the altar call and publicly surrendered her life to Jesus, not knowing that her mother’s former employer was witnessing the moment.

“A few months later, my mom’s former employer came to my grandparents’ house,” Maureen said.  “She told my grandmother, ‘I got a passport and visa for Maureen to go to Ireland. When I saw her that Sabbath walking to church, I knew I had to do something. I don’t want her to be without her mom. I want her to have a better life.’” In the summer of 2000, Maureen flew first-class to Ireland with her mother’s former employer and their family, to be reunited with her mom.

However, despite Maureen’s excellent marks in school, all was not well in Ireland.  As part of a very small black minority group, her family faced severe prejudice. “People would break the windows of our home, urinate in our garden, and sit on our wall, staring at us menacingly to try to intimidate us into leaving,” Maureen remembers.  The worst happened when her then-12-year-old sister was attacked by a group of males outside their house. “I hated Tallaght and I couldn’t wait to get out of there.” 

She left at her soonest convenience, graduating from Dublin Institute of Technology with a degree in clinical measurement science and a lucrative job offer, but found herself dissatisfied less than four years later.

“I was feeling empty. So I decided to pursue my childhood dream. I did my medical school entry exams and missed the pass mark by five points,” she remembers. “I went to bed and wept, because this was the second time that I had missed this opportunity. But I prayed and asked God to guide me and take control of my life. Four months after my great disappointment, I woke up with this great knowing that I had to go into ministry. I was excited but also not excited because it meant that I would never be a rich doctor,” she said. “But I surrendered to Him.”

When she finishes her Masters of Divinity degree at the Seminary, Maureen’s hope is to return to the one place she once resented so much: Tallaght, Dublin 24, Ireland.  “I feel called to plant a church in Tallaght,” she said. “A lot of them are broken people. I hated them for so long, but now I think they need Jesus. The Adventist Church in Ireland is so small with only about 1000 members in both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. People are searching for God and I am praying that God can use me to help them find Him.”