Phil and Irene Nicholson
Phil grew up in Sydney, Australia. He studied biochemistry & worked in medical research before being challenged at a missions conference to be willing to "Go anywhere, do anything, at anytime" in service to Jesus.
Irene is Chinese Malaysian, but migrated to Australia with her family when she was 12. Her grandfather's life was saved by a missionary in China as a young boy and this influence on her family was a major factor in her interest in missions.
After working for a number of years of ministry at WSCCC and also reaching out to overseas students, God led Phil & Irene to serve in Taiwan.
Phil and Irene have been living in Taiwan as OMF missionaries since 1992 and tackling life in the urban jungle. This includes surviving on a 100cc scooter in the traffic of one of Asia's megacities while carrying children, musical instruments and school books.
Phil worked amongst university students with Campus Evangelical Fellowship in Taipei for over ten years. Phil has taught the Bible cross-culturally in Mandarin and English amongst university students in as well as provided training in evangelism. He has a passion to teach God's word in a relevant way to help people to grow in their understanding of and commitment to Jesus.
Since 2005 Phil has been the Field Director for OMF Taiwan, leading over 50 missionaries who are focussed on using creative ways to share the gospel with Taiwan's unreached working class people and plant contextually relevant churches.
Irene oversees OMF Taiwan's short-term mission program providing opportunities for mission exposure to young people from al over the world.
Together they attend the Taipei Shopworkers Church, an OMF initiative which reaches out to service industry personnel.
They have 3 boys, Zac (18) and Ben (15) who currently dorm at Morrison Christian Academy in Taichung, and Matthew (13) who lives at home with them in Taipei.
© WSCCC 2007-12