Step Aside, Satan
The séance said they would die in three months.
Out of sheer terror they destroyed the Ouija board. But the prediction had been as clear as Satan’s presence. Jenny and her boyfriend, Boyd, had only three months left to live.
She Was a Good Girl
Jennifer Lee was born June 26, 1959, in the small town of Wauchope, Australia. A “good girl” growing up in a religious home, Jenny saw God as judge. He was someone looking over her shoulder, pointing out all her wrongs. The restricted life she was allowed only made Boyd Allen that much more appealing.
Boyd was the adventurous, bold, and carefree type. When she was just 14 and he 15, he introduced Jenny to a completely foreign way of living. When they began dating he had no reason not to have sex with her, while she had only her guilty conscious. They were inseparable throughout high school. When Jenny finally graduated and left to join Boyd at the University of Newcastle, she announced to her parents that she would be moving in with Boyd. They disowned her.
Together Jenny and Boyd drank and dabbled in drugs. They hung out with friends over Ouija boards. Jenny was going into her third year at the university, just 20 years old, when they got their death sentence.
“You Can’t Have Him Yet”
Three months after the prediction, almost exactly to the day, Boyd fell asleep at the wheel. They hit the back of a semi truck, the car flipped and flew off the road. Jenny’s head smashed the window and she blacked out.
Glass shattered and rubber burned. Boyd’s soul hung in balance. Through an odd silence permeating the deafening noise, he could hear God and Satan discussing his future. “You can’t have him yet,” said One. Next thing he knew, all was still. Boyd looked over and saw Jenny lying next to him.
“I killed you!” He shrieked as he shook her. “I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry,” he sobbed. “I’ve killed you.” But as she gained consciousness, his words changed. “You’re alive! You’re alive and I’m going to be come a priest!”
Friday Night Fun
Twenty-four hours later, Boyd no longer wanted to be a priest. But he and Jenny did arrive at a new conclusion: If Satan existed—and they knew he did thanks to their séances—then it was a rational and logical conclusion to acknowledge that God also existed.
Not long after the car wreck, unbeknownst to them, their friend Kerry accepted Jesus Christ at Luis Palau’s Newcastle mission in conjunction with Billy Graham’s Sydney crusade. (This was a four-day event with 22,500 in attendance and 450 documented decisions for Jesus Christ.) When Kerry suggested they spend Friday night at an affinity event “heckling the speaker,” they had no idea that he really just wanted Jenny and Boyd to hear the Gospel and also come to know the Lord.
The friends all went to the church, showed up late, and were forced to sit in the very front. “How are we going to heckle this guy from the front pew?” they wondered. It did not matter. As soon as the preaching began, everything faded away. All Jenny was aware of were the eyes of Christ. On her.
When the preaching finished, a girl named Fran invited Jenny upstairs to coffee. Boyd had lost interest a long time ago and went out to his car to wait for her. After a 25 minute conversation with her decision counselor at Mayfield Baptist Church on April 27, 1979, Jenny accepted Jesus Christ—the God who wasn’t her judge, but her loving Savior. Her eyes filled with tears when the Holy Spirit convicted her that she could no longer live with Boyd. Fran opened her home and said she could move in immediately. She did.
Three days later, through the same group of Christians who’d come alongside Jenny, Boyd also accepted Jesus Christ as his personal Savior.
The two have never been the same. And they’ve never looked back.
Passion for Evangelism
Married on September 1, 1979, Jenny and Boyd now have two daughters, Brittany (20) and Madison (13). “My daughters say they wouldn’t exist if it wasn’t for Luis Palau. If we hadn’t come to the Lord, Boyd and I would not be together, and we wouldn’t have our ministry together. All we want is to bring as many people to God as possible in the time we have.”
They live in Newcastle where Boyd is the principal at a Christian school for youth 5 - 18 years old. Jenny is a senior lecturer of education at the University of Newcastle where she has been a professor for 17 years. For three years she has served as the evangelism pastor at Mayfield Baptist Church (yes, her spiritual birthplace).
Her fire for Christ burns strong. “I’ve always been an evangelist,” she says. “I have a passion for the lost and those who are starving spiritually.” Then she launches into story after story where her heart breaks for seeking souls…and soars when she shares with them the Good News of Jesus Christ.
A Season of Study
Dedicating nine months of 2007-2008 to studying how to better encourage and achieve worldview change, Jenny spent time in the United States at the Luis Palau world headquarters in Portland, Oregon, with the team’s Next Generation Alliance.
“My time with other evangelists has been mind-blowing. I wouldn’t just say that God has opened a window, I would say He’s opened a door, a room, a whole warehouse! It’s all been thrown wide open! People here share the vision and get excited about it. I don’t feel like I’m a lonely evangelist anymore. I feel like anything is possible.”
As a female evangelist, “I can see the difference in my style already. Male evangelists are hunters. They do the business. They zero in on the end-goal like hunters. Female evangelists are gatherers. We do lunch, we talk, we fellowship. We go for the relationship and embrace the process.”
Clearly recognizing the unique position she’s in as a female evangelist, Jenny states, “In the twenty-first century as families get attacked more and more, we need spiritually strong women. But I don’t feel called to evangelize to just women. Men and women—without Jesus, we’re all going to hell.”
So she continues to learn and grow as God leads. With humility and wonder she shakes her head considering God’s hand in people’s lives. “Through Luis, Kerry came to the Lord. And through Kerry, Boyd and I came to the Lord. Now, through our ministry and outreach more than 20 years later, we continue leading even more people to Him!”
It’s the exponential life-changing power of sharing one’s faith. And it’s all Jenny Allen is living for.
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