The youngest of three
children, Gary was born on 29th July 1975 in Nigeria where his
parents were missionaries. He was only 18 months when the family returned to
England where Gary’s dad continued his ministry among various Baptist
Churches. This meant a constant exposure to Christianity and Gary was 8 years
old when he committed his life to following Jesus. The very next day he was
telling everyone in school of the decision he had made the night before.
Being a ‘minister’s kid’ also
meant a lot of moving home! Gary lived in Worcester, Hayes, South Norwood,
North Wales, Westbury, South Norwood again, New Cross, Bromley, Orpington and
Christchurch, before moving to Creech.
Michelle (who lived all her
life in one place before meeting Gary) moved to London to be with Gary after
their wedding in 1996 when he was working at Premier Radio as a presenter.
Gary was at Premier for 6 years from 1995-2001 before hearing God’s call to
further Biblical study, but not particularly knowing what for other than
getting to know God better. One thing Gary said while growing up was that he
never wanted to follow his father’s footsteps into church ministry. However,
it seems that what Gary didn’t want to do was exactly what God wanted him to
do, so the three years at Moorlands College were a challenging time where God
slowly but surely changed Gary’s mind. Gary believes God has called him to
Feed His Sheep and Equip His Church.
And today Gary loves what God
has called him to do. He has a passion for Bible teaching and for seeing the
reality of being a Christian lived out in people’s lives.
“It’s exciting being a
Christian, but life isn’t always easy though”, says Gary. “No-one ever said
being a Christian was going to be easy or that once you’d committed your life
to Christ you’d be immune from hurt, pain, illness etc. In 2004 Michelle and I
lost our first child in the 26th week of pregnancy. I can’t
describe the pain we felt and still feel over losing Samuel. But we can both
say that without our God walking this path with us, we don’t know how we could
have kept going. He doesn’t always keep us from harm but He will always be
with us through it.”
“…I will never leave you nor
forsake you…for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go” Joshua
1:5, 9.
