Nick and Elaine, with Nick’s parents Jim and Margaret, and their children Andrew and Sophie and Sophie’s husband Ben.
Nick and Elaine, with Nick’s parents Jim and Margaret, and their children Andrew and Sophie and Sophie’s husband Ben.
Nick’s introductory letter to us follows:
Dear New Friends,
We all have a story to tell and I look forward to hearing any that you are willing to share and how God has been involved in those stories even if you cannot immediately recognise exactly where and how he has been at work.
In the meantime, I have been asked to share some highlights of my own story. Are you sitting comfortably? Then I will begin (you have to be a certain age to remember this!!).
I have a twin brother born on a different day to me, we grew up in South Croydon and my Mum dragged us to church – we would much rather have been playing rugby, but we had to go to church first before we could play.
I became a Christian aged 15yrs as a result of a couple of brilliant youth leaders who ran a Christian youth club and Bible study. I met Elaine at this group, and we got married while I was serving as a Police Officer in South London and we now have two grown up children, Sophie (who got married last year) living in Sheffield and Andy in Leeds.
After nearly sixteen years’ service in the police, I finally answered the call to ordained ministry and was initialling stationed in the Harrogate & Knaresborough Circuit, before moving to Dane & Trent Circuit where I was minister for a few churches including the famous Mow Cop (it’s a Methodist thing – Mow Cop was the birth place of a big revival in the church and country which led to something called Primitive Methodism).
As you will discover, I am a passionate Crystal Palace fan and try to get to as many games as I can over the season. I love sport and have just about retired from most – still hanging on to cricket. So now I watch a lot of different sports but want to start playing golf (I haven’t told Elaine yet!!). I love watching films, open water swimming and I have a long bucket list of things I would still love to do. Recently chalked off driving a tank, but still need to ride a horse, go to grand prix, hire a jet ski and many, many more.
We are both really looking forward to meeting you all and hearing more of your stories.
Take care & God bless
Nick