Last night was our Team Vision Night and we had the privilege of honouring the hard work and consistency of our good friends Andy and Helen Rose. Their life, with the ups and downs could be summed up by the words "They kept turning up".
Anyway as I was preparing for team vision night, I began to think of the stories that have woven through theirs and began to write down just some of the links within our church.
Here is a glimpse of the rich tapestry of a few lives that connect with the NCLC community.
Andy met Helen and married her. Helen is friends with Katie, who she brought to church. Katie brought Gary & Emma Smith to church. Katie also brought her mum & dad, they brought Susan & Katie and then Danielle.
Paul Etherton moved up to newcastle from London with Dee & I, he met Katie & they got married and are pregnant. They moved to Kibblesworth, met Michael who came to church. Michael lives next door to Dan who came to church with his mum & dad who knew Ken & Isobel Wood. Dan met Nichola and married her. Ken & Isobel began looking after some of the international students who are in Newcastle to study. Ken & Isobel now have spiritual kids all over Asia, particularly in Malaysia.
Meanwhile back at the Roses. They had a friend called Matt who contacted me in the early days and came to church when he was visiting the north. He eventually finished uni and came to live up here. He finally got his butt in gear and asked out the amazing Judith, who he later married in a venue they found through a pastor at Judith's gym. The pastor & his wife decided it was time to retire and, because they liked Judith so much they mentioned this to her because they knew she went to a church that was looking for a building. We eventually bought this building and it is now our home.
So anyway about 300 years ago the youth event that I helped run and play drums at had this keyboard player who was an exceptional young man called Gav. He went on to be a rock god in a band called Yfriday, but when the band ended he started coming along to our church and eventually brought a lovely young woman along with him called Ileana. She had met Gav at a Europe rock gig where she went with her brother & Gav had gone to with Jamie from this church.
At a youth camp called Harvest I had previously come to know the young guy called Jamie. He eventually came along to church and then brought his younger sister and mum along. His sister met and married another rock god called Pak. Jamie's mother met a man called Brian and they are about to be married.
Back to to Andy & Helen. They are friends with a guy who is in our Teesside community and he used to go out with a girl called Claire. Claire ended up living with Dee & I for a while when she & her boyfriend split up. She met a young South African guy, Miguel, who had come to the church after his older brother came along with his family. They ended up getting married and now have a baby girl called Mia.
Around about the same time that Miguel's older brother came to the church, another South African moved up from London and started coming along. He was a cracking singer and worship leader. He met a girl who had started coming to our church. Yep, thats right they got married and had a baby boy called Jacob. The girl had been so impacted and challenged by a visit organised by the church to visit our sponsored children in Compassion Tanzania that she left her teaching job and began to work for Compassion.
When she went on maternity leave her job was coverd by another young guy who looks too much like Will Smith for my liking. This young guy had gone along to our international students gathering, run by Ken & Isobel. He went mainly for food, but there met a lovely young girl from Indonesia who he later married. This guy has a sister who caught the attention of a drummer from a local band. The drummer eventually left the band and started working part time for the church.
So back to this guy called Miguel. Before he married Claire he invited his friend called Laura along to church. Laura came along and got stuck in and I think she is still around. Anyway she brought her mum along who worked at an opticians. She offered a part time job to the drummer guy who was looking for a job at that time because he could only work part time for the church. He had already married the sister of the Will Smith guy that I talked about earlier.
Yet again back to the Roses. Andy has a fantastic brother called Simon, who came along to church after walking away from God. He reconnected his life to God and met a lovely young women in our church called Emma, yes of course they got married.
Are you getting this interwoven picture of lives connected in community?
This is just a glimpse of the lives that has brought together and woven into community. There are so many more stores that connect. If you are part of NCLC, thank you for being part of the bigger picture. If you are not, why don't you connect yourself into this tapestry.
See you at Vision Sunday.
Finding our Voice, Telling our story.
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