I am married to Christine.

I was born and brought up in Darlington, in the north-east of England. My parents were not Christians and there was no religious influence in the home. When I started secondary school, I was invited to attend a boys’ Crusader class (a kind of Bible class) . I gradually noticed something different about the leaders and some of the other boys who attended the class. They had an interest in and concern for me. They talked about having a relationship with Jesus and how this affected they way they lived and acted. I was attracted by this idea of a relationship with Jesus that could change my life. But I thought that religion was something for other people but not for me. After attending the class for almost two years, I was invited to a special evening where a Christian film was shown. At the end of the evening I made a commitment to Christ. After this, I started to attend the Baptist church, where Christine’s father was the minister. I gradually learned more about what it really meant to be a Christian and my commitment to Christ increased. I often say that as a teenager I ‘rebelled into the church’, as being a Christian was a new and exciting experience for me. During this period the church experienced a ‘mini-revival’ with many young people attending and becoming Christians.

At aged 18, I went off to Manchester University to study history. This move away from home was a big challenge to my faith but as I got involved in the Christian Union and worked through some of the intellectual challenges and objections  to Christianity, my faith grew and was strengthened. After university, I spend an unhappy year working in Birmingham, before moving back to Darlington to work for British Rail as a computer programmer. I had known Christine in the youth group in the church in Darlington and had kept in touch with occasional letters. Now we both found ourselves back in Darlington and we met up again. We married in 1980 and started to ‘settle down’ together to married life. However, God had other ideas and a couple of years later, I was offered a new job based in Swindon. So we moved and bought a new house on a massive new housing development on the edge of Swindon. We joined a group of Christians who were just starting a church and we became founder members of this church. Being in this situation stretched our faith and gave us many opportunities to serve the Lord and to develop our skills and gifts.

After a few years in Swindon, we felt that God was calling us into full time-service overseas. To prepare for this we did a two-year Bible training course at All Nations Christian College in Ware in Hertfordshire. During our time there, the Lord led us to consider serving as missionaries in Belgium. We were accepted by the Belgian Evangelical Mission and in 1990 moved to Brussels. After just over a year of language study, we moved to a small town called Ath. We lived there for almost seven years. Roy acted as part-time assistant pastor to the Belgian pastor of the church there as well as working in BEM’s bookshop in Brussels. Christine was involved with the women of the church as well as playing the piano for the services every Sunday.

In 1998, we felt it was right to move back to the UK. We became the British representatives of BEM, based back in Swindon. Another change came in 2001, when for a number of reasons we felt it was time for another change of direction. After a short period working for the Barnabas Fund, Roy accepted a job with the Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches. The job was based in Croydon, but the plan was for the FIEC to relocate ‘imminently’ and we would then relocate also. This ‘imminent’ relocation took three years to accomplish but in September 2005 the FIEC office moved to new premises in Market Harborough. Roy organised the move and took on the responsibility of office manager for the new office.

We relocated personally to Market Harborough in November 2005 and started to attend Brixworth Christian Fellowship in February 2006. In October 2008, I was invited to join the eldership at BCF

Age: 53

Sporting Interest: now totally passive. I enjoy watching rugby, football and some other sports.

Guilty Pleasure: Eating Mars bars (or KitKats or etc..); listening to Terry Wogan!

My first LP: not sure but Bridge over Troubled Water by Simon and Garfunkel would be one of the first.

Dislikes: Brassica vegetables; automated telephone systems (don’t get me started!)

Likes: Reading, especially biographies, historical novels or if all else fails the cereal packet at breakfast; Walking; Gardening.

One thing that might surprise you: I have never once been in hospital as a patient in my life. I was even born at home - or so I am reliably informed.

And a motto for life: “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly