People
Chris (Pastor) & Ann
Chris and Ann have been very much looking forward to coming to Send to live in the village and for Chris to be the minister at Send Evangelical Church. Chris is no stranger to the Church having been a member when he was a history teacher at the Howard of Effingham School from 1997-1999. Since 1999 he has been working at the University of Surrey for a charity called Friends International, which aims with the help of the Guildford Churches to welcome, befriend and support the 2,600 international students and their families in the University of Surrey, who come from 130 different countries. Chris confesses that he has missed teaching history but working with international students has been very inspiring. In 2006, he visited several ex-students in China and Singapore. His wife, Ann has also been working with Friends International one day a week, primarily building relationships with the wives and children of overseas students. Before that she worked for Surrey Police at Mount Brown as an accountant.
Ann and Chris have two children - Samuel and Lois, and Josiah, so their hands will be well and truly full. Their interests as a family include cycling, swimming at the Guildford Lido (in the summer), days out at Wisley Gardens and most sports. Chris has been playing cricket for Bramley cricket club (where Ann's parents live) these last 7 years and confesses to being a bit of a cricket fanatic.
Both Chris and Ann became Christians at University (Chris at Leicester and Ann at Keele), not having been very interested in the Bible or church before that. "Our lives have been turned upside down by encountering the joy of knowing Jesus Christ as our Lord and Saviour. The world is so full of bad news at the moment, it's fantastic to be able to share the good news of the gospel and do it every week in the same place and get paid for it!" says Chris. He continues "The central thing that we do in ministry on Sundays is going through books of the Bible consecutively and experiencing the message of the Bible coming alive as it is applied in our lives. If anyone has questions about what truth is or whether it exists in our post-modern world or about God and how to be reconciled to Him or about Jesus and the Bible - do come along to Send Evangelical Church."