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I (David) haven't always believed in God!
When I was 17 years old, I experienced what I can only describe as a moment of exceptional clarity when I suddenly saw that God is real, and He had always been close to me, even though I had not recognised Him before. Was this moment real? I believe it was, the God behind it has not proved false in the last thirty years, my entire life changed as a result of it!
I think that all of us come to this moment, when who God is suddenly becomes clearer to us, and our response to that moment, goes on to shape the rest of our lives.
My response?
I accepted that God is real, and I could not go on living my life without listening to what He had to say to me. Ten years after I first met Him, God called me away from a successful job in the life & pensions industry in London, to retrain at college, and then to work as a missionary in Madagascar, teaching, training and working alongside Malagasy church leaders. During these years I met and married Hazel ,and we had two children - Peter and Katie.
After ten years in Madagascar, we returned to the UK in 2011, and after one and a half years, God called us away from our home church on the edge of London, to the position of pastor of Whiteshill Evangelical Church in Hambrook, Bristol.
As pastor, my passion is to show people that the Bible is not just another book, but out creator's words to us - unique words from outside of purely human experience! The Bible is God's guide to how life works, and how life should be lived, and as such, it will never go out of date, and will always speak into our situations.
My other interest? I love to read a good book, enjoy films and computer games (anything with a decent story), and am still trying to improve my potting skills (not flowers, but snooker). I run regularly to get out into the open air and to keep fit, and I enjoy walking in the beautiful countryside around Bristol.
I believe that life is meant to be lived, and my experience over the last thirty years, is that we get the most out of life when we live it with the person who created us and constantly cares for us.
So, come and join us at Whiteshill, to get to know God a little better, and to get to know what life is really all about.
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