Although born in Surrey, at the age of two our family moved to North Staffordshire where my father took up the appointment as an Anglican Rector, a role, that he had until retirement, thirty years later; I trained to be a teacher at St Luke's College, Exeter, where I helped to lead a flourishing Christian Union. My first Job was at a North Devon boarding school for boys with emotional and behavioural problems. I spent twenty years there as a full time teacher with responsibility for several sports. Having felt God's call to offer myself, initially as a Local Preacher and subsequently for ministerial training with the Methodist Church, I had my first appointment in 1997 as the assistant minister in the Saltash Circuit. Following a ten year stay there, I joined the Callington & Gunnislake Circuit as Superintendent Minister, with pastoral responsibility for four congregations.