David is to be ordained as a deacon on Saturday 28 June and will serve his curacy in the Severn Loop Parishes.
David is from Shrewsbury, in Shropshire, where he has lived and worked for the last 10 years. He is married to Sarah and they have three young (and energetic) boys.
David describes his journey to ordained ministry as a 'wiggly route', one that has taken him from a degree and career in graphic design, through various admin temp roles, as well as working most recently as a Dementia Support Worker in Shropshire. David believes that however wiggly, God has been patiently nudging him throughout all this to overcome his natural preference to serve in the background and (eventually) get him to accept God's call to step out of the shadows and into ordained ministry.
Ultimately it is God's ministry and mission we are all called to join in with. David strongly believes that God never wastes anything, including those previous experiences, and so fully expects that whatever the ministry God has in mind going forwards, it will utilise all these skills and experiences he has had on the wiggly route so far to bring people the hope that he finds in Jesus.
Whilst he has learnt a massive amount in training, and built some strong relationships with others doing the same, he realises his original expectation of coming out of training a fully formed and comprehensively competent vicar probably missed the point. God used unexpected events to form David through training, and he expects he will continue to do that throughout ministry going forwards. As much as anyone, vicars continue to be God's 'works in progress'.
David likes to think of the image of the runner in the starting block for anyone beginning to ask God what he might want for them next. Being still enough to listen to God's command to go is important, but so is being in a position to be ready to respond to that call when it comes. Finding your way to be both ready to hear and ready to act is important, and you never know which wiggly road God might send you down next.