St Mary's Whitegate

Children's Worker

Q : Do you have a specific role within the church?
A : At the moment I am involved with a few areas of church life, mostly to do with children and young people.

I run the Friday night Youth Group and any outings that YG go on.  We have been away on the Diocesan Youth  weekend three times and thoroughly enjoyed it, although I needed a rest when I got home!

I run a holiday club in the summer, and organise children’s activities during half term breaks.

I am also one of the team who go into Whitegate Primary School on a Thursday afternoon to take school assembly.

I organise the rota for Sunday School and take my turn at teaching Sunday School too.

I am a member of the PCC, serving on the Missionary and Charitable Giving Committee and am a Parish Representative at Deanery Synod.

I am also a member of Home Group, Crafty Coffee and the Whitegate branch of Mother’s Union. I’m on the Church cleaning rota am a Children’s Society representative.

As of September 2013 I am a student of Chester University doing the Children’s Ministry Course.
 
Q : What is your profession?
A : I was an Architectural Technician, working both in Private Practice and  for Cheshire County Council before giving up work to have three children: Jack 17, Ben 15 and Max 11.

I am now a stay- at- home Mum, which gives me the time to look after my elderly Mum my husband and boys, and have the time to help with reading in school (plus the seemingly endless pile of washing and ironing, and feeding the five thousand).

My husband, David, works from home, so  I find that I am involved as chief coffee maker and filing clerk.

Q : Hobbies?
A : I love reading and cross stitch (not both at the same time) but my real love is Scrapbooking,  (you may have seen some examples of my handiwork on the notice boards in the Mews).

I also enjoy walking and camping and a bit of wild camping would be my dream (only allowed in Scotland unfortunately).

Q : Favourite place?
A :Up a mountain, the more remote the better.

Q : What motivates you on a Monday morning?
A :  All those smiling little faces at school.

Q : What do you consider your key strengths?
A : I hope that I try to listen to what other people say and to take their concerns into consideration and am a good team player.

Q : If you could choose anyone to spend a day with, who would it be and why?
A : Corrie Ten Boon. I would love to talk to her about her forgiving attitude, especially as it would seem that she didn’t always find this easy. Her experiences during the Second World War, as  she and her family tried to help the Jews, were some of the most terrible and yet most miraculous, at the same time. Having lost her father and dear sister in the concentration camps God gave her the strength to forgive her captors and go on to preach all over the world on forgiveness.  

Q : What's been your biggest personal achievement?
A : Definitely having my three lovely boys.

Q : What's the craziest thing you've ever done?
A : I’m a bit of a control freak, so going on holiday with David , and not knowing where we were going, but having the sneaky suspicion that he had arranged our wedding. We went to Barbados, and he had arranged the wedding, without any input from me at all!

Q : What would be a perfect day for you?
A :A walk up a mountain (without any of the boys moaning),and someone else to cook the tea.

Q : What personal ambitions have you still to achieve?
A :I would say that I am not a very ambitious person and am very happy with life the way it is.

Q : Is there some thing or situation that you always try to avoid?
A : Arguments of any kind.

Q : Are there any hidden talents you would care to share?
A : Not really, what you see is what you get!