Our People

Here is what a few of the members at church say about themselves:

Graham and Helen

We have four children (Claire, Becky, Andrew and Katie) aged between 12 and 6, and have been Christians for about 8 years.We heard about the church plant at the Stoneleigh Bible Week in 2001 and felt that God was calling us to move there, from our home in Berkshire.

We went home from Stoneleigh and put our house on the market straight away, moving to back to Scotland in January 2002.

Graham felt that God wanted the family to move to Edinburgh and then worry about a job, so he commuted to Berkshire for 4 months before giving up work and trusting God. After 14 months of unemployment, he now runs his own Computer Consultancy business, Genesis Internet.

Phil and Karen

I first heard about a church plant in Edinburgh when my then-girlfriend, Karen, phoned me up one Sunday night sounding very excited. The concert which she was supposed to be going to had been cancelled and instead she had gone to a "Scotland" evening set up by her church in Newcastle. "God's just spoken to me about going to Edinburgh, and I think we should go" she said.

At the time I was living three hundred miles away in Oxford, and this seemed like a clear answer to a question we were asking - if God wants us to be together, where are we going to live?

We got engaged shortly after, and I moved up to Edinburgh in January of 2002. Three months later we got married and Karen followed me up north. I love living in a city like Edinburgh, where there's so much going on. Being involved in the church plant, and then seeing it become a church has been challenging, but very exciting.

Graeme and Ulupi

We started to get excited about starting a church plant as we knew we'd grow more rapidly in God. Ulupi found a job up here straight away, but it was just before we were due to be married, therefore Ulupi asked if she could delay starting by 3 months, which would mean that we could get settled into marriage and give me time to look for a job and join her.

A company in Newcastle phoned me up about a job interview I'd had over 6 months ago

and asked if I still wanted the job. I prayed about it and strongly felt that God wanted me to use that job as a stepping stone to gain extra jobs skills which would be utilised in Edinburgh even though this meant a heft pay  cut and we were struggling financially at the time. Even though I desperately wanted to join my wife in Edinburgh, I took the job and consequently my wife and I were apart for 3 months.

At the end of that period I applied for a job which I thought I had no chance in getting but due to the 3 months specialised training I'd just had they took me on.

Our money situation was very tight as we could not afford to rent or buy a place in Edinburgh and continue paying our mortgage in Newcastle. A friend who'd moved up to Edinburgh to be part of the church plant let my wife stay on his floor for the 3 months and then let us both stay on his floor for another month while we waited to sell our house in Newcastle and look for a new place in Edinburgh.

While I was at cell, I had a picture of a water scene and I heard God say that was where we were going to live. My wife had a word from a friend saying that God had a 'seat' waiting for us.

I found the water scene when driving around Edinburgh - it was a loch within the city and the seat was 'Arthurs Seat' which is a hill in the city. We started looking for houses in this area. We put a number of offers in on houses, but we were always short of the extra cash to beat the others bidding.

We found a house in a little cal-de-sac not far from the hill and loch and we put an offer in the first week it was on the market. The seller accepted the offer and closed the bidding before anyone else could put in an offer and therefore God provided us with a 3 bedroom house with a Garage, our exact criteria.