Sunday Gathering - This is Us - Wendy Painter - Interview only

lovely to see you I'm just going to stand here with a bit of paper because you're going to tell

your story it's really wonderful to have Wendy sitting here I think one of the things that came

out of the family night was obviously Wendy joining the senior leadership team and there

an awareness that actually maybe not everybody knows all that much about you and and it was a

great suggestion actually that maybe the next person on this is us would be Wendy so that she

could share something of her journey how she's got to where she is today and all that God has

done and so really the floor is yours I've got these questions to act as prompts but you'll need

prompts okay so this is about your life your faith the lessons that you've learned along the way and

I just wonder if you could start at the beginning and tell us a little about yourself your background

what was it like growing up that kind of thing yeah well I'll say hi I'm Wendy Painter can you

hear me okay? I'd much rather be doing this from the back row, just to say. But hey, that's

me. I'm fairly, say quiet. I'm not quiet. I'm a more one-to-one person than a group

person. But anyway, I'm married to Colin, so I'm the back row there. 37 years we've

been married now. We've got two beautiful children, two daughters, who are both married

now, I can say, because our youngest got married a few weeks ago. And you might see

them her husband comes along to church and she occasionally joins him so yeah I was born in

Coventry yeah sent there I was born there I was one of the first hundred babies to be born in the

new hospital and the first one to be born in the lift because I was number seven apparently my mum

had seven children I was the youngest of seven so they didn't quite believe her and this baby's on

its way she was an experienced mother she knew what she was talking about so yeah I was born

in the lifting in Coventry um yeah what sort of child what was your childhood or your teenage

years like I was a bit of um again a quiet child I think I had a happy childhood there wasn't a lot

of um love spoken you know you didn't hear oh I love you or bedtime stories it was I think probably

because I was one of seven it was just get on with it really um although I'm one of seven I only

really lived with two of my brothers because my mum was divorced she had children before then met

my dad so I only really lived with two brothers so um yeah but no I'd say a fairly happy childhood

um didn't like school didn't like rules didn't like but as I got to become a teenager got a bit

more rebellious in a very quiet way I wasn't you know they say watch the quiet ones

so I was a little bit rebellious on things like not turning up to my French exam because

really couldn't be bothered to go back after lunch to do the French exam so school wasn't great for

me wasn't wasn't I've never been an academic but anyway I progressed I went on to college

and then continued on and did nurse training because I trained down at King's College in

London did my nurse training there so I got there eventually but it was sort of like

had to take my path really on

the way I was told to go

I don't like being told where to go

no I can understand that

what would you say that you enjoyed most

about that season of your life

what was the thing that stands out

to you about that time

I loved being away

from Coventry

from home

I love the independence

and just almost like trying to

reinvent yourself you know when you're a teenager

oh god be somebody all different

and I can be, well, you know, a bit different.

So, yeah, I did enjoy that bit of it.

Finding out a bit more about myself

and who I was away from my family, really.

OK, great.

Tell us about...

So, obviously, this is your background.

You haven't mentioned anything about faith

being something that was in the background of your life.

So tell us a little bit about your Christian story.

How did... How was faith...

Or how was Jesus introduced to you

and how did you grow into, obviously, your Christian faith?

yeah um i'd say i was brought up in a non-christian i would say it's a non-christian

family there was a time when i think mom and dad dabbled in a bit of church life and i

have vague memories of my dad getting baptized but it wasn't i wouldn't say i was brought up

with in her faith family um it was when i went down to london and started my training and i

was working with this this other student who was called jackie um she's gone to be in glory now

but she was instrumental in bringing me to church she took me to there's a big church at

the oval called st mark's it was an anglican church it had the biggest doors well it seemed

to me at the time they're probably if i go back now they're probably tiny but these great big

heavy wooden doors and she you know i kept talking to i think there's something about you what is it

that makes you happy you just seem you're so different from everybody else i've ever met

there's something about you of course she told me it was because she was a christian and she

she knew Jesus and she invited me to go to church I said if I shut them doors I'm not going in I'm

never standing at the door saying to the person you don't shut these doors do you bother in there

you don't shut the doors are open you can leave at any point like okay I'll go again don't like

to be boxed in or so I did go in and after several weeks of going there I um yeah sort of Jesus

spoke to me and I gave my life to Christ and that was a defining moment for me it was you know I

was looking for a different way of life and and i i got pointed to jesus and accepted him so yeah

and i've been walking with him ever since uh as we all know for those of us that have been walking

with god for a while life's not always easy is it yeah you might have god in your life but

i always have this this image of like you know life has its ups and downs doesn't it but

that Jesus is the one

that is the constant

and I can honestly

hand on heart

sit here and say

that's so true

that Jesus has been

my constant

throughout life

do I need

can you not hear me

it's not working quite right

is it not

I sound really loud to me

no

have it right up there

okay so

so your faith

has your faith always

you said it's been

a bit like this

and which is

this life

yeah this is what life does

and Jesus has been

this constant

Have there been seasons, because you said that from the beginning you followed him,

but have there been seasons when you struggled or had questions or, you know, kind of asked that question,

why or where are you in the middle of all of this?

The magic button. Now I know.

Do you want me to ask the question again? Okay.

You said the question is, has your faith always been straightforward?

Have there been seasons when you've asked?

yeah yeah yeah yeah I'm human I live life I live it in this world yeah there have been seasons when

I have questions and things um after we got married we married a few years and we moved with

Colin's work we moved down to Nailsy and I loved it down there it was beautiful it was so nice it

was it was a bit too middle class if I'm quite honest but you don't really like when you're in

it it was just nice and comfortable and it was like really cozy and life life was good you know

we had a young daughter

Rebecca and then we had

Jen and then we had Rebecca

and life was good and then Colleen's work

decided they wanted to move him back up

to the Midlands

I really didn't want to go because I just loved where we lived

it was near the seaside

it was just beautiful

but anyway we're obedient and moved back up

and the only

positive about that was that I got to spend time

with my mum and dad who were

ageing a bit in years

and they got to spend time with the grandchildren

so we hadn't been here very long

and my mum, I had a phone call from my dad

one morning saying mum's really not very well

so we phoned an ambulance and she had meningitis

and we were told that she had a couple of hours to live

that her brain was actually cloning over

which is, once that's happened, that's it

you're saying goodbye

I'd say I stood by her bed and prayed

I didn't realise, I stood by her bed and shouted at God

I think, are you kidding me?

You've brought me, you've taken me from this lovely place,

brought me back here.

The only thing I wanted to come back for was to be with my parents.

And now you're going to take it.

I said, come on, God, this isn't on.

I really did plead and beg with him.

And anyway, she recovered.

That's my miracle, that she recovered.

And the other miracle was about it, she never smoked again.

My mum smoked 40 cigarettes a day for most of her life.

But in that time of being in a coma,

she completely forgot that she smoked oh wow we kept joking about putting nicotine patches on the

wall she was unconscious but anyway uh but she made it she came through and i had a few not many

more years because then she had a massive stroke and died but we had a couple of years with her

which which was nice yeah so that was uh one of those times where you know you question thinking

really god what what's going on um but yeah and the other time i guess was with my with my father

as well he had he developed Alzheimer's and was quite poorly um and I guess that's that's the one

time that I can honestly say I as if God was sat right next to me and said to me you know that

audible voice of God is like because I was pleading again for him to die actually because

he was in so much pain and it was the opposite prayer please God take him um and uh he God just

said to me he said you know I knew the day that I brought him into this world and I know the day

that I'll take him to be with me and that was like that shut me up as you can imagine it was like

okay God you're in control I get this now I get this and he he passed away the next day peacefully

so yeah so thank you for that um so how would you say your relationship with God has changed as

you've gotten older I think it's changed in I I'd like to say I do trust him more but there are

times when say i'm human and you think you think i trust him and then you think why am i doubting

um but i i think yeah i think it's just seeing his faithfulness when you look back

over the years you see actually god you know he turned up every single moment in my life

from the small little things that you think you know i've lost my keys i can't find this or

whatever you know we pray pray for car parking spaces everything you just bring it to god

from those tiny things right through to the the major things of you know like really big thing

isn't it death in the family it's losing your parents is a big thing so right all the way

through I look back and I see God's hand upon it all and where he's led us as a couple as a family

we didn't have an easy time with my pregnancies I was very very poorly with my pregnancies in

hospital for months at a time actually ended up on the ward I used to work work on because it was

it affected my liver so much so i ended up on my own ward but yeah it wasn't it and for colin it

wasn't an easy time was it god really tested us didn't they and in that time so okay what is the

most um what is the most important lesson do you think or lessons that life has taught you or your

faith has taught you i mean you've mentioned a couple of them already you know i love that when

you said about um about your dad how god spoke to you and said you know i i know the day i brought

him here and I know the day that I will take him and so that was yeah that was wind your neck in

kind of thing yeah definitely just putting words in your mouth but I mean is there any other lesson

that you think actually that's kind of been like the backdrop to my life I I yeah that's what I've

learned I think with I'm very much a people person I think God's taught me to to look beyond what you

see in front of you that and try and see people through jesus eyes because that's um you know

i've always i think one of the questions is something like what would your family and

friends say about you it'd be like you know i'll talk to anybody we used to go to the supermarket

shopping and i'll be chatting away to the cashiers and colin would come out where do you know them

from i don't know what yeah i'm very much a people person i think god's showing me that

you know sometimes we can be a bit judgmental of people you know put my hands up I can be sometimes

and actually I really try I think God's teaching me to you know life isn't black and white it's

not always straightforward and to try and see people through his eyes really um so yeah I think

that's probably one and you know just know that he's faithful he's so faithful no matter what we

go through he's there might not see him might not see what he's doing but he's there I mean

just a thought that came to mind and I don't want no examples or anything but would you say that

that kind of it's a gift really to be able to see people as God sees them have there been times in

your life where you have you have made a judgment about somebody and God has surprised you in that

you've then seen them as God sees them and it's like wow that's never what I would have imagined

uh can't think of anything specific no but but yeah it is i mean i know particularly when i

started working with christians against poverty and it was quite easy to walk into because we

used to go into the homes all the time that's that's where we met people so you would walk

into all sorts of different homes and and you know see these massive like tellies on the wall

and you know all this expensive and you think okay but you're in debt up to your eyeballs and

light yeah but I think God's shown me that you know you can't judge you can't judge um you just

got to love just got to love yeah and just see them as he sees them so obviously one of the big

questions I think from people here this morning was yeah how how was your journey or what does

your journey look like when you came to MCF how did MCF yeah feature on your radar uh yeah well

we we moved up to sheffield about five years ago and that was a whole nother story and journey in

itself and uh they have you know you expect god to take you in a certain way and then things don't

go quite how you thought they would go um so yeah so we we moved up to sheffield five years ago we

actually arrived 10 days before our our um first grandson was born which was a bit close for comfort

for me but there we go um and we started going to st thomas philadelphia in the town center in

sheffield because our our daughter and her husband went there and we were trying to it was just after

covid so we were trying to get them back into church and we thought actually if we just quick

text on the morning saying oh just going to church this morning will we see you there sort of yeah

sneaky little things that you do as parents um so yeah so we started going there and we were happy

there um just to say in our before we moved up to sheffield we were in our previous church for

20 odd years weren't we and it was home it was our spiritual home it was where we made those

really good friendships that will last a lifetime um so this this was a big move for us we liked it

at philly we we felt welcomed and everything but the turning point was when we did the alpha course

and we were traveling backwards and forwards like trying to get there for like six o'clock was just

impossible and how many sets of traffic lights colin 28 sets of traffic lights we had to go

through to get to philly from where we live so we thought this is crazy we need we and we'd always

been fairly local to our church so we thought we need to start looking and to be honest can i say

can i really be really honest be really honest when we first looked at the website we thought

no we're not we didn't even look at it because we thought no we're not going there but it's

changed since it has changed it's amazing it's an amazing website amazing um so do you know what

this looks really let's give it a go um so we and instantly i think we thought yeah we could

this this feels like us this feels like we could sell this it's a you're a bunch of amazing people

who were so open and honest and humble i mean the leadership i can't say i'm on the leadership map

i think you guys are so humble and so real and that's what really touched me it's not about i

I mean, Nick even did it this morning.

We were talking about communion.

You know, there's so many different ways that we've got to do this

and it's got to be blessed by so-and-so

and it's got to be before it touches your lips.

No, Jesus wouldn't have done it like that.

So I think you guys, we, us guys, do it the way, you know,

Jesus would have done it.

And that's what I love about this place

and that's why we feel so at home.

And your heart for the community and about being real with people

and seeing people's lives transformed.

it's uh it's yeah it's it's what jesus is about isn't it it is what jesus is about it is what

jesus is about just a couple of um further on questions from that you recently joined the

senior leadership team um how are you feeling about this new season and and it's early day so

i mean but yeah what are you feeling about this new season and and yeah well i've got i've got

two words and i think which one do i say first i think i've got to say excited first because it

is exciting scary was the other one but uh yeah it is exciting i mean i have been on leadership

before but it was very different it was within the baptist structure so there was a lot of

structure to things which i i do i do quite like structure i do like structure and organization

and so i struggle a little bit sometimes if i'm honest but it's good because it's good to be

challenged isn't it and i think as i get older it's another thing god's showing me that actually

be open be open to to learning and to being challenged and to be because sometimes we can

get to a certain age i think oh well i've done that i've like god choose me in that and yeah

that bit of my life's over and i'll just sit back and no you're never retiring god's kingdom do you

there's always something to do so yeah i'm excited um to be to be serving god in this way and serving

you guys on leadership but uh it'll be in his strength not my own that's what i need to keep

reminding me but yeah fighting and um thank you for that um probably the last question um

if you could sit down with your younger self um what would you say to your younger self

I think I'd say to um live out the fact that you know God's faithful that um one of my favorite

verses um is in in Joshua 1 verse 9 it says you know be strong and courageous you know the Lord

your god is with you wherever you go and i was actually given that verse um my friend jackie who

brought me to the lord her mum did a little tapestry thing for me cross stitch i'll still

have it up in our house because when i left london and moved back to the midlands to marry colin

um i was given this little tapestry and that that's a very you know no matter where you go in

life that god's there but to go back and live it because i haven't always perhaps believed it and

lived it but to know that truth of actually he's always going to be there we're going to pray for

you now um and i think the last question is as you look ahead what are you praying for in your

own life that we could say amen to um as we pray for you and colin uh this morning yeah i mean i'm

sort of looking to as you say we're grandparents now and you want to bring up that next generation

of christians don't you to so yeah so good to pray for my family um that they will um come to

know the lord and for myself really that i'll just continue to to be open to his leading and his

guiding and you know you never finish he's not finished with me yet and just to become sounds a

bit christian but to become more christ-like because at the end of the day that's that's

what we want to do isn't it we want to become more like him so yeah good thank you very much

thank you let's pray let's pray father i want to thank you for uh wendy wendy and colin i want to

thank you for their journey the story of how wendy came to know you thank you for that journey and

and the fact that they are with us uh now and today thank you that you have called them to be

with us thank you that they are part of our family and we thank you for this transition as

well into into leadership and we just pray father it is exciting and there is an awful lot that is

that is very exciting but there are things that are scary along the way and i pray

for wendy and for us lord god that you would give us the grace and the courage uh to do what is right

before you and to walk with you lord god and i pray father that i can just hear it in wendy's

heart desire for her children and for her grandchildren to know you and i pray as colin

and Wendy live out their faith courageously and quietly. Lord God, I pray that you would

use them to show to their grandchildren and their children just the faithfulness of God

over generations, Father. And I pray that they would see, Lord God, the fulfillment

of the promises that you have for their family over their lives. Father, we just pray for

them and continue to fill them with your Holy Spirit, continue to pour your grace into their

lives, Father, and grant them great wisdom, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Thank you very much.