Wingham has a new Baptist minister.
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The starting date for his new job will always be an easy one for Pastor George Lawson to remember – January 1, 2017.
He has a delightful accent, giving away his origins as a Liverpool boy. He is now an Australian citizen and has lived here for 17 years.
George had only been in the church assisting Pastor Jim Tilson for one week, when Jim handed in his resignation and left the congregation in George’s care.
The way things have worked out for George and his wife, Tracey, leaves George convinced that “God has his hand in it.”
George and Tracey had both finished studying, he theology and she an executive MBA, while living in the Tweed Heads area.
After completing her studies Tracey applied for a job as the CEO at Manning Support Services and was successful, necessitating a move for the pair to the Manning Valley two years ago.
However George did not have employment.
“The first thing I did was go to the Men’s Shed and make myself a cupboard out of someone’s crates!” George says.
The couple later bought the Wingham house that author Di Morrissey spent much of her childhood in, and George, a carpenter by trade, started restoring, “not renovating” it, to it’s original state.
While unemployed he also volunteered at BaptistCare Blue Gum Cottages day respite centre for dementia patients.
Through his association with Rev Darrell McKeough, George did some preaching at Elands and at the Wingham Uniting Church, and last year became the SRE (Special Religious Education) teacher at Wingham High School. He says teaching was the last thing he thought he would end up doing, but it has ended up being something he is passionate about.
George is also passionate about the Manning Valley.
“I drive home and I look at the scenery, and I think ‘look at that’”, he says.
More than the landscape, though, it is the community that has won over his heart.
“It’s surprising how many people I’ve come into contact with; it’s a bit of a miracle, really,” he says.
“Community is still alive here. On the one hand, it’s a tight knit community, but on the other hand it has been so open and welcoming.”
George is no newcomer to ministering a congegration. His first job as a minister was a Port Macquarie “at least a year ago”.
Prior to that, he was involved with the Baptist church in Tweed Heads as the manager for the church’s op shop, associate pastor, and treasurer/bookkeeper.
In his spare time, George is an avid photographer and hiker, and enjoys motorbikes and computers as a hobby.