The Orchard has five Elders. Graham Jacobsen, Kerry Storey, Des Langdon, Mike Edwards and Barry Jones.
Graham Jacobsen; read Grahams profile here.
Kerry Storey (Chairman)
I have been married to my lovely wife, Dianne, for 29 years. We have two boys, Glen 25 years and Dale 22 years. We moved to the BOP in 2000 and I have worked on gold orchards driving Ferrari’s most days since then.
Most of my previous career has been within the dairy industry, with involvement in Christian Camping, Church Youth Co-ordinator, and pumping petrol.
I was brought up in a Christian family, who regularly attended Church. At the age of 10 I clearly knew one night that I needed to ask Jesus Christ to be my Saviour and forgive my sin. I did this as simply a 10 year old could do by myself, and then later that night told Mum and Dad what I had done.
Around the age of 15 I publicly showed, by being baptised, that I wanted to have Jesus Christ lead and guide my life. I still do today and don’t regret those earlier decisions. We have had many difficult and trailing times, but I can say that God has always been there for us and through those times.
My main interest has really been the local Church and family, but lately I have tried my hand at some photography as a hobby. I guess when you put two of those together it sums up my passion, and that is seeing families together as they should be, which should demonstrate the local Church, as well as the local church being able to help in this area.
One of my favourite Bible verses would be Philippians 4 verse 13 “I can do everything through him who gives me strength” The previous verses talk about being content in all circumstances, I like this verse particularly for me through struggling with low self esteem, so it encourages me that things are to be done in God’s strength.
As far as my position as an Elder goes, I feel very responsible for decisions made and very small in the fact of “Why me” From my point of view I am no different then anyone else and am no more spiritual than anyone else. We have all been given different tasks to do, mine happens to be eldership. As a Church (a body of people, not the building) we all need to work together in unity to serve and follow our Lord
Mike Edwards
I am the proud father of four and the undeserving husband of one amazing woman.
That amazing woman is Julie and together we live with our four great kids, Sam, Luke, Kalee and Jessie.
Julie is a home mum and somehow manages to find time to home school the kids in amongst all the other busyness of life.
By trade I am a money lender. An unworthy soul, who depends greatly on the unwavering grace of God.
However, that being said, I wish not to be measured by how effectively or otherwise I carry out my trade but by how well I Father and by how well I lead.
I fear I do not measure well…and so I endeavour to run the race all that harder.
Let’s run the race together.
Barry Jones
Des Langdon
I’m a native Te Puke man! Born and brought up in the district, and completed all my primary schooling at Pongakawa School. My parents retired to Tauranga just as I moved on to secondary education. I spent the next twenty years out of the area, and returned to Te Puke with my wife Lin in 1980.
I am the youngest of six children, and although it was not a Christian home, my mum and my eldest sister encouraged me to go to the Sunday School which was held in the Pongakawa Hall. From early childhood I knew I needed to commit my life to Christ. It was through dedicated Sunday School teachers and Rally leaders, who sacrificed their time, to teach me and other children in the district, that I came to the Lord. During my teenage years in Tauranga, a number of people took an interest in me, encouraged me, showed me love, acceptance and hospitality. This is why I constantly encourage people working in these types of ministries, to keep on going, you may never know the influence you have had on the people you have helped!
I guess that it also explains why I am still passionate about reaching out to the youth in our community, and why I try to keep up with what is going on in their world, and although I now have white hair, I still have a heart full of fun and zest for living, and the week never seems to be long enough! I believe my spiritual gifts lie in the areas of leadership and encouragement, and my passion is adventure!
In 1983 after 25 years of working for other people, I decided to have a lifestyle change, and plant up our small block of land to grow export blueberries and autumn raspberries, plus seasonal work in providing engineering support for the kiwifruit packhouses. Within about five years, the plants gave way to engineering work; and eventually we moved our business to a commercial site on Jellicoe Street.
I am looking forward to being able to retire from my hectic business life; to be able to spend much more time doing what I really love – serving the Lord by serving, helping and encouraging others. Even after 22 years, I find I am still energised and enthusiastic serving the church in Eldership.
Other interests include an armchair interest in all sport, however, I manage to keep the young ones in line by playing business house cricket. Tramping and spending time travelling (especially in New Zealand), gardening, home improvements, caring for our animals, and constructing all manner of weird creations for different projects. I find myself easily absorbed by technology, and this is important if I still wish to be able to communicate with people in generation Y!
Recently Lin and I celebrated 35 years of marriage, and although we have no children of our own, we sure have been blessed with countless surrogate children and grandchildren.
A quotation that I can identify with is, Five frogs were sitting on a log. Three thought they would jump off. How many were left? Five were left, as the three had only thought about jumping – they did not follow through with their decision.
