When Peter’s wife, Rosie, made a deal with God that she would go out with a Christian so long as he wasn’t boring, He gave her Peter. “After almost forty years of marriage, she can often be heard saying be careful what you wish for!” laughs Peter.

Described as contributing imaginatively to church life in Liskeard, Peter loves to introduce people to God in the wider community, in unexpected ways. For many years Peter has written, produced and performed, with church members and the community, an alternative musical nativity in the local pub. “It’s great fun, it’s different and it reaches people who have rarely, if ever, crossed the threshold of a church.”

A secondary school science teacher in Saltash for 32 years, Peter constantly questions and challenges preconceived ideas. He is passionate about music, young people and plain speaking, abhorring religious, elevated language that can sometimes feel exclusive and excluding. He is also open to whatever it is that God might be up to next.

“I came to realise, when our children were younger, that God is a God who intervenes,” says Peter.

“I came to realise, when our children were younger, that God is a God who intervenes,” says Peter. “It was when we were at Spring Harvest, Jess, our daughter, was suffering a lazy eye with a discouraging prognosis. She came back from the youth group she was attending saying everyone had prayed for her and her eye was getting better. My immediate reaction was how we were going to manage her disappointment. Instead, when I tested her sight for myself, it became a question of how I was going to build on the truth that our God is huge but really cares about the small things. When we got home a baffled doctor confirmed that her eye had indeed healed. How, he had no idea – but we all did.”

Peter says there have been many times in his life that his plans and God’s plans weren’t exactly aligned, like where and when to move house, but that His timing is spot on. Since moving to Liskeard (and not the village location he thought), his work with young people has flourished, his music writing is prolific and his zest for life and all the quirky twists and turns that It’s taken, unending.

Peter loves his community in all its diversity. Currently helping out at ABC, an adults, babies and children group, Peter enjoys all the group has to offer, from playing his ukulele along to nursery rhymes for the youngest, to talking with and coming alongside the adults. “There are families in genuine crisis, but at the end of a session, I’ve reminded parents to take home the ones that belong to them- so generous are they in looking after each other’s children.  It’s a wonderful privilege to have the time to be able to be a part of it.”