Meet Ed Surrey, Director of
CRU West
O
CRU is incredibly thankful for the provision of Ed Surrey to lead the CRU West ministry. Born and raised in England, Ed has spent the last 5 years working as Associate Pastor at St Leonard’s Church in Exeter. Prior to that, Ed spent 6 years training and working at St Matthew’s Anglican Church in WA. In June, Ed returned to Perth to serve full-time as Director of CRU West. Let’s hear his story.
While I was at uni, my father was diagnosed with a brain tumour the size of an orange. The way he was dying over that year, simply trusting Jesus and knowing that Jesus was perfect, meant that he wasn’t worried about dying. It made me look again at Jesus Christ and His claims. For the first time, it wasn’t hard to follow Jesus. I knew pretty quickly after that, that I wanted to spend the rest of my life telling people about Him.
Q. Hi Ed, please tell us a little bit about yourself! A: My wife, Sally, and I are originally from the UK and moved to Perth with our 3 children in June. I’ve always known and loved Jesus, though there have been wayward paths along the way and moments where I didn’t like it. But Jesus is the main thing in our lives as a family, and my life too. Q. How did you come to faith? A: I grew up in a large English church just south of London. It had always been a wonderful praying, Bibleteaching, Jesus-loving church and always churned up people into ministry. But although I had the most wonderful teaching, I went my own way and was a stereotypical, bored teenager, and tried to be unique… just like everyone else. I did what I wanted and took everything for granted.
Page Twelve
Q. Tell us a little bit about your education, professional background and what ministry experience you’ve had. A: Well, in uni, I wanted to read people’s minds so I studied psychology – I was a bit disappointed when I realised it wasn’t about that. So, I ended up doing an apprenticeship at a church in the UK. After that, I thoroughly enjoyed being a maths teacher for a couple of years at a posh school near Oxford and then I came to Perth to work for a church here… It was supposed to be 18 months or 2 years but ended up being 6 years! I also studied at a theological college and once I finished my training, went back and served at a church in the UK. We were in the process of moving back to London when the prospect and opportunity of working for CRU West arose… and it was too much for us to decline!
