SRE classes were Jordan’s building blocks of faith

In our last newsletter, we shared a story about a SRE teacher named Phil who went from classroom rogue to a passionate Scripture teacher; engaging young people with God’s Word for the past 30 years. 

One of those young people was Jordan, whose life has been irrevocably changed after meeting Phil twenty years ago.

“I grew up in an atheist household, but there was always something that drew me to God. No one taught me anything about God or spoke about him, but then SRE/RI classes came along,” recalls Jordan.

Now a grown adult with a career and a wife, Jordan still remembers a particular situation where his teenage classmates were mocking Phil.

“I can remember it not sitting right; I thought it was really disrespectful. Phil saw me a day or two later and he asked me about it and we talked about faith and God and whether he was real.”

“A couple of years went by, and when I hit 18, I went down a bit of a dark path for a number of years. I wasn’t too happy with life. Then I met my wife and she believed in God and we started exploring Christianity together.”

Although it had been about fifteen years since Jordan and Phil had last seen one another, Jordan and his wife felt a prompting to be baptised and they by-chance ran into Phil around their local community.

“We ended up going to Phil’s church and he taught us more about baptism and what it was all about. Six months later, I asked Phil if he’d also marry us and he said yes!”.

Jordan has learnt some key things through his journey. 

“Twenty years ago, Phil met me where I was at, and even though it took another fifteen years for me to get my act together, it happened! That’s the beautiful thing: God is patient with us.”

“Phil really helped me and changed my life. And because of that, other people’s lives are being changed, too.”

Jordan is incredibly grateful for Phil’s scripture classes back in his school days, which he says served as building blocks for what would become a lifelong journey of discipleship and faith. 

“I think SRE/RI is great. It’s made such a difference in my life,” says Jordan. 

If you’d like to be involved in impacting the next generation with God’s love through SRE/RI classes, head to su.org.au/donate.