My next door neighbour as a child was Bella Dunn – the lady who was in membership at DBC for over 60 years and died six weeks short of her hundredth birthday.  She brought me to the Sunday School. I was desperately shy but the kindness and ‘acceptance’ I found there remained in my mind even though I went away from the church for a while.  (A friend persuaded me to go to the Methodist Sunday School, which I didn’t like much at all )  
When I was 15/16 I wanted to come back to church at DBC but didn’t quite have the courage. The same friend was attending a youth club here. She brought me to the youth club with the warning “But you’ll have to go to church too” – I had painlessly achieved my real objective !   Again, I found that ‘difference’ in the people at DBC – a ‘difference’ I wanted for myself. 
I suppose you’d say being at DBC has been my journey with Christ.  What I know and have learned of the Lord has mostly been from its people past and present, as well as reading all of William Barclay on my journey when working in London. I haven’t always been closely involved with the work; there were times when I shut God out thinking I could manage very nicely by myself thank you, but DBC has always been “home”. I don’t have an impressive ‘rags to riches’ story, but I am very thankful  that we do not hold on to God, [although we sometimes think we do], but that He holds on to us and draws us back to Himself time and time again. 
I’ve been playing for services for over fifty years so perhaps not surprisingly I much prefer traditional worship.  When our previous Church Secretary was finding the role too much I began to assist him as ‘Administrator’, taking on the Secretary’s job when he died.  Jim was a hard act to follow so the solution was not to try, but just be me doing the best I could to serve the Lord.  
We’ve been through some pretty dark days at DBC but I always felt God was there with His people.  Then in 2000 when we had only couple of thousand in the bank we had to have an access ramp installed at a cost of £25,000: by the time the work was done new lighting, heating,carpeting, seating and lobby had been added and the work had come to £90,000 – and there was still money in the Bank.  Surely God wants DBC just where it is !