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On Tuesday 22 August almost 500 people packed into a church in South Bristol. Was this for a person with an international ministry, or for someone well known within the Christian community? Well no, actually. The Thanksgiving service was for Elaine Todman, the wife of Neil, the lead pastor of Headley Park Church.

Elaine became a Christian at the age of 16 through the witness of a friend at school and through a Billy Graham campaign.

Monty Barker was born in Glasgow on 12 March 1934. After studying classics he turned to a career in medicine, training at St Andrews and Dundee.

In 1954 he was diagnosed with TB meningitis and for one month was expected to die. He recovered and a career in psychiatry followed, partly though the advice of a senior college who told him ‘You don’t have to be bonkers to become a psychiatrist’. He was appointed as a consultant in Bristol, where junior staff and medical students found him an excellent teacher, although at times quite intimidating.

Clifford Pond grew up in Welwyn Garden City, his father was an itinerant preacher and Clifford came to faith at quite an early age and had a strong impression that one day he too would be a minister of the gospel.

He left school at 14 and worked as a messenger boy for the GPO. At the start of the Second World War he joined St John Ambulance Brigade and then transferred to the RAF Medical Service.

Ken Wycherley served with UCCF from 1975 to 1989, first as a Travelling Secretary, then on the senior staff team.

In the early 1980s he played a strategic role in restructuring the student department to meet the needs of rapid growth in the tertiary sector. Ken’s clarity of thought was appreciated by staff and student leaders alike, as policies and guidance were formulated on a range of campus issues. He always retained a strong commitment to evangelism and mission.