Me
I am Simo (otherwise known as Simon or Silly Simon).
I am married to Gill (since 97) and we have three children, two boys Zac (2001), Jonah (2003) and one girl Charys (2006).

I spent most of my years growing up living in a small Norfolk village called Mulbarton, just 6 miles south of Norwich, although none of my family still live there it is where I still think of as home (apart from my actual current home of course) as I still have many friends there.

What I do
At the age of 19 I felt very strongly that I was being called into full time ministry but that the call was not for then it was not until 3 years later in 1995 that God revealed to me what the next chapter of my life was to hold. That summer I moved to Dorset to study at Moorlands collage (where I met Gill) completing a foundation year followed by a 3 year degree in Applied Theology (specialising in youth work and evangelism). In 99 we moved to Hertfordshire where we spent 5 years doing a job share as youth and children’s workers for a largish Anglican church in the town of Berkhamsted. In June 2004 the time came to move on we moved to Faringdon where I was part time youth worker for All Saints Church and the other half of my time I work for a local Charity called ‘Vale Christian Youth Work’ which covers an area of 160 square miles over 30 churches (various denominations) and a population of just 13,000. This side of my work involved being both a youth worker/evangelist running a mobile youth centre and an advisor supporting the local churches. In 2006 I started to think about what the future held for us as we sought together to follow Gods call and I started to think about a few options. In the Summer of 2007 at Soul Survivor I went to a seminar called ‘Getting Collared’ I went for a laugh, I left thinking “that made sense”. Over the next two years I continued to explore this possibility and in April of 2009 I was accepted for training for ordination within the Church of England. So after 10 years in Youth/Youth and Children’s Ministry we come to a new Chapter. August 2009 saw us move to Nottingham where I am now training as an Ordinand at St John’s College.

My Vision
I am passionate about the rural church a friend once described me a when talking about rural ministry as ‘stick of rock rural’ he went on to describe his thoughts like this “some people minister and find themselves doing it in a rural situation, but if someone were to break me in half they would find rural written all the way through.” Apart from not being sure about the broken in half bit I liked that description (if I hadn’t I guess I wouldn’t have used it here!)

As a youth minister my vision has been to see good quality youth work happening in Rural areas a part of the church that is so often over looked. I am privileged to been able to work within that vision as part of my ministry in the past on a small scale. How does this vision fit in with a call to ordination? Well that a good question, I guess as I have got older my role has changed, yes I still have that passion but I am beginning to see it as part of a larger role within rural ministry. The future is exciting yet daunting but my prayer is that God will continue to use me and guide to bring His good news to rural communities through the local church.

A little bit more
Along with all the stuff mentioned above I am a bit of a clown, illusionist and escapologist and a member of the Fellowship of Christian Magicians. I enjoy using skills such as juggling, stilt walking, balloon twisting, magic and escapology for fun, for entertainment and for portraying the gospel message, this can take many forms, obviously fun can just be wondering around on stilts with three balls and a load of balloons, or entertaining at a children’s party, but these things can also be used as tools for evangelism, they can be used to draw a crowd, to illustrate a message or by doing workshops by helping to build up trust before speaking to groups.
I also enjoy photography (I worked in the trade before going to Bible collage), I enjoy squash and Badminton but never seam to get around to playing either (haven’t played badminton for years)
Things I would love to do one day include rally driving, hangliding and paragliding (the last two along with the stilt walking mentioned above seam a little odd as I am afraid of heights but hey!)
The other slightly odd (at least some people seam to think so) is my fascination with Red telephone boxes, unfortunately I don’t have a real one (although I hope to one day) but have probably in excess of 70 models, a couple of books (there aren’t that many out there, in fact I think two is about it) and several postcards, I have also been given the prestigious title of Group Expert on a Facebook group dedicated to lovers of the great red box!

Why the blog/this site
I started the blog in February 2005 while at Matrix conference run by Amaze, I was talking with friends who wrote blogs (Deep Thought & Youthblog) and decided to give it a go.
I have found the blog a useful tool on so many levels, yes some of it is fun, but it’s also an opportunity to share ideas and vision, to get feedback and to talk about issues, either on this site or on some that I read.
OnMeBus has been a journey through my ministry so far (so called as at the time of starting it I ran a bus project as part of my work) and it is a journey that continues, if you would like to please come along for the ride and unlike other buses here you are able to talk to the driver!

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