Sam & Helen east – associate pastors
10 questions answered
What are your three favourite pastimes?
H – Obviously as a teacher I don’t have favourites but in an inclusive ‘every child matters’ sort of a way, I enjoy baking cakes, eating them with my friends, crafty stuff (not devious, just creative & arty), I love reading and I enjoy waterskiing & surfing but not the thought of them. The thought of plunging myself into cold water makes me nervous & chilly in anticipation. Brrrr. #
S – Playing with my children, surfing, waterskiing
What are your three favourite films?
H – I suspend disbelief in the cinema so much that I tend to forget films immediately afterwards but I remember ‘Shooting Fish’, ‘Schindler’s List’ and ‘Pride & Prejudice’ so they must have been pretty good.
S – The Bourne trilogy
Bill and Teds Bogus Journey (It’s been downhill for Keanu Reeves ever since) Bill Bailey – Part Troll stage show – I know it’s not a film but I laughed until it hurt so it’s worth a mention.
What are your three favourite TV programmes?
H – Grand Designs, Spooks & My Name is Earl.
S – Top Gear, Inspector Morse (and similar), Sport (anything from carpet bowls to extreme sports)
What are your three favourite pieces of music?
H – Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto in A Major / Still thinking…
S – Red Hot Chili Peppers – Under the Bridge; Incognito – Jacobs Ladder; Little Wing – Jimi Hendrix (Andreas Tuck arrangement).
What are your three favourite foods / drinks?
H – Roast Lamb (avec tous les trimmings), triple choc brownie with choc chip cookiedough ice cream (or similar) and Battenberg or Party Rings with a cuppa tea. I know that’s five.
S – Port, Greek salad, My mum’s blackcurrant cheesecake
What are your three favourite places you have been in the world?
H – Berlin for its history & vibrancy, South Africa for its big skies, Exit Glacier (Alaska) for its stillness.
S – Capetown – Signal Hill at Sunset; Polzeath – Cornwall (out of peak holiday season!); Alaska – Exit Glacier.
What are your three most treasured memories?
H – Celebrating my 21st in Strasbourg / when my daughter first held my gaze / the look on Sam’s face when our second child was born and we found out we had a son.
S – The birth of my children, getting engaged, my Dad’s complete forgiveness after I’d just totalled his car.
What are your three biggest regrets?
H – Not being recruited by MI6, not learning to play a musical instrument and not having a third regret.
S – Spending all my time with Christians at Uni and not getting more involved in any clubs; not pursuing a career as a rock star (but there’s still time…); not taking a year off to travel (before or after Uni)
What three things have you seen, heard or experienced that have most shaped your ministry as it is?
H – My parents’ example of faithfulness, kindness & servanthood / Rob Bell’s passion for scripture that makes me want to study it more / my community in Southampton Vineyard.
S – Dallas Willard – The Divine Conspiracy – Made me start to re-evaluate everything I thought was true; Duncan and Emma’s housegroup (St Denys circa 1998) – the love and honesty in that group was unlike anything I’d experienced before; having fantastic, loving and supportive parents.
What three things do you want to achieve before you die?
H – Find the perfect cookie recipe, watch my children “grow in wisdom & stature, and in favour with God & men” and find out what it is that Jesus wants me to achieve before I die.
S – To see my children grow up in love with Jesus; surf the perfect wave – the sort that you only normally see in pictures; to develop some more aspirations… 
