Earl Soham Baptist Church - who are we?
Bernie Rose
If you’re at all involved with Scouting you may have come into contact with Bernard Rose. At six he started school at Earl Soham, living at Kenton, and discovered the joys of the outdoor life while playing amongst tree roots in the ditch in the school playing field—an excellent place to hide from teachers but now out of bounds, sadly. He enjoyed sport at school in Derbyshire and became a scout.
At a camp at Sheringham when some money was stolen, he saw where his life might lead, and asked God to change him, which was the beginning of his Christian life at 14.
The outdoor life continued at college at Bangor, where he studied plant and soil sciences. In his father’s business, Rose of Kenton, he put this knowledge to use in drainage and gas pipelining, including contracts for British Gas in Wales, Yorkshire, Scotland etc (what a pity it never reached Earl Soham and Debenham!) and main road developments too. Following the collapse of this business he worked on the Market Hill at Framlingham selling plants, as a milkman for a year, then became laboratory technician at Otley College, also teaching Environmental Sciences at Otley and Northgate High School. He later became Facilities Manager at Otley, but has now moved on to a social housing maintenance company as Health and Safety Manager.
Scouting resumed while living at Monk Soham when Bernard and Julia’s children joined Earl Soham scouts, where Bernard is now Assistant Scout Leader and helps on many of the camps. He is closely involved in the Faith Award which runs to Easter this year, as well as the shoe box appeal (featured in last month’s column). He was also part of the research team for life in Ashfield, especially the school.
Bernard originally came to Earl Soham Baptist Church because it was the only church where he had natural roots—his friends went there and “the church was doing things, serving people”. Now he’s on the Leadership Team with a main responsibility for evangelism and promoting links with the community, but with his practical background he’s very useful in looking after our building too.
There seems to be a theme of “underground” here: roots in the school playing field, followed by drainage work, then community roots in the church and community: a man with many hidden talents!