Des Langdon I’m a native Te Puke man! Born and brought up in the  district, and completed all my primary schooling at Pongakawa School. My parents retired to Tauranga just as I moved on to secondary education. I spent the next twenty years out of the area, and returned to Te Puke with my wife Lin in 1980.

I am the youngest of six children, and although it was not a Christian home, my mum and my eldest sister encouraged me to go to the Sunday School which was held in the Pongakawa Hall. From early childhood I knew I needed to commit my life to Christ. It was through dedicated Sunday School teachers and Rally leaders, who sacrificed their time, to teach me and other children in the district, that I came to the Lord. During my teenage years in Tauranga, a number of people took an interest in me, encouraged me, showed me love, acceptance and hospitality. This is why I constantly encourage people working in these types of ministries, to keep on going, you may never know the influence you have had on the people you have helped!

 I guess that it also explains why I am still passionate about reaching out to the youth in our community, and why I try to keep up with what is going on in their world, and although I now have white hair, I still have a heart full of fun and zest for living, and the week never seems to be long enough! I believe my spiritual gifts lie in the areas of leadership and encouragement, and my passion is adventure!

In 1983 after 25 years of working for other people, I decided to have a lifestyle change, and plant up our small block of land to grow export blueberries and autumn raspberries, plus seasonal work in providing engineering support for the kiwifruit packhouses. Within about five years, the plants gave way to engineering work; and eventually we moved our business to a commercial site on Jellicoe Street.

I am looking forward to being able to retire from my hectic business life; to be able to spend much more time doing what I really love – serving the Lord by serving, helping and encouraging others. Even after 22 years, I find I am still energised and enthusiastic serving the church in Eldership.

Other interests include an armchair interest in all sport, however, I manage to keep the young ones in line by playing business house cricket. Tramping and spending time travelling (especially in New Zealand), gardening, home improvements, caring for our animals, and constructing all manner of weird creations for different projects.  I find myself easily absorbed  by technology, and this  is important if I still wish to be able to communicate with people in  generation Y!

Recently Lin and I celebrated 35 years of marriage, and although we have no children of our own, we sure have been blessed with countless  surrogate children and grandchildren.

A quotation that I can identify with is,  Five frogs were sitting on a log. Three thought they would jump off. How many were left?  Five were left, as the three had only thought about jumping – they did not follow through with their decision.