Nigel Sewell 1948-2016

It is with great sadness, and with an equal sense of joy, that we mourn our brother, friend and colleague Nigel Sewell, who went home to be with his Lord last Saturday.

Married to Mary with two daughters, Nigel joined TGBC in 2007 in the role of Student Support Administrator as part of The Good Book College team. Many, many students benefited from his efficiency, but more than that his encouragement to them to persevere with their studies. Helen Thorne, who ran The Good Book College for many years, describes him as, “the engine room of the college—wonderfully efficient and a joy to work with”.

Because Nigel was so amazingly quick to get his work done (none of us ever quite worked out how he processed emails as speedily as he did), as time went by he wore various additional hats within the ministry here. He took on developing our Pray, Prepare, Preach series, which provides resources to help pastors in the developing world teach the Bible faithfully, clearly and relevantly. He used the wealth of experience he had gained in his years managing an NHS Trust to oversee the HR side of our rapidly growing organisation. He assisted Kathy Thornborough, our Finance Director, in the accounts department. And he did all that part-time, while also serving his church, ChristChurch Banstead, in a huge variety of ways, and being a godly and devoted husband and father.

Those were the roles Nigel served in here—and we will miss him greatly in all of them. But more than that, we will miss him for his loyal friendship and his godly character.

Nigel was one of the godliest men I have had the privilege to meet.
He was a man of prayer—when I arrived at work, he would usually be there already, with his Bible open on his desk.
He was a man of quiet service—we have already discovered who it was who put the coffee on each morning, and we will no doubt find more ways he served without us realising it.
He was a man of huge yet humble wisdom—he offered a great deal of support and advice to the directors, and we always knew that Nigel would have helpful insight into any issue we were wrestling with. I shall miss being able to walk round to his desk to ask him quietly for his wisdom on how I should deal with something when I felt out of my depth.
He was a man of complete unflappability—a characteristic that was rooted, I think, in his rock-steady faith that his Lord was in control and always working for the good of his people.
And he was a man who faced trials—lately, his cancer and the treatment for it that he underwent—neither with grumbling nor stoicism, but with an uncomplaining, upbeat godliness.

Now Nigel is a man who is enjoying seeing his Saviour face to face. Please join with us in praying for his wife Mary and their daughters, and for his church family at ChristChurch. And please join with us in celebrating the great truth that death is not the end and that, wonderfully, those saints who go before us are not lost to us, for we shall see them again when the Lord returns, or takes us home:

“The Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command … and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord for ever.” (1 Thessalonians 4 v 16-17)

See you soon, Nigel.