Meet the Student Staff

Phil Jack – Student Worker
Before moving to Oxford, Phil learnt how to be a vicar at Oak Hill College in London. Before that he worked in the City and helped to run some Christian activity holidays. We like to think of Phil as a bouncy, sporty, enthusiastic, heart-on-sleeve, love-Jesus-lots kind of guy. On his days off Phil likes to hang out with his lovely wife Katy and his three boys. If he also had a chance to play golf/rugby/any other sport, that would make him a very happy man. Phil seems a bit accident prone – he has 30-35 stitches in his head from 6-7 different incidents (including whilst playing chess and shopping in Sainsbury’s). Phil became a Christian when he was a teenager but really got going in his Christian life at University in Nottingham.

Sharon McClaughlin – Female Student Worker
Sharon has a strong affinity for bold colourfulness – or really, anything that gives depth and texture to life in the form of story, beaded necklaces, strong perfume, bright scarves, theological conversation, or spicy food. Born into a pastor’s home in Northern Ireland, Sharon spent her university years in the most beautiful and prestigious university in England (you’ll have to ask her where!). After a few years of primary school teaching she completed graduate theological studies in Boston. Her interests include ‘Body Combat’ classes and chatting with friends ‘til the wee hours of the morning!

Jooooooooooe Martin – Graduates

Joe is from Arkansas (pronounced Arkansaw), USA. He studied in Harvard and Princeton before travelling eastward to L’Abri, Switzerland and then finally to England. Joe is fun, relational, daring, pensive and one in a million. His role in the student team and life in general is to be the grandfather of any who desire him to be. Joe owns the biggest personal library we have ever seen and enjoys playing the ukulele, singing, hosting, showing people his Arkansas merchandise and organising barn dances. Joe became a Christian whilst at Harvard where God moved him from being a ‘soft’ Atheist to a follower of Christ.

Andrew Walker – International Students

It took Andy 5 weeks travelling by train to get to university in York where he studied Psychology (he came all the way from Hong Kong) After that Andy studied the Bible part time and worked with students at a church in North London for two years. Andy loves to wrap things in bread, climb rocks, play volleyball and juggle with fire. He has visited most countries in SE Asia and loves eating food and learning new recipes from all over the world. Andy learned to love Jesus in Hong Kong where he grew up.

Apprentices

John Perkins

Affectionately known as ‘Perko’, John has been studying Physics and Philosophy at Oxford for the last few years before coming to work at St Ebbe’s. He is teaching us all about quarks (much to Phil’s confusion). John enjoys cooking, particularly baking cheesecakes and infamously ate 20 slices of pizza in an eating contest at Pizza Hut. John’s favourite thing to do on a day off is playing cricket (he’s even beaten Vaughan a few times, shock horror). His favourite holiday ever was going to Snowdonia with his family, especially the muddy walks and swimming in mountain rivers. John once sang to a packed audience in the Sydney Opera House. He became a Christian as a teenager through a summer camp.

Harriet Bickersteth

Harriet has moved to Oxford to work at St Ebbe’s all the way from the West Country where she studied English Literature at Exeter University (Becky is excited to finally have some Exeter solidarity in Oxford). She enjoys going for long walks, having nice chats with her friends, laughing lots, and doing a spot of cooking. She is quickly learning about all the coffee shops in Oxford, her favourite so far being G&D’s. Harriet was born in Australia so has dual nationality. She is privileged to have Christian parents who taught her about Jesus from a young age, so can remember always believing in Him, though has taken big steps in trusting him along the way, especially through summer camp and during her Gap year in The Gambia.

Tessa Early

Tessa has spent the last four years at Oriel College studying French and German. Tessa is an unashamed grammar enthusiast (I hate to think what she would make of this article!) She even enjoys reading the Dictionary! Her best ever holiday was spent in Slovenia with friends, messing about in a rowing boat and exploring lots of exciting places. Tessa is the “Mummy” of the team – with five younger siblings she is well practiced. Her favourite colour is blue and she likes spending time outside in the sunshine. Tessa grew up in a Catholic family and became a Christian whilst at secondary school, after being invited to a Bible study run by one of her friends.

Brian King

Brian has come to work at St Ebbe’s all the way from Malaysia! Though for the last few years he’s been living in England, studying literature in Oxford and Publishing in London. Asked to describe himself in three words, Brian said “between two worlds”. We hope he’s going to cook us some nice Malay food. His favourite thing to do on a day off is to read a good book with a cup of coffee in hand. His best ever holiday was going to Stockholm with his brother and staying on a boat! Brian was once attacked by a reindeer. He became a Christian as a teenager, having heard about Jesus and being taken faithfully by his Mum to church.

Jon Crozier

Born in Oxford on the longest day of the year, Jon grew up on a farm. He studied veterinary health studies at Hartpury College however mid way through decided that working with animals wasn’t for him. During his gap year, Jon was invited to St Ebbe’s where he began to ask questions about the Christian faith. Reading Mark’s gospel led Jon to learn about Jesus and understand more about who he was and what it means to follow him. He became a Christian in the summer of 2006. Jon is looking forward to serving God and His gospel as ROOTS (20-30’s) apprentice here at St Ebbe’s. He is a keen boogie-woogier and once went weak at knees upon meeting his musical hero Jools Holland. You may on occasion hear the passionate cry of OUFC as Jon cheers the mighty yellow’s on to blue square premier victory!!!

Rob Law
Rob loves eating food with other people, singing spontaneously whenever, everything to do with tea, and speaking other languages very badly. Some time soon he wants to learn Chinese properly, being laughed continually when he tried to speak it in Sichuan in China, where he taught English speaking and listening to classes of 60 kids for a few months in 2006. Ever since then, he’s loved rice, Sichuan hotpot, and gong bao ji ding (chicken and peanuts). He’s learnt how to sound vaguely intelligent while talking about things he doesn’t know very much about through doing an Oxford English degree, and would love to be able to speak genuinely profoundly on how postmodern literary theory relates to Christian faith. He was brought up in a Christian home, learning personal trust in Jesus through summer camps as a teenager. University was a difficult time for him in his faith but he found God to be faithful and gracious and he experienced the life changing impact of believing and trusting in Jesus’ resurrection.

Matt Hawken
A balanced blend of Cornish and Derby blood, Matt likes to engage with his roots by eating pasties and Bovril on toast. His activities as Music Apprentice involve coiling cables, running the choir and congregation-surfing. He lists his musical icons as Adam Duritz, Johnny Greenwood, Dr Rocktrin, Damon Albarn, John Williams and Animal from the Muppets. A compulsive diarist, Matt writes a guesstimated 300,000 words a year all about his existence and what he thinks of you. His second greatest celebrity moment was sitting next to the director of Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging at a party and his most rock-and-roll moment was getting ejected from a BBC studio for playing too loudly. Matt is very grateful to his parents for bringing him up with a knowledge of Jesus and to God for letting him do something he loves for a living.

Lottie Hinton
Lottie has just finished studying Geology at Hertford College which is where she discovered her love for going on long walks to look at rocks and wading about in rivers to collect water samples. As well as trying to convince other people that Geology is a really interesting and useful subject to study, Lottie can also talk for hours about Formula One – something she is verging on obsessed with. She also enjoys chilling out with friends and family, and her favourite breakfast is definitely a bacon sandwich! One of her favourite evening activities is watching films with friends, lots of cups of tea, and dairy-free chocolate. Lottie grew up going to Church with her family and learnt lots about Jesus and put her trust in Him through the youth work there.