Lydia Pullen
I am the area representative for the SW London district on the Council. I was born at home in the village of Hextable (near Swanley) in Kent, the second child to Howard and Mary Pontin (and, yes, Sir Fred does feature in our family tree!). My brother, Paul and I had a quiet, idyllic childhood, brought up in a God-fearing home. About the time I was born, the Lord called our father to be the pastor of a small village church in Sutton-at-Hone in Kent.
Following about 11 months in Hadlow, also in Kent, the Lord called us to the grand metropolis of Ipswich, Suffolk, in 1968, when dad became pastor of Mount Zion Baptist Chapel (now Cauldwell Hall Road Baptist Chapel). It was in 1970 at the baptism of Paul that the Lord met me in a very real way and saved me. I was baptised in 1971. I left school in 1975 and started working for what was then the Department of Health and Social Security as a Clerical Assistant in the Retirement Pensions Section. The Lord moved us again in 1976 when dad took up the pastorate of St. Neots Baptist Chapel in Cambridgeshire. Rather reluctantly I eventually moved to St. Neots as well and started work at nearby RAF Brampton, still working in the Civil Service, for the Department of the Environment/PSA.
In 1980 I took a career change and became personal secretary to the Managing Director of a small family business in St. Neots. There I learnt all about administration and did everything from cleaning the toilets, making endless cups of coffee to double entry bookkeeping and accounts, personnel and wages, booking UK and overseas travel and accommodation. I was introduced to computers – which scared me stupid! – and the telex machine.
Three years later I was to meet a certain young man who eventually, in a moment of madness, asked me to marry him. I married Tony Pullen in 1984 and gave up work in 1988 when we were blessed with the birth of our first daughter, Rebecca Louise. She was a forceps delivery and spent the first week of her life in the Special Care Baby Unit. Two years later we were eagerly anticipating the birth of our second baby when at 38 weeks I had to be delivered of a still-born baby girl who we named Deborah Joanne. What a lot I could write about this time – but Romans 8.28 sums it up and we put this on her gravestone. Another two years later and we had the joy of another daughter, Abigail Ruth.
In 1997, the Lord called Tony to the pastorate in Dorking, Surrey, where we are still living today, although we are no longer in the pastorate, but happily settled in membership with the church in Epsom. We had the joy of seeing our girls confess the Lord as their Saviour in 2000 and 2003 respectively and subsequently be baptised. I currently work part-time in our local Hospital Outpatient and X-ray departments as a receptionist/secretary.
In 2004 I was diagnosed with depression and had a rare reaction to the anti-depressants prescribed. It was a very hard fight back to health without medication! My husband was also diagnosed with depression in 2005 and still suffers.
In all the many joys and sorrows of my life I can truly say the Lord has been with me and never left me. I couldn’t survive without Him!