Meet Connor and Jordy

Connor and Jordy, tell us about your family.

Our family is currently just us, Jordy and Connor, three-month-old Lennox, and our one-year-old puppy, Jatz. We both have three siblings each, and we spend lots of time with our families throughout the week and on weekends. Our immediate families are both within fifteen minutes of our place in Box Hill, which means we have a lot of support around us, which we are very grateful to God for!

What does a typical week look like for you?

Connor: We tend to try and squeeze a lot into our weeks, which is sometimes great but sometimes not super helpful. A typical week for me is working full time in construction management, mostly in the city area. The hours fluctuate depending on projects, but I am mostly able to spend a good amount of time at home with Lenny and Jordy. Jordy is a social worker and works for the government in child protection but is currently a full-time mum to Lenny.

In the evenings we both attend a Monday night Bible study, set up a couple of years ago by my brother-in-law for family and friends who are keen to hear more about Jesus. In addition, Jordy has her Cornerstone Bible study for mums on a Tuesday morning, and I attend a Wednesday morning Bible study for men. Other weekly activities include AFL training and playing for me, swimming lessons for Lenny, a mother’s group for Jordy, Saturday morning prayer meetings, Sunday morning church, and Sunday evening dinner with our families.

What do you enjoy doing together as a family on a day off?

On the rare occasion that we have a full day off, we love just hanging at home, walking our dog Jatz (who is very energetic), listening to music, drinking nice coffee, eating good food, and just working on things around the house and resting! We are generally very busy people with jam-packed weeks, but if we have the chance, we love spending time at the beach or the river with our family and friends.

What are the things you appreciate the most about living in the Box Hill area? 

Box Hill has such a good and diverse community of people. Going for walks and runs along the wide paths throughout the area is always a joy—especially as you walk past so many people, young and old, all out enjoying the fresh air. Box Hill is such a peaceful suburb and, with the new local shops, it’s also now very convenient. There is everything you need around the area, so it’s a very ideal place to live.

How long have you been Christians, and who was it that first told you about Jesus?

Connor: I would’ve called myself a Christian from a fairly young age (maybe eight to ten years old) because I grew up with parents who knew Jesus and we went along to Rouse Hill Anglican Church, which taught about Jesus and the gospel so faithfully. However, I would say it was about the time I was in Year 11 or 12 that it clicked for me what an authentic faith looked like and what it actually meant to follow Jesus. My faith went from something I considered and pondered on Fridays and Sundays to something that began to change the way I live. Six or seven years on, I can see more and more every day how faithful and good God is and I find myself being more and more captivated by what he reveals about himself in the Bible.

Jordy: I did not have much to do with Christianity until I was in high school. I was very argumentative and had a stong dislike towards God due to some hardships I experienced as a young child, which I blamed God for. It was not until I met Connor and his family that I realised what it truly means to be a Christian, and that was when I was first exposed to who Jesus really is. I began attending Christianity Explored classes and decided to put my faith in Jesus in 2017, when I was 17 years old. It has been a roller-coaster journey for me since then, but I am continuing to grow in my faith every day and am so grateful for Connor and his family for introducing me to God when I was 16, and for actively living in ways that point others to Jesus and portray his Grace in their won lives every day.

What has encouraged you from God’s word recently?

In Galatians 2:15-21, Paul explains so clearly the heart of our salvation. It is Christ’s sacrifice for us, and it is not anything that we can do of our own accord. On the cross of Jesus Christ, we see how God both remains just and good to what his law says; that is, sin and evil is paid for, yet we see his mercy because it is him who pays for it, not us, the humans that deserve it. Later in the book, in Verse 13 of Chapter 3, Paul says that ‘Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law (that is the curse that we were under for breaking the law) by becoming a curse for us.’ We’ve also recently been encouraged by Ephesians 2:8-98: ‘For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.’

What are your hopes for your family and your children?

Our primary hope is that our family and our children would pursue Jesus all the days of their lives and in all things, that they would trust that God is good, even when it sometimes looks like he isn’t. We also hope that we would be a light to the people around us in the way we live and that we would boldly proclaim the truths found in the Gospel, even if it is at detriment to ourselves. We hope and pray that everything else is shaped by that truth.

Is there an amusing fact about you that you’d be happy to share?

We first met in the high school canteen line after Jordy tried to con Connor into buying her fried rice for lunch…

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