Jerram Watts (2006 Alumni) shares his story...

My fingers have hovered over this keyboard with uncertainty as I begin to write this. What does God want me - 14 years on from KingsWay School - to say to you, parents, and to you, students, presently there?

I left KingsWay at the end of 2006, and I know the school has changed a lot over the years; our postmodern society even more so. It really does feel like a lifetime ago, but fond memories remain, and I will always be thankful for the seven years I spent at KingsWay from 1999 onward. The school was much smaller back then. I remember the entire school prizegiving (Year 1-10) taking place in the Youngman Arena and the cross-country course winding its way through paddocks and over electric fences where there are now sprawling suburbs.

On my last day of Year 13 in 2006, I remember bawling my eyes out in the gymnasium. This was it. The good times had come to an end. KingsWay had felt like home. I wouldn’t be seeing my closest friends every day, and who knew what the coming years would hold? But I knew one thing was certain - God would be with me, and I could have confidence that no matter what came, I would be secure in his love, secure as his son.

And it has taken almost every one of those 14 years for me to come to truly believe that, as I have seen God’s faithfulness through the vicissitudes of life. It is one thing for an 18-year-old to say they have confidence in God’s love and to know their identity in Christ; it’s another for a 33-year-old to know it through lived experience.

So I guess that’s what I want to encourage you with as I share a little of my story: there is nothing that can compare to knowing Jesus as your Saviour and truly becoming a disciple - a follower - of him.

I completed a Bachelor of Communications at AUT majoring in journalism by the end of 2009 (including a six-month stint at the Danish School of Journalism in Denmark) and started working at 3News a few days after my final exam. University was, for the most part, uneventful for me, and yet, I also had one of the most profound moments of my life the morning after Halloween 2008. I had gone to Denmark full of vigour and faith, expecting God to use me to save my classmates. What I hadn’t reckoned with was Denmark being more secular than New Zealand, not being part of a Christian community, and having no Christian friends to be sharpened by. I lost my way and made some very poor decisions. I awoke on November 1 2008, to a confrontation with God, who impressed this upon me: “Jerram, you say you love me, you say you follow me, and yet look at the life you are living and the decisions you are making. You have one foot in either camp. You must choose me or the world.” It was at that moment I realised I’d spent 20 years surviving on my parents’ faith. If I was going to follow Jesus, I needed to make that decision for myself.

I’m deeply thankful this moment came before I entered the workforce at TV3. The media industry is intoxicating. There is nothing quite like the rush of being live to the nation on the 6pm News for a breaking news event or being surrounded by famous faces every day, being thrust into political scrums at Parliament; interviewing famous bands, sports stars and politicians - the television media world is a volatile whirlpool of gossip and egos, and it can all go to your head pretty quickly if you don’t have something more going on in your life.

But I knew there was more. While I’m incredibly thankful for my experience at 3News (now Newshub) over those years, God, in his grace, was constantly reminding me that he cared more about the character he was creating in me rather than the job I was doing. He didn’t let me get carried away with promoting myself or trying to be famous - though I definitely felt the temptation. I was learning that my identity wasn’t found in being “on the news” but being his son. When I finally made it to my dream job of being a 6pm news reporter, the feeling was a little underwhelming - I expected the mountaintop, and yet it felt more like a humble ridgeline. I knew God was at work and that this wasn’t the final destination.

Come 2015, I had quit my role at 3News and moved to Northern Thailand to volunteer alongside a long-time KingsWay friend - JD Koppel - in helping rescue children from the sex trade. It wasn’t an easy decision to leave Wellington for Asia - it meant leaving my girlfriend (now wife, praise Jesus) behind, my friends, my community, and all the comfort and security of what I knew. It felt like Peter stepping out of the boat. What helped me make up my mind was this question: “Which decision will draw me closer to Jesus?” The answer was obvious. It was the unknown road. The scarier road. The more exciting road.

And so began the next phase of my working life. Five years as a journalist in Auckland and Wellington came to a close, and four years of working in the anti-trafficking sector ensued. The year in Thailand was simply incredible. Volunteering with people from across the globe, all united to see young girls rescued from the most horrendous situations imaginable, was an experience unmatched in my life so far. Living in a rural town in Northern Thailand was pretty idyllic too. I saw God move in incredible ways throughout that year. I saw him sustain me through very low lows, speak to me through different cultures, and remind me again that he is after my heart more than my effort.

I returned to New Zealand at the end of 2015 to honour my commitment to Gabrielle, and we were soon engaged and got married at the start of 2017. I knew I’d met a keeper when Gabrielle encouraged me to go to Thailand in the first place. She had a heart for global missions and told me that I should go figure out if I wanted that too because if I didn’t, then we simply weren’t going to work out!

I spent 2016-2018 working for the charity in New Zealand, travelling the country to speak at schools, businesses and churches to raise funds for the work overseas. This was deeply personal for me as I was able to share stories of what it was like to be in those brothels in Bangkok and Delhi and look into the eyes of women and children being sold for sex - these precious daughters of the King, made in his image, of eternal worth and significance. It was an honour to be a voice for them over those years, and it was difficult to leave the organisation at the end of 2018. But God continued to move me, and I continued to trust his leading hand.

I left the charity and moved to the media team at the Ministry of Justice at the start of 2019, largely working as the spokesperson for the Chief Coroner. Day five of the job was the Christchurch shooting, and later in the year was the Whakaari/White Island eruption. It was a hectic time to say the least; let alone Gabrielle and I welcoming our baby girl, Hadasah, into the world a few weeks before lockdown in 2020.

Then came what, only time will tell, is perhaps the most significant change in my life. Towards the end of 2020, the Senior Pastor at The Street Church in Wellington - my home church for the past ten years - approached me and asked me to consider applying to become the new Lead Pastor of the City Campus. It was an ongoing conversation we had been having since 2014, and over the last seven years, he - Nick Field - discipled me and walked alongside me to help test a call to pastoral ministry.

To cut a long story short - I’m now six months into the role and absolutely loving it. It’s a massive challenge, and there is so much to learn but seeing God at work in people’s lives and in this city is just amazing.

As I reflect on the last 33 years, I see the Creator’s hand weaving a tapestry together. Through all the experiences of KingsWay, through university and journalism, through non-profit work in Southeast Asia and New Zealand, through learning how to be a husband and a father, through the rigour of Government communications - he has used every single one of those seasons to lead me to this moment, and I know he’s using where I’m at now for where he’ll have me in the future.

And he can - and is - doing the same thing for you. Nothing that has happened or will happen in your life will be wasted in God’s economy. If he took the most barbaric and evil thing in history - the murder of his son - and turned it into the most wonderful, life-giving thing for all humanity - salvation - he can take your life, full of its mistakes and successes, and make something beautiful of it too.

All you have to do is answer the call of Jesus: “Follow me”.