David & Jennie Wright

David was born during the London blitz to believing parents. Brought up in a Congregational church, he came to faith in a Methodist church, was water baptised in a Baptist church, active in the Open Brethren movement, attended a Pentecostal assembly and was a founder member of one of the first house churches in the UK. Later, in the armed forces he became a backslider. He met Jennie in Scotland where they married and raised their/a family.

Jennie was brought up in Glasgow by Church of Scotland parents. She had a grandparent who kept Shabbat. She lived in an area with Italian Catholic and Jewish communities and had friends in both. At 16 she left home to work with ‘Guide Dogs for the Blind’ in Forfar, Angus. She turned her back on religion but still believed there was a God. She met and married David in 1967. Jennie worked as a PCB prototype technician before embarking on a nursing career working in psychiatry.

David’s career was in engineering, technically very successful but spiritually empty. One day he prayed ‘God, I need to get back to you, but you are going to have to drag me back’ so he did!! David and Jennie then joined a Brethren congregation before moving to a charismatic congregation after being baptised in the Spirit.

As a professional engineer David was asked to visit business clients in Israel. When his foot touched the ground in Israel he knew this was where we had to be. Arriving in Israel in 1997 on a work visa, David and Jennie joined ‘Adonai Roi’, a new congregation founded by Avi Mizrachi out of ‘Dugit’ a coffee house ministry. After training and vetting David was ordained as an elder alongside Jennie.

After thirteen years in Israel, and a highly successful engineering career, Jennie and David had to leave Israel when David’s work visa was withdrawn. Being ordained in eldership and as emissaries of Tikkun they explored openings in the USA, but were unable to get a US visa. They then moved to Plymouth UK where they started a study group that became the congregation ‘Beit Ezra Messianic’, now registered as the UK charity 1177526. Following up on a local relative David found he did in fact have orthodox Jewish antecedents!

David and Jennie are accepted by the Plymouth Orthodox Synagogue as Messianic believers. David has been approved by the synagogue to visit schools in Plymouth to teach about the Jewish faith. Beit Ezra is a member of ‘Churches Together in Plymouth’ and ‘Churches Together in Devon’.

Jennie works alongside David in the ‘Beit Ezra Messianic’ congregation and is an ‘End of Life visitor’ and as a chaplaincy pastoral visitor in a large hospital. David was a chaplain in Devon and Cornwall Police caring for officers and staff at a large local station, but has retired for health reasons. He is currently exploring a chaplaincy activity in the local community.