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On September 3, Andy Baker will be be inducted as the new minister at Mount Pleasant Baptist Church in Blackwood – 35 years after leaving his home town.

Born in Markham and raised in Blackwood, Andy married wife Julie, who is originally from Cefn Fforest, at the church in September 1986.

Andy said: “I started going to church because my parents went there. I got involved with the boys brigade and youth clubs and started taking leadership roles there.”

While initially sceptical about going into ministry, Andy said he felt it was his calling in life, and so began his training aged 22 – 12 months after getting married.

His training took the couple to south east London, with Julie working at the Sainsburys headquarters in the inner city while Andy attended college.

After four years of training in the capital, Andy became the minister at a church in the Wiltshire village of Downton, near Salisbury.

Three months after settling there, Julie gave birth to their son, Jason, with their daughter Joanna following two years later.

The couple stayed in Downton, where their children were raised, for 23 years.

In 2014, Andy and Julie upped sticks and moved to Woodley, near Reading, where they lived for eight years before deciding to move closer to home.

Andy said: “We felt the time was right to move back. All our family are still here.

“We were looking across south Wales and the south west of England to move back closer, but we never thought we would be back in Blackwood. It felt like God was knocking down obstacles for us – it’s all fallen into place so smoothly.

“We’re excited to be back, many people we were at the church with 35 years ago are still there. We’re excited to meet up with family and friends too.”

But despite the decades away from home, Andy and Julie still maintain their Welsh accents, while their children grew up feeling Welsh – despite being brought up on the other side of the Severn Bridge.

Both Jason and Joanna ended up studying at Welsh universities, with Jason settling with a family of his own in Rogerstone, while Joanna is also preparing to move to the Blackwood area.

“We don’t see ourselves going anywhere else after this,” Andy said.

In Blackwood, the couple will also be nearer to their two grandchildren – with a third on the way.

In his new role at Mount Pleasant, Andy will lead Sunday services, weddings and funerals, as well as doing outreach work in the community.