RIP Baz

It was a sad night in Zac's.


At about 5 there was an urgent prayer message: Baz had collapsed and was having CPR. He died just before 6.


Baz and his wife, Di, were long-time Zaccers; almost from its inception they'd been around, supporting Sean. Di took her place behind the counter and served mug after mug of tea and coffee while Baz, he was just Baz, an integral part of the picture. 

25th anniversary

When I first started going to Zac's Baz really annoyed me. (I told him this at a later date.) It appeared that everyone he spoke to either became a Christian or was healed of some disease, and he frequently shared these stories as part of the Tuesday evenings. As someone who's never 'brought a brother to the Lord' it drove me mad. But soon I learned to love Baz to bits.


One of the vital and missed roles he played was that of 'bouncer'. If someone was getting a bit noisy and disruptive, Baz would say, 'Let's go outside and have a fag,' and they'd disappear until the study was over or the disruptee had calmed down. I say missed because we already missed him: he and Di trained last year to be security guards and since then they've spent most of their time working, a lot of it away, on turbine erecting sites for example. The last two weeks they've been in Lincolnshire, which is where Baz collapsed with, everyone is assuming, a heart attack.


So last night, instead of continuing with Mark's gospel, with everyone, especially Baz's brothers in God squad stunned, Sean read psalm 32 and we prayed for the family - and others in the Zac's family who've gone to join Teen Challenge in Scotland, a deliberately long way from Swansea, to try and fight their addiction.


So much pain and sorrow in so many lives. Baz made me smile, he drove me mad, I loved him.

By special request, Baz in his red shorts