David Tomlinson was extraordinary because he was so normal.
A wife, two kids, a career in retail management and a comfortable home – the picture of middle England Christianity. Except Tomlinson could not be further removed from that.
"In many ways I'm an idealist," said Tomlinson, and his career wasn't make him happy.
Together with his wife Davina, he has run an open home for years. It started by having people over for dinner most nights. That gradually extended until they had four or five adults staying with them at any one time – most of whom had been homeless.
"My own childhood was quite broken so when I came to the faith at the age of 14 my Christianity was a whole new world to me," Tomlinson said in an interview with Christian Today.
"I struggled to understand why more Christians didn't live differently."
Tomlinson's story is told in Agape Love Stories – a new book by the Archbishop of York. The collection features a range of stories of "God's love changing lives today". It mainly consists of how people's lives have been turned around after tragedy – murder, disability, and FGM.
But for Tomlinson, his story's beginning is remarkably ordinary.
Challenged that this was what God had called them to, the family moved to Torrisdale on the west coast of Scotland where they could afford a larger house. They renovated it, and it wasn't long before people began to flock to it.
"We found ourselves sharing our home with people in all kinds of need," Tomlinson said.
Many in their new community viewed them suspiciously, unsure of the strange and potentially dangerous people being welcomed into the area.
There were also difficulties within the home. "We had one guy who slashed his wrists in the living room one night so that was one of the more unpleasant moments," he said.
"But most of it was good and happy."
It wasn't until foster children started arriving at the Tomlinsons' that the locals' attitudes changed. "When people saw these troubled teens living with us and getting along fine, often their view of what we were doing changed and we began to be greeted warmly all over the place. There were always people who were good to us, but we now felt a genuine sense of neighbourliness."
And so they became, in Tomlinson's words, "foster carers by default".
Now, 25 years later, they have fostered more than 60 children.
"I wouldn't say it has been an ordinary life," he told Christian Today. "But we did it because we believe that was an application of our Christian identity.
"I would say all my life has been shaped by what being a Christian means to me.
"Part of that is holding lightly to the things and possessions that we have in order to share them in a way that enables people to have some sort of quality of life and healing and restoration."
Asked what prompted him to leave a life that most middle-class churchgoers could identify with, he said: "I think sounding naive but it's true, [it] has been a determination to love God first. Therefore my life has already been shaped around my faith rather than my faith shaped around my life.
"We are called to love each other and if we don't get that right we don't get anything right. It seems very often that is bottom of the list and everything else comes above loving each other, enabling flourishing and caring for orphans and widows and the most vulnerable people.
"But if we don't do that then we're not loving God."
An idealist he might be, but Tomlinson's life is remarkably attractive. Now in his 60s, he reflected on how to turn a mundane life into something remarkable.
"I think probably the place to start is by being who God is calling us to be. I don't think we listen to a voice. I think it's about looking inside ourselves and seeing those yearnings and desires and if you like who we are already and allowing that to come to the fore.
"Inevitably all our gifts are different... I think God is the kind of God who works through those things that make us who we already are.
"So it's about being ourselves authentically and allowing God to use those things for his Kingdom."
'Agape Love Stories: 22 stories of God's love changing lives today' (Darton Longman & Todd, £9.99) is available to buy now.
