THE FORMER minister at Lochgelly Baptist Church is celebrating the publication of his third novel.

Jon Magee came to serve in the town in 1997 and was there for 20 years.

And his latest book, Confessions of a Baptist Minister, is now available on Amazon and features tales from his time in Lochgelly and beyond.

As previously reported in the Times, Rev Magee came to Fife from an Edinburgh parish and soon set up a mothers and toddlers group at the church hall, as well as children’s and teenagers’ clubs, and the Coffee Mates Group every Friday morning.

The book follows his 41 years in the ministry and tells his stories of a plane crash on a Hebridean hillside, facing a man armed with a gun and trying to deal with alcoholics and drug addicts.

He is now working on a sequel and Jon explained: “I am conscious that I have many other experiences that could be put into print, and within the book it does reveal that ministry isn’t just a quiet life.”

Speaking on how he began a career in the ministry, he replied: “I believe it was God’s calling, that’s the short answer.

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“As a young person I sensed the calling of God and yet I was very obstinate and didn’t respond as quickly as I should have.”

Jon and his wife also had a daughter who sadly passed away as a baby. He said: “God was the one who helped us through that.”

In his first book, From Barren Rocks to Living Stones, Jon recounts his teenage years in the 1960s, beginning in Aden.

Then in his second book, Paradise Island, Heavenly Journey, he reflected on his life as a young boy living with his family in Singapore during the 1950s.

Now living in Cambridgeshire, Jon added that he appreciated his time in Lochgelly and the people.