Based on the Sunshine Coast, we welcome filmmaker, photographer, director, musician, producer, father & hubby- Jordy Merry. Growing up within CS since a young grommie, Jords has had a super adventurous & creatively inspired life. From living in Darwin on mission, travelling Aus & Indo shooting music videos and passion projects with a purpose, to falling in love in the forest & writing & producing music- Jords has kind of done it all. Here's a small snippet of his story. Yew!

As a pastor's kid, what was that like growing up?

Unlike a lot of pastor's kids, the derailing from the church rebellious streak wasn't my story haha... my upbringing was quite pleasant and fun haha. I loved having my dad as the pastor of our church in Ocean Grove. He was a boss! The church was called 'The Wave' and I have so many amazing memories there and in the Grove community. I think the biggest blessing though was not just having epic parents to guide and nurture me into being a man of God, but it was the uncle figures that I looked up to as the kind of man that I wanted to become. They all had long blonde hair, came to church half an hour late with wet and sandy feet, but they had 3 things going for them that I really admired:

1. They weren't boring Christians (they pushed the boundaries and knew how to have fun!)

2. They really loved God. He was evidently number one in their lives.

3. They accepted everyone as friends. They knew what loving people looked like.

They were of course Christian Surfer crew who took up the whole far left hand side of the church pews. These guys are now some of my best mates and they are still going strong for the Lord. Through hectic trials and in the toughest of seasons, they maintain their strong belief that God is who He says He is and they choose joy amongst the chaos. They're still a huge inspiration for me. So yeah growing up as a pastor's kid was really the biggest blessing!

You first picked up the dad-cam to bless the CS groms with footage... did you ever think the journey would turn into what it has today?

No way haha. In between University lectures (which I didn't go to very often haha) I just started filming some of the CS groms down at the local beach with my dads handicam so they could have clips to try and get sponsored. There was no forward planning to become any kind of filmmaker what so ever haha. It's cool though, now some of those groms like Jaleesa & Jake Vincent, Isabella Nichols & Harry Bryant are actually sponsored professional surfers now making crazy surf films all over the world! I'm just a freelance filmmaker that gets to tell peoples stories, somewhat like yourself Jemma! Maybe we should make a CS Aus Doco? haha I'm actually so keen for that...

Peter John was a big influence for you- you guys travelled round Aus for a year?! (we didn't go for a year, just a few months and not everywhere around aus haha)

Yeah good 'ol Epic Pete. He took me under his talented movie making wing when I was in my early 20's and we did a lot of travelling up and down the east coast shooting music videos and live shows. It was my first taste at working on a bigger set with Jibs and rigged out RED cameras etc. But we mostly just had a lot of fun, surfing and hanging out.

What's been some of the most cherished shoots & people you've worked with?

One of my favourite projects to be a part of was the 'living on cloud nine' documentary in the Philippines with Compassion, Christian Surfers and The Australian Christian Channel. We took 4 young CS groms (14-15yrs old) over to the Philippines with a "surf trip" being the lure, but really we wanted to expose them to how other kids in different parts of the world do life. It was really crazy to see the transformation in these groms' lives from the start of the trip to the end. I think it was so special for me because it was an idea that God placed on my heart and to have people believe in the project and see it executed was just so fun! We had a big screening in tickle park Coolum Beach over easter of 2013 and a couple of thousand people came. It was also my first ever big doco project, so that was also really exciting.

Can you take us through the process / inspiration behind directing the Live Passionately film with Monsta Surf?

My parents took me and my sisters over to South East Asia backpacking for 3 months when I was 8 and ever since that trip I was hooked on travel and experiencing cultures different from home. I guess it instilled in me a real longing to show that to others as well. So when Cam Greenwood (founder of Monsta Surf), Elliot Gray (Director of Photography) and I started to dream about a trip to the more remote parts of the Philippines, our initial plan wasn't to make a doco, it was to just surf and hang and get a few pieces of content for the brand. The plan quickly escalated into us taking the whole team of Monsta Surf Ambassadors over as well and seeing if we could make a doco out of the trip. We didn't plan it too much, we knew that there could be really good waves, or it could be flat and we also knew the area that we chose in the Philippines was devastated by a category 5 typhoon a couple of years prior to our trip, so we packed our bags full of Water Filtration systems incase the locals in the area didn't have safe drinking water. The team of ambassadors had no clue of the itinerary or anything prior to the trip, we wanted everyones reactions to be pure and unfiltered. I won't give too much away for those that haven't seen it, but we scored some real fun waves and ended up being so ridiculously blessed by the locals in that area and had a chance to make the trip more about giving back than just scoring perfect waves.

Your sister has also been a big influence in your life...

How has your music evolved since that little kid singing in the shower?

Yeah my sister Ellie was a huge musical inspiration for me. Her encouragement in me is a big reason why I can even sing in front of people or sing into a microphone. We started a duo called 'The Merrys' back in the day and played a bunch of shows and festivals around Qld. A memorable moment for us was beating Ziggy Alberts in a song writing competition at the Kings Beach Tavern haha, had to pull that one out. But yeah since then I've been a part of starting a worship collective called 'Children of Inheritance' and I now also have two little side project bands, one with my wife called 'As He Is' which is like Christian Lofi Pop and one muck around band called 'The Jordies' which is more psychedelic pop with my friend who also has the name Jordy haha. I started producing music more frequently through covid lockdowns and now I'm adding that to my resume as something I do as a creative freelance service for anyone wanting to make cool music. This week I actually have Lucy Crock from CS Vic in the studio cooking up a little EP, it's sounding delicious.

The story of how you & Aubrey met is pretty magical... could you give us the short version hehe.

Haha there is no short version, but I'll try my best. Somehow Aubrey got invited to the 2 week writing and recording workshop type event that we had for 'Children of Inheritance' by one of my friends who helped lead the project with me. I didn't want her to be there haha- sounds bad, but I wanted it to just be people we all knew so the culture was set and we could go deep together with the Lord. But anyways she still came and from the moment I saw her beautiful smile I was like "Oh Lord help me not fall for this woman'... 2 weeks later I was saying these words to her... "I'm madly in love with you and I want you to be the mother of my children." Thank the Lord that she didn't run away, and agreed we should be a team! haha. Then after initially getting a big rejection from Aubrey's father for her hand in marriage, 1 year later we got the all clear and ended up getting married on April 3, 2020 in Michigan, smack bang in the middle of the gnarliest pandemic lockdown the world has ever seen. It all sounds dramatic and gnarly, but I honestly wouldn't change one part of our story, it's just beautiful and meant to be.

Jords you were living in Darwin for a while there?

I was. Yeah, in January 2018 I moved up to Darwin with 10 of my good mates and 50 other randoms from around Australia as part of a wild movement that the Lord was doing up there. I ended up getting a creative role with Youth For Christ and doing a lot of trips out to Arnhem Land and the surrounding communities. It was so wild what God was doing out in the communities of Arnhem Land. We were seeing crazy miracles, people saved and the whole community up there in Darwin really believed it was the start of an Australia wide revival. It was pretty exciting to be a part of. I even got some waves in Darwin! haha, on a cyclone swell there was little 2ft shories at Nightcliff beach and there was like 20 local crew on it haha, could literally start a CS chapter up there. It was funny, we surfed it two days in a row, then no one surfed cause there was a croc on Nightcliff beach, but then the next day it was still cooking so we went back out there haha.

Could you talk us through what happened at Nat Gatho during worship...

Yeah for sure, basically on the night of communion which our old team were privileged enough to lead, we were just gonna put some chill piano music on in the background while everyone was doing the washing of each others feet, which was so beautiful to see by the way. But a couple of girls from Sunny Coast CS came up to me and asked if I'd just tinker away with some worship songs, cause they really felt on their heart to end the night in a space of bringing God glory through song. So I was like, heck yeah! It really moved me as people started to wash each others feet and then come down the front and sit to just be with God in worship. The people who'd had enough went and did their own thing out, but the ones who wanted more lingered longer. I saw a hunger for God's presence, which to be brutally honest, I don't see much of in our CS culture. But the people who wanted to meet with God came to the front and knelt before him and as we were singing "Let us become more aware of your presence, let us experience the Glory of your goodness" I just felt a crazy wave of the Lord's presence smack my heart like a tonne of bricks. I started weeping uncontrollably and could harldy strum the guitar. What I felt God was downloading to me during that time was that 'those who thirst for me will be filled', 'God comes to those that want him'. There was a 'wanting' in that room that night, it was beautiful. The Lord also showed me that if we can take this same desire and hunger for his presence back to our local beaches, facilitating similar spaces of beholding the magnificence of Jesus, people will encounter him and have their lives changed forever. It's the fuel we need, it's the very thing the world doesn't have. So my encouragement after that night was to just want to want Him more and make spaces to do so with others.

The joys of being a father... and to the literal breath of life...

Ah yes, my beautiful daughter Ruah (meaning breath of life) is such a blessing to us all. Fatherhood is just the most magical thing in the world. It's also the most challenging thing in the world haha. But the way God shows me his heart through my daughter is crazy. Even in the tough times of no sleep or when she smacks her head on the ground and the coffee table falls on her, God shows me his heart for us. I've always wrestled with the questions of why God doesn't intervene in certain situations, like he so has the power to. But being a father and watching Ruah learn how to pull herself up on things and sit up for the first time and eat solid food etc etc, I've realised there's times where it's necessary that I intervene and there's times where she needs to persevere and learn for herself. The most important thing is she knows that I'm here with her and will always be supporting her. God is God, He's all knowing and we aren't, I think being a father has helped me let go of control a bit from the tension of wanting to know all the answers to the mysteries of God's ways.

Relevant line of scripture right now...

Matthew 6:33 "But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you."

Favourite worship album

Probably 'Simple Gospel' by United Pursuit. It's just a classic.