I AM sure most of us already know that November 30 is St Andrew’s Day...but who was Andrew?

He was a follower of Jesus.

If I were to ask you to name of the rest of Jesus' friends, you might say 'Peter, James and John, then Matthew, Judas and Thomas the doubter and, of course, Andrew.'

But what do most folk know about him?

Andrew was once described as 'The Saint of the Rank and File.'

He was ordinary. You see him in the supermarket. He sits beside you on the bus, he delivers your post, he serves in the local shop. He lives near you.

Andrew is all around us.

He was a fisherman, brought up beside the sea of Gallilee, and it was there he met Jesus.

One of the first things he did was to introduce his brother Peter and, with the waves lapping at the side of the boat and the sunlight dancing on the water on that never-to-be-forgotten day, they dropped their nets, turned their back on their little village and left.

Andrew was not a natural leader. He was used to playing second fiddle – and that is not an easy instrument to play.

Peter was the leader.

It’s not easy to live in someone’s shadow, watching them get all the plaudits, attention and maybe even reward, but Andrew never complained.

This country, the NHS, our schools, communities and voluntary organisations depend on people like Andrew who are willing to do a job and do it with dedication and commitment – often with little thought of praise or reward.

During the Battle of Britain, Winston Churchill said: “Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.”

It was a victory achieved not by the generals but by young men – a team who played, fought and, ultimately for some, died together.

It seems to me that all around us, in every community, we need the Andrews and the Andrenas – those who are willing to serve, sometimes to play second fiddle.

They are the salt of the earth and no human enterprise would ever happen without then.

I, for one, am so glad he is our patron saint.

After all the talented men and women have flashed across the sky like meteors, leaving behind a trail of glory with their great gifts of inspiration and vision, after they have laid before us all their grand plans, it is so often the Andrews who get the job done.