A couple of weeks ago I spoke at Central Hall on "Becoming a People of Perseverance" (you can listen to it here). The main point was that God calls us to be people of faith, persistence and perseverance and not necessarily successful. We have a responsibility to be a faithful servant with what God has given us and not to 'become the best and beat the rest'. As always when you speak on a topic within days God was allowing me the opportunity to practise that which I preached!
The last two weeks of finalising details on our house move has become very stressful. We have had FOUR surveys on our property for damp, a tree inspection, an electrics inspection, woodworm inspection and two roof inspections! Our buyers then wanted money off the original asking price and then to cap it all the people whose house we are buying couldn't move out of the house in Hedge End until 25th Sept!!!! Aargh!
I tell you this now, because yesterday we exchanged contracts and we will be moving out of our home of the last 8 years next Wednesday 29th August and moving into our new home, Sunflower Cottage on 10th September. All our stuff will be going into storage and some kind friends at New Community have offered to put us up (or put up with us) for the interim period. Which means we will be in Southampton for the start of school and the start of my new job (just) and although everything is not totally buttoned down things are starting to take shape.
Moving is not for wimps, it should be registered as an extreme sport...
Thank you God.
Last night a friend offered me the chance to go sailing out of Itchenor Harbour, near Chichester. I used to sail small dinghies when I was younger and thought it would be a fun evening out.
On arrival at the very exclusive Itchenor Sailing Club I realised I was entering another world. Everyone had all the right clothing, expensive cars and talked with Eton accents. I was also one of the youngest there by a few decades! I then discovered it wasn't just sailing, but racing and I would be on a crew with Gayle (who had just spent the week at Cowes and won something) and my friend Caroline who used to sail dinghies for England and now is on the committee for the club.
As soon as we got on the boat (26' Sunbeam, 80 years old and been in Gayle's family since birth) I realised that this racing was taken very seriously indeed. We may have just been racing for a bottle of wine, but we had stopwatches at the ready and practising manoeuvres and I realised that the only use I would be was as some kind of ballast...
Still it was a good night out and we ended up winning the race (although I think it had little to do with me). Picture above is of the boat that came in second place.
We then all trooped to the members dining room for Cottage Pie and Bread and Butter pudding followed by speeches (honest!). When you made a speech you had to stand up and then at the end everyone would "guffaw" with delight - whatever you said. We were presented with a bottle of wine from Alan Stannah (yes that's right the Stannah Stairlift guy - apparently only worth £118m - Alan not the bottle!!!!).
Lovely people, but...
Just got back from a family holiday at Shorefield Country Park in the New Forest. It was a last minute surprise as we hadn't planned anything due to the up and coming move, but generous friends of ours offered their Posh Lodge on the Friday and we left on the Saturday!
We had a lovely break enjoying the wonderful villages of Lymington, Lyndhurst and Beaulieu. The weather was amazing and so we spent time at New Milton beach and at the outdoor pool on the site where the Lodge was based.
The highlight of each day was probably the evening entertainment with Cyril and Cybil the Squirrels which included Magic Shows, Disco, family games and our boys favourite - BINGO!!! Every day they couldn't wait to be there for "eyes down" at 7.30 prompt...
It was great to get away, a well needed break and time to be together as a family - thank you Leigh and Amanda for your generosity...
Levi has just started wearing glasses - Mr Tickle glasses to be precise, which he is over the moon about! Last weekend he dressed up as Woody from Toy Story - but to be honest he looks more like the Milky Bar Kid.What do you think?
Having finished work on Thursday it was straight off to Scotland for the weekend to join the new Team that I will be working with at New Community Church in Southampton. Apart from it taking most of the day to fly up and sort out hire cars arriving at 9pm (could have just driven!) it was so good to be back at my friend Jim's house in Killin. The house has been transformed over the last 6 months since I last saw it with 10 bedrooms completed as well as new kitchen and new chef Stuart installed. Lottie, Flo and I stayed in Fingal which completely overlooks the Loch Tay for an amazing view. The weekend was designed to bring the new leadership team together and to discuss how things could look in September. Jim lead us through 2 days of teaching about how we all function differently and helping us work together - it was excellent.
It was so good to have Lottie involved as part of the team, Billy and Caroline made us both feel very welcome. There were many highlights including late nights in "the snug" with a 15 year old malt, singing songs around the bonfire with Ken, enjoying the unbelievable views over the Loch or picking strawberries with Flo.
Jim is such a great facilitator we had some very helpful and thought provoking discussions (and dialogue!), but most importantly we felt welcome and part of something which is very exciting, that God so obviously has his hand on.
This week we are back home and although I have been described in our local newspaper as an "inspirational community leader", I feel more grounded than ever before and excited by what God has stored up - in the mean time I have some packing to do.
You can never have enough cardboard boxes...
