This week has been a real "lasts". Last Friday was the last Connect Group (a small cell group/post alpha kind of thing) - they bought me an intriguing cake, some socks and one of those really annoying cards that sings to you every time you open it!Sunday was our last ever morning at Arun Community Church which was really special. They put up some photos on the screen of Lottie and I over the last 11+ years and read out all the different things we had been involved with and then people spontaneously stood up and gave a standing ovation. I must confess I had a few tears in the eyes and declined to say anything (which is difficult for me!) as no words could really sum how much Lottie and I care for our friends and family at ACC and how much we will miss being with them...
Monday it was my last Sure Start AGM which was an incredible line up of people sharing how the Centre had transformed their lives in some way. If it was in a church it would have been testimony night. The church and God hardly got a mention but I am sure he smiled when the teenage parents got up and danced their hearts out, when the Mum who had suffered post natal depression talked about the caring staff who helped her through it and when the Nursery children sang their songs at the tops of their voices. But the highlight for me was when the Creche Manager (not a christian) told the story of "The Three Little Pigs" and brought a moral to the story of building our lives on good foundations. Now where have I heard that before?
Today is the last day my boys go to Rustington Community Primary School (the same school Lottie went to - some of the teachers are the same!) it is also my last day as Chair of Governors as I have now resigned officially.
Today was also the last Launch Pad Breakfast Club of the year with a well deserved summer break coming up for the staff. This was a project I started working on at the beginning of 2006 with my friends Rosie and Jon and it is brilliant to see it up and running and completing its first year. The children who attend are referred for different reasons and come with all kinds of home lives and backgrounds - but watching them this morning celebrating together on the bouncy castle followed by party food (!) you would not have realised how much transformation has taken place...
But the end of a chapter in a good book leaves you excited and impatient for the next chapter and I guess that is where I am at the moment. Sad to be leaving so many good friends behind but excited by what God has in front of us...
