I am not sure that it's hit me yet. My son Matthew says that I'm far too calm, and that it hasn't sunk in. He's probably right. We move to Birmingham in three weeks time to the Queens Foundation. I was accepted for presbyteral formation training (basically, I've been selected to train to be a Methodist minister) back in May and everything, pretty much, over the last two months has been leading up to this point.
Apart from finding Tom a job (done), the boys new schools (done) and selling the house (done) there is just the packing up and leaving to do. I wonder, how do you leave well? How much in of all of this do we see God working?
I have to say that I do think that it is remarkable how all the elements of the move seem to have slotted into place. Co-incidence? Or do I say that this is God's providence working for us. I find it hard to accept "everything happens for a reason" - because you can't justify the horrors of the world by rolling out that little quip. I do think though that we need to look for the good - as Anna said last week, to practice gratitude and find the still small voice of God in what, where, how we do things. And so, maybe that's the challenge.
As we leave Teesside after 20 years of being here, I hope we'll have the time to reflect on where God has been, and where he's going to take us. On Sunday, we'll be asking you the same questions - What are you thankful for? What is God asking you to do next and how will you do it?
I hope you'll join us as we try to figure out what our dog likes best (predictions), polish up on our sword drill and sing some favourite songs which we've found over the last four months. Don't forget your rubix cube - I hope you've been practicing! There will be other challenges and an opportunity to draw a map of where you think you might be heading. With a mix of breakout rooms, PollEv prayers and general crazyness, we hope that this will be an FTUK to remember.
This will be our last FTUK before the summer break, and the last one the Days will be involved in, but we hope that it'll continue into September and beyond. Churches are not going to be the way they were, so on line sessions such as FTUK will continue to play an important part in keeping us together. So if you like what you see, then why not tell your friends and help FTUK to grow?
Finally we'd like to thank everyone who has taken part so far. Especially Paul and Graham. Graham will be going back to university in September, it's his last session too! We wish you well, G, and pray that you would know God's presence in your future.
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