We first realised that God was leading us on a new adventure on New Year’s Eve 2016 when chatting with friends about our hopes and dreams for 2017.
A year later and we are settled in our beautiful new home. It has been a delight to spend time here over Christmas and New Year and have the chance to entertain several friends and family, as well as get to know our neighbours and begin to explore the local community.
A year later and we are now settled in a new church community where we have have already made connections and built friendships with people. In a week’s time, I will be licensed as lay minister, taking up a leadership role within the church, and it is a privilege for the whole family to be able to play a small part in what God is doing here.
This is the start of a new season for us. We have been encouraged by having a couple of other people also join us on the adventure here, and being able to share life and dream with close friends has been and will continue to be extremely special and important. There are new experiences which are certainly pushing the boundaries of my comfort zone (I never thought I would end up playing piano and leading worship in Church!) A passage from Isaiah has been speaking to me lately:
Do not remember the former things,
or consider the things of old.
I am about to do a new thing;
now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?
I will make a way in the wilderness
and rivers in the desert.
(Isaiah 43:18-19)
We might now be settlers rather than voyagers, but that doesn’t mean the adventure is over. I’m pretty sure it is just beginning!