Homes I have lived in #4

This year I am celebrating my silver wedding anniversary ... Just for something to do I have begun to sketch all the houses we have lived in during that time.

So here is house number #4

At the end of our year at Drayton Hall we were faced again with the question ... what next? Should we stay and engage with the ministry of Kerygma? Should we move on to new things? What was God saying? 

One thing that was on our hearts at this point was schools work and seeking ways for the Church to engage with education. On top of this an opportunity to take on a role of youth leader with our sending Church in Torbay opened up ... so we moved into this.

To support us in this we moved in with Mrs Bs parents for a year at the wonderful Mirador in Preston, Paignton, Devon. Initially staying there between July'94 and Oct'95, though we have returned many times since as it was the base for us whenever we returned from periods overseas right up until 2005 when we made a more permanent relocation back to the UK.

Significant events that took place here included: 

• Spent a year working in Exeter with the ICE schoolswork project ... mad fun!
• Did some crazy youth events, including an event based on The Big Breakfast which included a sofa, blind date item and borrowing a data projector that was bigger than the boot of my Ford Sierra Car!
• Initially enjoyed the role of youth leader very much, but the Church went through a painful process which ultimately culminated in the decision to close the Church. Notwithstanding, the kids were great!
• Began attending Living Waters Church in Paignton, which remains our sending Church to this day.
• Converted the attic space into two bedrooms ... the hand-built, wooden staircase including spiral section is a particular achievement, also laid a new driveway, much like that at Drayton Hall ...
• Worked hard for a year with some other interested people - Church Leaders, School Leaders and others to try and establish a schools work in Torbay.
• By June we entered into what was, at the time, a confusing, painful period of my life  when the group that was established to move the schools project forward, decided that we were too inexperienced to lead it forward ... gutted!
• Processed questions such as:
• What is happening?
• Where is God?
• Did He really lead us here if this has now all collapsed around us within 12 months?
• What next?
• (At this point I would add that hindsight is a wonderful thing, the people who made the decision were right, we were not the right people and God knew exactly what He was doing. Visions are not ours to own, they are gifts from God to inspire us, to explore, to obey and to pass on when the Lord so leads.)
• So, they we were, twelve months later, two kids, no ministry ... holding on!
• In the midst of the confusion at the time the Lord clearly led me, through some very timely encouragements from many people including a teacher in one of the schools in Exeter I was working in, to begin teacher training... As one door closes another door opens if we will but have the vision to see it.
• Were greatly blessed when #2 child arrived in July ... though had to engage a shift pattern of sleep between Mrs B and myself as he did not sleep for more than an hour at a time ... one night on, one night off ... so much of this period is a blur!!
• By September, I had enrolled in a PGCE Secondary Teacher Training program in Exeter.

Press on!