This is home

Who knew moving house could be so unpredictable? After all houses don't do that much moving. Lizzie and I were due to move into a house in central Caerleon back in January but for one reason or another that fell through at the last minute - we even had packed most of our stuff. Having been with Owen and Ruth a bit longer than planned meant there was a slight problem - they were due to have 2 set of missionaries turning up 4 weeks later. It was hard enough finding a place and now we had to start all over again. We viewed a couple of places including one ridiculous place. It was advertised as part furnished. Quite which part was furnished I'm not too sure. Was it the rug, the ironing board, or the cheap light shade? The kitchen was also conspicuous by it's absence of appliances along with a butchered work top. Needless to say we didn't move there.
We did find a charming semi-detached property on the other side of the village from Owen's place which is where we are staying now. We moved in on the 16th of March, yes that's a while back, as the next lot of OMSers were arriving at Owen's house on the 18th. Now normally that's not a problem. However, we had to be in Fife (~470 miles from Caerleon; ~80 miles from Glasgow) on the 15th of March and we were in Glasgow collecting some of our household items that week. That meant we would be getting back in Glasgow on Friday evening, packing the car and then leaving on the Saturday morning (386 miles to Caerleon). We set out nice and early giving ourselves plenty of time to get to Newport where the estate agents are based for 3pm. We then made a fatal error. We were making such good time we stopped for brunch. That was fine. We refueled ourselves and the car when we hit a traffic jam before we even rejoined the motorway. We still had plenty of time and an hour to spare, what we didn't count on was this being a major traffic jam caused by a serious accident with the air ambulance coming in and out. We called the estate agents and told them about this delay and we were unsure if we would be able to move in that day.
Some anxious prayer and and sweating (it was actually sunny and hot!) followed by more waiting had seen us being an hour ahead to being 30 mins behind schedule with over 100 miles to go. We got to Newport, by which point the weather had gone from baking hot to monsoon-esque rainfall, slowing us further, at 4pm. Thankfully we got the keys and moved in that day and also fitted in a trip to the supermarket after that too!

My laptop which has the picture of our new place has died so here is
a picture of a car which has nothing to do with us or our house
 but I thought I would put it in anyway.

Why am I going over this? Has nothing interesting happened with the youth ministry since I last posted on here? Well of course there has been lots of good things happening with the youth but, this is an encouraging story of the difference prayer makes. Sure we might have made it and got the house if we hadn't prayed in the car. But go further back, back to when the first house fell through. We were both set on that house - it was perfect for us. After that I honestly didn't know what we were going to do. Houses in the right condition, in the right price range don't often come up in Caerleon. Not only that we had less than a month to find a place and move in. I forgot to mention there was some work being done on the house so we couldn't move in for what was 3 weeks which meant we would be left rather cosy with the new arrivals a chez Reynolds. In the end the work was done in 2 1/2 weeks which meant we could go to Glasgow and get our stuff and we would be out of the Ruth & Owen's house a full 40 hours before our OMS colleagues arrived.
Over the last 18 months I've seen God at work with some amazing answers to prayer. I've learned to trust God more - I had no idea where would be staying when the house on Bodington (sp?) Terrace fell through, all I could do was cling to a hope that God had a plan for us. The place we're now in is the same price and it has a better garden and there is more car parking space along with a garage.

The view we are missing from Owen and Ruth's place

Lizzie and I have been incredibly blessed by good support this year both in prayer and financially. We want to thank you for that. I hope we can count on you to continue doing so with us for the next 3 months. We also want to take this opportunity to say that we won't be extending the contract with OMS to continue at Lodge Farm after August. There may be a slight extension into September as that is when the lease is up on the house, but that's not been confirmed. Also I feel it is important to say that I want ensure there is a smooth transition from me to whoever, takes over, if someone takes over at Lodge Farm. I am determined to leave well.
I'll post more in due course. Lizzie and I have enjoyed being at Lodge Farm and are grateful for their support, friendship, fellowship, and the opportunities they have provided us with.