It's one small move for youth work and it's one giant drive for the youth worker

How I imagined our journey starting.

At 03:00 on the 4th of August 2012 two YWEV (Youth work expeditionary vehicles (yes these are funny names for my car and the wife's car)) arrived atop on Trinity View on the southwestern corner of Wales. It ended a massive 10+ hour drive that was fraught with difficulties, a delayed departure coupled with YWEV 2's navigational problems - after one and a half miles, the next 370 miles were going to be interesting. To put that into context the last time we travelled down it took a little over 7 hours but arrived safe and sound, if a little tired and coffee dependant, although some say I'm that anyway.

Ok it was more like this, once you get rid of the rockets.

Since it is getting late I'm tempted to dwell upon the title of this post and come up with all sorts of silly and contrived lunar landing parallels which would be stretching things a bit but I'm going to anyway.



So it was more like this. The real YWEV 2 (above) aka a Vauxhall Corsa
and YWEV 1 also a Vauxhall Corsa.

 

1) A different view. We quite literally have a different view of things here. Back in Glasgow we woke up to see a well positioned brick wall, now we look down on England when we wake up. Any fellow Scots read what you will into that statement. For any offended English folks we literally look down on the Bristol Channel and the top of one of the English counties.



The view from our bedroom overlooking Caerleon.

2) Life is different. Even if Welsh village life isn't as drastically different from Scottish city living compared to spending time on the moon, there are some quite noticeable differences. The area we're living in is considerably more affluent than where we were living in Glasgow for a start. There is also a slower pace of life for us non-commuters with crazy rushing around. It's quite pleasant here if you ignore the the fact they enjoy building houses up ridiculously large and steep hills, when that's coming from a Glaswegian you know it's bad.

3) There's more life in Glasgow than on the moon and there is more life in Glasgow than down here.  Glasgow has a bigger population than Cardiff, Newport (including Caerleon), and Cwmbran put together. Besides that village life is closer than living in a big city, which is good as a lot of my role involves building relationships.

4) We're here for a purpose. Despite the fact that everyone remembers the iconic shots of astronauts playing golf on the moon there was a scientific and political purpose in putting then on the moon. Lizzie and I also have a work to do here. Lizzie's started work as a nurse in Cardiff and I've started to be involved with the youth work program. It's quite quiet at the moment as the schools are still off but it gives me a good chance to settle in and do planning and form filling.

5) We intend on coming home! I know we've only been here two weeks but we will come back to visit friends and family.

13 days to go...

Okay so a quick update...

Thursday was the wedding of the new Mr and Mrs Boyce, congratulations to them! It was a great wedding and a privilege for Lizzie and I to be there and the way they expressed their faith throughout the ceremony and reception was beautiful. And like I said in my previous post it was great that we didn't have to move up and down the road to attend which was a bonus although we are looking forward to our new start in Caerleon. Speaking of which we're leaving in 13 days time for Wales and as you may know I'm big on prayer. Incredibly we've managed to get our flat rented, although our flat is well worth renting so that's not so amazing, but what is amazing is the first person who viewed it a day or so after it went on the market loved it and will be the living there very soon. We were quite worried about this aspect as having a mortgage on a property we wouldn't be living in without any income from it would be a challenge. People may say this isn't an answer to prayer but it is. We prayed and God graciously answered, we could have waited a while before we got a tenant but we got one straight away. It's a burden off our shoulders knowing that we don't need to be worrying about the flat. Interestingly she moves in on the day I start my new job. 




The Burrell Collection cafe
looking nice and clean

Some of the residents of Pollok Country Park

So the next thing on the agenda is me finishing up work this weekend. Since November I've been working with Cordia in the Burrell Collection, in Pollok Country Park doing cleaning so from Monday it won't be as clean as it has been! It's a nice place to work and I've enjoyed working with the people there so I'll miss that. I still have several shifts at my other job to go but the money will from that will get us to Wales and to be honest I love working in Adelaides having been there since 2010. So things are taking shape nicely and we've packed, well mostly Lizzie has packed, a few more boxes. On Sunday the 29th of July at 7:30 I'll get to say a few words at the church Lizzie and I go to, about that I'll be doing in Wales, which will be the day after our going away night out. I'm excited about both of these things as I think it is important to go with the best wishes of friends and family and the prayer and blessing of our home church. It's the people we're going to miss the most and part of the reason for this blog is to try and keep in contact with our friends and family wherever they are. 

Sleepy Cow!

Hopefully we'll have a chance to catch up with as many family and friends before we leave Glasgow. I hadn't intended on putting these pics on my blog but these are just some of the views we'll be missing. I never thought I'd say this but we're going to miss Glasgow too.

The west end of Glasgow.
Our flat's down there somewhere!

Hard to believe this is 5 minutes walk from our flat!

What we wake up to every day,
 although normally there's no snow.

Road Trip!

So this weekend the wife and I are setting out on our epic road trip down to Wales. This is significant for 3 reasons, it's the first time either of us will have been in the land of leeks, daffodils and Tom Jones, we get to meet the people I'll be working with and, thirdly, it's the first time I will have had an interview in McDonald's. Spoiler alert: I've no pictures this week hence the Welsh theme with the colours but it also means it will be like a boring auntie's holiday itinerary.
So for those of you who I've not yet told, my first interview should have had some people from OMS present so they're going to rectify this by means of an interview in McDonald's over coffee (maybe they could include "interview coffee" in their next TV spot?).
So that's on Friday and pretty much the first thing we'll do in Wales other than get lost. We're then off to meet Owen and his wife which will be good as I've spoke to him quite a few times, so will be nice to finally meet him face-to-face.
Saturday is a chance to get to know the local area and that sort of thing. I've heard conflicting reports of what Newport and the surrounding area is like from people who have never been there so we can make up our own mind.
Sunday will probably be the most daunting day as we go to the church. They're very keen, as am I, for this to happen so it will be a case of being bombarded with lots of new faces and possibly a quick Q&A up front. However, I'm told there will be an afternoon tea which should be good.
And finally on Monday we come home. There might be a stop in Manchester at the OMS HQ or there may not. I was meant to stop there on Friday but due to the interview in a McDonald's on a roundabout it was delayed until Monday but I've just got an e-mail saying it may have to be another time. It seems I will need to be ratified at some point as apparently it can't be done over the phone.
There has been lots of staff movement at OMS with people starting new jobs so I think that hasn't helped and has slowed progress down. However, all in good time. God has been more than generous with us and has opened several doors for us in the last week. The church has very kindly offered to pay for my breakdown cover and has covered my fuel costs for getting to Wales and back which is a huge blessing as that was a bit of a concern given the cost of petrol. It's also important that Lizzie gets a job down there and in the last few days a temporary position has become available so that's also great and we have a potential tenant for our flat which is just incredible. God is good people.

Work it!

Adelaide Place Baptist Church. Where I work and where I got married. Convenient.



For those of you who I've not yet told I recently was offered a new job, although I've not yet started. In the meantime I'm still going to be at the Burrell Collection and Adelaide's Guest House (in fact that's where I am writing this).

The Burrell Collection (taken from rampantscotland.com) and view from the cafe in winter (taken from my phone).

SO if I've told you or you've read my other post about it then you can skip this paragraph. Basically I've been offered the job of youth worker in a church down in the valleys of Wales. Actually that might be a lie I don't think it's in valley. Anyway it's a great opportunity and I'm looking forward to it.
Anyway I'd promised updates and my latest update is that I had a chat with one of the board of trustees from OMS, who are my soon to be new employers, the other night there. Basically there is a board of trustees meeting on Monday the 5th and part of that meeting will be talking about my appointment and they have to ratify it and sort out any issues. To be be blunt I think my chat the other night there could have gone better as:

a) The questions I was asked were vastly different to what I expected.
b) Following on from being different some of the questions were about the form I filled in October, so that was tricky.
c) I have a cold and had lost my voice and only just got it back.

Anyway I croaked my through the chat and hopefully I'll hear a bit more soon. So what can I say? I don't have a start date but it's not likely to be before mid-April as there are CRB checks and more importantly I need to raise some of my own funds. I say more importantly as I know I'm not and axe murderer and fund raising takes longer than a CRB check. I'm aiming for between £3600 and £6000 as my accommodation is covered and there is partial funding in place. This will be a new experience for me as the last time I did fund raising it was for a youth club I did a while back and we held a ceilidh since it was near Christmas and people like Christmas' ceilidhs. In a couple of weeks Lizzie and I are going to visit the church where I'd be working as neither of us have been there but from speaking to the people there it sounds like a great place and they seem like a great bunch even if they talk funny. That being said an American over here told me everyone here talks funny. Also en-route to Wales we're hoping to stop off at the OMS HQ in Manchester to meet the people there. If we're able to we might even stop off at Bawtry on the way home to see more missionaries; Lizzie's brother and his ladies. Well his wife and daughter doesn't sound quite as cool. For those of you who don't know where Wales is click here. If you're interested we're in Glasgow which is 300+ miles to the north. I'm told the rain in Wales is warmer than Glasgow.
So prayer points for all you prayerers out there:

1. It's not too much money but I can't start until that's sorted.
2. For OMS in Manchester and the staff there. There are a lot of new staff there and there has been a bit of a breakdown in communication and that's why the process has taken so long. A wee aside a former OMS worker is now working with Pioneers which is where David (Lizzie's brother) and wife are. Small world.
3. We'd have a safe journey when we head down in 2 weeks and that everything would go well. It can be quite daunting meeting so many new people in the space of a weekend knowing that I'll have to make a good impression.