Summer in the city

Some highlights of the summer so far...

Times are a-changing, this summer has been one of many endings and moving on to the next adventure God has prepared for us! After 4 years at St Luke's Hampstead, a fab time of growth in God, in our marriage, in friendships and in depth of understanding of the realities of running the Christian race in this broken world, we said goodbye and moved house, church, job with God's kindness and help evident in all.

God provided Matt with a job at a great church and us with a cosy flat, not in some random new city or country which would have been even harder, but further into the heart of the needy city of London, spiritually bereft and needy in every way. Largely without the gospel and without hope and meaning other than greed, materialism, selfishness and hedonism. Whirring away without God, building kingdoms that will only crumble. London IS a hard, dark place, it needs the Light of the World, Jesus Christ.

So though we have only moved 'down the road' or 'south of the river', we get to keep in good contact with our borthers and sisters at church in Hampstead and get to have some support networks and continuity around us, but we also have many new things to start again with - making friends, new church, new area, new jobs, etc. We trust in God, our rock and refuge.

The upheavals of the summer has been shot through with new beginnings for many of our friends/family too, our two best friends both getting married ( not to each other, Helena to Mark and Roger to Laura in August), my bro buying a flat and moving up to near Watford, amongst other 'beginnings' going on for others around us.

For the first summer in years we haven't gone away on summer camps like Contagious which has been sad, but wise for this year.

We are cautiously, slightly fearfully excited of what this next year or 2 holds and are going to keep on trusting that our times are in HIS hands.