A new way, a new day, a new home...

Can you believe that it’s already the month of June? This blog began almost a year ago, when I left Southern Africa and came back to live and work in Europe again. As you know, this past year has been a time of transition for me: a time of stepping out in faith to discover the new things that God has for me here in Europe.

Leaving my home in Cape Town was one of the hardest things I have ever had to do, and I’ve really missed South Africa a lot. I had been there for most of the past fourteen years. During this year back in Europe, I’ve been reaching out to embrace the new things God has for me here and, in particular, I’ve been asking God where my new home should be. Three S’s emerged as the most likely options, and I’ve been praying about whether I should settle in Scotland, Spain or Switzerland for the years ahead.

Interestingly, I’ve spent this transition year doing the very same things that I was doing back in 1998: working with FireStarters youth ministry in Glasgow, and staffing a leadership development course (LDC) in the West of Scotland. The LDC is over now; the delegates and staff – who came from around 20 different nations – are all returning home this week. I’m back in Falkirk now, and will be in Central Scotland for most of the month of June.

The theme of the leadership development course was, “a new way for a new day,” and the course leader wrote a theme song, based on Isaiah 43 vs 18 – 19:

Forget what’s before;
there’s so much more
I have to offer…
I am doing something new.

For me personally, being staff on this LDC was in some ways like returning to the “old.” Staffing an LDC was the very last thing I did in 1998, before leaving Scotland and moving down to live in Cape Town. So, in this way, my LDC involvement was a fulfilment of what God had said when He told me (through Bible verses in Isaiah 43 and 51) that He was leading me into something new, and that this new thing would involve returning initially to people I had worked with and things I had done in the past.

But this year’s LDC was also a time when God confirmed the new things that He has for me in the future. Just last week, I made a decision to move down to Spain and make my home there for the coming years. I will continue to work with LDCs and other aspects of leadership development, and I will also continue to work with King’s Kids International in the area of training leaders for ministry among children, teenagers and families.

Thanks again for praying for me during this year of transition. More details about my future plans are in my June newsletter. Just contact me by email or phone if you happened not to receive it and would like me to send it to you.