Moving on...

This site will no longer be updated, regularly or irregularly. For new information, try Advancing in Ministry. Thanks for visiting these last two years. I hope you'll be a regular at the new place.

Farewell to Blighty

Where has the time gone? It doesn't seem possible that nearly two years have passed since I arrived in England. It's incredible. It's been an amazing journey of discovery, learning about another place, another Church, and about myself. I've met some wonderful people and some not so wonderful people. I've had good experiences and not so good experiences. I've traveled loads--probably not as much as I would have liked, but I've seen places I'd never seen before. Here's my chance to brag--in the last 2 years, I've been to Lisbon three times (thanks Pedro!), Rome, Athens, Paris, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dublin, Cardiff, London; travelled all across England to see places like Bath, Canterbury, and York. What an incredible opportunity this has been. I hope I've taken as much advantage of it as I could.

As I leave tomorrow, it will be with much sadnes, as I have truly made this place my home these last 22 months. The friends I have made and the people I have met will be greatly missed, as they have touched my heart. I do hope I'll get to see them again.

So off we go, onto the next adventure. This new one has a lot to live up to, if it wants to come anywhere near competing with this last one. God is faithful, though, and so I'm sure life will never be boring.

Farewell England, and thank you.

Winding Down

Guy commented yesterday that I hadn't blogged in a while. Which is true. So I thought I might post a brief update.

Paris was fantastic. Exhausting but fantastic. We had a good time running all Paris to see the things we wanted/needed to see. Unfortunately, that didn't leave a whole lot of time for rest and relaxation, but when you've got two days in Paris, well, you see all you can. Guy has a good summary of the trip on his blog, so I'll point you there instead of repeating it all here.

The always unfortunate thing about going on holiday is that you have to come back. And, as Guy said, we did get to escape things for a while, but life was waiting when we got back....namely, my imminent departure from these fair shores. People keep asking me if I'm looking forward to going back home. I've decided the truest and safest answer is, 'Yes, I'm looking forward to going home, but it's going to be hard to leave.' There's always a bit of excitement (and not a little bit of trepidation) when you start something new. So, of course I'm excited about starting a new job in a new place. There's always more potential than one can imagine. At the same time, leaving here is not going to be a simple task. Last week, I took the last service I'll do at Trinity. I broke down in floods of tears. It was quite embarrassing, really, but not something I could help. Today won't prove any easier, and neither will next Sunday.

There is a certain element of relief, also. I feel like I've been saying good-bye for about six months now, and it's a great load off to finally stop thinking about it and just getting on with things. Two weeks from yesterday, my flight leaves Norwich airport, and about 17 hours later, I'll arrive in Kansas City. Then, five days later, I'll move to Advance. A quck turnaround, for sure. Probably not one of the best ideas I've ever had, but I wanted to honor my committment to the church over here for as long as I could (more later on the egocentric view of the UMC...or better yet, call me or email me to ask about that....probably not a good thought to publish in such a public space). So it's going to be a whirlwind of a month, that's for sure.

My how quickly these last two years have gone.

A few things

Yesterday, Guy and I went to Cambridge to meet his mum and her partner, Nick. If you've never been, Cambridge is a lovely place (not a city--no Cathedral) and the weather made it even better yesterday. We arrived around noon and had a cup of coffee. We then went for a walk along the river Cam and then we went punting. No, it didn't involve a ball of any sort. Punting is a boating activity that can be done in Cambridge. We paid somebody else to do it for us instead of trying to brave it ourselves, and it was lovely. The punter gave us a lovely tour of the colleges we passed and we enjoyed the sunshine and lovely views. It was a bit odd to meet Isobel and Nick, but they were lovely and we had a good day.

I'm moving in five weeks. I really can't believe that it's that close. It physically hurts to think about it sometimes. But it's coming, whether I like it or not. I'm moving to a place in southeast Missouri called Advance. Don't say it how you normally would. It's AD-vance. Small town, fairly small congregation, apparently lots of potential. That's about all I know at this point. I'll fly home on 23rd June and move into the parsonage on 28th June. God help.

Before, then, though, I'm going to Paris! Yep, next Monday, Guy and I are headed to Paris for a few days. Neither of us have ever been there, so it should be good fun. It'll be my last continental hurrah before doing moving back stateside.

Ready or not...

Rugby Football

One of the biggest differences, I think, between the US and the UK, is the choice of sport. In the US, for the most part, you've got the big four--football, baseball, basketbally, and hockey. Soccer is trying it's hardest to gain a foothold, but it is neither violent enough nor fast paced enough to capture the American fanbase (and who wants a sport that can end in a 0-0 draw?). Over here, you've got football (soccer), cricket (cooler than it looks), and two types of Rugby. I don't know much about Rugby League, but I'm finding I quite enjoy Rugby Union. I've watched some on the telly (TV), with Guy providing instructions on rules and strategy and such, and I'm picking it up, slowly but surely.

So I decided that I wanted to see a game live. Tricky as the season is about over, but we just managed it yesterday. It was a gorgeous day out (feeling more like June or July than April--thank you, global warming) and it was good fun to watch it in person. I will brag a bit here: we wound up standing next to a sideline official, keeping stats and doing I don't know what else (he had a clip board and an official blazer) and at halftime he said to Guy (and not me insterestingly enough), that I seemed to have picked up the rules faster than some of the players. I was quite impressed with myself. :-)

Reflections/An update

Well, lots has happened since I last posted. We've successfully travailed through Lent, survived Holy Week, and enjoyed the joy of Easter. It's interesting, I know I've only done Holy Week/Easter twice so far (at least in a professional capacity), but in the last two years, different points in the week have been my favorite. Last year, I really enjoyed the Maundy Thursday service. It struck me in a particular way and, quite frankly, nearly moved me to tears. This year, however, I was particularly struck by Easter morning. I wonder why that is.

Lent itself was quite manic. With all the Lent stuff, it also happened that the spring round of meetings occurred at the same time. So most of Lent, I didn't know whether I was coming or going. However, toward the end of Lent, things settled a bit, and I got to do some exciting things. Jenny and I had a Ceilidh (folk dance) for our birthday. That was good fun. I went to a variety of concerts, comedians, and plays in locations ranging from London to Norwich. For my birthday, Guy took me to London on a 'mystery trip' (ie, I didn't know where we were going until the day...and where we went each part of the day was only revealed bit by bit), where we saw things such as St. Paul's Cathedral, Wesley's Chapel, and the longest running show on the West End--Agatha Christie's Mousetrap. It really was a fun day, so we decided to go back--this past Tuesday. Yesterday, we went to the north of Norfolk (the county I live in) and took a steam train across the countryside. I'm trying to squeeze all the goodness out of England that I can before I leave in a about two and a half months.

Yeah, I'm still planning to leave, though it isn't something I like to think about. Still no word on where I'm going (somewhere in Missouri, supposedly). Will let you know as soon as I can what the destination is. Though I do hear that the Cabinet is encoutering some difficulties this year.

That's really all for now. Webley, you are a conundrum I can't quite figure out. Webley is the Wesley House mascot (oh, yeah...Wesley foundations may very well cease to exist in the next year or two...at least in MO) but the introduction you gave me is very much tied to Band. Those two things did not meet up very often while I was at Truman, so you can understand my confusion. Thanks for the jogging my memory, though! I had almost forgotten the fireman and his family!

What a Year

I was chatting to a friend of mine the other day. We were reflecting on 2007. We're not sure we like it all that much.

Lots has happened since I returned from Athens, the biggest event being an emergency trip home (to Missouri) for what ended up being my grandpa's funeral. Without going into too much detail (we told the story at least 100 times, as his death wasn't exactly expected), I arrived on a Thursday, he died Friday afternoon, the funeral took place the following Tuesday and I was back in England by Sunday (didn't have to preach, though). It was really good to be home, though. I had been fighting homesickness pretty badly all through the holidays, and although I would rather still have my grandpa with me, it has done my well-being (mental, emotional) much good to have been home.

However, that trip home and my return to these distant shores has brought my iminent departure into much greater focus. When the plane took off from Norwich, I couldn't imagine leaving here for good. It was too gut-wrenching. And I consoled myself with the fact that I wasn't leaving permanently, that I'd be back in a few days. But now that those ten days have gone so rapidly, and here I am, almost a week on, and I'm reminded that the permanent change is coming, and it's coming fast!

The cabinet met last week to start on appointments for this next connectional year. I don't have any hopes that they decided anything for me, but the thought of them deciding on my future left me with mixed feelings. The first feeling is dread. When it first hit me that the cabinet was meeting, the immediacy of their meeting--that it was actually occurring as I sat there, I was with my boyfriend (yes, we've reunited until June), and it hit me that I'd be saying goodbye to a lot of special people. I almost broke down in tears right there in the pub!

But on the other hand, there's excitement about what the future holds. Now, to be perfectly honest, the dread at saying goodbye is overshadowing that feeling. But perhaps when I have a name and location to put with that future, it will help some.

I can tell already, 2007 is going to be one heck of a year! Right now, I'm trying to enjoy what time I've got left in Norwich, giving thanks for the people and the place and the opportunities, and reminding myself that God has been faithful in the past and thus will continue to be faithful in the future. Thanks be to God.