Loving being home

A belated Happy New Year to all the crew at St Paul’s!  Have you managed to honour your New Year resolutions or have they gone out of the window already like mine? Oh well. I hope you had a great Christmas and summer break.  I hear that the weather has been amazing bar the last few days.

I have been running around the UK since the New Year like a headless chicken meeting all sorts of people which has been very inspirational and fun. Looking back, it seems ages since Bex and I hopped on to the plane post Glow to spend Christmas with our families. Yes, England is officially freezing. And yes it did snow much to the boys delight. And I was reminded that in the bitter English cold all fashion sensitivities go out of the window and so I have been walking around London with a flat tweed cap on, thick cardigan and running trainers (I have knackered my foot although I wont bore you with the details) and no one bats an eyelid!

In the New Year I headed to the US for a week’s “learning community” with a guy called Mike Breen with ten church leaders from around the world (Denmark, UK, US etc.). That was a great week of learning from one another and comparing notes. We were based in South Carolina which I had never been to before. I ate green fried tomatoes (I thought they were an invention of Dr Suess but no…) and grits.  The tomatoes were great… The grits? Mmmm….(Incidentally one guy, an American pastor, had just come back from a course on what to do if a gunman comes in during a service and starts firing.  I now know what to do and it involves throwing your bible at the man, running out as fast as you can in a zig zag fashion whilst others “swarm the shooter”).

I then spent a couple of weeks in London.  It feels like I have met every church leader there! It was great to see John Peters from St Mary’s who is coming out to St Paul's later on this year and also a whole load of others including: the Bishop of London, Nicky Gumbel, David MacInnes to name but a few. Lots of inspiration and exciting ideas. More to follow.

Another highlight as well was my time in Dublin with Rob Jones who some of you may have remember. He was on placement with us about four years ago with his wife Dilys. He has just planted a church in Dublin which is very exciting. We talked as he showed me his church and the city. I loved Dublin.

It was great to end my time in the UK with a day with Rich and Kath, Amelie and Zach. It was great to see their church in Worcester which is amazing and hear all they have done and plan to do. They were on great form and all send their love.

I landed this morning and it is great to be back home in sunny NZ. Christchurch next week with Dave Macgregor from Grace Vineyard.

I will keep you posted.