What now?

So I finished my DTS about 2 months ago and I've been back in the UK, living with my family in the Reading area and doing supply teaching across a very wide range of different primary schools over the last 6 weeks. Some of you (understandably!) are confused and wondering what I'm doing next - you may have heard different things from me depending on when I last caught up with you!

I've found that sometimes God takes you in one direction and you think you know where He's leading you, only to stop you and move you in a completely different direction. Perhaps, sometimes, I can only get to where He wants me to be if I think I'm going somewhere else! God doesn't seem to take us in straight lines very much - I think He prefers the winding road where we can't see ahead and have to keep pressing into and relying upon Him..

So.. that to say... some of you may have thought I was heading to Peru. Others of you, that I was returning to Hawaii, and others that I was coming back to Bury!

The reality is that He is keeping me in Reading/Wokingham for at least the next year. I have got a job for a year at a local all-boys prep school, teaching Year 3 as my form class (English/Maths/Humanities) and French, Spanish, Italian (!!) and Global Citizenship school-wide. It is a lovely little school, situated in an old manor house, with quality staff who have lived around the world and with boys from many nations and religions. As soon as I did supply teaching there, I loved the atmosphere - it's extremely friendly and very diverse. It will also broaden my own teaching experience and enable me to teach using my international and multi-cultural life stories.

I am also excited about re-investing in Kings Church Wokingham, where I spent my teenage years. That community has invested a lot into me and, even though I left the area 11 years ago, they have tracked with me, upheld me in prayer and wanted to meet up with me, support me and encourage me when I returned for odd bits of time. As a church they are very much in a new season of their own right now, so I feel like this is a timely time for me to be back. A kairos time, maybe! God engineers and weaves our lives together in amazing ways. I love to see His hand at work.

My parents have moved house since I've been away so it feels new and different - I don't feel like I'm "going backwards" at all. I've even already found a fun new exercise group to join and am starting to make new friends in the area. So all in all, I'm excited and expectant for what God has in store for me in this new season. None of this was my plan - so I'm wondering how the adventure will unfold.

This time next week I will be in France, at a YWAM base, living and serving there for 3 weeks and practicing my French (as part of my role next year is to teach French!) See the video below, it looks awesome!

I am keeping my house in Bury and continuing to rent it out. I doubt that I will return long-term to Bury (but who knows!) but I am sure that I will be around a fair bit and will keep coming back for years. It's only 2 hours from Reading which is very do-able (M4, M25, M11, A11, A14, simple!) Over the last 4 days I've driven there and back a couple of times! If any of you would like to come visit me here, you're always welcome. We've got lots of space and it would be lovely to have you :-) (just let me know in advance!!)

Thank you for your support, for your kindness, for your prayer, it's awesome to have such amazing friends. I feel extremely privileged and honoured to have you all in my life. Please keep praying for me, for this new season - that I will go deeper into God's heart and be someone who encourages people and who points them to Jesus.

sometimes,