A bird with two chicks

God was doing some amazing and beautiful things in our corps life around the time we had Isaac. I say ‘around the time’, but it was exactly the same time. New life physically and spiritually are for us tied up together intrinsically. We were teaching an Alpha Holy Spirit away day while I was in labour, and through it God birthed a beautiful new season in the life of our church. I can pinpoint to that day new growth, new people coming to faith, people stepping out in gifting and passion that have been transformational.

And it seems it is happening again. God is good. It’s been a while since I’ve blogged, not because God hasn’t been doing anything, and not because Sabbath is over and so we’re done with this ‘journey into rest’, but because I’ve been watching some of the dreams and play out, germinating, growing into fruitfulness.

As we came to the end of our Sabbath year, God took us to Deuteronomy, looking at the teaching and instructions He gave to Moses as the people were preparing to leave the wilderness and journey into the Promised Land. 6 The Lord our God said to us at Horeb, ‘You have stayed long enough at this mountain. 7 Break camp and advance into… go to all the neighbouring peoples… as far as the great river… 8 See, I have given you this land. Go in and take possession of the land that the Lord swore he would give to your ancestors… and to their descendants after them.’ (Deut 1)

We’d already been praying for a while about what God was wanting to do in Buckingham, as part of a wider prayer team. There’s a little corps there already, but there’s masses of opportunity and potential for redevelopment.  The more we prayed, the more it seemed like for Banbury, our ‘Promised Land’ might be Buckingham. We’ve stayed at the mountain of encounter long enough, now it’s time to head to the great river. The Great River Ouse to be precise.

And then we were appointed to Buckingham. Not instead of Banbury, but as well as. We’re so glad. We know that God hasn’t finished with us here yet. We love Banbury, we’re really well settled. We’re glad we get to keep living here, in our lovely little home, with great friends, this place that I’ve now lived longer than anywhere else. And yet everything that makes sense about pioneering new expressions of church, any church in fact, says you need to move there, live there, be present, be incarnational. How can you live in two places at once, invest fully, love deeply? Isn’t that like how any parent asks themselves whether they’ll be able to love the second child as much as the first?

Well, here we are. With two corps, and two children. Working out new rhythms. Finding out how to juggle it all and thrive, and not kill yourself with stress and overwork in the process. How to plant a church whilst on maternity leave. Figuring out maternity leave and what it is God wants to teach me and do in me and through me. Despite it all, continuing to journey into rest.

God has given me again and again, through different people, the picture of a bird in a tree, nurturing two chicks. Are they Isaac and Asher? Banbury and Buckingham? Parenting and ministry? All of the above.