This might sound a complete contradiction - well, I suppose it is really! However it's a totally true statement. In eleven days time I'll be flying out from Manchester to Entebbe (via London Heathrow) for what most people are seeing as the start of the adventure of a lifetime yet I'm already in the middle of a great adventure. It's called life.
Exactly a year ago today (Friday) I had been back in the UK for one day having been in Uganda for the first time. That Friday I jumped on another plane to attend the wedding of Patrice and Dany in Bernay, France, and by the Monday I was at our annual church holiday at Blaithwaite House in the Lake District. Most of last year's Blaithwaite was and is a blur because of the previous three weeks of pastors' conferences, teaching in schools, visiting other projects (including an embryonic vocational training centre on an island in Lake Victoria) and then going on safari - followed by the wedding in Normandy - yet that week was so significant to what was to happen during the following year in ways I couldn't possibly have imagined in a million years. My life was to take a complete new route with several new chapters about to open.
As I write this on the eve of Blaithwaite 2013 (called this year "In His Presence") I'm reflecting that this time last year if anyone had told me I'd be writing this BLOG now I'd have laughed at them. It wasn't until two weeks after Blaithwaite that God clearly told me I was to go to be part of the Maranatha Gateway Project - something that was confirmed later the same day when I threw a fleece out. I then went into a year beyond my wildest dreams - a year of preparation, networking and new relationships. Yesterday afternoon I lay on the grass on top of the Great Orme near Llandudno, having just walked round the town, truly feeling that I must be the most blessed man on earth.
African Picture on the wall at Kingdom Krafts in Madoc Street, Llandudno
The Conwy estuary near Llandudno
On a practical note I now have my visa to cover me the first six months, I have my International Driving Licence, I have my tickets for the first period of my time in Uganda and I have return tickets to Johannesburg, South Africa, where I'll be for two weeks in the middle of August visiting Vaughn and Chiana Hutchinson in Krugersdorp where they have a ministry based around Joy Centre Church. I'm typing this BLOG on my new HP laptop presented to me by my wonderful church congregation at The Community Church Wrexham when I was prayed for last Sunday.
In April I visited the Uganda High Commission in London with Sue Gasston where we were looked after by second secretary Innocent Opio and his colleague Moses Mukhooli. On 5th August I have an appointment with Ian Lucas, MP for Wrexham, who is also shadow secretary for Middle East and African affairs.
Have I packed yet? Come off it - I'm a bloke! Mind you I'm away at Blaithwaite for the next week so there's really not much I can pack just yet. I'm going to Tesco this morning to buy stuff I need for the next few months (including toiletries) that are almost impossible to get hold of on the island.
I have to publicly say a big big thank you to Phil, Mary and Daniel Arton who have made their home mine for over three months and so it will be whenever I'm back on furlough. They are a truly amazing family - loving, practical and wonderfully anointed.
Also a really big "Thank You" to all my family and friends for supporting me in so many ways. Special love and thanks to my very close friends - you know who you are without me embarrassing you - for your love and support. I'd like to say I can't single out any one in particular but that isn't true. One of the words that came last Sunday was about me being on the end of a big piece of elastic - I'll always be attached to Wrexham and I now know that there's also a big rubber band that I'm actually on the inside of so I can't be separated.
So there we have it! A week at Blaithwaite then off to what is described on signs on the island as "The Land of Peace, Palm and Prosiperity" (and Posho and Pineapples). A land of beautiful people and children hungry to learn. A land of matooke, "meat on a stick", mangoes, Maranatha Gateway, monkeys and Mama Aisha's restaurant, Kabaka, cassava and Cabbages, solar panels, sunrises and sunsets.
I have no doubt that in eleven days everything will be packed and sorted - and just in the Nick of time! Please pray for these next days of preparation, for the work, ministry and people I'm being sent to and for those I'll be apart from whilst in Uganda. Please also pray for John and Sue in Ross-on-Wye as they are now just over two month's off their BIG ADVENTURE!
Please stay in touch with my BLOG. The posts may be a little irregular (due to internet contact) but THEY WILL HAPPEN! God bless you all.
Mike
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