Moving on (Part One)

Hello Friends,

I suppose Holy week is not the ideal time to move house but as the children are off school it seemed as good a time as any to pack up and clear out our belongings and head for pastures new.

I have just returned from one of my favorite walks for the last time as a resident of Lower Manor Lane Burnley and as I write this blog you catch me in a slightly reflective mood on this rather damp Palm Sunday evening in late March.

 I sometimes wonder if it was Gods purpose for me to get Fletcher my beloved rescue dog that has walked probably hundreds and hundreds of miles as my faithful companion around the beautiful countryside that surrounds our home. Our favorite walk is through the woods and over the bridge, past the farm with horses ensuring we take care when crossing the busy main road before heading out upstream along the fast flowing river before we cross the water and climb up a usually boggy hill. We then slowly meander home by the side of the dark waters of the Leeds and Liverpool Canal.  It is a stroll that has presented me with many hours of prayerful walking whilst spotting some of Lancashire’s most spectacular wildlife. Big deer and baby deer, Parenting foxes and their cubs, Owls and Kingfishers, ducks and geese and my personal favorite the incredible site of a Heron hunting for fish and then buggering off in glorious flight with its prey. It’s not all been beautiful mind, I’ve stood in dog shit, bypassed used condoms, and the despicable sight of unnecessary fly tipping has left me angry and frustrated.

However besides the negatives I would describe myself as a real enthusiast of nature and the countryside. It has afforded me important time and space to have a chat with the Lord, and work out the ups and downs of his calling upon me. I remember on one very snowy occasion being really frustrated about things and getting rather impatient with God and having it out with him. I approached a notoriously treacherous point in one of my ‘other’ walks when the most beautiful Robin landed on a snow covered gate post and stopped long enough for me to see every color and feature of this stunningly beautiful little creature, it took my breath away as it sat there watching me watching it, before it moved on to pastures new.

So here I am with my family in the first stage of moving on to pastures new not completely packed up but if the aches and pains are anything to go by we really can’t be that far away. The rooms have a bit of an echo and the half filled boxes make ‘home’ look messy and unsightly and when they say moving house is stressful I certainly wouldn’t argue against such a proposal. God has called us to be somewhere else although not far away, just t’other side of town to be precise. It will be a new experience for us, living on a busy main road but in a large Victorian house that I trust in God enough to be positive it will be a wonderful and enriching experience for me and my crew.

It is part one of a series of changes to mine and my families’ life and in just a few months part two will take place when I leave the world of retail to rest up and be free to enjoy 6 weeks of rest and resuscitation before ordination in early July. I will continue to explore Gods creation with Fletcher and the wildlife that accompanies us on our strolls around East Lancashire.

Lower Manor Lane is a home that we will hang on to for things later in life, it has been the most perfect residency for our family and we have experienced joyful births, a wedding and the tears and upset at the passing of some of our most beloved family and friends. It has given us some incredibly happy moments, special events have been and passed and therefor it is with a very heavy heart that we say goodbye to a home that we have loved dearly for the last 15 years or so of our lives.

The Vicarage that awaits us has a great deal to live up to, but whatever it puts before me I take great encouragement that it has been provided by God and it is where he wants my curacy years to be lived out. I hope in return I make him pleased, by a dedicated work hard ethic I also hope and trust it will give me an appreciation of human beings living in less picturesque surroundings than I have been accustomed to. I am desperately keen to be a loyal servant to the parish of St Matthews Burnley and in return pray that the experience will stand me in good stead when God decides it is time to move once more and to do his work once again in pastures new.

I hope this move and the next 8 weeks prepare me for the big move part two when I leave another massive part of my life being that of Store Manager of the laminated catalogue specialist Argos. I certainly hope and pray that it does. I would appreciate your prayers also.

Till next time from Lower Manor Lane

Goodbye and God bless

.Alextheanglican

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