It started on a ferry

In October 2015, I went to our Relational Mission Church Planting Conference in The Netherlands. I was supposed to be working at it but ended up with not as much to do as I expected. It has been known for me to feel frustrated when that happens because it's sometimes easier to have a job to do rather than engage with what is going on...

Anyway, whilst I was trying to avoid engaging with the subject of church planting, God began to prod some not so great memories of when I had church planted in London quite a long time ago (18 years...eek, am I really that old?!) and I felt a 'stirring' in my heart that I had shelved. I wouldn't say that I felt the call to church plant again, it was more of 'God telling me to take things down from the shelf' moment.

On the way home from The Netherlands, I had the enormous pleasure of sitting next to Maurice Nightingale on the ferry. For 7 hours. For those who don't know Maurice - he used to lead our church here in Aylsham and looks after the church planting side of Relational Mission. And for those who don't know about Relational Mission, it's a family of churches of which both Aylsham Community Church (where we are now) and Revelation Church (where we're going) are part. Got it? Ok, on with the story. So...on a ferry, chatting to Maurice, when he asks me a question. It was the sort of question that makes me inwardly groan. The sort of question that, for various reasons, I have stopped asking myself.

'Annice,' he says, 'where do you see yourself in 10 years time?'

This is a hard question to answer. Why? Because it forces me to engage sensibly with how I feel about the future and how to reconcile things from the past with it. (I may possibly have a tendency to overthink things...you'll notice that in later blog posts!)

But it is good to be asked that question. And the series of other questions that followed...

Will you still be in Aylsham?

Do you feel called to be in Aylsham?

Maurice 'forced' me in the nicest possible way to think about where I (and we as a family) were heading in life. I found myself answering that no, I didn't want to be in Aylsham in 10 years' time and this surprised me. I realised in that moment that I would not be satisfied with that. So then we chatted about possibilities, (Maurice got a little carried away at this point and had us church planting in far away lands...!!) and where the natural gaps in my children's education were that would allow us to easily move. I have to say, at this point, I was quite glad to have Jemimah (who is 6) as that extends this period of time somewhat ;) But we did agree that 2018 would be the earliest point at which we could move, when Esther starts Year 9, Eli starts High School and Jemimah starts Junior School.

Now, I should let you know at this point that we were in the midst of a significantly traumatic time as a family and the idea of thinking about anything in the next week or so, let alone 'the future,' felt almost impossible. But Maurice encouraged me to go home and dream some dreams together with Tim, that doing so would re-energise us (he's quite wise, is Maurice).

I agreed that if there was ever a further conversation to have about all of this, we would be in touch.

Next Blog Post: Dare to dream