Sweating it out...

Like most people I'm loving the warm weather, but isn't it close? What does that mean? I would have learnt that phrase from my Nan or my Mum, but not quite sure what it means, maybe the air feels close to your skin, I don't know - anyway it makes one sweaty! Especially as I am trying to keep up my training for the Bristol half-marathon in September. I mildly surprised at my efforts so far, training up to 4 miles at 7 minute mile pace (I'm probably boring you right now).

I haven't been out running for a few days, because during the last couple of weeks our activity levels are starting to get back to the normal pace of the last ten years in Nottingham! All the right stuff though; whether through the school gate, toddler groups, the night shelter, soup run, helping friends move house, meeting up with friends of friends, meeting up with people who have just heard about us and got in touch, the postman, the hairdresser, teachers, some colleagues and clients at work, we are having lots of conversations with people about the church. It's like the game Jenga where you push one or two blocks to find the one that moves freely. So we are finding some people genuinely interested in getting involved and many that aren't. We reckon 1 in 5 are genuinely interested. Naturally, we are just loving getting to know people and some people we meet now may become life-long friends, but they may never want to get involved with Severn. That's to our benefit.

I am now working cleaning and welcoming clients to some luxury holiday homes in the Cotswolds. It is about an hours drive and it takes maybe 12 hours a week, including washing and ironing the laundry which Claire is doing! Meanwhile we are looking for a house to buy and renovate and I am completing my Biblical studies with the Vineyard Leadership Institute.

Claire is full on with the kids, and is a taxi driver, going backwards and forwards to school which is in Nailsea (11 mile round trip) - most mum's will agree the school day is never as long as you think it is, and you can never fit all you have to do into it! Dan and Millie are loving minichamps, gymnastics and a couple of toddler groups, Jake too has joined a gymnastics group and swimming regularly. It is great to be getting them into activities that we had been holding off on in Nottingham, because of the move to Bristol.

One upshot of Jake's school being in Nailsea, was that we needed another car. Remarkably, a day before we needed a second car so I could get to work, we bought an absolute bargain, courtesy of my brother-in-law mechanic - Andy. I think Andy was more amazed than anyone else, it was a remarkable car for the money.

We have provisionally booked a room at Bristol City FC, since we think we have already got more people seriously interested in the new church than we can fit into our lounge, which is great. And we have a webpage designed that is the precursor to the website (www.severnvineyard.org), it should be live within a week or two. We have a dedicated public telephone number for the church which is 0117 996 0707 - so we are starting to get ready for the launch.

Sarah has already returned to Bristol after leaving Nottingham and the Roberts family move down from Nottingham next week, Erika will be joining us in September which is all very exciting. Pray for these guys as they make the same journey that we have, that everything will go smoothly.

Lastly, we have met a few people in the last few weeks with connections to famous people like Andy Murray (Go on Murray!) and Chris Martin, however the best was sharing a pint with the actor that plays Lunar Jim (crashing comets!!) - you've got to watch Cbeebies to understand the importance of this to our household!

Our thoughts are with Anna and Farl who are due to give birth to their third child tomorrow, in Adelaide, so that'll be today then, good luck Anna - we are getting excited for you!

It's just gone 9 and time to go and run in the relative cool of the evening and get sweaty!

and another thing..

If you'd like our new address and phone number, please can you email us at owenlynch@me.com

thanks

How many toddler groups can Claire get to?

With Jake safely arrived at his new school, which just happens to be very similar to his old school, Claire is busy enrolling Dan and Millie into champs ball training, gymnastics, preschool and sing a long groups for toddlers (how many groups can she get into?)  She is loving meeting up with other mums and getting into her rhythm of life again, after she had a week of mourning.  Jake's school is more than 5 miles away and so we need a second car so I can get to work and avoid the cabin fever of working at my bureau in our bedroom (thank goodness for broadband).

I am starting work as a cleaner! on fridays for a friend who has some expensive holiday homes, but I am also looking for other flexible work that will provide enough money to live on.  We hope to renovate a property or two, but you know how it is in the current market.  The faith/doubt tension is fairly evenly balanced at the moment.   We are totally committed now, but if I didn't know Jesus better I'd probably be freaking out just at the moment.  Hoping to get some breakthroughs soon.  

Meeting some great people down here who are really interested in what we are doing.  We have said that over the summer we want to gather as many people as we can and if there are more than can fit into our lounge by the beginning of September, then we will hire a room somewhere else.  Well I think with those who have spoken to us, we need to find a room somewhere else already!

I have been researching all the work that goes on in Bristol with the homeless and there is loads going on, which is fantastic.  Looking forward to getting involved in some of this in the next few weeks.  

Back in Nottingham this weekend for Jen and Tim's wedding, still feels weird living in Bristol and planning to drive to Nottingham!