Strangely familiar and yet so special...

First one in the bag, thanks to everyone who has been hoping, praying and sending messages of support, it was strangely like so many gatherings we're hosted before and yet so special as only the first gathering of a new church can be. 27 people turned up including some family and it was a great evening - mainly many of the people we met over the summer. The first four meetings (10th, 17th, 24th and 1st Oct) are all about sharing our story of why we are starting this church, some context of the vineyard, what we anticipate this church will do and the values and priorities that underpin all of that. Nige and Jay sounded fantastic as they led us in worship and the presence of the Holy Spirit seemed very tangible at times during the evening. The coffee was fantastic - not only fairtrade and organic, but also offset the carbon emissions produced flying it from Colombia to the UK. Not a bad start for a church that we want to establish on the most environmental and ethical footing. Praying for momentum and for the grapevine to get working as hard as we are!

Big day tomorrow...

Big day tomorrow as we gather together everyone who we have got to know over the summer who is interested in finding out if they like the idea of Severn Vineyard. Been mad busy with getting ready, but can't wait to get going now!

Praying that the Holy Spirit feels free to do what he wants and hoping that he will grow his church. We think we are doing everything we can, but knowing that prayer is the key to seeing the reality of his power at work among us - join us in praying for this if you can.

Thanks so much

Owen and Claire

When it rains it pours...

School's out and the house has been full of activity with visitors and the kids having a great time, courtesy of Mum. It's been busy period of work for me with the cleaning of the holiday homes in the Cotswolds - I never thought I would be a self-employed cleaner, but it fits well with setting up the church and is not too taxing on the brain - so I'm grateful for it. We continue to search for a house to renovate, but found nothing yet (really praying to find one in the next few weeks or we think I'll need to find additional paid work).

We've taken some holiday staying with Nanny and Grandad in Cheshire and weekend break in London with Grandma and Grandad - Big Ben was the star of the weekend for the kids (they were unbelievably fascinated by the Westminster tower) and I was finally able to introduce the kids to Paddington Bear on Paddington Station. We've read all about his days out with Mr Gruber and so finally we were able to meet the famous bear.

We picked the only day it didn't rain to get down to the New Wine festival where we did a seminar, it still took an hour to get there, even though I thought we were just up the road! It was fantastic to hear from a long time friend who has suffered for the best part of 20 years with rheumatoid arthritis, that her hip which was so affected by the RA, was healed (in other words the pain disappeared and the function returned) when she received prayer that week at New Wine. Having seen our friend badly affected by her illness for many years, this was an astonishing miracle, that encourages us to keep on taking every opportunity to partner with the Holy Spirit to deal with disease and illness ruthlessly.

We're grateful to Steve and Rachel who are helping with setting up the 'back office' of the church, as we ramp up for our first meeting on the 10th September. There is so much to do and get right before we start. We are thrilled that Clare S has got a job in Bristol and will be joining us in the next few weeks and hoping that Erika and Steve who are looking for jobs get sorted soon too. Do think of the kids who have moved down to Bristol - Hannah and Bethany start their new schools in two weeks, pray that they will settle easily and really enjoy making new friends, Jake is back to school too and we are hoping he will get a place at the school near where we live, however we are glad he has settled so well into the school 6 miles away. Dan starts pre-school around the same time.

We are thrilled to be meeting up with people who are moving into the area this summer who want to join in with the church and also people who have grown up in a church, but not really had much to do with it since they left home. Momentum is growing - it really is exhilarating to see the Holy Spirit drawing this whole thing together, we are thrilled to be involved in what He is doing.

We will meet on thursday evenings beginning on the 10th September at Bristol City Football Club (7.45pm) and over the first four weeks Claire and I will talk about our vision and values for the church. If you're praying for us, please pray that the Holy Spirit will have the freedom to do what he wants to do and that momentum continues to grow.

Another date looms large on the horizon, a certain half marathon on the 6th - training going ok, I inadvertently ran 11 miles on thursday when I took a wrong turning!! I was aiming for about 7 miles and ended up run 4 extra! Still, I needed to up the pace, so to speak!

By the way the title of this post relates to the rain in Bristol, it's almost tropical in intensity!

Anna and Farl had a girl by the way, for those who know them - Honey Tallulah!

lots of love

OC

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!

Eleven years in Nottingham come to an end.

Over a month since the last entry and lots has happened.  We have an offer on the house and are looking to complete in a few weeks, we have a house in Bristol to rent near a school where we hope to get a place for Jake.  We spent a week in Bristol during April meeting up with friends of friends and generally getting to know areas of the city we didn't already know.  We have left Trent just last week and I am just tying up loose ends, making preparation for the new church and making the most of time with friends before we leave.

Can't believe we have been in Nottingham for 11 years, did you know that when we arrived in Nottingham in 1998, Google hadn't even been launched!  It's a long time in a young man's life! We're feeling like the Narnia kids who after living in Narnia for a 100 years, fell out of the wardrobe into their own world only to discover that they were still kids!   (watched Prince Caspian the other day - cute but that's all...)  Before we decided to move to Nottingham in 97, we were intent on moving to Bristol, but we were unable to.  Now the time is right.

So it's with a mixture of emotions that we say goodbye to friends in Nottingham - it's been an amazing 11 years - by far the longest period of our adult lives in one place.  We have made friends here who will be life-long friends, we have shared lives with a community of people in Trent and been part of contributing some good to our city, we have had our kids here and though our youngest may not remember Nottingham, for them it has been a tremendous start to their lives and we will always remind them of where they were born and the friends they started their young lives with.

Took Jake climbing at the climbing centre on Monday - he loved it....