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....

First phase done....phew!

Just finished decorating and getting the house ready for sale.  It took longer than we expected, but thankfully is looking fab.  Had two viewings before we have even put it up for sale...which is great in the current market - estate agents gloomy and pricing low in order to get their commission [sorry if you are a estate agent :-(].  Hoping that we can get what we need for the house and that we can sell before we leave in mid May.  Spending a week in Bristol soon to look for houses to rent and schools (for Jake) etc.  Schools are pretty rammed full in Bristol and this will shape where we live to some extent, so hoping for a place within 3 miles of the city centre, also looking for associated pre-school for Dan.

Steve, Rachel, Hannah, Bethany and Sarah have told us that they are moving down with us - which is amazing!  They are changing jobs, homes and roots to help build this church - it is profound and humbling to see what God is doing in other people's lives.  Please pray for them and others who are considering this.

Steve, Rach and their girls have even done what I call a 'blessing the community' activity when they picked up heaps of tourist leaflets that some scallies had littered a place called Queens Square with - they spent quite a while picking them all up and then putting them back in the leaflet holders that they had been taken from....cool - starting as we mean to go on :-)

We have started to connect with a few people who are now living in Bristol and have heard and are interested in finding out about the new church, which is very exciting.  Claire and I are hoping to connect with as many people as possible who are not engaged in any other church, but who are curious about Jesus and about the new church that we want to build.  So if you have any friends, family or colleagues in that sort of situation in Bristol we'd love to connect with them.

God is seems to be speaking to us in very encouraging ways at the moment and this is fueling our prayer life.  We are exhilarated by the current experience, if not a little overwhelmed too!! Five sundays left until we leave Trent and there's lots to do.....

When we get to Bristol, I expect to spend one day a week, doing some work for a friend and spending 4 days a week renovating a small house - not the one we will live in, but a house that we can buy cheap and renovate quickly, in order to make a bit of money.  We have done two and a half house renovations in Nottingham and so we are reasonably confident that this will provide an income initially - but to do this we need to sell our house here in Nottingham.

Thanks for your interest in this, please do post a comment if you want to, cheers Owen and Claire

Where it all begins...

Since we announced our news about us starting a new church in Bristol called Severn Vineyard, we have been asked a number of times, 'how can we pray for you?'

A friend suggested a blog might be useful, so if you're interested to pray, or just interested in finding out more about this new church, then hopefully I'll be able to keep you up to date through this blog.

At the moment, we are focussing on talking with some folks from Nottingham who are interested in coming with us, getting our home ready to put up for sale and getting the charity set up.  We hope to move to Bristol in May, so that we can settle our eldest son into school for the last half term of the year, before the summer.  We plan to rent a house initially and spend the summer connecting with as many people as we can.