Setting Sail Again

>> Canada Files: Day 260

And so the adventure continues. I'll be flying back to the UK on 3rd March. I nearly wrote "flying home" but I'm really not sure where that is!

Over these 9 months I've grown to love this town, with all its beauty and brokenness, with its rich kaleidoscope of people and cultures, and I think I've felt more belonging here than I have for some time. There are so many nationalities here that I don't feel like an outsider, but more importantly, it seemed like I was planted in a place of rich relationship and fellowship, growth and encouragement, and challenge too.

I believe I will return to Canada at some point, for a longer spell, but it is not at all clear to me how or when this might happen. It feels like there is "unfinished business" for me here.

"When called to a country he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going ...
He made his home in the promised land, like a stranger in a foreign country ..." (Heb 11)

This all seems some way off yet, and the practical issues of "what now" are uppermost. I still have a car and some stored goods in the UK, and I also welcome the opportunity to visit family and friends.

I wrote some years ago (here) that my life felt like a series of "spider jumps" into the unknown - well I'm about to make another one.

To my UK friends and family - I look forward to catching up with you very soon.
To my Canadian friends and "family" - I pray it isn't too long before we meet again.

Comments

[Michael F]

Hey Richard - just catching up on where you're up to and making plans for you. Have you thought about a "House-for-Duty" thing? Liverpool diocese isn't big on it, but you could get a house in return for Sunday duties somewhere - what with your priestly quals an all.
Also, you should get a job working for the C of E doing a video podcast, preferably daily. I love Pray-as-you-Go, and the Tearfund podcast - but where's the video? The C of E have that daily prayer feed if you really like reading text, but it would be more relevant if it was some kind of creative video thing instead. There you go - job sorted!