New Year, New Blog

Hello and welcome to my new blog, glad you found me. For anyone who didn't know, I used to have a blog called "Going Nowhere Fast" and I loved it. I decided on this fresh start mostly because I am happy to say that that old title no longer seems relevant! In the middle of July 2009, Vianney and I began a journey with God which led us within six weeks to a new home and, in many ways, a new life. We hadn't seen the move coming, or anticipated any sort of change in our lives until it seemed to hit us like a huge wave and sweep us along, finally depositing us on a new shore - Gibbonsdown! For more on the how, why, what, when's of that whole story, feel free to go back in time to the now ironically titled blog, "Going Nowhere Fast." The most recent posts on there explain a bit more about that initial move.

I know I could have simply changed the name of my other blog and carried on, but I chose to mark the fresh, new era in our lives with a fresh, new blog. And why not! So why grace notes? Well, any musicians will know that grace notes are extra little ornamental notes in a musical arrangement, which add depth or texture to the sound and generally complement the original melody; on the score though, they are so tiny that you could easily miss them. They are beautiful embellishments to a piece of music which can make the difference between an exquisite sound and a mediocre one.

Since moving to Gibbonsdown four months ago and becoming part of the life of the church, I have been blessed and challenged in equal measure by some of the trials and the triumphs of the people I now call friends. Their stories of God's healing power in their lives are like grace notes in an otherwise bleak, dark place. This blog won't be all about church or the estate, just as my old blog wasn't all about the condition which keeps me from going anywhere fast (M.E), but I suppose there has been a shift in my perspective and that's reflected in the blog titles. Before we moved, Vianney and I both felt that we lacked purpose in our lives - and although we had so very much to thank God for, with amazing blessings and provision from Him in terms of friends, family, food, shelter, clothing, etc, we struggled to understand how our lives were making any eternal difference. We had lost that sense of purpose and drive to see people saved that we once had, probably because we were only spending time with the wonderful Christians God had gifted us with. There is absolutely nothing wrong in that and I pray that it continues but I guess we were accutely aware that we were just enjoying the wonder of our God without being able to share Him with others who don't yet know Him. And that's the difference - now, in Gibby, we get to live right in amongst those very people, and their particular need for Jesus is so blindingly obvious that we cannot help but pray for them, reach out to them and love them. Being part of the church here only deepens that love and concern God has given us for the people of the estate, because we are in it with others of the same heart and mind. It's exciting and challenging and scary and wonderful all at the same time and I look forward to sharing some of the joys ahead on this blog.

As you would expect though, there will also of course be random extras thrown in, because after all, this is me! You can't have a Vix-style blog without an ecelectic mixture of God stuff, motorised wheelchair exploits, holiday pictures, pet stories, youtube videos and way too much more! So watch this space for anything and everything, from grace notes to quavers. (That's a joke but you never know...!)