Home From Home

T Minus 26

A second day in Lincoln, at the home I grew up in from the age of 6. It’s strange to think by the end of the week this will be the only house in the UK with which I can call home (I know I don’t own it but 42 years down the line I think it is very much my second home – the place you grow up is always your home whilst it’s still in your parents possession). We will return here once more before we leave for a few days mid-August.
It’s been a relaxing couple of days with Mum and my brother and his wife. The gorgeous hot weather has allowed us to eat al fresco. This morning we went to St George’s (my very first church) and though there were very few folk who were from my era it was nice to see some familiar faces and we were prayed out. Amazingly one of the members of the church (Lyn) used to work at Isamilo as a year 6 teacher. It’s such a small world! It was good get some insight into Mwanza.

St George’s

T Minus 26

A week on from our final church service at St Mary’s we are here in Lincoln and today will attend St George’s Swallowbeck.
If St Mary’s had been my spiritual home for most of the past 26 years then St George’s has been my second home. In an earlier post I referred to my history with this, my first church. My association with stretches deep back into the ’70s where we used to attend the Christmas Carol Services as a family. This association meant that …

It is here I came back in May/June of 1982 – having been challenged about my faith (I thought I was a Christian – before I actually knew what that meant) – here I found out who Jesus was and what He means for me then and now 32 years later.

In the following months Mum and my brother Stephen became Christians too and we were all baptised in April of 1983.

There are people here I have known for over three decades. Anita has grown to know them too in the last two. Memories of being part of a youth group flood back, camping at the a Grapevine festival on the Showground and The Greenbelt Festival at Knebworth; Sunday night meetings at Steve’s (our youth leader’s) house, where I saw my first ever computer(home built); New Year’s Eve parties at the Poole’s, helping to decorate a friends new house. Later on being part of a Home Group.
I was only in regular attendance for two years and as a homecoming student for four more, but it holds a special place for me. Many faces have come and gone but others remain still. It will be another strange experience to leave this place at the end of morning service. Knowing we will not return for a few years, and yet unlike St Mary’s the link will remain through Mum and (as today) we will return as visitors when back in England.