Steve and I moved to colchester a year and a half ago and took up residence in a little one bed flat. As a newly married couple we had one aim, to try and love Jesus and move with him into our neighbourhood and uncover the hope of him here.

I haven't been the most positive of people. I started looking around at my home and my neighbourhood and I am a bit ashamed to say, I let the physical definition of success be what I strove for. Don't get me wrong I loved Jesus and all, but there were a lot of 'good little projects' to get involved in and I started letting the success or failure of them define who I was and the purpose for why I was here.

I started letting other peoples stories and experience be the definition and standard for my life.

By the end of this last year, I was becoming such a moan addict (just talk to my closest friends!! whenever they asked me how things were going, after I got the 'oh fine fine' out of the way I would launch in to self pity monologues about how I was doing so much but was getting so little back).

Steve and I had a beautiful opportunity to go to a 24-7 Prayer leadership training conference. It was both an intense challenge to step up; as well as a moment of space to reflect and relax on what God has been doing in our lives.

After those 4 days I came away saying to Steve... "this year i need to remember how much good we get to be a part of ... how much hope we get to experience each and every day!" and I need to let that... let God define who I am and how well I am living.

So many great things have happened sense I have come to live in colchester.

#1 I have met and live with the greatest man I have ever met and we get to share our ever day normal lives together. It was not that long ago that I remember crying out to God about how desperate I was to just share the same house with Steve... now I do every day and I don't stop and thank God (and Steve) enough for this great life we share

#2 I have an epic job!! God so provided in his perfect timing a job that is beyond all I could have hoped or imagined. I get to spend the majority of my time with some amazing young people and am supported by a great, intelligent and caring team. I know God was up to something good when he planted me in this team and even now I am tinging with excitement for what I get to do.

#3 I have met some of the most amazing and extraordinary women sense of I have moved here to live. From a great friend who cooks epic meals for me and will endure my endless conversations about God and Church even though it isn't really her thing, to an amazing and tender friend that totally accepted me into her and her daughters life and even asked me to be her daughters God-mother, to my great bubbly and active friend who inspires me regularly to physically take care of my body by going to zumba with her and includes me in her life in a way that makes me feel more like a sister than a silly neighbour, to two of the most hilarious women I have ever lived next to who can have my sides splitting in laughter at the epic way they commit to games and dinners together, to the complete friendliness of my good neighbour who cuts my hair on short notice, to the incredibly generous neighbour that invites me over to her house for dinner on that very day that I had NOTHING in the house to eat and couldn't be bothered... need I go on ...

#4 Steve and I have been able to find a new home to move into!!! As many of you know, just as Steve and I were deciding that this neighbourhood was definitely the place we wanted to live, we got a notice in the mail that said we were going to be evicted from our apartment due to the land lord not paying her rent. I just remember when this happened a few months ago, going into our prayer room on the estate and saying to God with a smile on my face "What are you up to?!?!"... and let me just say... God was up to the best idea. A few weeks ago one of the most generous women you will ever meet invited Steve and I to come and live in her house with her... and she lives JUST RIGHT ACROSS THE SQUARE. It couldn't be a better place and we are so thankful for this fun, new and exciting opportunity...


I could keep going on... but really what it all boils down to... is that while I was moaning that we didn't have enough- enough people, creative inspiration, new idea, etc... the reality is that we have loads going on in this little part of the world. And let me tell you, what we are getting to be a part of is one of the most epic adventures of hope and purpose.

I feel so proud of what God is working out here in our lives... and if he can do all this in just a few years that we have been here... I am really looking forward to what will happen in the next couple.

So from here on out... I want to remember how closely we have been written into this story of hope and how involved we can be in it and just simply enjoy it!